I suspect that history will come to record that publication of yesterday's damning NAO report into TR was a turning point for the future shape and direction of probation in England and Wales. I find it extremely hard to believe that the MoJ will be able to move quietly and smoothly to implement TR2 when the whole ethos behind TR1 has been so comprehensively demolished. The whole fake facade of smoke and mirrors has been forensically exposed by the hard-nosed accountants at the NAO and there has to be a fundamental rethink.
This is the Napo press release issued yesterday:-
National Audit Office calls for a halt to failed probation reforms
This is the Napo press release issued yesterday:-
National Audit Office calls for a halt to failed probation reforms
The NAO has today published a damming report into Transforming Rehabilitation (TR), the probation reforms introduced by Chris Grayling in 2013. The report states that the reforms have failed to meet the Ministry of Justice targets to reduce re-offending and have cost the taxpayer considerably more than intended.
Napo, the Trade Union and Professional Association for Probation staff has repeatedly called on the government to halt this failed experiment since the reforms first began, warning of the potential risk to the public, to staff and to the taxpayer.
General Secretary, Ian Lawrence, said: “This report not only confirms Napo’s warnings to Ministers but very clearly states that the Ministry must now pause its plan to simply re-let the probation contracts, and that they should reflect on what has gone wrong and why.”
The private contracts, now in line for early termination due to their failings, have significantly increased the cost to the taxpayer but have repeatedly failed to deliver on their objectives.
The NAO report seriously criticises the contracts themselves and the failure of the MoJ to manage them effectively and to hold providers to account. In addition, the report is scathing about failures to manage the impact of a reduced volume of work on the financial stability of the providers whose operational costs increased well above their original expectation from the contracts with the MoJ.
Ian Lawrence went on to say: “Not only have the Community Rehabilitation Companies been unable to deliver services, the National Probation Service also has significant failings. Staff shortages have resulted in unmanageable workloads across the board. In London staff vacancies are at 20% so it’s clear the NPS is not sustainable in its current form.
The MoJ intends to let 10 new contracts later this year with a view to increasing the size of the existing Community Rehabilitation Companies and reducing the number of providers. These proposals have met massive criticism, with stakeholders across the board calling for the MoJ to call a halt and to look at alternatives.
Ian Lawrence said: ”Napo is clear that a TR mark 2 will not resolve the issue of the first reform programme and will only perpetuate the ongoing risks and issues we have seen over the last 4 years. We totally support the call by the NAO on the MOJ to pause the reform programme and to reflect on what can be learnt. Napo is calling for a reunified probation service under public ownership and with a greater focus on local engagement”
This report comes just one week after the collapse of Working Links who were previously responsible for providing probation services in three Community Rehabilitation Companies. The report cites concerns that other providers could also become insolvent and that the associated risks have not been properly mitigated.
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The Howard League chimed in:-
Howard League responds to National Audit Office review of failed probation reforms
The report analyses the impact of the Ministry of Justice’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme, which involved the part-privatisation of probation services. It finds that the reforms, which were proposed and implemented during Chris Grayling’s tenure as Secretary of State for Justice, have failed to meet targets to reduce reoffending, led to a surge in the number of people recalled to prison, and proven costly to the taxpayer.
Frances Crook, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: “When Chris Grayling announced his plans to privatise probation, the Howard League warned that they would create a system that set people up to fail.
“Unfortunately, we have been proved right and, today, the National Audit Office has found that the Ministry of Justice set itself up to fail in the way it approached these disastrous reforms. Rather than helping to turn lives around, Transforming Rehabilitation has made communities less safe and cost the taxpayer a fortune. Everyone can see that it has failed, not least Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Probation. Now we must seize this moment of opportunity to put things right. Moving the deckchairs will not suffice. The Howard League has developed a model for the future – Community Justice – that would involve minimum disruption but have maximum impact. It would build on the lessons from the past, unite the probation service and fix the problem. We look forward to working positively with ministers to put the proposals into practice.”
The Howard League submitted its proposals for Community Justice – which would involve a national strategic focus combined with local service delivery – to the Ministry of Justice in September last year, as part of the ministry’s consultation on strengthening probation.
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Suki Binning was quick to respond via LinkedIn :-
KSS response to NAO report:
As we transfer probation services in south-west England and Wales into KSS CRC following the collapse of the former provider, we’re seeing at close quarters some of the issues facing the sector that the National Audit Office sets out in today’s report. Some of this can be traced back to the speed at which the reforms were implemented, which was a concern for many in the sector at the time. An untested approach did not recognise the high fixed cost of service delivery and put too much at risk through the payment by results mechanism. When caseload volumes did not meet projections, this left services struggling to cope.
I don’t think this was the case across the country. Some areas have received investment and were given more freedom and professional autonomy by their private parent company. In Kent, Surrey and Sussex, this allowed us to set up a dedicated research unit and, as the NAO points out in this report, use data in new ways to give the judiciary greater confidence in how sentences are implemented after defendants leave the courtroom. As we look to the future, we need to also protect those advances and work together across the sector to improve performance, raise standards and provide value for the taxpayer and communities we serve.
Suki Binning
Pulling the plug on TR2 is one thing, but how do you reverse all the damage TR1 has caused?
ReplyDelete"In KSS we set up a dedicated research unit and... use data in new ways to give the judiciary greater confidence in how sentences are implemented after defendants leave the courtroom"
ReplyDeleteYou ain't gonna win if you ain't got that spin. That'll be Naughty Nigel after his apprenticeship with the No.10 spin-machine. Did you know he spent time as an advisor to Dave?
It may be worth asking when the research unit was set up. I think maybe only about mid 2018.
Deletewe need to also protect those advances and work together across the sector to improve performance, raise standards and provide value for the taxpayer and communities we serve
DeleteSuki Binning is illustrating her naivety and flawed approach. Constantly reminding staff of her 22 years in the probation makes you wonder. What the hell has she actually learnt? In that period a few years training and the rest clutching the promotion pole using any trick to get a lift. The last 6 years getting into and through TR leaves around 14 years of what experience really. The NAO and all the evidence demonstrated offending up SFO up reconvictions up. Costs up rehabilitation down services to offenders down every Tory metric flawed in TR. What that means to you in KSS and the sadly taken over other areas is that Ms Binning demonstrates a little knowledge is a dangerous thing in her hands. Low experience of the real probation work and despite the management squawking as quoted above KSS is not an area that has et any records to the contrary of the whole TR fiasco they are in the crapo with the rest of it. Time the so Called CPOs took a look to the future TR is dying faster than it can be saved Reunification or a public service as was is the only way forwards and we can all then say good riddance to opportunists and capitalists ventures hiving the money from crime that should be delivered to front services and the staff they abuse.
"Friday is usually a news graveyard."
ReplyDeleteGrayling and failing probation.
Grayling and Eurotunnel.
Capita army recruitment contract costing far more and delivering far less.
Capita failing to collect GPS self assessment on tax and pensions.
Amey had £660m wiped from its market value by its own parent company.
Universal Credit call center staff going on strike likely to be joined by thousands of other low paid government outsourced workers.
NHS demanding that legislation allowing private contractors like virgin care to be repealed.
Government loose right to rent court case on human rights grounds. Part of Teresa Mays hostile enviornment.
And concerns about Interserves future grow after publishing its rescue plan.
The government may wish Friday was a news graveyard, but it could be that outsourcing public services itself has come much much closer to the graveyard.
Someone who knows about these things tells me that the fine print in the Interserve rescue plan has been described by insiders as like throwing a drowning man a lump of concrete??
ReplyDelete11:19 that appropriately describes how most staff feel with " the new model " being rolled out within Cheshire and Greater Manchester CRC - managers are however still saying how wonderful it will be , it's not even got off the ground and in most offices it's not working due to lack of staff especially PO grade - PSO's / CM's are being left holding cases they shouldn't - ooh risk management is going really well , NOT !!! , can't wait for the inspection report to be published.
ReplyDeleteTR2 is surely dead? Really, I rather think the deals are all but done. I see nothing in the Tory mindset that would give me cause to think that privatisation / outsourcing has somehow become toxic to them but rather where failings have happened no more than lessons to be learned. I think TR2 will actually arrive with great fanfare of big investment in community sentences ready for the presumption against short term custody. All sorted pre election and bundled in ten year contract packages.
ReplyDeleteIt seems crazy that after years of TR shite, damning inspection reports, and so close to the end of contract, that anyone is rolling out a new model! Why spend time and money doing so so late in the day? Unless of course someone knows it will continue under TR2?
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I really don't know where the government can go with continuing TR for several reasons.
There's the piss poor inspection reports and sharp rise in SFOs and reoffending.
There's yesterday's damning report by the NAO and the huge extra cost to the taxpayer. Some of that will be hung around Graylings neck as HIS personal failure and not TR itself, but...
If TR2 is put out to tender, then bidding outsourcers will want a lot more money to take on a contract, and to that extent I'm minded to think that the scrapping of short custodials isn't about reducing the prison population, but an attempt to fatten the supply chain for contract holders. If you bid we'll give you far more heads this time around, not just from the prison estate, but straight from the courts too!
But that might not be enough, I feel many would be bidders may say thanks but no thanks.
For me the real elephant in the TR room is Interserve. In two weeks time they will ask their shareholders to vote through a rescue deal which will wipe out 95% of their holdings. All shareholders that is except its board members. Orwellian turkies voting for Christmas, some are better then others.
If the deal isn't passed, Interserves piggy bank is empty, and it's government bailout or fold. If a second TR contractor should go into administration then TR2 must be dead in the water.
In summary to my meanderings? Well it's all just the most awful f****ng mess.
'Getafix
To quote a colleague of mine "It's like watching a clown run across a f*cling mine field"
DeleteThe 'new model' being rolled out in Interserve CRCs such as Cheshire and Greater Manchester is a 'new model' in name only. No money is being spent on it - quite the contrary in fact. In a clumsy attempt to reduce expenditure still further the 'new model' consists of nothing more than some meaningless new team names within which the only change is yet higher caseloads for PSOs and the few remaining POs while Interserve sells off the services of experienced PO staff to the NPS. This was initially attributed to a bogus claim that they had suddenly realised their CRCs had too many POs for the nature of the caseload cohort, before the justification was quickly abandoned because it was transparently untrue, and they admitted it was entirely a matter of wanting to spend less. For the sake of the staff, the client group and above all for the sake of public safety their collapse is the best thing that can possibly happen
Deletehttps://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/chris-grayling-inquiry-ferry-brexit-probation-eurotunnel-transport-seaborne-freight-a8804246.html
ReplyDeleteThe National Audit Office Youtube film detailing the evidence they found that Transforming Rehabilitation has been every bit the disaster predicted by all but the government who rushed it through
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=XSvKWVe9tPg
I have recently started training as a probation officer and I am considering leaving already. I can see the Pos are hard-working and trying their best but the morale and office environment is shocking. They are all looking for new jobs and look exhausted. I wanted to have some security in this training and learn from pos around me but they have nothing more go give, they are burnt out. Most of them have been in the job 20 years and they say the job is beyond recognisable, they used to enjoy it but the changes have made the job and case loads unmanageable. I had a job interview today and I hope I get it so I can leave. I value my own mental health and there are red flags everywhere for a team that is like a sinking ship.
ReplyDeleteManchester CRC? Sounds like Manchester CRC
DeleteNo - they don't do any training
DeleteNo but they are like the Titanic !!!
DeleteExcept the Titanic had a direction
DeleteSad to say 18:56 but yes I do hope you get the job you've applied for - through no fault of staff on the shop floor this job has stopped being a vocation but something that saps the life and soul out of you , especially if you signed up to help people , manage risk and not be a target chasing corporate arse hole bullies that our management have become - I wish you all the very best
ReplyDeleteAnd the dedicated research unit consists of two individuals. Already concerns re: way in which KSS treats staff - band 6 promotion given to OM TMs but not to Interventions - divisions already - the future looks a little less orange!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/17469174.letters-we-cannot-afford-vital-service-such-as-probation-to-remain-in-private-hands/
DeleteWhat concerns me is that any restructuring will be greatly influenced by those with the best PR rather than those with good historical experience of front-line probation practice - especially before the 1991 changes that led to automatic parole and the ending of consent "probation orders"
ReplyDeleteIn that era - although we perhaps did not properly appreciate it we were truly - officers of the court - as despite being funded 80% by central government we were wholly managed as agents of the Local Magistrates' Courts Committee and therefore truly part of The Judiciary not The Executive to where we have been incrementally relocated since in 1984 Leon Brittan as Home secretary issued his "Statement of National Objectives and Priorities"