Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Paragraph: 126
Probation Officers are fundamental to the delivery of probation, and we recognise the important role...
Recommendation
Probation Officers are fundamental to the delivery of probation, and we recognise the important role they play in supporting offenders and protecting the public. The Probation Service has historically faced difficulties with staffing levels, which has resulted in Probation Officers having very high caseloads, affecting their ability to manage risk and support offenders to rehabilitate. The Committee welcome the 48 The future of the Probation Service commitment to an additional 1,000 probation officers, but remain unclear whether this is additional to the existing vacancies. We recommend that the MoJ confirm whether the pledged 1,000 additional probation officers will be in addition to the 464 existing vacancies.
Paragraph Reference:
126
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Agreed We have met our target to recruit 1,000 additional trainee probation officer starters in 2020/2021. This is a significant uplift on our recruitment of around 600 trainees in previous years. Trainee Probation Officers take between 15 and 21 months to become fully qualified and be able to fill Probation Officer vacancies. At 31 March 2021 there was a shortfall of 518 FTE Probation Officers, but there were 1,186 FTE staff undertaking PQiP training. We are increasing our recruitment of trainee probation officers even further to 1,500, the maximum we believe the business can manage, in 2021/2022 to meet increased demand as a result of the recruitment of 20,000 police officers and backlogs in courts as a result of COVID-19. In addition to the recruitment of new trainee probation officers, we are putting in place measures to increase retention of staff to manage current vacancies in probation. We are making it more straight forward and attractive for staff that leave the probation service to re-join on permanent terms, whether they have taken on temporary terms as agency workers or have had a career break. We are also developing specific plans to increase retention of experienced staff who are considering retirement. Agency workers in the NPS play an important role in helping to meet staffing demands, particularly in areas where there are challenges in recruiting staff on substantive NPS contracts. We are undertaking an assessment of our current use of agency workers across Probation Services Officer, Probation Officer and Senior Probation Officer grades within the NPS, to help establish patterns of agency worker deployment and inform decisions about future agency worker use.