Just in from a contributor:-
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 me 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 its 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.
Anon
Napo today:-
ReplyDeleteNapo have said since the early releases were first announced that there should be more exemptions to ensure public protection is achievable. As such the new exemptions are welcome but do not address the real issues of public protection and safe releases.
The Prime Minister and the Justice Secretary have failed to acknowledge the probation workloads crisis that has afflicted the service for over 2 years now. It is not clear if the prime minister or the Lord Chancellor have a clue about how ill-equipped the probation service is take on this additional work. For example, there are huge numbers of vacancies in Victim Liaison Roles, so we are not sure how the extra Victim Contact Scheme work will be done.
Plans to release thousands of domestic abuse perpetrators and stalkers early from prison does not boost victim protection. It means that more people, largely women, will be killed or harmed.
There’s no additional funding to retain probation staff, especially experienced ones, despite endemic staffing problems in many key roles across England and Wales.
Whilst it is welcome that the prime minister has intervened to review the policy, more now needs to be done to ensure the probation service can safely manage people in the community. This means addressing the workloads and staffing crisis, investing significant amounts of money to retain staff and improve working conditions for those that will be tasked to do this important additional work.
Ian Lawrence General Secretary said: “Everyone is talking about prisons, and yes it is bad, but the crisis in probation is far worse. But yet again, our members are being overlooked while all the attention is on prison. Without probation none of this can happen, so the service needs to be front and centre to this discussion”.
Napo is currently in a formal trade dispute with HMPPS over workloads and we are currently in an indicative ballot of our members due to close on Monday. We expect a strong response from our members indicating a wish to ballot for industrial action.
We urge the Prime Minister to look closely at the issues that our members are struggling with. There is such strength of feeling that Napo members passed a motion of no confidence in HMPPS to fix the crisis in June. We now need to see action on the probation crisis and not just knee jerk reaction to the ever-growing prison population.
"Without probation none of this can happen, so the service needs to be front and centre to this discussion”.
ReplyDeleteProbation is in a position to garner considerable bargining power at this particular moment in time.
It has however got to be more then just about workloads and pay. As important as those issues are, the opertunity now exists to redefine its identity, demand its independence from the prison service and the civil service.
Burnham keeps talking about how great devolution is. Give probation back its independence and identity.
'Getafix
I saw Mr Lawrence on TV new . Cannot say he functions badly but he certainly doesn't capture the viewer . He was boringly talking old issues over and no vigour or his usual thump. I think he enjoys the limelight but has no gravitas for what is needed. Time after time he leads us through major issues and has achieved losses at every turn . I am amazed he is still in post. Is he due to retire at all.
ReplyDeletelistened to the radio on & off today, catching occasional news pieces. I caught a slice of WATO (bbc lunchtime) with alex-don't-pause-for-breath someone or other prattling on about "£700million just for probation" & "we're bringing in exclusion zones, something that's never been done before". The unchallenged lies are simply unbearable. The £700 million is predominantly for tagging & AI, with 1,300 new recruits at some point. Exclusion zones have been a feature of licences & release plans for as long as I can remember.
ReplyDeleteThey advertise the programme thus: "As the Government tweaks the prisoner early release scheme, we assess the options to reduce prison overcrowding with former Governor of HMP Wormwood Scrubs, Vanessa Frake."
Not a probation voice in sight.
AND WHY HAS NO-ONE MENTIONED THE FACT THAT LA ROMEO, THE CABINET SECRETARY & HEAD OF THE CIVIL SERVICE, WAS A KEY ARCHITECT & ***THE*** RESPONSIBLE OFFICER FOR THE FINAL COLLAPSE OF THE JUSTICE SYSTEM in her former roles, not least as:
(1) Director General, Criminal Justice at the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), responsible for all criminal justice policy and major programmes
(2) Director General, Transformation at MOJ, responsible for reform and savings programmes, strategy, digital services, communications, group HR and group estates
"Dame Antonia Romeo served as the Senior Responsible Officer for the Ministry of Justice’s controversial "Transforming Rehabilitation" (TR) program, discussing its tight rollout deadlines and risk management in a 2014 interview with Civil Service World"
* Romeo is sure that the new system will improve results. “At the moment, we have a very serious and professional group of probation staff working incredibly hard with local partners to reduce reoffending,” she says. “We’re seeking to allow those that move out to the CRCs the freedom and innovation to bring in new and better ways of doing things.”
https://www.civilserviceworld.com/in-depth/article/interview-antonia-romeo-moj
“At the moment, we have a very serious and professional group of probation staff working incredibly hard with local partners to reduce reoffending,” she says. “We’re seeking to allow those that move out to the CRCs the freedom and innovation to bring in new and better ways of doing things.”
“My job as senior responsible officer is to make sure we deliver the benefits of the programme. We need to really understand what’s going on – and there are no prizes for not listening.”
Oh yes there are fucking prizes for you for not listening, La Romeo. You were told time & time again that TR wasn't going to work, that probation shouldn't be split... but your politically selective deafness won you a plumb job in New York, a return to run & gloat over the department you screwed, numerous gongs, promotions & now the top civil service job.
You lied & lied & lied again, you've fleeced the public purse & - along with your political allies in Grayling & Maude et al - you've fucked over both prisons & probation, leaving them in the parlous state they're in now.
Why can't the bbc & other news outlets get their dim heads around it? Burn'ems bestest pal in Number 10 proactively disassembled the justice system for her political heroes. Just look at the HMI prisons & probation reports from 2010 to 2020, the slide down the measuring stick, the ever depressing sound of "inadequate", "not fit for purpose", "staff leaving in droves".
And now we have to listen to whiney labour MPs telling a new set of bare-faced lies in-between breathy claims of being holier than thou, "we're doing all we can".
Bollocks. Abso-fucking-lutely Bollocks.
Thanks Jim. Time for a bath with a bottle of malt.
Annon 20:08.
Deletehttps://www.civilserviceworld.com/news/article/romeo-moves-between-central-government-and-wider-public-sector-will-become-the-norm
Cabinet secretary Dame Antonia Romeo has said she expects new PM Andy Burnham’s devolution drive to mean that moving between departments and the wider public sector will be a routine fact of life for civil servants.
DeleteRomeo’s comments came in a social-media post following the publication of the government’s Rewiring the State policy paper, which contains a range of measures expected to make the civil service “smaller and more strategic”.
Writing on LinkedIn, Romeo said the devolution push – which aims to place more decision-making power in the hands of regional mayors – represents “an exciting opportunity” for the civil service.
“As civil servants, we joined to make a positive difference for people and communities across the country, and that purpose and determination motivates us every day,” she said. “Devolution means going even further: moving power and decision making out of central government and right into the communities we serve, ensuring that decisions are taken closer than ever before to the places where people live and work.”
Romeo is currently leading a review of Whitehall that will “examine the full range of activities undertaken by the civil service”, including its “size, shape, and structure”.
The review was commissioned by former PM Keir Starmer and is due to conclude next summer. However, No.10 says Burnham and Romeo have agreed that Rewiring the State will “form a major part” of the end goal for the civil service’s future operating model.
In her LinkedIn post, Romeo said that moving power closer to communities is “an important part” of the vision for the civil service of the future and “will create new opportunities to have a direct positive impact” across the country.
“By embracing these opportunities, we will ensure the civil service can continue to deliver the services the public expects of us – fit for a modern and AI-powered future, removing the unnecessary barriers and bureaucracy that frustrate us all, and focused on delivering for citizens and the government,” Romeo said.
“For civil servants, we will build new career paths, so that moving between central government and the wider public sector becomes the norm. We will continue to modernise while preserving the best traditions of the impartial civil service.”
Rewiring the State pledges reforms to business rates and income tax, allowing regional mayors to retain more of those revenues locally – as part of moving towards a funding system that rewards local growth.
Mayors are also in line for increased powers in relation to housing, transport and skills. Part of that will involve a “devolving by default” process of moving decisions that can be taken locally out of central government. Rewiring the State says “devolving by default” means that when policies or services are being designed or altered, secretaries of state will need to justify holding them at the level of central government.
A reappraisal of the work of arm’s-length bodies is due to take place in parallel, with a view to establishing what functions can be returned to departments or devolved to local areas.
Rewiring the State also has greater detail on Romeo’s theme of making moves between different parts of the public sector more widespread.
The seven-page document talks about the plans representing “an opportunity for the civil service to adapt and learn through greater interchange with regional and local government, becoming more porous and working together to deliver better outcomes for the citizens we serve”.
DeleteRewiring the State pledges to “actively build new career paths between central government and the wider public sector” and says the National School for Government will “play an important part” in the process.
It says ministers will ensure that mayors and other local institutions will have the “necessary capability” to deliver on the additional powers they are being given by “transferring funding and resource from government where functions are devolved”.
The document adds: “This will be complemented by a programme of wider capacity and capability support from government. We will work with the sector to develop a blueprint for the capacity and capabilities strategic authorities need, and a strategy for delivering that blueprint. This will include ensuring strategic authorities have the right skills and expertise, a jointly designed leadership development offer, and an enhanced programme of secondments from central government.”
Let us go ( from the civil service) for gods sake…..let us go
DeleteIt's sad to think that the only way Probations mismanagement and managed decline will resonate with those in power will be if a serious SFO occurs amongst these releases (god forbid) that is pounced upon by the Daily Mail , Telegraph etc to pile on political pressure. Until then we are as the last useless Lord Chancellor said the invisible heroes. I just didn't realise he wanted to keep us hidden (and ignored)
ReplyDeletewhat could possibly go wrong? Interesting that kte, the mysteriously ever-absent Chief Probation Officer, seems to be hiding in Jones' pocketses:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.aol.co.uk/articles/electronic-tagging-system-unprepared-monitor-141444000.html
"The electronic tagging system that will be relied upon to monitor thousands of offenders released early from prison is failing to alert the authorities of potential breaches of conditions, a watchdog has warned.
Martin Jones, HM inspector of probation in England and Wales, said the system relied on hard-pressed police and probation officers looking up individual cases and then deciding whether potential breaches needed to be investigated further."
* Alex Norris, the justice secretary, has apologised to families affected, saying they were “carrying the can from previous failures”. Hmmm, who might be responsible for those failures?
_______________________________________________________
£700million?? For probation???
https://www.aol.co.uk/articles/probation-real-time-tag-data-144101000.html
Probation staff are set to be given real time data and powers to issue offenders random drug tests to help beat crime and keep communities safe.
The Government will provide staff with real-time electronic monitoring data to follow offenders more closely and identify potential risks or breaching of compliance.
Under the plans, there will also be random tests for 1,000 offenders on licence each month for drugs for both the welfare of those being monitored and the public.
Currently being piloted in London, officials believe the new Electronic Monitoring Data Insights service will give frontline probation teams faster access to information from offenders’ tags."
* here's the killer line from 'a government source':
“The new Justice Secretary wants to look at ramping up the use of technology to protect the public and ensure probation officers are always one step ahead of offenders.”
Never in the memory of man has that been true. Ever.
Govt: "London GPS pilots (2025/26): Valued at approximately £900,000 for a 12-month procurement via suppliers such as Buddi Ltd to support localized tagging."
Mayor of London: "This decision seeks agreement to extend the pilots by 24 months to 31st March 2026 using the allocated budget of £1,030,000 per year. This decision also seeks agreement to carry forward up to £200,000 from the 2023/24 GPS tagging budget to use in 2024/25 to meet the demand for tags. On this basis the total funding for the two year extension period will be £2,260,000." (a bit more than £900,000 a year then?)
_____________________________________________________
UKParliament: "The forecast cost for national electronic monitoring and tagging contracts in the UK for 2025/26 is approximately £107.8 million, alongside a broader government rollout backed by an extra £175 million allocated for expansion through 2026–2029."
National Audit Office, 10 July 2026: "HMPPS has worked with Serco to reduce backlogs in fitting tags, but supplier performance improvements alone are not sufficient to provide confidence that the system is resilient or protects the public. Significant inefficiencies persist across the system, wasting staff time and taxpayers’ money, and limiting performance improvements... Of particular concern is the likely significant number of unmonitored individuals. Additionally, police and probation officers often lack relevant information or capacity to respond to breaches quickly, and governance is fragmented."
Sorry, missed posting link to nao report
Deletehttps://www.nao.org.uk/reports/electronic-monitoring-improving-resilience-to-meet-increasing-demand/
"Expanding a system that is not yet working as intended heightens risks to future performance and, ultimately, to public protection."
???Sound familiar???
https://youtu.be/5x7GFQMZieo?si=JGdLPpCil2sri_LU
Deletesick as a pig to hear the grotesque duplicity, bare-faced lies & raw callous othering by the political classes of all parties.
ReplyDelete"they should pay the price & be responsible for their crimes" - except when it suits politicians to make excuses for 'them' - whoever 'they' might be, eh, Ms Romeo et al?
burn'em wants to review epstein & al fayed - good, except that IF (as was claimed by a labour mp) its to ascertain "how" powerful men are enabled to commit such crimes, then its unlikely we'll get an answer of any significance. Why? Because powerful men (and women) are protected by sycophants & privilege & power & money.
1. Prof.Jason Arday, youngest black person ever appointed to a professorship at the University of Cambridge, is now having to defend his position on the eve of a book release, with extremely vocal critics claiming he's a plagiarist & fantasist: "The row erupted after another academic - self-defined "race realist" Nathan Cofnas, who was sacked from his Cambridge role in 2024 - said he found numerous instances of plagiarism in Prof Jason Arday's work and questioned some of his stated achievements."
Arday admits he has perhaps been less than clear about some issues, but flatly denies plagiarism. There's now a campaign to have his work re-examined.
2. Donald Trump lies every time he opens his mouth - about *everything*; he talks utter nonsense, is abusive, bigoted & dangerous, and takes punitive action against those who criticise him. He's President of the USA & was a great friend of epstein.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002zrnr
"The documentary wrestles with Jakober's legacy - a Schindler-like rescuer, or a profiteer trading in human freedom? Through testimony and declassified files, we trace the moral complexity of a scheme that reunited families while treating them as commodities... Mossad, alarmed at first, ultimately co-opted the scheme, and Ceaușescu expanded it into an industrial operation, selling around 100,000 Jewish lives for tens of millions of dollars, while his secret police profited from the proceeds."
How different is this to today's 'people smugglers' taking cash to help refugees escape abusie & repressive regimes?
It was refreshing to hear how dignified Baroness Berger was this morning on't'wireless when talking about the tories' selection of jailed neo-nazi Joshua Bonehill-Paine as a candidate; she didn't focus on her own issues but made it clear that the neo-nazi's crimes were manifold against muslims, women & others. Its shameful that the bbc journalist's style of 'challenge' made it sound like he was arguing the case for the neo-nazi, pushing Berger hard.
... its a sick & twisted world.
What a review of the work means is this:
ReplyDelete1) Protect the brand at all costs
2) Lay the blame on the previous governments
3) get them to do more work for no more money
4) A major rebranding exercise will see high risk cases downgraded to medium and the risk is passed downward
5) Any major reoffending can be attributed to the individual rather than the systemic
6) deal with increased stress by invoking capability measures ( see point one)
7) review the training to make it simpler to recruit more staff and reduce the level of professionalism required which in time will lead to a reduction in the wage bill
8) Staff to be referred to PAM assist at the first sign of kickback
9) Encourage the removal of the word probation and with it all of the expectations that this word carries with a view to introducing UK Correctional services
10) Offer staff a reduced overtime rate…..move to staff APs with security staff,moving qualified staff back into the field, move qualified staff out of prison and back into the field, create a cadre of volunteers with support staff designation.
11) Recruit and retain SPOs whose greatest talent is saying “yes”. Promote and reward those who minimise concerns, shift blame downwards, defend the indefensible, foster toxic working environments and ensure PDU Heads and senior managers are never held accountable for their own failures.
DeleteI agree with most of your points but not number 4, I am probably in the minority of PO's that think the service as a whole massively over risks people and the default is HROSH just to cover backs, it makes little sense as it just creates more work for no gain. I have no idea of any historical figures for comparison but I would guess the reunification lead to a huge number of Med risk cases being moved to High partly because NPS staff only knew what to do with High risk cases and partly because SPO's and PO became terrified due to the high profile SFO's we had in a 2 year period, knee jerk springs to mind. The service needs to be braver
DeleteRead on pal when they release 5k next week you'll need to be spot on your risk assesment . The idea we over run is nonsense we do not have the luxury to trust to luck nor the tools that predict the future . Some easy words you have their poorly thought through.
DeleteThere is a clear historical precedent for rebranding risk, CRCs held high risk cases classed as medium risk purely for the profit margin only a few were re classified as high and when PSOs began to hold cases in their own names many medium risk cases became low risk overnight as a mechanism to take the pressure off POs……risk manipulation has always been more art than science and will continue to be so……..when it suits
ReplyDeleteOh dear formal risk assesment tools oasys and previous offending are all guesswork now then . I wouldn't want to oversee that approach.
DeleteThink about the recalls must be salivating over your OAYS keyboard strokes
ReplyDeletehttps://www.lbc.co.uk/article/prison-wings-closing-under-false-pretences-staffing-shortages-5HjdffY_2/
ReplyDeleteadam fleming bbc r4 pm today: we've already heard from probation, so now let's hear from a member of parliament, Sarah Champion. Oh. Okay. And who or when was the probation voice?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001kpy3 - probation in peril, 2023
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0kz9sm3 - simon armitage writes a poem, 2025
https://www.facebook.com/TrainToBeAProbationOfficer/videos/-hear-probation-officer-lisas-story-on-bbc-radio-surrey-lisa-left-school-with-on/1282154116723950/ - Lisa, Surrey, 2025
https://www.facebook.com/RossKempTV/videos/ad-what-really-happens-inside-the-probation-service-i-joined-hmppsofficial-to-me/818726351320024/ - ???
six oclock news: 12/01/2019 Probation officers back government plan to scrap short jail sentences
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-57688735 - we're forgotten
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084db02 - the briefing room, 2016
2013: "The 2013 "Transforming Rehabilitation" (TR) probation reforms introduced by the UK government faced severe warnings from unions, chief officers, and inspectors. Critics warned that splitting the service into a public National Probation Service and private Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) risked public safety, destabilized finances, fragmented supervision, and made reoffending targets unachievable."
romeo's blueprint: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/transforming-rehabilitation/results/transforming-rehabilitation-response.pdf
https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201719/cmselect/cmjust/482/482.pdf - "Sonia Crozier, Director, Probation, and Executive Director, Probation and Women, at the NPS, explained that they had sought to put in place national structures “to resolve some of the issues that we know have been getting in the way”. Ian Barrow, Probation Divisional Director Wales, NPS, explained that at a local level he did not recognise a “two-tier” system, or a system where one side “felt in charge”. He explained that “service integration meetings [were held] locally with senior managers from the National Probation Service and the CRC and contract management”.
ALL the necessary evidence of the misdirection, the delusion, the lies & the damage caused is there, but no-one currently gives a fuck about history. They all want their own slice of the future. So all they're doing is repeating the same bullshit, regurgitating the same lies & realising the same fucking disastrous outcome... but with EVEN MORE prison places, more tags & an nightmare inheritance for whoever's next in the hotseat.
How did it all go so wrong, mr burn'em? maybe your justice secretary could advise you on the historical facts relating to the death of the previously gold-standard probation service?
ReplyDelete* at Oxford, Sir Vernon Bogdanor, said "Her [romeo's] particular interests were in game theory and in money and banking."
* In 2006, she became principal private secretary to the Lord Chancellor – initially Charles Falconer, then from 2007 Jack Straw. (hmmm, privatising probation was already one of straw's big things, which *he* enshrined in law)
* 2010 - Romeo transferred to the Cabinet Office as the Executive Director in the new Efficiency and Reform Group under Francis Maude.
* In 2011, after 18 months at the Cabinet Office, Romeo moved back to the Ministry of Justice, taking on the role of Director General, Transformation.
* Two years later, she changed role to Director General, Criminal Justice. Responsible for all criminal justice policy and other major programmes, she delivered a 2.5 year, £1bn programme to reduce reoffending among ex-offenders. She left the role in February 2015...
* In January 2021, Romeo moved back to the Ministry of Justice as permanent secretary.
UNFORTUNATELY it seems the government's archive of pre-2018 probation reports is currently missing in action:
"Sorry, the requested url is not in the archive
The information you are looking for may exist in a different location."
So it seems the opportunity measure the pre-TR good versus the persistently post-TR appalling, is lost.
Channel 4.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/ukIEfb5mG0Y?si=yJkEvatPb5kG1cuf
'Getafix
The shambles that is ..
ReplyDeleteChannel 4 News: 5 Aug 2026
Debate: Can probation service protect public from early release prisoners?
We spoke to Gavin Lee, a former probation manager who left his job in May after three decades, and spoke publicly for the first time, and the Rotherham MP Sarah Champion who’s written to the Minister for probation today expressing her concerns about the state of the service.
The MoJ response? 1300 new probation trainees and £700m of electronic tagging.
https://www.channel4.com/news/debate-can-probation-service-protect-public-from-early-release-prisoners
what? another one?
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx2kgdnyk2po
"Facebook owner Meta says an issue during an evaluation by an independent testing company allowed one of its artificial intelligence (AI) models to connect to the internet and hack another organisation's system.
The announcement follows recent incidents across the AI industry, including breaches by OpenAI and Anthropic models, that have raised cyber-security concerns.
A Meta spokesperson told the BBC that it was investigating the hack that was caused by a "misconfiguration", which it described as similar to previously reported incidents at other firms."
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5dcd33d840f0b608c9633316/hmp-birmingham-action-plan-2018.pdf
ReplyDelete8 years later: July 2026, independent review of 2018 report:
HMI Prisons concerns
The rates of violence and self-harm were high and continuing to increase.
* Reasonable progress
Illicit drug use was high. The rate of positive random mandatory drug tests was higher than in most similar prisons and there had been five deaths suspected to be related to drug use since our last inspection.
* No meaningful progress
Standards of decency had declined. Cleanliness of residential units had deteriorated, and many prisoners did not have some basic items in their cell.
* Reasonable progress
A significant number of acutely mentally unwell men had been sent to the prison. They had not had a Mental Health Act assessment while in police or court custody to potentially divert them to a more appropriate setting.
* No meaningful progress
Care plans for patients detoxing from drug use did not always address individual risks. Treatment was not always adapted to meet complex needs.
* Insufficient progress
Prisoners who were not engaged in education, training or work, including those on the induction unit, had far too little time unlocked.
* Insufficient progress
There was not enough help for prisoners to keep in contact with their children and families.
* Insufficient progress
What progress had leaders and managers made to ensure that all prisoners received a timely and comprehensive induction to education, skills and work?
* Insufficient progress
Many patients waited too long to transfer to a mental health hospital.
* No meaningful progress
https://cdn.websitebuilder.service.justice.gov.uk/uploads/sites/19/2026/07/Birmingham-red-routes-letter-to-ministers.pdf
"in the 8 weeks prior to inspection, 12 acutely mentally unwell men had been remanded into custody, with devastating consequences. Several had acute undiagnosed and/or untreated mental disorders including psychosis, leading to disinhibited behaviour such as walking naked around wings and smearing faeces."
“The government said it was trying to avoid running out of prison spaces as soon as October this year.”
ReplyDeletehttps://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy0j7lee3y8o
The scrutiny is not going away. Rather than relying on emergency measures, a progressive system would reduce unnecessary imprisonment by focusing on reducing remand, foreign national offenders awaiting deportation, and the majority of women and young people, ensuring prison is reserved for those who genuinely need to be there.
Every announcement seems to focus on two things: recruiting more trainees and expanding technology.
ReplyDeleteBoth have a place, but neither answers the fundamental question. A trainee does not become an experienced PP overnight, and a tag cannot assess dynamic risk, build a professional relationship, challenge someone’s thinking or recognise when something does not feel right.
Public protection depends on judgement. Judgement comes from experience. Experience depends on retaining skilled practitioners.
And where, in all of this, is the voice of the newly appointed prisons and probation minister?
Catherine McKinnell has inherited direct responsibility for a service now being publicly presented as the safeguard that will make earlier release, increased tagging and “tougher community supervision” safe. Yet frontline probation staff still have no clear explanation from their own minister of what additional staffing, capacity or protections will make those promises deliverable.
Probation should not hear its future described through statements from the Prime Minister, the Justice Secretary, inspectors and government sources while the minister directly responsible for the service remains largely absent from the public discussion.
Technology should support professional judgement, not become a substitute for investing in it. Recruitment should build the workforce, not disguise the continuing loss of experience. Until retention, pay and manageable workloads receive the same political urgency as prison capacity and tagging, the government is still avoiding the central issue.