The largest trade union within the Probation
Service. Napo. has reacted with anger to the latest findings from
a report by Her Majesty’s Inspector of Probation into the
services offered to perpetrators of Domestic violence and the
potential impact on victims.
Napo had raised concerns even before
Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) was implemented by the former
Justice Secretary that the Community
Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) would not be able to meet the
level of effectiveness required for public protection in domestic
violence cases. This was in part due to their need to prioritise
profit driven targets rather than spending resources on complex
cases that may give little in the way of financial
return.
Napo members have regularly reported being
under excessive workloads following massive job cuts since CRCs
took over responsibility for supervising low and medium risk
offenders. This means less time for face-to-face work and
detailed risk assessments of clients. On top of that members have
also told their union that they are required to take on ever more
complex cases beyond their training and experience as
professional standards and appropriate training are eroded while
the CRCs look to make even more cost savings.
Ian Lawrence General Secretary said: “These
findings will cause outrage amongst our hard pressed members and
further demonstrate how the whole of probation has fallen into
absolute chaos since TR. The government must take immediate
action and bring the probation service back into public ownership
as a matter of urgency. This report clearly shows how failing to
do so is a direct risk to public safety and the Secretary of
State is quite literally putting people’s lives at risk. Our
members cannot be expected to carry out their highly skilled
professional work in these circumstances.”
In 2011 the Probation service won the European
Gold award for Excellence, but has now been cut to the bone in
order to meet the profit margins of the private sector and their
shareholders. Bespoke Domestic Violence programmes are a clear
example of where cost has come before public protection. Research
shows that to apply the wrong kind of intervention with domestic
violence perpetrators increases the risk more than doing nothing
at all.
Ian Lawrence went on to say: “Women and
children are paying the price for this untested social experiment
and it has to stop now. How many more people have to be put at
risk and victims let down before the government admit their
ideological policy has failed?”
Napo is aware that the 21 CRC contracts do not
stipulate clearly enough that the Probation Officer qualification
is critical in safely supervising complex cases where domestic
violence is a factor and that providers have been using less
qualified staff as a result in order to further reduce their
overheads. Napo warned that this process of work on the cheap
would ultimately impact on public protection, a vital role of the
probation service. Given this damming report, Napo will be
calling on the Secretary of State and Parliament urgently to
intervene and to stop the continued “marketization” of
probation.
