MoJ Press Release:-
Justin Russell announced as candidate for next Chief Inspector of Probation
The Secretary of State for Justice, Rt Hon. David Gauke MP, confirmed today that his candidate to be the next Chief Inspector of Probation is Justin Russell - currently Director General responsible for No Deal EU exit planning at the Ministry of Justice.
Justin has been selected following a rigorous assessment process conducted in accordance with the Governance Code on Public Appointments. A panel of four, including two external interviewers, assessed all the candidates and put forward to the Secretary of State those who passed the high bar for consideration for this role.
The Secretary of State has invited the Justice Select Committee to hold a pre-appointment hearing. Pre-appointment scrutiny is an important part of the appointment process for some of the most significant public appointments made by Ministers. It is designed to provide an added level of scrutiny to the appointment process.
Pre-appointment hearings are held in public and allow a Select Committee to take evidence before a candidate is appointed. Ministers consider the Committee’s views before deciding whether to proceed with the appointment.
The current Chief Inspector of Probation, Dame Glenys Stacey, has agreed to continue in the post until 31 May, when, subject to the pre-appointment hearing, Justin Russell is expected to take over the role. He will resign from the Ministry of Justice and from the Civil Service before taking up post.
HM Inspectorate of Probation
Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation leads HM Inspectorate of Probation, which is the independent source of fair comment for ministers and the public on the effectiveness of the work of probation and youth offending services.HM Inspectorate of Probation produces and publishes reports on individual probation service areas as well as on thematic topics such as the way probation works with sex offenders, or the role and effectiveness of Approved Premises. The Chief Inspector also publishes an annual report. More information on HM Inspectorate of Probation can be found on their website.
Biography
Justin Russell has spent over thirty years working on a wide range of criminal justice issues as a researcher, policy maker and major programme leader and has a long-standing interest and involvement in probation and youth justice policy. This has included working as a Policy Special Adviser to Home Secretaries John Reid and Jack Straw and in the No10 Policy Unit, as well as heading up the Home Office’s Violent Crime Unit from 2008 to 2012, where he led the production of the 2009 and 2011 Violence Against Women and Girls strategies and the Tackling Knives and Ending Gang and Youth Violence Programmes.
Until recently, he was Director General for Justice Analysis and Offender Policy at the Ministry of Justice where he led the prison, probation and youth justice reform programmes. He has also worked for the Audit Commission and Mental Health Foundation and was a non-executive Director of Turning Point from 2005 to 2011.
Justin Russell has spent over thirty years working on a wide range of criminal justice issues as a researcher, policy maker and major programme leader and has a long-standing interest and involvement in probation and youth justice policy. This has included working as a Policy Special Adviser to Home Secretaries John Reid and Jack Straw and in the No10 Policy Unit, as well as heading up the Home Office’s Violent Crime Unit from 2008 to 2012, where he led the production of the 2009 and 2011 Violence Against Women and Girls strategies and the Tackling Knives and Ending Gang and Youth Violence Programmes.
Until recently, he was Director General for Justice Analysis and Offender Policy at the Ministry of Justice where he led the prison, probation and youth justice reform programmes. He has also worked for the Audit Commission and Mental Health Foundation and was a non-executive Director of Turning Point from 2005 to 2011.
Seetec will be no doubt be chuffed. Their Justice Director (Nigel Niceness) will have the lowdown on everything regarding his ex-colleague from No.10 Policy Unit - coz that's where Nige used to work, in case you weren't aware, advising the PM doncha know.
ReplyDeleteWell well he is well in as setec get given Wales as working links fold sometime this week. When that happens no doubt there will be a huge bung that the wouldn't give to WL. It's all corrupt by false market.
DeleteA Napo missive:
ReplyDeleteNapo has made strong representations to senior HMPPS management following the innaccurate statement by Aurelius earlier this week on the future of the Working Links CRCs.
We understand that ongoing discussions include an option for SEETEC to step in and undertake service delivery in the CRCs which we have been told will not be a buy out by SEETEC. Ministers will also need to authorise any such arrangements.
The probation unions are still pressing for our preferred option that the Working Links CRC’s should revert to GOV CO. status, but a final decision by Ministers is expected sometime next week.
Napo made it absolutely clear at yesterday’s probation programme meeting that, irrespective of the outcome,there are serious operational and industrial issues in the Working Links CRCs that need an urgent resolution. These must form a part of whatever recovery plan emerges.
Napo General Secretary Ian Lawrence said: “I urge all staff employed by Working Links to seriously consider the need to join a trade union. Increased union membership will help to strengthen our campaigns to harmonise pay, and rectify the operational problems caused by Aurelius/Working Links, who have badly let down their staff and senior managers.”
More news will follow as soon as it is available.
https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/10/2018-02-The-quality-of-public-protection-work-probation-services.pdf
ReplyDeleteKey findings and implications
The quality of public protection work was found to have deteriorated since OMI2. This decline was most marked in cases now allocated to Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). Many serious further offences are committed by those who are judged to present a low or medium risk of serious harm, and CRCs thus need to give greater attention to public protection work, encompassing assessment, planning, reviewing and management oversight.
It is of particular concern that the assessment of risk of harm to both known adults and to children and young people had deteriorated in cases now allocated to CRCs. All these providers need to ensure that any issues relating to domestic abuse and child safeguarding/protection are fully identified and analysed.
When looking separately at the CRC and NPS sub-samples, there was a significant deterioration in the sufficiency of assessment in those cases now allocated to CRCs; a fall of 14 percentage points compared to a fall of 6 percentage points for those cases now allocated to the NPS.
When looking separately at the CRC and NPS sub-samples, there was a significant deterioration in the sufficiency of assessment in those cases now allocated to CRCs; a fall of nine percentage points compared to a fall of four percentage points in those cases now allocated to the NPS.
When looking separately at the CRC and NPS sub-samples, there was a significant deterioration in the reviewing of progress in those cases now allocated to CRCs; a fall of 14 percentage points compared to a fall of 5 percentage points in those cases now allocated to the NPS.
Q6. Did the responsible officer respond appropriately to changing circumstances in relation to risk of harm, making suitable adjustments where required?
DeleteWhen looking separately at the CRC and NPS sub-samples, there was a significant deterioration in the sufficiency of the response in both sets of cases. Performance on cases now allocated to the NPS had deteriorated from 74% to 61% of cases, and it had fallen from a low starting point for those cases now allocated to CRCs from 53% to 45%.
And this ISN'T a national scandal?
Apologies - just noticed there is info missing from @22:09 above. After the 2nd para which ends "fully identified & analysed" each of the three quotes should have been headed by a question.
DeleteQ3. Was there sufficient assessment of the risk of harm that this service user posed to known adults?
When looking separately at the CRC and NPS sub-samples, there was a significant deterioration in the sufficiency of assessment in those cases now allocated to CRCs; a fall of 14 percentage points compared to a fall of 6 percentage points for those cases now allocated to the NPS.
Q4. Was there sufficient assessment of the risk of harm that this service user posed to children and young people?
When looking separately at the CRC and NPS sub-samples, there was a significant deterioration in the sufficiency of assessment in those cases now allocated to CRCs; a fall of nine percentage points compared to a fall of four percentage points in those cases now allocated to the NPS.
Q5. Did the responsible officer review progress sufficiently against the outcome priorities designed to manage risk of harm?
When looking separately at the CRC and NPS sub-samples, there was a significant deterioration in the reviewing of progress in those cases now allocated to CRCs; a fall of 14 percentage points compared to a fall of 5 percentage points in those cases now allocated to the NPS.
So basically in EVERY aspect of the job there has been a "significant deterioration" in both NPS & CRC - but more especially in the CRCs.
ReplyDeleteBut TR is a blinding success, people have won awards & received bonuses & been promoted & stuffed their pockets & been given honours...
So its not a facade of lies, deceit & ideologically driven utter bollocks after all?
https://news-sky-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/interserve-faces-debt-bombshell-over-hedge-fund-coup-11637210?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.sky.com%2Fstory%2Finterserve-faces-debt-bombshell-over-hedge-fund-coup-11637210
ReplyDeleteInterserve, the struggling outsourcer, is facing a financial bombshell that could threaten its future if its largest shareholder succeeds with a plan to block a debt restructuring and remove key board members.
DeleteAdvertisement
Sky News can exclusively reveal that the terms of a financing package secured by the company last year includes a provision that would trigger an immediate £66m repayment to lenders if a broader refinancing is not approved by investors.
The outsourcer, which employs 45,000 people in the UK, would also be required to repay tens of millions of pounds if Mark Whiteling, its chief financial officer, is removed from the board, according to people close to it.
Last week, Interserve confirmed that it had reached an outline agreement with lenders to restructure its debt pile - partly by issuing £480m of new shares to creditors through a process called a debt-for-equity swap.
If completed, the deal would result in lenders owning 97.5% of the company's shares, effectively wiping out existing investors.
The proposal sparked an angry response from Interserve's largest shareholder, US-based hedge fund Coltrane, which requisitioned an extraordinary general meeting to remove the entire board apart from Debbie White, the chief executive.
Coltrane holds voting rights accounting for approximately 27% of Interserve's shares, meaning it will have a big say in whether the deal is approved.
Farringdon Capital Management, another hedge fund which owns about 6% of the shares, has also indicated that it is opposed to the plan.
Some shareholders believe the company will have to offer them a larger slice of the new equity in order to win their backing.
A source close to Coltrane acknowledged that it had yet to present an alternative restructuring plan, but said there was little urgency to do so because there was not imminent threat of insolvency.
The provision that would trigger a debt default if either Ms White or Mr Whiteling are removed from their roles in certain circumstances is understood to have been included in debt documents drawn up last spring.
Such "keyman" provisions are relatively uncommon in lending agreements, though not unprecedented.
One insider said a separate £66m amortisation payment, which had been deferred with lenders' consent, would become payable immediately if the restructuring package was blocked.
Mr Whiteling, who joined Interserve in 2017, is an experienced restructuring specialist from his tenure at Premier Farnell, the industrial group.
The attempt to oust him and most of his boardroom colleagues has cast a further shadow over the future of one of Britain's biggest outsourcing groups.
It comes just over a year after the collapse of Carillion, and amid enormous anxiety in Whitehall about the fate of myriad public sector contracts held by the business.
Interserve is one of the biggest private sector employers in areas such as office cleaning, while it also cleans the London Underground, and maintains British Army bases around the world.
Like other outsourcing groups, Interserve has been left financially troubled by depleted margins on major contracts and a disastrous foray into the waste-to-energy sector.
Its troubles have seen its shares collapse by 84% over the last year amid fears that it might not survive, and that doing so would dilute existing investors' interests.
The company now has a market value of less than £18m, meaning its equity value is dwarfed by its debts.
The Cabinet Office has insisted that it does not view the company as a replica of Carillion and continues to have confidence in it.
The crisis surrounding Interserve's finances has persisted for more than a year, with the company initially blaming economic uncertainty and weak Government spending for a massive profit warning in the autumn of 2017.
An Interserve spokesman declined to comment.
From May 2012:
ReplyDeleteA4e has made Emma Harrison, its founder, rich and famous.
It was set up in 1991 to provide redundant Sheffield steelworkers with training to find new work. By 1998, A4e had become the largest contractor to benefit from the Labour government's New Deal policy to get people back to work. It was reportedly given contracts worth around £80million.
Today, the company is entirely funded by government work and makes about £215million a year from 72 government contracts. It has 3,300 staff in 200 offices.
A4e is the main contractor in five UK regions for the Government's £5billion Work Programme, which replaced all previous employment schemes under Labour last summer. It is also a sub–contractor in seven other regions.
Mrs Harrison, 48, who was appointed David Cameron's jobs "tsar" in December 2010, paid herself an £8.6million dividend last year. This was despite A4e missing key performance targets and being the subject of a police fraud investigation. She was forced to quit her government role in February. Mrs Harrison still owns 87pc of the company and has a net worth estimated at more than £70million.
Last week, the Department for Work and Pensions cleared A4e of fraud in its current contracts with government. It emerged that the department had terminated one contract because it was "too risky" to continue.
Andrew Dutton, A4e's chief executive, spoke in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph this week of the battle ahead in rebuilding the firm's reputation. He also admitted that the intense scrutiny the company has faced is partly due to the high public profile cultivated by its founder.
Working Links: Low profile, but high-value, Government work
Working Links is barely known to the average job hunter, but is a major player in the market.
It delivers the Government's Work Programme in Scotland, Wales and the South West and is currently paid about £120million a year from the DWP and other government agencies. Working Links runs about 80 government contracts and employs 2,000 people. It says it has a turnover of £123million. Its website boasts that since the turn of the century it has helped 220,000 people get "sustainable" jobs – those lasting six months or more.
It works in some of the most deprived areas. Like the 18 welfare–to–work organisations that are prime contractors in the Work Programme, it offers help for the long–term unemployed. This can include anything from writing CVs and interview tips to computer or English courses. The company has a relatively unusual structure, being partly owned by the State, private sector, and a charity.
The private sector shareholders are Capgemini, a consultancy with extensive public sector contracts, and Manpower, a recruitment firm. The charitable owner is Mission Australia, which works with troubled families and children. The British Government holds a stake, managed by the Shareholder Executive.
Working Link's website adds: "As a values–driven organisation, corporate responsibility sits at the heart of everything we do. We feel we not only have a responsibility to society, but also a commitment to our core areas of environment, business responsibility, community, our people and customers."
Written evidence submitted to Parliament by a former chief auditor at A4e shows how an “unethical culture” led to “systemic fraud” at the company, which holds major government contracts. When concerns were raised about wrongdoing with senior managers, little was done to address the widespread abuse of taxpayers’ money, the whistleblower alleged.
DeleteA document put to MPs also described serious problems at another welfare to work provider, Working Links, which runs three major contracts on the Coalition’s £5 billion jobs scheme and is part-owned by the Government.
The evidence was submitted by Eddie Hutchinson, the former head of audit at A4e, who attended a meeting of the Commons public accounts committee on Tuesday from which the public was excluded.
https://www.sell2wales.gov.wales/search/show/search_view.aspx?ID=FEB283456
ReplyDelete21 x modification notices issued (dated 8 Feb 2019) for Transforming Rehabilitation contracts under Directive 2014/24/EU:
- re-baselining frequency of reoffending payment-by-results measure
- placing an obligation on the Authority to terminate the contract by 31.12.2020
- adding an obligation on the Contractor to deliver enhanced resettlement services
- adjusting binary reoffending payment-by-results measure
- waiving 2014/15 fee-for-service reconciliation payments due from the Contractor
- adding obligations on the Contractor to deliver a new minimum offender contact
- requiring more detailed monthly management information on CRC finances and workforce
A major training provider with around 1,000 staff has called in the administrators, FE Week understands.
ReplyDeleteWorking Links (Employment) Limited, which holds contracts across numerous government departments including around £2 million for apprenticeships and adult education, told their workforce yesterday afternoon not to come into work today.
It is understood that thousands of learners will be affected, including apprentices in the customer service and retail sectors, as well as adult learners for two colleges that it works as a subcontractor for.
Working Links has not responded to requests for comment but a source close to the company said its reason for going into administration was related to its contracts with the Ministry of Justice to deliver the Transforming Rehabilitation programme.
It is not known how much these contracts totaled for Working Links, but its website shows that it operates three “Community Rehabilitation Companies” to run the government programme in “Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire (BGSW), Dorset, Devon and Cornwall (DDC), Wales”.
“CRCs work with partner agencies to reduce reoffending, protect the public and transform communities,” it adds.
The training provider was taken over by international investment firm Aurelius in June 2016.
Earlier this month Aurelius said it was going to transfer its Community Rehabilitation Companies to services company Seetec.
It is understood that the staff at Working Links who worked in the Community Rehabilitation Companies will not lose their jobs.
Aurelius has been approached for comment.
The Ministry of Justice and ESFA have also both been approached for comment.
Working Links’ most recent set of accounts for 2016-17 show that its turnover declined by £25 million to £91 million.
The accounts add that since the year 2000 the company has helped around “300,000” people into employment.
https://feweek.co.uk/2019/02/15/major-training-firm-with-contracts-across-government-goes-into-administration/
told "not to come into work today".
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean if you have shown up , you will not be paid or covered by insurance and such like?
Where is the clamour of journalists seeking explanations, or has a part of the English & Welsh criminal justice system shut down or am I misunderstanding something???
Napo staff & officers are saying via Twitter that for legal reasons they cannot comment but that Probation employees have not been told not to come to work -
DeleteThis needs an immediate Urgent Question to a Government Minister - but I am not sure if Parliament is sitting at the moment
https://twitter.com/katielomas99/status/1096403262469824517
Scaremongering again from Napo. CRCs are continuing, just not under the guise of WL. MOJ fully aware.
Delete"Scaremongering"??? MoJ trolls = muppets. The business has gone into administration FFS, thus has massive implications even if MoJ take responsibility for staff & ongoing service provision by handing it to Seetec.
Delete"MoJ fully aware" means sweet fuck all. They've been aware the prisons are in crisis for years but nothing has changed. Even that paragon of optimism, Young Rory, says HMP Nottm is beyond being safe - but it aint on his special list so it will have to wait until he's saved his own skin.
"Where is the clamour of journalists seeking explanations,"
ReplyDeleteWhere's the press releases or statements from the unions seeking explanations?
It's just another dodgy and greedy outsourcer with limited liability gone to the wall where any remaining assets will have been divvyed up before the administrators were called in.
No consequences for them, the taxpayer will bear the cost, and somebody else will have to clean up the mess they leave their contracts in.
'Getafix
It is now being stated Seetec have taken over from Working Links
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/RichardJGarside/status/1096425411129548800
On this blog, 5 Feb:
Delete* We can rest assured that WL has been snapped up by Seetec - probably given away - not least because Aurelius has referenced that the services will be transferred "in accordance with them" i.e. the "British public authorities". Don't doubt Gauke will have already signed the transfer paperwork & all will happen before 29 March 2019.*
From BBC News
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-47240731
It's also breaking news in the FT, but paywall.
'Getafix
This comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteMeanwhile I think the FT allow some access to articles https://www.ft.com/content/092b0150-3136-11e9-ba00-0251022932c8
DeletePrivate firms which manage thousands of offenders in Wales and south west England have gone into administration. Working Links community rehabilitation companies will hand over their work to a firm running the service in south east England.
DeleteThe Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said it had "taken action to ensure continuity of probation services". The union representing probation officers has now called for an urgent meeting with the minister responsible.
Ian Lawrence, general secretary of Napo, said: "This is exactly what we warned the government about from day one of this disastrous privatisation programme that has seen an award-winning service fall into total chaos in just four years."
The management of low-to-medium risk offenders was privatised four years ago. Working Links was given the contract for Wales, as well as Avon and Somerset and Devon and Cornwall.
Last year a further shake up of the service was announced following a number of damning reports and recognition that the funding model for the CRCs wasn't working. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We were aware of Working Links' financial situation and have taken action to ensure continuity of probation services.
"That means probation officers will continue to be supported, offenders will be supervised, and the public will be protected. The chief inspector's report on these CRCs lays bare their unacceptably poor performance and we will work closely with the new provider to urgently raise standards."
Dame Glenys Stacey, chief inspector of probation, welcomed the MoJ's move and said it "should be a turning point".
"Ministers recently took the decision to terminate all 21 CRC contracts early, next year," she said. "The secretary of state is now considering what comes next. Our CRC inspection evidence shows a variable picture but it is one in which the provision of services in most cases is wanting, often significantly so."
In Wales, the service is also due to be renationalised next year and the MoJ said it will be looking at bringing this forward. But there is anger from the union, which says the government should have stepped in before the firm went into administration.
"Napo has continually pleaded with ministers to terminate the contracts between the MoJ and Working Links following highly critical reports from HM Inspectorate of Probation and a litany of high profile Serious Further Offences including a number of murders," said Mr Lawrence.
Among those murders was that of Conner Marshall. The 18-year-old was killed in Porthcawl in 2015 by David Braddon who was being supervised by the CRC, but had missed eight probation appointments.
Delete* The Cardiff-based Wales CRC employs about 430 staff in 23 offices across Wales
*It manages nearly 9,000 offenders, according to the most recent figures
*Unions say nearly half of jobs have been cut since the contract was awarded
*The CRC also posted a loss of £2.1m in its last published accounts after a period of "heavy change and restructure".
Napo last year gave evidence to the Commons' Welsh Affairs Committee inquiry into prisons, expressing concern about staff shortages and unpaid bills - including bailiffs raiding the Cardiff office to seize equipment.
It also said there was a human cost, giving the example of an offender having to cancel their only contact days with their child for three weeks in a row to attend community work - only to see each session cancelled because of staff shortages.
Meanwhile, the Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire CRC - which has about 256 staff - has also made losses over the last two years, including £1.8m in 2017. It deals with about 6,300 offenders.
The Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC, which employs 173 staff and deals with about 4,100 offenders, had made a £1.5m loss.
Both saw staff numbers cut by a third in the year to 2017.
The probation inspectorate published a report into Dorset, Devon and Cornwall CRC on Friday which it called "thoroughly dispiriting," with staff "trapped in a spiral of decline".
Inspectors found staff were under-recording the number of riskier cases because of commercial pressures. They were also completing offenders' sentence plans to meet performance targets, without actually meeting them.
Working Links was bought out by German company, Aurelius, in 2016 and the three contracts are now being handed over to Seetec, which currently runs the service in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
Seetec executive director Suki Binning said the immediate priority was to stabilise the service after what had been a "challenging and uncertain period" for probation teams.
"While we recognise that confidence in probation services is shaken and do not underestimate the challenge and complexities ahead, we are determined to build a viable and sustainable service that maintains the confidence of communities in the south west and Wales," she said.
Unison's officer for police and justice Ben Priestley called for the collapsed contracts to be brought back in-house. "This privatisation has been a disaster and one we had long predicted," he added.
Probation group Working Links collapses into administration
DeleteThe troubled reforms of probation services in England and Wales faced their biggest crisis yet on Friday when the Ministry of Justice announced that Working Links, the private provider of probation services in much of the west of England and Wales, had collapsed into administration.
The ministry said it had been aware of the financial position of Working Links, which was acquired by Germany’s Aurelius Group in 2016, and had taken action to ensure the continuation of probation services.
The company’s three “Community Rehabilitation Companies” (CRCs) — which operate in Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire; Dorset, Devon and Cornwall; and Wales — will be taken over by Seetec, provider of some probation services in Kent, Surrey and Sussex.
The collapse is the latest crisis to follow the reforms to probation in England and Wales introduced under Chris Grayling, then justice secretary, in 2015. His reforms passed management of low- and medium-risk offenders to private CRCs in 21 contract areas through England and Wales. Management of high-risk offenders went to a public-sector National Probation Service.
Many CRCs have faced serious financial problems because magistrates and judges, many of whom have been sceptical of the quality of the companies’ work, have reduced their use of community work orders and other sentences that were especially profitable for CRCs. The shift in sentencing has left companies with less revenue than expected and struggling to cope with large volumes of low-margin work monitoring offenders.
The Ministry of Justice said probation officers would continue to be supported, offenders would be supervised and the public would be protected.
The chief inspector of probation, Dame Glenys Stacey, was expected to bring forward publication of an inspection report into some of Working Links’ operations that was expected to be scathing about their quality.
“The chief inspector’s report on these CRCs lays bare their unacceptably poor performance and we will work closely with the new provider to urgently raise standards,” the MoJ said.
The MoJ said Working Links had first approached it in October about the viability of the business and that it subsequently became clear the company would not be able to fulfil its full contractual obligations.
Wonder what Seetec are getting or have been promised for bailing the MoJ out?
Deletehttps://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/privatised-probation-services-plymouth-devon-2549605
ReplyDelete