Dear Prime Minister, Andy
I've just watched your unscripted speech this morning in Enfield, the home of my formative years, and I believe you must earn considerable praise for your obvious determination to at last address the shame social care has become and deliver a solution. Well done for bringing forward Dame Louise Casey's Review, even though I've personally never forgiven her for further stigmatising offenders on Community Service by making them wear orange high vis jackets.
You clearly speak passionately on the subject of social care and this is to be welcomed, but seeing as we are still awaiting the appointment of a Probation Minister, one is left pondering firstly regarding your knowledge of the criminal justice system, and secondly your appetite for addressing a topic that the public has come to regard as requiring 'reform' by means of locking more people up, for longer?
You quite rightly highlighted the wisdom of trying to work collaboratively with other political parties in the hope of finding common ground rather than resorting to irritating point-scoring, but you are going to have to have rather more 'bottle' to tackle criminal justice which is equally crying out for reform, but with little or no hope for political consensus or indeed public understanding. But the cost savings and benefits to society could be enormous as our European neighbours have discovered with prison numbers significantly falling. Yes, falling!
May I be so bold as to suggest now would be a very good time to fulfill the Labour manifesto pedge of a thorough Review of the role, organisation and functioning of the once gold standard Probation Service and ensuring it returns to being part of a solution rather than part of the problem it's become under centralised HMPPS command and control. It has to break free of HM Prison Service subjugation and the civil service and return to local control as it was prior to part-privatisation. The current model is utterly failed and long-past regarded by many informed commentators as unfit for purpose.
Unlike social care, you may not have personal experience of the criminal justice system, but I urge you to appoint a suitably experienced person to undertake a Review of probation at the earliest opportunity because this vital public service is close to collapse.
I will end by applauding your Downing Street words on assuming office and particularly the pledge to treat people with decency and end rough sleeping. Of course these should be honourable aims of any government, but is particularly striking because you chose to 'say it out loud'. One of the main routes to rough sleeping is of course via the criminal justice system, so this should fit perfectly with your core belief and of course desire for devolution.
That is extremely well written but it is sad that it is unlikely to be read by anyone with any political weight to drive some action.
ReplyDeleteI can’t say it enough. Send him some reading material. Not that glossy HMPPS stuff either.
ReplyDeleteIssue 40 of Probation Quarterly brings together a diverse range of voices to explore:
How technology and artificial intelligence may shape the future of probation and criminal justice.
The human realities of practice, including burnout, menopause, leadership and professional identity.
Supportive meaningful change, from desistance and Community Payback to youth justice, domestic abuse and community partnerships.
https://www.probation-institute.org/news/probation-quarterly-issue-40
https://doi.org/10.54006/TSOZ4582
The commitment to end rough sleeping was one of the prime ministers first targets when he took over as mayor of Manchester, a walk around the city centre shows how well this has been achieved, without root and branch reform and investment at a local level level this is unlikely to be a target that can be achieved at a national level. Similarly probation is crying out for a return to local control, a new SLOP, as it were……anyone who works in it can see the destruction that a move to central command under the Civil Service has brought about. Probation staff are only ever civil servants when it suits the civil service, I would question what central control can do what local cannot….
ReplyDeleteA bit unfair, he actually massively reduced rough sleeping in Manchester but when national crisis appear, Ukraine war, austerity, lack of social housing, Increase in Asylum seekers etc it soon became obvious that with powers to change or dictate policy nationally, local powers are useless. Now he's in charge and also promising new devolution powers he has zero excuse not to finish what his stated aim was.
DeleteWatch Billy Moore talk to those who are homeless in Manchester, very few blame the Ukraine war or asylum seekers, the majority blame their addiction or the general malaise in attitude towards them from the government
DeleteNapo news today:-
ReplyDeleteThe new prime minister is under pressure.
The government’s early release plans have dominated the headlines, with victims’ groups, politicians and criminal justice leaders all weighing in on what should happen next. But among the noise, something significant has happened.
Probation has become part of the national conversation.
For years, Napo has been taking the realities of probation into parliament, to ministers and into the media. We’ve consistently warned that excessive workloads, chronic understaffing and relentless pressure don’t just affect probation staff – they affect public safety.
Now those warnings are being heard.
On Channel 4 News, Napo National Official Tania Bassett joined a panel to debate the future of the early release scheme alongside former prison governor Paul Fetherstone and Brian Booth, Deputy National Chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales.
It was an important reminder that every part of the criminal justice system is under pressure.
Prisons need investment. Policing needs investment. Probation needs investment.
All three services have compelling arguments. All three will be making their case to government as decisions are taken over the coming months.
The difference is that probation has too often been expected to do more with less.
We’ve seen prisons receive emergency funding. We’ve seen policing become the focus of political debate. Meanwhile, probation has quietly absorbed more responsibility, more complexity and more risk, without the resources needed to keep pace.
We cannot allow that to happen again.
While others on the panel focused on prison capacity and the wider pressures across criminal justice, Tania brought the discussion back to the question ministers cannot avoid: can probation actually cope?
Tania’s answer was unequivocal.
“The focus has been on the prison crisis, but I think the question needs to be, can probation actually cope with this workload and manage people safely in the community? At the moment, it’s not in a state fit to do that.”
Tania explained that the challenge extends far beyond early release. Changes under the Sentencing Act will place even more people under probation supervision through greater use of community sentences and suspended sentence orders, increasing pressure on a workforce that is already stretched beyond its limits.
She also highlighted the human cost of the crisis, pointing out that 65% of staff sickness is caused by work-related stress, with burnout fuelling vacancies and creating a vicious cycle of ever-increasing workloads.
Most importantly, she made clear that this is not simply about staff welfare.
It is about public protection.
“There has to be… a focus on the workload crisis in probation which at the moment is preventing our members from doing the job that they’re meant to do and to do it safely.”
This is exactly why your vote in Napo’s indicative workloads ballot matters.
Everyone with a stake in the justice system is vying for attention and probation must make sure its voice is heard just as loudly.
If we don’t, there is a real risk that history repeats itself: prisons receive the headlines, policing receives the attention, and probation is left to carry the extra workload with whatever resources remain.
A strong YES vote sends a different message.
It tells government that probation practitioners are united and public protection depends on giving staff the time, resources and support to do the job safely.
We’ve fought hard to get probation into this national debate.
Now let’s make sure we don’t leave it empty-handed.
some easy listening for burn'em & co
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/series/m002zggx
Confessions of a Performative Male by Darren McGarvey
Book of the Week. The Orwell Prize-winning author asks hard questions about the crisis of masculinity, probing the fears and uncertainties that arise from self-examination.
The Minister of State for Prisons, Probation and Reducing Reoffending in Andy Burnham's government is Catherine McKinnell.
ReplyDeleteThat'll teach me to check Napo stuff! This from InsideTime:-
DeleteLabour MP Catherine McKinnell has been appointed as the Minister for Prisons and Probation to replace Lord Timpson, who resigned on the day Andy Burnham became Prime Minister.
Ms Kinnell, 50, is a former employment solicitor who has been the MP for Newcastle-upon-Tyne North since 2010. She was the Minister for School Standards from July 2025 to September 2025. She previously held posts on Labour’s front bench as shadow solicitor general under Ed Miliband, and as shadow attorney general under Jeremy Corbyn.
On 11 May, as Sir Keir Starmer battled to stay in Downing Street, she did Mr Burnham a favour by breaking ranks to call on Sir Keir to stand down. Sir Keir announced his resignation six weeks later.
Ms McKinnell was appointed on 21 July as a Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, a middle-ranking ministerial position. The MoJ told Inside Time on 24 July that she would be taking up the prisons portfolio within the ministry.
The appointment of an MP with little obvious experience of prison issues to the role of Prisons Minister marks a return to the regular pattern, following Sir Keir’s experiment in 2024 when he appointed James Timpson – a businessman and non-politician with extensive experience of visiting prisons and employing ex-prisoners – and elevated him to the House of Lords.
Between 2010 and 2024, the post of prisons minister was filled by 13 different Conservative MPs. The job was often seen as a stepping-stone towards a more senior ministerial post.
Lord Timpson has yet to explain his decision to resign on 20 July, as Mr Burnham moved into Downing Street and began appointing his line-up of ministers and officials. He had served as prisons minister for two years, making him the longest-serving holder of the post for 15 years.
The BBC reported that he had left of his own volition, stating that “it is understood he feels he has done as much as he can in the role”.
However, in an exclusive interview with Inside Time on 15 July, just five days before he resigned, he had indicated that he hoped to stay on in the role, whilst acknowledging that it would be a decision for the new Prime Minister. He said: “It’s not in my gift.”
In a resignation statement, Lord Timpson claimed he had left “our prisons and probation service in a much healthier and happier state than two years ago”.
He said: “I’m proud to have become the longest-serving minister in this role for 15 years. I’m also proud that 75 per cent of prisons and 90 per cent of probation teams are now performing better than when I started. “Self-harm, violence and assaults on staff are all down, and fewer people are leaving prison without a home to go to, a measure of dignity I care about deeply.”
One of Ms McKinnell’s first challenges in her new role will be dealing with the early release scheme which Parliament approved in the Sentencing Act 2026. The scheme was due to see an estimated 6,000 prisoners released early in monthly tranches from 2 September – but was halted for review by Mr Burnham on 23 July, amid criticism that it would benefit people convicted of serious offences including manslaughter.
Saw this on Channel 4. I’m surprised to hear Napo’s Tania Bassett end on a note of support for early release. Whatever criteria are applied, it isn’t a sustainable solution. Probation shouldn’t be the bucket placed under the prison overflow tap.
ReplyDeleteWithout investment in housing, employment, health services and probation staffing, it’s misleading to keep presenting probation as an alternative to custody. Electronic tagging doesn’t solve those underlying problems either—it simply changes where the sentence is served.
https://www.channel4.com/news/what-do-experts-think-of-the-early-release-of-some-prisoners
Maybe the probation officer inside Ms. Bassett simply prompted her to welcome the opportunity to get some prisoners out of custody where probably their chances of redemption were less than outside prison.
DeleteI don’t see it that way. If a policy is so flawed that it has to be paused, it’s difficult for a credible and effective union to support any part of it. Equally, the “probation officer within” shouldn’t support a policy that has little to do with rehabilitation and is primarily driven by prison capacity.
DeleteEarly release without the housing, treatment, employment opportunities and probation resources needed to support people isn’t rehabilitation—it’s crisis management. Being a probation professional also means recognising when a policy is fundamentally unsustainable and having the courage to say so. Supporting probation also means being prepared to challenge policies that are causing more harm than good, regardless of the intentions behind them.
Hopefully burn'em will also put a hold on the uncontrolled rush to AI ... its clear AI can be a useful tool but the risks associated with rogue technology embedded within the sysytem throwing a wobbler, given the sensitive data held by probation, are manifold - sharing it, changing it, making it up, leaving it exposed; and if its not spotted for days...
ReplyDelete* "rogue behaviour is the standard, not the exception"
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2el319vzr3o
"OpenAI has revealed a cyber-attack carried out by rogue ChatGPT agents went further than just one company.
Hugging Face was thought to be the only victim of the unprecedented hack - but OpenAI now admits its bot attacked several "publicly-available services".
The out-of-control AI found four logins online which allowed it to access four separate, unnamed services.
It took three days for them to be discovered inside the Hugging Face IT network
The agents hallucinated reams of incoherent commands and text and were sloppy and did not cover their tracks well.
Ethical hacker Valentina Palmiotti: "They throw out a bunch of stuff and see what sticks... But they also don't get bored, they don't sleep and can be infinitely tenacious."
Among the errors and strange behaviour, Hugging Face warned the AI agents made brilliant technical moves and were able to rapidly adapt to new scenarios in the days-long hack...
... "rogue" behaviour "is the standard, not the exception," said the industry body the Cloud Security Alliance"
Stopping the universal requirement for post sentence supervision for all leaving custody, and removing the 12mth and under in totality from automatic pss would both reduce the pressure on the probation service, and significantly impact on freeing up prison capacity by reducing the recall rate.
ReplyDeleteSurely it would be better to focus on how cells are being filled in the first place, rather on concentrating on ways to empty them so they can just be refilled?
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/probation-reset-implementation-evaluation
'Getafix
I was just saying.........?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6298ljegkgo
'Getafix
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jul/30/more-prisoners-england-and-wales-recalled-than-released
DeleteMore people were recalled to prison than were released during the first three months of 2026, the first time on record the “recall rate” has surpassed 100% in England and Wales.
DeleteBetween January and March 2026, 12,977 people were released from prison while 13,193 people were returned to prison for breaching their licence conditions, up 31% from last year, new Ministry of Justice (MoJ) data showed.
This means that for every 100 people released, 101 people were recalled to custody, creating a “recall rate” of over 100%.
This rate has increased rapidly from about 30% a decade ago. Between January and March 2016, 17,923 people were released and 5,185 were recalled, meaning about 30 people were recalled for every 100 prisoners released.
Prisons in England and Wales are close to capacity, and the government has recently paused its plans to release about 6,000 prisoners early to ease the crisis.
Andy Keen-Downs, the chief executive of the Prison Advice and Care Trust, said: “The prison population crisis will not be solved if as many people are being sent back to prison as are leaving it.”
He warned that if current circumstances don’t change, prison places may run out by Christmas.
“Hundreds of people are recalled every month not because they have committed new offences, but because they have fallen foul of licence conditions,” he said. “This makes little sense at a time when the government is doing everything it can to reduce pressure on the prison system.”
In total, 51,419 prisoners were recalled to jail in the year to March 2026 after breaching the terms of their licence, up 28% from the previous 12 months and the highest number since current records began in 2015.
Of all recalls, 22% involved a further charge of offending, while the vast majority were for breaches of licence conditions, which have risen sharply over the past decade.
Breaches include failing to keep in touch with probation services or failing to reside at an approved address.
The figures also showed 70,066 prisoners have been freed early since September 2024, when the government brought in emergency measures in response to the overcrowding crisis.
Enver Solomon, the chief executive of the social justice charity Nacro, said the number of recalls were “piling further pressure on an already overcrowded prison estate” and showed “a system that simply isn’t working”.
“Thousands of people are being sent back to custody each year for licence breaches rather than new crimes, and we know from our work that many of these recalls are linked to homelessness after leaving prison, addiction to drugs and alcohol, and mental health issues,” he said.
Almost 13,000 people left prison homeless or as rough sleepers in the year to April 2025, a 39% rise from the previous year.
Pavan Dhaliwal, the chief executive of the charity Revolving Doors, which works with people who are in repeat contact with the justice system, said the system needs reform so recall becomes a “genuine last resort”.
“Sending people back to prison when they are struggling to rebuild their lives is costly, counterproductive and keeps the revolving door turning,” she said.
The MoJ said the increase was probably due in part to early release schemes, under which more prisoners have been released on licence earlier in their sentences.
Alex Hewson from the Prison Reform Trust said more people on short sentences being released on licence was creating “more opportunities for recall”.
“We are now using recall far more frequently than in the recent past, and it is reasonable to ask whether every return to custody is necessary and proportionate,” he said. “Given the pressure on both prisons and probation, that question deserves serious attention.”
airwaves have been filled with voices spouting endless shyte about sentencing, from ex-justice ministers to shadow justice ministers to victims' lobby & charitable organisations.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I'm aware there's been
- Deafening silence from the mystery Chief Probation Officer kte; no longer a voice for the profession but a silent supporter of whichever govt policy is in or out & very happy to throw bodies under the bus.
- Deafening silence from the officials responsible for fucking up the probation service, despite la romeo being in burn'em's shadow all day long. She was publicly vocal enough when tr was being rushed through, promoting its alleged virtues to anyone who cared to listen.
- Deafening silence from hmpps director general of operations, mjh.
- Deafening silence from mcewen, the ceo.
And I'm not sure that napo's views have been strong enough to capture anyone's imagination.
THIS is the time to be radical, to be angry, to make your point & make a stand. Capitalise on the chaos, or remain buried & pointless. Chalk was bad-mouthing probation on world at one while dominic casciani provided the raw data
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002zjd9 - starts ~30mins in.
based around these figures
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c6298ljegkgo
There were 51,419 licence recalls in the year ending March 2026, up from 40,259 in the previous year - a 28% increase.
Cassia Rowland, from the Institute for Government think tank, said most recalls are for breaches of licence conditions, such as missed appointments, rather than offenders committing further offences or posing a serious risk to the public.
Recall recall exterminate I am a Dalek pqip
ReplyDeleteRemember the good old days when we never supervised those who had 12 months or less…..Chris Grayling was the father of the chaos that we are currently experiencing…..
ReplyDeleteOver 50, 000 recalls. Up from 22, 000 in 2022. Ministry of Justice say its “probably” due to recent releases to clear spaces. Which means they don’t really know what’s pushing the figures ever upwards. I suspect we do know really. In my first 5 years of working in the probation service between 1987 -1992 I beached one person through the courts. I didn’t recall anyone. The offenders were no different from the current ones. The UK is no riskier now than it was all those years ago. What’s changed is how that risk is perceived. So we have cameras, proximity passes, security windows, and guards that impacts on our perception of risk. Lets remember that violent crime is declining. Whilst at the same time the probation service is gearing up for full scale urban warfare.
ReplyDeleteAn increased perception of risk coupled with a drive to be punitive has lead to this predictable situation. Although, even I’m surprised that the total of offenders recalled is equal to the total number of offender released. I have forgotten how many years ago the TR nonsense began. But the ripples it created continue through time.
One thing I can say with confidence is that even by their own measures the modern probation service remains unfit for purpose.
.
In addition to the above is also the belief that placing someone at high risk some how protects the public…this has been arrived at in two ways, the first making sure all the boxes are ticked in chase of a future SFO, the second the knee jerk reaction when an event happens post release, managers are terrified of not responding by recall as it is known that Police exercise soft power , certainly via the level 3 chairing of a MAPPA and less so when they have a quiet word with the manager …………it’s not rocket science as to why the number of recalls has risen as it has and will continue to do so in the present environment
DeleteFrom Insidetime:-
ReplyDeleteA major recruitment drive for new probation officers was launched in the name of Prisons and Probation Minister Lord Timpson on the day he stepped down from the job. He was quoted as saying: “Probation officers play a vital and often-overlooked role at the heart of our justice system. They protect the public, reduce reoffending and support people to make lasting changes, with benefits felt by families and communities across the country. If you’re looking for a career with real purpose, I encourage you to consider probation.”
He told the public that people across England and Wales can now apply to become trainee probation officers, earning a salary from day one while completing fully-funded training equivalent to a degree-level qualification. The Government is recruiting an additional 1,300 trainee probation officers across 2026/27, on top of the 2,300 already pledged to be brought in since 2024.
Trainees complete the Professional Qualification in Probation over 15, 21 or 27 months, depending on existing qualifications. The recruitment drive is aimed particularly at people with transferable skills from education, health, social care, the military and other public-facing roles.
After finding out what the role involves, more than half of adults (55 per cent) said they would be interested in finding out more about a career as a probation officer, including almost a quarter (24 per cent) who were very interested.
People join the Probation Service from a wide range of professional backgrounds. Steve Duffy, a probation officer in Greater Manchester, joined the service six years ago after working in prisons through a housing charity. Today, he specialises in supporting people leaving custody to build more stable lives in the community.
Mr Duffy said: “My primary school shared a wall with a prison, so the justice system felt very real to me from a young age. That sparked an early interest in what leads people to commit crime and how we can support people to turn their lives around.
“What I enjoy most about probation is helping people rebuild their lives while also helping to make communities safer. The heart of the job is relationships – being a consistent person in someone’s life can make a huge difference, and there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing someone make real progress.”
Lord Timpson had told the Commons Justice Committee earlier this year that improving probation would be his priority, and he has visited regional probation offices to speak with staff in a series of ‘roadshows’ over the past five months. This campaign of recruitment was his last act before he left his post on 20 July.
Inside Time simply reprinting the govt press release & pretending it's journalism. Why doesn't a "journalist" ask about Romeo's role in destroying the probation service?
Delete“visited regional probation offices to speak with staff in a series of ‘roadshows’”
Delete… then resigned to the House of Lords!
The core of the job, advising, assisting offenders etc was so rewarding , led to tangible results, and did produce better outcomes for them, the victims and society. But the core of the job now, whatever HMPPS say, is processing people, gathering data and making sure your various dashboards, targets and tag battery breaches are upto date! This is why retention is so shite
ReplyDelete15:30 is so accurate ,the end another exhausting week in which concerns were raised about dashboards not being up to date, the same expressions of concern were absent from who has become homeless,who has relapsed and why, which RSOs are causing problems……….the process never stopped an offence being committed, the officer, in the room does…..refocus of priorities please
ReplyDeleteWanted to read what napo are doing so went to the napo website under "Recent media releases from Napo":
ReplyDelete"Probation unions warn that Early Prisoner Release Scheme is a short-term solution - Napo was part of a delegation who met with the Lord Chancellor Shabana Mahmood and James Timpson OBE, Minister for Prisons, Parole and Probation yesterday."
At this time of high-profile issues relating to the probation service its more than disappointing to see the most up-to-date press release is well past its sell-by date. How old is this post? September 2025 at least, when mahmood was last lord chancellor.
What chance does anyone have if the Chief Probation Officer is mute & the primary probation union is stuck in 2025?
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/probation-reset-implementation-evaluation
ReplyDelete"Probation Reset was introduced from 29 April 2024 to reduce demand on probation staff by focusing their time on those who pose the greatest risk to the public (with some exemptions). It changed the management of individuals in the final third of their Community Order/Suspended Sentence Order or Licence, redirecting staff attention to the beginning of these orders. This implementation evaluation and quantitative analysis examines how probation reset was rolled out and the implications of the policy for a range of criminal justice system stakeholders."
Brace yersen for some serious bullshit:
"To be able to calculate the average amount of time a practitioner spent on an individual case, the analysis only used concluded cases i.e. cases where the PoP had left the caseload. This was so that all activity throughout the PoP’s final third of time on Licence/PSS could be included."
"Average contact time has reduced by 75% on average for the final third of Licence/PSS compared with equivalent ‘Reset’ cases."
"Sentencing Management
Within the context of wider prison capacity pressures and measures, Probation Practitioners overwhelmingly felt that Post Sentence Supervision (PSS) increased their workloads, as they needed to manage additional contact requirements. PSS was widely viewed across this group as ineffective and as only serving to increase workload. It is worth noting, however, that following the Sentencing Review in June 2025, PSS will cease to exist for offenders released from a sentence of less than two years’ imprisonment."
And here's what they concluded:
"7.1 Implications
• With any large-scale organisational change in the probation service, there is a need for timely, clear and consistent communication, and the building in time for meaningful consultation/engagement before final decisions are agreed.
• Implementation should avoid mixed messages and overlapping systems changes, while recognising regional operational differences.
• Guidance for changes to the management of people on probation management should be practical, accessible and role specific.
• Organisational changes should align with the core values of the Probation Service to maintain morale and retention, as well as stakeholder and public confidence."
Its just a Magic Fucking Roundabout of garbage - round & around & around - where no-one does fuck all except state the fucking obvious.... which no-one pays attention to anyway because of the political imperative & vainglorious experiments of those so far removed from probation work they may as well be in an adjacent universe.
Stating the bleeding obvious 101
Deletehttps://www.lawgazette.co.uk/news/shorter-prison-sentences-surged-ahead-of-policy-shift/5127536.article
ReplyDelete'Getafix
"Magistrates enthusiastically seized new powers to jail people for longer after being handed the power to do so two years ago."
DeleteNo shit, sherlock?
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a688a9e54d4ae70b6d5c281/probation-reset-implementation-evaluation-report.pdf
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't probation staff irate? Why are they so compliant? The years of lies, abuse, manipulation, misdirection, othering, contempt... it would send any mere mortal into a blind fury. Add into that the benefits that have been garnered by those administering the lies, abuse, bullying, etc.... while y'all remain on frozen salaries, reduced pension pots, shittier & shittier tersm & conditions... how do y'all hold it together?
A total of 103 qualitative interviews were conducted with participants across the Criminal Justice System including Probation Practitioners, Parole Board members, Police, people on probation and external stakeholders
The research team comprised colleagues from analytical and policy professions at the Ministry of Justice.
Overall, the design of this evaluation does not allow for attribution of impact and causality.
not all probation regions were included in the qualitative analysis... Participation was voluntary and therefore subject to self-selection bias
as at 31 December 2025 there were 42,895 people on the probation caseload with contact suspended.
And here's why this has suddenly been published; its a blatant attempt at rebuttal of the "recall has gone beserk" headlines:
"Between October and December 2025, 234 people on probation started a committal for breach of Post Sentence Supervision. This represents a decrease of 12% compared with the same quarter a year ago. However, compared with the same quarter in 2023, this represents a larger drop of 65%, coinciding with the implementation of Probation Reset."
napo & any other union representing y'all should be going balls out nuts on your behalf... but no, probation is what probation has become: compliant & complicit.
Napo doing nothing again dysfunctional then as always.
Deletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002zrm0
ReplyDeleteoh yeah!!
In 1973, there were approximately 34,000 cases received for trial at the Crown Court in England and Wales.
ReplyDeleteIn 1976, there were exactly 56,020 cases received by or committed to the Crown Court in England and Wales
In 1986, the number of cases (persons) received for trial in the Crown Court in England and Wales was 84,504.
In 1996, there were approximately 128,000 cases dealt with in the Crown Court in England and Wales... This figure encompasses all matters—including committals for trial, committals for sentence, and appeals originating from the magistrates' courts.
In 2006, the Crown Court in England and Wales received a total of 77,535 cases for trial. Additionally, there were 126,991 total case receipts (which includes committals for sentence and other disposals), and 5,055 cases outstanding at the end of the year = 209,581
In 2016, there were 112,010 new cases sent to the Crown Court (receipts), 120,138 cases completed (disposals) in England and Wales and by the end of 2016 (December 31), the number of open or outstanding cases stood at 43,110 = 163,248
As of the end of March 2026, there were 80,061 open cases in the Crown Court in England and Wales.
Note how the data is always in flux so no direct comparison is possible... thus is government & thus is whitehall - god forbid there's any opportunity to achieve measure for measure
Measure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare about strict law, corrupt power, and hidden identity. Sound familiar?
Telegraph.
ReplyDeleteAndy Burnham’s delay in the early release of thousands of prisoners could “go badly wrong” and put the public at risk, the probation watchdog has warned.
Martin Jones, the chief inspector of Probation, told The Telegraph that ministers must ensure that probation officers had adequate time to prepare for the early release of prisoners to reduce the risk to the public of freed criminals reoffending.
He said any delays in Mr Burnham’s review and subsequent changes to the scheme risked leaving probation officers inadequately prepared for the early releases, increasing the prospect of freed prisoners committing further crimes or breaching their licences and being recalled to prison..
The Prime Minister and Alex Norris, the Justice Secretary, are set to announce the results of their early release scheme review next week.
Rapists to be exempt
The Telegraph revealed on Friday that rapists, including child rapists, are set to be exempted from the scheme under the plans being discussed this weekend by No 10 and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).
However, offenders convicted of manslaughter may still be released early – including, potentially, two of the killers of Pc Andrew Harper, although final decisions are yet to be made.
Cont....
ReplyDeleteLast week, Mr Burnham “paused” the scheme, which was due to be launched on Sept 2, and said none of the 6,000 eligible offenders should be freed until the review had determined who could be released early safely and what extra safeguards could be put in place for victims.
Mr Jones said there was “some limited room for manoeuvre” to exclude some offenders from the early release scheme, which the MoJ said was critical to avoid prisons running out of space in November, which could precipitate a breakdown in criminal justice as police would be unable to arrest and detain offenders.
My honest assessment is that it will be the pause itself that starts to cause the problem if it goes on for too long. The clock is ticking,” he said.
“Probation needs the certainty of who is going to be released when, to ensure that the plans are in place for a safely managed release.
“If there is inadequate time to properly plan for the releases, it will increase the risks of things going badly wrong, resulting in recall to custody (undermining the central tenet of the scheme) and higher levels of reoffending, increasing the risk to the public.
Burnham’s delay to early release would put public at risk
Probation chief warns preparation needed to manage freed offenders as PM plans changes to scheme
Andy Burnham’s delay in the early release of thousands of prisoners could “go badly wrong” and put the public at risk, the probation watchdog has warned.
Burnham’s delay to early release would put public at risk
Probation chief warns preparation needed to manage freed offenders as PM plans changes to scheme
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“A short pause is inconvenient but can be handled, a very long period of uncertainty will cause further problems for a service already under huge strain.”
Inspections of probation found that two-thirds of the cases were not up to the necessary standard to ensure the public was adequately protected.
“That means they didn’t understand enough about the risk of the people that they were managing, and they didn’t take sufficient steps to mitigate and manage that risk,” he said.
Under the early release scheme, serious offenders including killers and rapists are eligible to be freed halfway rather than two-thirds of the way through their sentence, unless they have behaved badly in jail.
Lower-level criminals can be freed as early as a third rather than 40 per cent of the way through their sentences, unless they have breached prison disciplinary rules.
MoJ officials have warned that any major delay or significant exemptions to the scheme risked prisons in England and Wales running out of space in November.
However, Mr Burnham has come under intense pressure from the Tories, Labour MPs, victims, campaigners and front-line prison officers to halt the early releases of the most serious sexual and violent offenders.
David Gauke, the former Tory justice secretary whose independent report for Labour recommended the “earned” early release scheme, warned Mr Burnham that his “pause” and review of the plans could backfire by raising expectations among victims that he would not be able to satisfy.
The reality is that there are no easy options on this matter and he has set expectations at a level that he will struggle to meet. Burnham may come to regret announcing the pause before reaching any conclusions,” said Mr Gauke.
“Presumably, Burnham’s review will come up with a means to ensure that some high-profile offenders stay behind bars, but he should not kid himself into believing that this will satisfy every victim or much of the media. For all the calls to exclude every violent or sexual offender from earlier release, the nature of our prison population is such that we cannot achieve this without a capacity crisis.
Cont...
ReplyDeleteIf Burnham prioritises trying to avoid difficult headlines by partially backing away from the earned progression model, he will either precipitate a crisis within months, or leave much of the public disappointed as high-profile releases continue. The responsible course of action would be to face up to the realities and persuade the country that it has to do so as well.”
A MoJ spokesman said: “Protecting the public will always be our top priority. That’s why we are taking decisive action to fix the prison crisis we inherited while investing record sums to support victims.
“But after 14 years where prison places increased by just 500, our prisons were days away from running out of places. This would have caused the total breakdown of law and order.
We are pulling every lever to protect the public and cut crime – building prison places at the fastest rate since the Victorian era, launching the biggest ever expansion of tagging to toughen community punishment and giving victims a say in the strict licence conditions of offenders.
“We have paused changes due to start in September to conduct an urgent review to make sure we get this policy right for victims without running out of prison spaces.”
'Getafix
(I think thats the whole article)
What nonsense. The risk is not created by the pause; the risk is created by the scheme itself. This is yet another consequence of a sentencing framework and justice system that has become increasingly detached from reality.
DeleteLike every previous early release initiative, it treats probation as the prison system’s overflow valve, shifting responsibility onto an already overstretched service instead of addressing the root problem. Probation officers are already buried under ever-increasing risk assessments, referrals and hoops to jump through while being expected to compensate for systemic failures elsewhere.
This early release scheme and removal of short term sentences makes things worse and “but we’ve give you justice transcribe and more tagging”, needs to stop being the answer for everything!.
If public protection is genuinely the priority, then ANY early release scheme should exclude EVERY prisoner convicted of sexual or violent offences.
Equally, if the Government expects probation to supervise more people in the community, then EVERY person released early should leave prison with AUTOMATIC accommodation, healthcare registration, access to benefits to reduce reoffending. Without those, this is simply another exercise in transferring risk from the prison estate to the community while forcing probation to carry the consequences.
Calling this “public protection” while offloading the consequences onto probation is political spin, not criminal justice policy.
"Martin Jones, the chief inspector of Probation, told The Telegraph that ministers must ensure that probation officers had adequate time to prepare for the early release of prisoners to reduce the risk to the public of freed criminals reoffending... Inspections of probation found that two-thirds of the cases were not up to the necessary standard to ensure the public was adequately protected."
ReplyDeleteJones: “That means they didn’t understand enough about the risk of the people that they were managing, and they didn’t take sufficient steps to mitigate and manage that risk”
Once again the weak-assed hmip jones is laying the failures of the probation service at the feet of front-line practitioners &, as ever, letting the 'excellent leaders' off the hook.
He's a man of clever words, so the phrasing used is very deliberate... he's teed it up nicely by being very precise: "ministers must ensure that probation officers had adequate time to prepare".
"THEY didn't understand enough about the people THEY were managing...THEY didn't mitigate or manage that risk".
Its not "our inspections highlight that the management of probation - from hmpps down to local senior managers - has been shown to be failing for years now, with the same mistakes being repeated over & over again, few lessons learned & a staffing complement in crisis as a result of weak, incompetent management; who have created a bullying culture to try & cover for their own failings. As a result many practitioners are left overworked, under-skilled, under-valued & unable to fuction effectively."
spurr, romeo, rees, copple, the regional directors etc - *THEY* are responsible for the years of decline, the destruction of the probation service, the dilution of skills & confidence & efficacy. The staff over the last decade or so are merely passengers locked in a bus that management have driven over numerous cliff-edges to date, while shouting "Its ok, we'll just mend it ourselves & carry on, you just do what you're told, we know what we're doing."
How roles are valued by moj/hmpps:
ReplyDelete20233 - Probation Officer (A Qualification in Probation is Required)
Salary: £37,238 - £44,520
20677 - Treatment Manager (no qualification specified)
Salary: £37,238 - £44,520
"Ability to work towards Training and Assessment Skills for Intervention Specialist (TASIS) Qualification"
20642 - Senior Probation Officer - (no qualification specified)
Salary: £46,746 - £48,760
"Substantial experience with a proven record of good practice in a variety of settings (including offender risk assessment and management) as a Probation Officer or from working within another criminal justice agency or related work context"
20597 - Electronic Monitoring - Senior Admin Officer
Salary: £20,001 to £30,000, £30,001 to £40,000
20639 - Prison Offender Manager
Salary: £30,001 to £40,000
20572 - AUM Business Community Engagement - HMP
Salary: £40,001 to £50,000
20568 - Prison Employment Lead
Salary: £40,001 to £50,000
20544 - Senior Analysts Justice Data, Ministry of Justice
Salary: £40,001 to £50,000, £50,001 to £60,000
20673 - Operational Data Lead
Salary: £58,511 - £65,329.
20518 - Senior Policy Manager
Salary: £60,001 and over
20380 - Senior Demobilisation Manager
Salary: £58,511 - £65,329
"The Demobilisation Team is responsible for the safe, timely, and compliant exit of incumbent suppliers and ensuring successful transitions to new arrangements."
20196 - Chief of Staff to the Chief Operating Officer
Salary: £75,674 - £85,257
"The Chief Operating Officer (COO) Group helps the MoJ run well, bringing together the corporate functions, services and governance that enable the department to deliver."
20010 - Lead Interaction Designer (Jurisdiction)
Salary: £60,001 and over
16587 - Forward Deployed Engineer III - Justice AI Unit
Salary: £71,381 - £80,419
20605 – 2 x Head of PDU
Salary: £76,241 - £82,145
Looks like IT, admin & 'business' roles are valued far higher than 'probation' roles, and the probation qualification is virtually worthless; specified as 'required' in only one role.
Justice AI is an MoJ team
Deleteyup: "How roles are valued by moj/hmpps"... does what it says on the tin.
DeleteThey will never reduce the prison population whilst probation are returning over 50,000 to custody on recall each year.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is not prison capacity itself, it's the routes and the speed that capacity is being filled by that's the real problem.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/02/andy-burnham-child-rapists-prison-release-scheme-talks
'Getafix
https://www.ier.org.uk/news/urgent-action-needed-to-end-endemic-prison-violence-say-the-poa/
ReplyDeletehttps://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/aug/03/rapists-child-abusers-and-groomers-will-not-leave-prison-early-says-pm
ReplyDeleteWhy are they always so worried about prisons being in danger of 'reaching' capacity, but don't care that Probation have been working OVER capacity since 2021, we're working with the same people and being in the community increases any likelihood of them causing harm. HMPPs need to focus on Probations lack of resources and until they deal with the staffing issues (retention, wellbeing, pay, workloads etc) everything else is doomed to fail.
ReplyDeleteWhen the inevitable SFOs happen from these early releases probation will be scapegoated.
Deletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c20e15d0z6zo
ReplyDeleteThe mother of PC Andrew Harper has told the BBC she is "devastated" two of his killers remain eligible for early release after the government revised plans to tackle overcrowding... she was "devastated" by the government's latest announcement, and vowed to continue to fight for justice. "I could not sit back and do nothing," adding that Justice Secretary Alex Norris had called her to explain the situation and apologise.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he "wanted to go even further", but that would not be possible without the prison system collapsing and putting the public "at much greater risk".
The changes are due to be phased in, beginning with prisoners serving sentences of less than 575 days, going up to inmates jailed for 12 years or more being eligible for early release in June 2027.
The "presumption" will be that offenders are tagged and will face longer periods of supervision and tough new rules including "restriction zones", Burnham said.
The government also announced an extra £10 million will go to front-line victim support services, including a new national helpline.
A probation officer said it was "not clear there's anything actually new here in terms of how probation staff are going to manage people being released earlier".
We need "Andy" my namesake to be bold and explain that justice is different from retribution and we have an independent justice system (which I know some dispute) so that recrimination is limited and does not extend to riot and civil disorder.
DeleteIt will always be tough for victims.
I was once required to supervise on parole a Manslaughter convict who received what now would be considered an impossibly short sentence (I do not recall how long) - the bloke was out within a year or two having killed his wife with a brick in the bath when he was experiencing mental illness.
One son and daughter-in-law welcomed his release the other couple rejected it (I nonetheless saw them both) - the release went smoothly and the man returned to his trade of cultivating and preparing cricket bat willow trees for the unusual Essex industry of cricket bat manufacture. He was also one of those clients who did not make much personal impact on me. There seemed little point at that stage of discussing over and over the killing - he did not seem to have a clear memory of it and fortunately was offered a loving home by his brother-in-law who seemed to take charge. My recollection is faded it happened in about 1985.
The more I read, the more I come back to the same question: what has fundamentally changed for probation?
ReplyDeleteThe categories of prisoners being released may have changed and supervision may be described as “tougher”, but where is the additional capacity that makes that possible?
Longer supervision, more tagging and more restrictions all create more work. They don’t create more experienced probation practitioners.
Government has recognised that prisons have a finite capacity. It now needs to recognise that probation does too.
Public protection cannot rely on simply expecting more from an already overstretched workforce. If probation is expected to carry an even greater responsibility for managing risk in the community, then investment in pay, retention, workloads and professional autonomy stops being an employment issue and becomes a public protection issue.
Otherwise, the headlines may change, but the reality for frontline staff doesn’t.
I've been watching the news all morning on several channels. I find it astonishing the amount of ignorance, misconception and mis understanding there is about the way the criminal justice system works from journalists that frankly should know better.
ReplyDeleteFor instance, the early release scheme has been put back a month to allow probation officers extra time to recalculate the release dates for those that they identify as being suitable for the scheme???
I find the outrage at the idea of prisoners being released early a little puzzling too, given that nearly all prisoners are already released early on the halfway mark, and some even earlier if suitable for tagging..
It appears that every individual has their own perception of how the CJS works, and mostly that perception has no real basis in reality.
'Getafix
https://insidetime.org/comment/current-spare-capacity-wont-last-long/
ReplyDeletePrison ping-pong.
ReplyDeleteThe title sums up my thoughts on this announcement https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c20e15d0z6zo
I saw this on a well known social media platform today. I couldn’t have captured this feeling more accurately. It’s good there are some that remember to mention the Probation Service and the work (or overwork) of Probation Officers and staff. Burnham, Norris & Co have forgotten we exist!
“OK, yes, today’s government announcement on the Progression Model is a welcome U-turn — but it’s still a U-turn that is wrapped in incoherent political spin.
Rapists, child sexual offenders and grooming offenders should never have been brought within these earlier-release provisions; the public were never going to buy that - and Parliament was warned too. An amendment to exclude specified serious sexual and violent offences was defeated by 307 votes to 182. Victims were then told that offenders could be released earlier.
Only after the resulting anger has the Government changed course.
The announcement also leaves crucial questions unanswered.
How many prisoners have now been removed from scope?
How many people convicted of manslaughter, serious violence, domestic abuse or sexual offences outside the new exclusions remain eligible?
What is the revised prison-capacity forecast?
The MOJ will not say.
How many additional cases will probation inherit on 1 October — and where are the trained staff, Approved Premises beds, treatment programmes, enforcement capacity and the money to fund all this to come from anyway?
A GPS tag is not a probation officer.
It can record or restrict movement; but it cannot assess changing risk, secure accommodation, challenge behaviour, deliver treatment or protect a victim by itself.
Martin Jones, HM Chief Inspector of Probation (who has written a wonderful truth-to-power article on this for The Prisons Handbook 2027 out in October when all this hits the ground) said only last month that the service has too few staff, too little experience and too many cases.
Every probation delivery unit it inspected was rated either “Inadequate” or “Requires improvement”, while two-thirds of inspected cases fell short of public-protection standards.
Just how are people going to cope - on both sides of the tag?
The £10 million victim-support package and the one-month delay are welcome, but both expose how badly implementation was handled. Victims should have been identified, informed and protected before commencement — not after receiving alarming news that release dates might change.
The most revealing sentence in the whole announcement is the admission that the Government has gone only as far as prison capacity allows.
That’s not sentencing policy grounded in principle but emergency population management founded on neglect.
The U-turn is right, but ministers should stop pretending it resolves the underlying problem. It shifts pressure from overcrowded prisons onto an overstretched Probation Service and risks creating the same cycle again:
Earlier release = Inadequate supervision = Breach of licence = Recall.
Prison ping-pong.
https://prisons.org.uk“
https://www.apccs.police.uk/apcc-criminal-justice-leads-response-to-changes-to-prisoner-early-release-scheme/
DeleteFollowing changes to the prisoner early release scheme announced by the Prime Minister, the APCC’s joint leads on criminal justice, Danielle Stone and Alison Hernandez, said:
Delete“We broadly back the changes announced by the Prime Minister. He acknowledges that more needs to be done to support victims. We have heard those voices of concern too and have, as local victims’ champions, done all we can to mitigate the impact of the decision to release offenders from custody early. The additional funding to support victims is welcome.
“We welcome the exclusion of certain types of offences from the scheme but have huge sympathy with the family of PC Andrew Harper and understand why they and many serving police officers would like to have seen the government go further.
“Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Deputy Mayors recognise the extreme pressure the prison system is under due to successive governments’ underinvestment in the prison estate and probation services. The reoffending rate has not improved fast enough, and the government needs to invest more in services that improve offender rehabilitation. Without the right level of local investment in rehabilitation and prevention, and additional funding going to local policing, we will not break the cycle of release and re-offending which damages local communities, impacts the safety of the public and places more victims in harm’s way.
“Managing those who are released from their custodial sentence at the 40% or 50% point will place added pressure on policing and probation services, but for the scheme to work – and, crucially, for victims to feel safe – the use of tagging and restriction zones must be executed effectively and enforced robustly.”
“We need to address all these issues as a society, supporting victims of crime and creating opportunities through local community resilience so offenders can rehabilitate and contribute positively to their neighbourhoods. Schemes such as Prisoners Building Homes, which was created by PCCs, reduce reoffending rates by helping prisoners make themselves more employable and provide an opportunity for prisoners to earn early release.”
Britain’s prisons crisis has its roots in a failure to add sufficient new places between 2010 and 2024. Just 500 places were added and 23 prisons were closed. As a result, the system is now dangerously close to capacity and we are running the risk of new offenders not being incarcerated in a timely manner.
ReplyDeleteThe situation must be gripped and that is what I have done in my first days as Prime Minister. But I have done so by trying to put myself in the shoes of victims of crime and seeing things through their eyes. My approach has been to maximise support for them and minimise the risks to public safety.
For someone trying to rebuild their life after a traumatic experience, few things could feel more unjust than learning the person responsible for their suffering would be released earlier than thought. Yet that has been the painful experience of many victims.
I understand their anger and anxiety. More than that, I share it. Because of that, one of my first decisions as Prime Minister was to pause the plan for early release in September and order an urgent review of the scheme.
That has now concluded and, as a result, I have decided to make some significant changes to the plans I inherited. Sentences for rape, serious child sex offences and other grooming offences will now be excluded from the changes. This will be on top of the offenders who are already blocked because they have been deemed by the courts as the most dangerous prisoners.
The truth is I wanted to go even further. I know there will be concerns about who will still be released early for other offences. I have pushed to the very limits of what is possible to do. I know I can look people in the eye and say to them there is nothing more I could have asked for without risking the prison system reaching capacity and collapsing within months.
Such an outcome would expose the public to enormous risk. Police would be unable to make arrests. Courts would be unable to send new offenders to prison. Our justice system would grind to a halt. All this is the reason why sentencing changes were rightly introduced in the first place.
However, I am determined to do more to support victims and the public. So, as well as excluding those sentences for rape, serious child sex offences and other grooming offences, we will be introducing much tougher community measures. Nearly all offenders released will be tagged. The period of supervision will be toughened. And we will be imposing new conditions for offenders, including restriction zones agreed with victims. As part of the changes, we will be giving probation officers the power to ban offenders from driving, pubs and community events.
DeleteThere will also be a new package of support for victims because they must be placed at the heart of the justice system. This will be backed by £10 million in new funding to provide trauma-informed contacts for victims, alongside a new national helpline.
The Government I lead will work to fix the prison crisis once and for all. I will not leave the same problems for my successors. We will deliver the fastest prison building programme since the Victorian era, with 14,000 new places expected by 2031.
To avoid a repeat of this situation, I have also asked the Justice Secretary to identify other ways to free up prison capacity that will be more palatable to the public.
First, I have asked him to review the indefinite sentences handed out between 2005 and 2012, called Imprisonment for Public Protection (IPP). This has left many hundreds of people in prison since they were young but without any prospect of release despite having already served very long sentences.
Second, I have asked for the early release of more women prisoners to be considered, and to look at converting more of the women’s prison estate to hold male prisoners, given the lower risk they generally pose.
Third, I have asked officials to consider faster returns of foreign national offenders to their country of origin.
I have spent much of my political life campaigning for victims, from the families of the Hillsborough disaster to those affected by the infected blood scandal. I have seen the pain caused when people are let down by the very institutions meant to protect them.
The changes we are announcing today will make a difference, but I do not pretend it is a perfect solution or that it goes as far as I would like. My commitment over the months and years ahead is to rebuild our justice system so that it commands the confidence of the public. This will not happen overnight and nor without difficulty. But we will deliver a justice system that the British people expect and deserve.
Andy Burnham
I have read the comments on here and feel that unless the mood is represented to the government yet again probation will take the blame. Where are the unions when needed certainly not working in our interest and probably not working. Always chuckle when I see the Probation Officer/NAPO chair at the bottom of an email, the NAPO bit why? It doesn’t get you any further or anymore recognition, actually it is the badge of a shirker! The unions should be challenging the government asking for more money for the hard working operational PO’s. Should be having a ballot, taking strike action and let all the NPS lackeys manage the cases, hmmm the majority couldn’t do an RMP let alone interview an offender, that is why they are up the greasy pole! Yet again we are playing probation Hokey Cokey, you put the training on, take the training off, on, off, on, off, you do the Hokey Cokey and turn around here’s an SFO ! There are limited AP places, AP’s are closing, there is no housing, you can have a tent, you cannot have UC unless you fill the application on line and it’s the summer holidays and half the probation workforce are on late starts and early finishes to pick the kids up from summer activities! Is that supervisor in possession of an up to date DBS? Successive governments have not built enough prison places, so when a police officer is killed there is not enough room at the inn because you are on EDS and not mandatory life because again the woke CJS does not want bad press. I know what, if we knock all the very high and high riskers down to medium we can pass the case on to unqualified staff and they can take the SFO hit, never I hear you cry, oh yes is my response you must tick the box or the SPO will throw their toys out of the pram because the PDU lead has blamed them and so it goes, sh*t only runs one way and who catches the lot? It was a bad news day today so they announced a review of work descriptions, there will be no more money because the unions are involved bowing serf like to the bosses selling the membership out. Roll on Friday, laptop off until Monday, whatever happens over the weekend you don’t pay be enough to give a damn. In fact as a seasoned and experienced PO I miss the meeting the punter in the cafe for breakfast, popping to the building site for a brew, a leisurely home visit on a sunny day, that was when we had a professional, advise, assist and befriend, now it let’s do 15 months, get my degree and a DBS and off I go. There is no loyalty as loyalty works two ways and there is no respect, you have to earn respect and frankly I don’t respect those above me all they want is the targets met no matter how and no matter what the cost whether that be a mental breakdown or resignation. Happy Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteDo they respect you? I mean the POs and SPOs you’re busy condemning—not the people you’re still referring to as “punters” in 2026.
DeleteCould we revisit the HMIP inspection on SFOs? It's been a while since I read it but I recall it being supportive of the argument that 'other' partnerships upon which we rely to provide resources, should be incorporated into the SFO inspection process. So many of the arguments reiterated here would benefit from some acknowledgement that the probation service is being asked to rehabilitate without the necessary resources. Things are so bad that we are being asked to make bricks without clay, never mind straw!
ReplyDelete