The Privatisation of Probation Failure
The Probation Service has the lowest media profile of any of the public facing Government Services. The only time it makes the headlines is when something has gone seriously wrong, normally resulting in a death, with the blame directed at Probation. So it was a real surprise to see Ian Dunt devoting his whole Introduction in his bestselling book, “How Westminster Works”, to the subject of Probation’s failed attempt at privatisation.Unusually for a Journalist Writer working outside an organisation he manages to communicate exactly the many issues surrounding the failure of this project. He must have interviewed the exact right people from the front line within Probation to write such a truthful and excellent insight into the real issues. It was so good I have scanned the Introduction and subject to Copyright being acknowledged I have linked to it below for you to read. This is provided upon a “Book Sample” basis to encourage you to buy the book.
It should be mandatory reading for anyone within Probation, past or present, to fully appreciate how a Government can so quickly destroy a 100 year old service that worked. Yes we were all aware it needed improvements particularly in the high level management organisation structure, for example the removal of multiple Trusts, and the National Standardisation of Business and Computer Systems, but not wholesale destruction from which it is unlikely to ever fully recover. Since this is now unlikely to ever happen in the right way due to it existing within the HMPPS.
Probation is fundamentally a Court Service servicing the needs of HM Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS). Historically it evolved that way for very good reasons that are just as applicable today as they were in the Probation of Offenders Act 1907. Yes. Prisons and Probation needed to work more closely together as defined by the Carter Report 2003 achieving more comprehensive “end to end” pathways. But implanting Probation into the Prison Service creating the HMPPS went organisationally in the wrong direction. If it had to be implanted anywhere it would have been more logical to implant it into HMCTS which is the source of most of its work.
The real danger is as the old original Probation Officers are now retiring and dying so the original culture of true Probation is being lost. This happened in the HM Prisons when the push towards Prison Privatisation was running full pace. All the old school Prison Officers were made redundant. The new “private” workforce didn’t pick up on the culture that always existed between the Prison Officer and Prisoner. So Prison unrest and even riots increased. The only way things could be recovered was by bringing back into play teams of “old school” Prison Officers. This is happening to the Probation Profession. Processes, systems, procedures, documentation and now AI will never work effectively in the social services unless you establish the right culture.
So what do we mean by culture. It encompasses the shared beliefs, values, norms, behaviours, customs and knowledge that characterise a group of people. Those within an organisation like Probation transfer this culture to those that join the organisation and work hard to uphold all these innate principles. Call it “Best Practice” or “What Works” but they only define the most effective methods and strategies for achieving the desired outcomes. It is how people uphold these principles and the culture that under pins them that really matters. Take the time to read this article by Ian Dunt since he really got it spot on and then buy his book.
“The real danger is as the old original Probation Officers are now retiring and dying so the original culture of true Probation is being lost.”
ReplyDeleteWe’re not all dead yet mate!
We do pass on probation culture, best practice and what really works.
To say “The new “private” workforce didn’t pick up on the culture” is nonsense and if that’s a dig at CRCs then the NPS was at least 50% awful too. I know many new staff that really get it, their work is amazing, they just need lower caseloads and more time in the day.
You’re right that the organisation has twisted probation culture and best practice into something else. I don’t need to read Dunt’s diary to tell me that.
What we need to remind ourselves of is what probation work really is and get those that are good at it leading on what probation needs to be.
/ Probation Officer
A reminder …
ReplyDeleteGuest Blog 26
Advise, Assist and Befriend.
http://probationmatters.blogspot.com/2015/02/guest-blog-26.html?m=1
The privatisation of probation was without doubt a complete disaster.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I would argue that probation was already in decline prior to privatisation.
For me it was the 2003 criminal justice act and the implementation of automatic release at the halfway mark in 2005 that had a fundamental impact on probations identity and ethos and set it on the wrong path.
Overnight the service became an extention of the original sentence and the focus became about supervision until sentence completion rather then being about new beginings and a "one size fits all" approach was introduced.
Probation was already on the wrong path a long time before privatisation.
A recent letter from the probation institute.
https://www.probation-institute.org/news/challenging-the-exponential-growth-of-the-prison-population
'Getafix
The Prison System has been in crisis for the past two decades. The prison population increased following the implementation of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 leading to an exponential rise of the indeterminate sentence prisoner population, the passing of longer determinate sentences. Further legislation in 2014 increased the numbers of people released on licence and subject to recall. At the same time the Probation Service suffered a drain of experienced and confident staff when it was part privatised. A huge amount of money has been wasted in attempts to restructure the Probation Service; it is now the poor relation in His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service where the Prison Service inevitably receives the lion’s share of available resources.
DeleteThe Probation Service is the one element of the Criminal Justice System which has a role with individuals from pre-sentence to post-sentence. The Guardian article published on 14 September 2024 (Crisis point- Why our jails in England are so full- and who is in them?) gave an outline of the reasons for the current situation. Missing from this piece was an analysis of the impact of Probation policy and guidance on the prison population, and the impact of the rise in prison numbers on the work of community probation practitioners. Depressingly, it took the Prison Reform Trust and Transform Justice interviewees to raise the relevant issues of risk averse practice within Probation, and the impact of mainly negative publicity around the Service which has centred on failures in practice.
What was equally galling was the Guardian coverage on 11th September given to the Police Service concerning what they considered would overload their policing capacity. The most important service that day was the Probation Service and its ability to manage the increased workload, having already struggled to complete the appropriate assessment and planning for the release of these individuals on a single day and earlier than expected.
Released prisoners on that day appeared to understand that there was little chance of accommodation, health care or other community resources being readily available or sustainable. The plans for the early release of prisoners, mooted by the previous Government, were augmented by the current Government. The Probation Institute, Probation practitioners, the Chief Inspector of Probation and numerous charitable and community organisations urged caution. Two thousand releases on one day would be very difficult for a depleted service and less experienced staff already over stretched in communities whose resources were equally depleted.
There is a growing consensus that a review of sentencing is required and that too many people are sentenced to prison. There are other sentences in the community which can serve the important purposes of sentencing, whether that is punishment, protection of the public, or rehabilitation, without imposing the damaging effects of prison. These alternatives require an effective, well trained and resourced, professional service which can respond creatively to the those on supervision, alongside equally well resourced partners in their local communities.
DeleteThe Probation Service works day in day out with individuals who have committed a range of offences. Most are extremely damaged by their often discriminatory life experiences . It is often difficult work but humanity, tolerance and a belief that people can change is fundamental to the task of empowering and engaging those whom the public would wish to be locked away.
It would be useful if the press and other organs gave serious and consistent volume of attention and analysis to the state of the Probation Service and the community resources necessary for the delivery of an effective, protective and rehabilitative service, meeting the elements of both risk and need. Negative reporting, without any balancing argument, has led to risk averse, process driven, practice and a loss of professionalism, confidence and competence. Process driven assessment and algorithms have taken over from evidence based assessment and creative responses to those assessments.
Serious, in depth analysis of the work of Probation might draw attention to how the £4 billion set aside for building new prisons to provide extra places for prisoners, could be better spent on the provision of probation and community services. These could tackle the vicious circle of poor education, expensive child care, mental and physical healthcare, accommodation and drug/alcohol services. Part of the £4 billion might well be spent on better prison provision to replace the old and crumbling prison estate. There is no inevitability to the continued rise in the prison population as long as attitudes towards imprisonment and sentencing change, and whatever resource is available is invested in our communities.
Probation Institute 23rd September 2024
But let’s hear from the frontline probation officers not the academics!
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