Recommendation 6

HM Government Acknowledged

We want the probation service to be a fulfilling and rewarding place to work where people want to stay and aspire to have a career in probation. We also recognise that the current workload for many probation officers is simply too high and, despite the recruitment challenges created by Covid-19, the recently published Probation Workforce Strategy confirms we will increase recruitment of probation staff this year and have a minimum of 1000 new probation officers in training by January 2021. The probation workforce has adapted to a very different way of working to keep both staff and service users safe. In many cases, this has made an already challenging job even more difficult, and HMPPS are immensely proud of the excellent service that staff have continue to deliver. Initiatives have been introduced to support staff through the pandemic; at their centre is a Covid-19 Staff Wellbeing Plan which sets out the activities and services (in addition to existing support) they can access during the pandemic. Included is a staff wellbeing website, which is available to all HMPPS staff and accessible through personal computers for those who are not issued with HMPPS IT equipment. This provides credibly sourced information on safeguarding mental health, home working, self-isolation, grief and loss, and information for children and families. There is a directory of support services, with contact details, to enable staff to access the most appropriate support when they need to, as well as a space for staff to share wellbeing ideas amongst each other. Existing regional HMPPS wellbeing leads have provided links between front line staff, local support and national teams. The work of the wellbeing leads is done in partnership with human resources and, in some regions, with staff engagement officers and psychologists. Each local probation division has an established structure and process with a health and wellbeing lead acting as a point of contact for all support, guidance and information. A volunteer health and wellbeing champion in each Local Delivery Unit (LDU) assists in this. Our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provider, PAM Assist, offers more intensive support, including counselling, structured professional support and targeted trauma-informed support. PAM Assist has extended their service throughout the pandemic period, delivering a series of online wellbeing workshops covering a wide variety of support themes. Between May and July this year, the number of employees accessing these services increased, with a total of almost 3000 employees accessing either the website, telephone line or face to face counselling in these three months alone. Staff sickness levels for non-Covid-19 related illnesses have significantly reduced during the EDM period, although we cannot determine with certainty why this is. It may be that remote working has helped staff members’ resilience, and social distancing has reduced transmission of other infections, resulting in less sickness generally. However, we need to be vigilant that dedicated staff are not continuing to work at home when they feel unwell, as this could become detrimental to wellbeing and potentially contribute to burnout. New guidance on remote working and an accompanying smarter working toolkit is due to be launched to staff within the next month. These documents will ensure the positive changes around remote working continue in the new model of probation, and include permission for most staff to work at home up to 50% of the time. Developing the provision of staff support is a vital part of Covid-19 recovery, and critical to the new probation model. As mentioned above, the Probation Workforce Strategy outlines a wellbeing action plan for all staff across probation, and includes introducing Mental Health Allies for across the country, and internal and external post-incident support by 2020/21. To further support this we have recently introduced a specific Recovery Workstream focused on Wellbeing. This will co-ordinate staff wellbeing activity through the recovery period and work with colleagues in the Workforce Strategy programme and those in the Insight team to consider how the lessons learnt through Covid can drive improvements in future ‘business as usual’ delivery.