Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent cross-departmental discussions he has had on reducing pressures on the Probation Service.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
To support manageable workloads, the Probation Service is increasing recruitment to fill Probation Officer vacancies, particularly in areas with significant local employment market challenges. The Probation Service has exceeded recruitment targets for 2020/21 and 2021/22, recruiting 1,007 and 1,518 trainees in respective years. The target for 2022/2023 is a further 1,500 trainees.
In collaboration with local regions, the Department for Work and Pensions and Career Transition Partnerships, local outreach has increased to improve awareness of Probation and the roles available, as well as refreshing marketing to attract applications. The Probation Service is committed to widening routes to achieve probation qualifications by developing pathways for existing staff, as well as creating routes for those without a graduate degree.
The recruitment to key operational roles has been centralised to expedite recruitment in 6 priority regions, including London. Marketing campaigns have been rolled out to attract undergraduate/students to work in part time roles. There are schemes available to provide financial support to encourage new and existing staff to move permanently to areas with the most significant staffing challenges.
To increase the retention of staff, exit interviews are being used to understand the reasons behind staff leaving Probation, so that we can take targeted action across departments to address them.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what estimate he has made of the potential effect of the size of the probation workforce on that service's ability to meet its caseload effectively.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Probation Staffing Model identifies the staffing required to deliver the Probation Target Operating Model with acceptable caseloads.
The Probation Service has unified into a single organisation which spans England and Wales. This has ended the fragmentation which existed under the previous system and improved how the service functions.
The unified Target Operating Model seeks to achieve consistency and quality delivery as well as new ways of measuring and managing workload. The unified Probation Service has received extra funding of more than £155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit more staff to keep the public safer. We have recruited a record-breaking 2,500 trainee probation officers over the last two years, and we plan to recruit a further 1,500 by March 2023.
The Probation Service has introduced a Prioritisation Framework to provide clarity for probation practitioners on prioritisation of tasks and what can be reduced/paused when capacity issues begin to impact on operational delivery. It has also introduced a case allocation tool to support best practice case allocation decisions and actions. The tool will ensure quicker allocation of cases and improved accuracy and consistency.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to HM Prison Inspectorate's report entitled Independent serious further offence review of Jordan McSweeney, published on 24 January 2023, whether he plans to implement all recommendations in that review.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
On the 24 January 2023, the Probation Service published its action plan in response to HM Inspectorate of Probation’s findings. All 10 recommendations have been accepted, and the document sets out what action will be taken to implement the recommendations. The action plan can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/jordan-mcsweeney-independent-review-action-plan.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what is the average waiting time for the allocation of offenders to probation officers.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As of 25 January 2023, 1655 people on probation were awaiting to be allocated to a Probation Practitioner (Probation Officer, Probation Services Officer (PSO) or training Probation Officer (PQiP). This will include cases very recently sentenced and still going through the allocation process.
Our workload measurement tool tells us that 0.4% of the total caseload is allocated outside of the Probation Officer allocation policy to PSOs or PQiPs.
Whilst there is no target for allocation of a person on probation to a Probation Practitioner; timely allocation enables the first face-to-face appointment with a person on probation to take place within five working days of sentence for a community order and suspended sentence order and one working day for those on release from prison.
The Probation Service is introducing a digital tool to support case allocation decisions. The tool will allow for efficient allocation of cases, ensuring adequate consideration and identification of case complexity when being allocated to a probation officer.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the target waiting time is for the allocation of offenders to probation officers.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As of 25 January 2023, 1655 people on probation were awaiting to be allocated to a Probation Practitioner (Probation Officer, Probation Services Officer (PSO) or training Probation Officer (PQiP). This will include cases very recently sentenced and still going through the allocation process.
Our workload measurement tool tells us that 0.4% of the total caseload is allocated outside of the Probation Officer allocation policy to PSOs or PQiPs.
Whilst there is no target for allocation of a person on probation to a Probation Practitioner; timely allocation enables the first face-to-face appointment with a person on probation to take place within five working days of sentence for a community order and suspended sentence order and one working day for those on release from prison.
The Probation Service is introducing a digital tool to support case allocation decisions. The tool will allow for efficient allocation of cases, ensuring adequate consideration and identification of case complexity when being allocated to a probation officer.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the (a) assessment and (b) management of the risks of serious harm to the public posed by people on probation by HM Prison and Probation Service.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The quality of risk assessment and risk management is centrally assured by HMPPS’s Operational and System Assurance function, in order to provide a robust assessment of the quality of sentence management.
This assurance work covers the quality of risk assessments and the adequacy of the management of Risk of Serious Harm. The annual audit exercise for 2022-23 is in progress.
Each probation region also completes its own assurance of the quality of practice, including on risk assessment and risk of serious harm, using a specialised audit tool. From 2023-24 onwards, the HMPPS assurance team will validate the results of these regional audits, to ensure consistency and continued focus on the quality of practice.
The required learning in relation to risk assessment, planning and management is currently being re-developed to include a greater understanding of actuarial predictor tools as well as building upon prior learning to focus upon application to more complex cases.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many offenders are waiting to be allocated a probation officer.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
As of 25 January 2023, 1655 people on probation were awaiting to be allocated to a Probation Practitioner (Probation Officer, Probation Services Officer (PSO) or training Probation Officer (PQiP). This will include cases very recently sentenced and still going through the allocation process.
Our workload measurement tool tells us that 0.4% of the total caseload is allocated outside of the Probation Officer allocation policy to PSOs or PQiPs.
Whilst there is no target for allocation of a person on probation to a Probation Practitioner; timely allocation enables the first face-to-face appointment with a person on probation to take place within five working days of sentence for a community order and suspended sentence order and one working day for those on release from prison.
The Probation Service is introducing a digital tool to support case allocation decisions. The tool will allow for efficient allocation of cases, ensuring adequate consideration and identification of case complexity when being allocated to a probation officer.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce trends in the level of serious further offences.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
Under 0.5% of offenders under statutory supervision are charged with a serious further offence in any one year, but we know that each offence has a devastating impact on the victims and their families. We carry out a thorough review into each one to identify whether our practice needs to change for the better management of future cases.
Risk cannot be eliminated entirely. However, every offender released from prison is managed in the community on licence, subject to robust licence conditions designed to address the specific risks which the offender presents. Known sexual and violent offenders are managed under the Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA). MAPPA are a statutory framework, in which the Prison and Probation Services are required to work together to assess and manage offenders’ risks. Offenders who breach their licence conditions so as to exhibit increased risk are liable to be recalled to custody.
Public protection is our primary concern, and unto that end:
We have unified the Probation Service and greater focus on quality and outcomes has been placed at the centre the unified Probation Service National Standards and performance framework;
We have injected extra funding of more than £155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, reduce caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safer. We have recruited a record-breaking 2,500 trainee probation officers over the last two years, and we plan to recruit a further 1,500 by March 2023;
We are improving information sharing with the Police and Children's Services, investing an extra £5.5 million a year to recruit more probation staff who are specifically responsible for accessing domestic abuse information held by the police, and children’s safeguarding information held by councils;
We have introduced a new child safeguarding policy framework, setting out clear requirements and best practice to support staff;
We introduced legislation to clarify and strengthen agencies’ ability to share information on sexual and violent offenders under MAPPA and added a dedicated chapter to the statutory MAPPA guidance on domestic abuse and stalking; and
We have undertaken a range of activity to strengthen known gaps in risk assessment and management, including improving our required learning, updating and developing guidance documents to support practitioners and providing learning events to enable staff to learn from experts and those with lived experience.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to HM Prison Inspectorate's report entitled Independent, serious further offence review of Jordan McSweeney, published on 24 January 2023, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the findings of that report on the level of (a) excessive workloads and (b) staffing vacancies in the Probation Service in the London region.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The Probation Service has accepted the recommendations from the HM Probation Inspectorate Report following the serious further offence review of Jordan McSweeney and has an action plan in place.
Following the successful unification of the Probation Service for England and Wales, the Probation Service received an additional annual funding of £155 million. We have significantly increased staff recruitment and have exceeded trainee Probation Officer recruitment targets for 2020/21 and 2021/22, recruiting 1,007 and 1,518 trainees in respective years. The target for 2022/2023 is a further 1,500 trainees.
We are strengthening probation officer numbers so that we can reduce caseloads and focus on strengthening the probation officer’s relationship with those they supervise, thereby providing more consistent management and delivery of sentence plans, as well as better assessment and management of risk.
Asked by: Sam Tarry (Labour - Ilford South)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how much the Government has spent on providing bail outs to private probation companies in the last five years.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
There have been no Government bail outs to private probation companies in the past five years.