Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 14
14
Accepted
Excessive workload pressures on probation staff contribute to high turnover and recruitment challenges.
Recommendation
MoJ explained that people join the prison and probation services to make a difference but HMPPS told us that staff who are leaving “consistently” blame workload pressures which leave them feeling unable to do a good job.30 HMPPS’s audit of 98 cases and feedback from 15 service managers confirmed many of their probation staff were managing more than 70 prison leaver cases at a time, against a suggested case load of 30 to 60.31 MoJ told us that caseloads are directly related to stress levels and the difficulty of the job, which it says makes recruitment a “really important driver for retention”.32 HMPPS told us it has recruited 4,000 probation officers over the last three years, which it described as “a record number”, and that HMPPS now has an extra 2,000 staff in post across the service compared to the previous year. However, HMPPS explained it takes 15 to 21 months to train new probation recruits and, even after they have completed training, it will take them a little while to get completely up to speed.33 HMPPS told us that working with such a different mix of new and experienced staff is creating some “real challenges” for managing the probation caseload.34
Government Response Summary
The government accepted the recommendation, outlining several specific actions HMPPS will take over 12-18 months to retain and incentivise staff, including refreshing career pathways, developing alumni and transfer schemes, and setting a target for year-on-year retention improvement by 2024-2025.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
3.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented. 3.2 HMPPS will take a number of additional steps to retain and incentivise experienced staff over the next 12-18 months. 3.3 The agency will: • continue the work of its retention strategy and accompanying toolkit, which identifies local, regional and national interventions against the drivers of attrition, as well as reviewing findings from the retention oversight process, which targets sites with the highest attrition, and determines how local challenges can be tackled; • refresh the Career Pathways Framework, which aims to improve retention of experienced staff by showing the many career opportunities available in HMPPS, in particular for Probation staff reaching retirement. The agency has seen an increase in interest from frontline staff, and is committed to updating this regularly (next in January 2024, and quarterly thereafter); • build on the Prison Officer Alumni scheme, which fast-tracks former staff back into the service, by launching an equivalent for Probation by January 2024. This will attract experienced probation staff back into the service through a streamlined recruitment process; • pilot a level transfer scheme for prison officers to move between establishments, launched in October 2023, which creates opportunities for personal development and flexibility following changes in personal circumstances; • continue the national HMPPS brand campaign, launched in September 2023, to build pride and morale in the agency’s staff, raising the profile of the work they do; and • continue to promote the Probation Pathway initiative which encourages unsuccessful candidates for trainee probation officer and probation service officer roles to consider alternative roles also assessed during the same recruitment process where they are deemed appointable. 3.4 HMPPS has committed to improving retention through setting a target of a year-on-year decrease in the proportion of staff leaving the organisation, from 2022-23 to 2024-2025.