An inquiry into the delivery of Probation services by the Justice
Select Committee has today confirmed that the service is not
functioning. The Transforming Rehabilitation reforms introduced by
the then Secretary of State for Justice Chris Graylingin 2014 have
been highly criticised by Napo the trade union and professional
association for probation staff as well as many stakeholders since
its inception. The “reforms” saw 70% of the work done by the
probation service being outsourced to eight new providers, which
was supposed to open up the service to new innovative ideas from
the private sector and, most importantly, allow greater access to
the voluntary sector. The reforms also saw those sentenced to under
12 months custody receive statutory supervision for the first time.
But they have been heavily criticised since the privatisation took
place.
Now the Justice Select Committee, following an inquiry, has
confirmed that the service does not work and that they “are
unconvinced that Transforming Rehabilitation can deliver an
effective or viable probation service”. Napo welcomes the
Committee’s findings which support all of the issues the union
has been raising with Ministers, parliamentarians and the public
for the last four years.
General Secretary Ian Lawrence said: “This is the most damning
report into Chris Graylings failed and highly expensive social
experiment. Our members have told us throughout the last four
years that the TR project is a failure and cannot be rectified.
Despite our interventions with Ministers, the Ministry of Justice
has failed to take action and we now find ourselves in a
desperate situation. The report’s conclusions provide
overwhelming evidence that the Probation service must be restored
back into public ownership.”
Key conclusions
The report states that the Ministry of Justice has failed to let
the contracts properly and questions its ability to challenge
overly optimistic bids by the providers. It goes on to say that
despite good intentions the reforms have led to less involvement
by the voluntary sector than ever before. It also states that
staff morale is at an all-time low, something Napo has been very
vocal about. This is due to high caseloads, ineffective ICT and
delivery models, job cuts and uncertainty for staff, a failure to
provide basic HR services such as pension payments by the Public
probation sector and a nine year pay freeze.
Ian Lawrence said: “Our members have endured the biggest upheaval
of a generation in probation. Their work has been
de-professionalised and farmed off to private providers, they
have seen colleagues made redundant, massive increases in their
workloads and they have not had a pay rise in 3000 days. It’s
hardly surprising that morale is low. They knew from the outset
that these so-called reforms would not work. I commend probation
staff in the public and private sectors for their commitment to
try to deliver a service under these intolerable conditions and
for continuing to fight for the service they are so passionate
about. They can now see that their concerns have been vindicated
as this report highlights all of the issues that Napo has been
campaigning about but which have been denied by this
Government.’’
The report recommends a full review into the delivery of
probation services and its long-term future with a return
deadline of February 2019. Napo believes that the government must
look to withdraw contracts from failing CRC owners, improve
standards for service users and be fully accountable to the
taxpayer about the huge financial failings. The union also has
major concerns about the news that some CRC providers are looking
to make further staff cuts to try to minimise their losses. Napo
will now be seeking an urgent meeting with the Secretary of State
for Justice to urge some intervention before service levels in
some parts of Probation fail beyond repair. Napo will be looking
to have input into the review that has been ordered by the
Committee and echoes the call for public consultation.
