Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Set out plans to manage staffing shortfalls, staff training, and workload reduction contingencies.
Recommendation
We are not satisfied that HMPPS’s new programme will free up sufficient capacity to improve performance. HMPPS aims to close the current shortfall of 3,150 probation staff by March 2027, by freeing up operational capacity by 25% through its ‘Our Future Probation Service’ (OFPS) programme. However, we are sceptical that HMPPS has a real understanding of how many staff it needs to sufficiently improve performance. While its estimates of the staffing shortfall are based on its updated activity timings, it reduced these timings down from staff-reported 5 averages in many cases. HMPPS reduced these averages because it judged staff could complete tasks more quickly with additional training. It also later dismissed its own internal review which suggested that it needed to go beyond its planned 25% reduction in workloads to allow staff sufficient time for the learning needed to improve performance. Its estimate of the shortfall takes into account the Sentencing Bill, but does not account for the impact of some wider policy changes, for example, the Independent Review of Criminal Courts, which is likely to create additional demands on probation staff. It will also be important for HMPPS to develop a contingency plan if the OFPS programme does not reduce workloads as planned recommendation HMPPS should, in its Treasury Minute response, set out: a. how it plans to keep the scale of the staffing shortfall in view following future policy decisions which may further increase demands on the service; b. how it will ensure that staff will have capacity to undertake sufficient training to improve performance, including the number of training days factored into its modelling of staffing shortfalls; and c. its contingency plans, if its programme does not reduce workloads sufficiently
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendations. HMPPS concluded a review of frontline work to understand staffing, will ensure capacity for 8 training days per staff member by reducing workloads through OFPS, and has contingency plans involving continuous monitoring and alternative options if workload targets are not met.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. monitored through fortnightly ministerial meetings, OFPS and HMPPS governance arrangements. If a gap becomes apparent, then further work will go into alternative options to close that gap and achieve the OFPS target. HMPPS will utilise the approach from previous prioritisation frameworks, ensuring transparency to enables the Chief Probation Officer, Area Executive Directors and Regional Probation Directors to take consistent, risk‑based decisions when operational pressures increase.