Guidance

Probation Service Change Bulletin - Issue 15 - December 2022

Updated 15 December 2023

Chris Jennings - Executive Director for HMPPS Wales

1. Foreword

Welcome to the bi-monthly Probation Service Change Bulletin – keeping you updated on what is happening across the Probation Service. I’m Chris Jennings, Executive Director for HMPPS in Wales and Public Protection Group.

It’s been another busy period since the last bulletin was published in October. I’m delighted that Sonia Flynn received a CBE for her public service. It’s well earned through six years at the helm as Chief Probation Officer and 35 years working across probation services and she deserves to be recognised for her exceptional and ongoing commitment to public service.

This month marks three years since Wales transitioned all case management into the Probation Service, ahead of England. Since December 2019 there has been much activity to build upon the opportunities the unified offender management offers, and you can read more about the innovations in Wales below. We are planning to look at the Wales model to inform future structures in England under the One HMPPS programme.

Prisons and Probation Minister Damian Hinds was recently welcomed to East of England on a positive first probation visit since taking up office, which included sitting in on an interview with a person on probation.

It’s always great to hear about all the hard work and developments going on across Probation. The work undertaken by Community Payback in Leeds (below) is a great example of the positive effects and benefits the community receives from the hard work of our staff. I know there are many more examples of this great work across our regions, and I look forward to celebrating them when we commemorate the 50th anniversary of Community Payback in 2023.

2. Ministerial Visit

Our new Prisons and Probation Minister Damian Hinds MP was in East of England region for his first probation visit since taking up office.

Mr Hinds visited Stevenage and Luton to talk to staff and learn about projects, including a sensory area created through Community Payback for people living with neurological conditions.

During the day-long visit, Mr Hinds sat in on an interview with a person on probation in Stevenage and learned about Sentence Management and the systems that support it, including Delius and OASys.

He was also updated on the work at the Sue Ryder Neurological Care Centre near Stevenage. As part of their Unpaid Work Requirement, people on probation have cleared overgrown grounds and pathways to create accessible spaces to allow residents at the centre, who are terminally ill or living with complex neurological conditions, to enjoy the outdoors. An outdoor sensory area has also been created as part of the Unpaid Work requirement.

The Minister also visited an Approved Premises in Luton to speak to residents and to learn about their rehabilitative activities and education provision and to talk to staff about their work.

3. CBE Awarded

Chief Probation Officer Sonia Flynn has received her CBE for public service from the Princess Royal at a ceremony at Windsor Castle on 18 October.

Sonia learned of her honour in the New Year’s list in 2021, but due to delays because of Covid the presentation was put back to this autumn.

“It was wonderful to visit Windsor Castle and meet Princess Anne. It was an exciting experience that was well worth waiting for,” Sonia said.

“I’ve had the privilege of being Chief Probation Officer for the last six years and I can reflect on a lot of challenging and rewarding experiences.

“I’m grateful for everyone in probation who has worked so hard alongside me, particularly given the challenges we’ve faced in the last few years.”

CBEs (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) are given to people to recognise a positive impact they have made in their work.

Sonia has worked in probation operations for more than 35 years, beginning as a probation officer before moving into leadership roles in Surrey and London and becoming Chief Probation Officer in 2016.

From February 2023, Sonia will be taking up a new part time role within the Probation Workforce Programme leading on learning and development and setting up the new professional register for probation practitioners.

4. One HMPPS

Every individual working in probation, prisons, youth custody, headquarters, and regional services is working to deliver a shared mission: public protection and reducing reoffending. Being more effective at delivering this shared mission is at the heart of ‘One HMPPS’.

Since unification of the Probation service, all service delivery arms are now operating fully under the umbrella of the HMPPS (His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service).

The ‘One HMPPS’ Programme, led by Jim Barton as Senior Responsible Owner, was commissioned by the HMPPS Leadership Team (HLT) to review and consider how we operate as an organisation; including how we can make sustainable changes and work together in the most efficient and effective way possible.

The programme is reviewing the organisational structure of HMPPS and will create a streamlined HMPPS Head Quarters (HQ) and a new area model to better support the frontline.

Probation and Prison senior leaders already work closely together across a range of local partnership arrangements. They want to consider how they can empower people further and strengthen the joint impact regionally by building and delivering through stronger relationships with their stakeholders.

The outcome will be an operating model in which all service delivery arms (prisons, probation, YCS) are aligned and work more holistically to deliver strategic priorities.

Pursuing this vision is anticipated to result in better outcomes to reduce reoffending and improve public protection, as well as a service which delivers better value for money.

One HMPPS is in the initial stages of design, but more detail will be provided as work progresses.

5. Wales – Case Management Transition

December marks three years since the transition of case management in Wales in 2019, which happened ahead of the full unified Probation Service coming into effect across England and Wales in June 2021. There has since been much activity to implement the changes and build on the opportunities of the unified model.

A key aspect of the Wales model came with the introduction of the Centralised Operational Resettlement Referral and Evaluation (CORRE) Hub. Staff in the CORRE facilitate the delivery of interventions by identifying providers, sequencing interventions, and ensuring services are brokered on time, providing invaluable support to Intervention Teams and probation practitioners in addressing reoffending and harm.

The early transition of case management also gave the opportunity for other elements of the model to be implemented first. This included implementation of the Short-Term Sentence and Early Adopter Model for men in Wales, and the introduction of alcohol monitoring tags in Wales just over a year ago which have subsequently rolled out across England.

Close partnership continues to be key in Wales, with HM Prison and Probation Service in Wales working closely with Police and other partners as an early adopter of the Neighbourhood Crime Integrated Offender Management Strategy in December 2020, and with partners including Welsh Government to implement the Female Offending and Youth Justice Blueprints for Wales.

Wales is still finding opportunities to innovate. The Resettlement Model for Women was launched in June 2022 and aims to drive positive resettlement outcomes for women who receive custodial sentences by providing robust pre-release planning and continuity of support. In addition, Reflective sessions across Probation in Wales has led to the introduction of the human factors approach to practice, offering an opportunity to continuously learn, improve and be empowered to make good decisions.

Three years on, early transition in Wales has provided a solid foundation for the new Probation model to be taken forward to create better outcomes for people in the justice system.

6. Electronic Monitoring

Thursday 17 November marked one-year since alcohol monitoring on licence was rolled-out in Wales, with figures showing nearly 1,000 prison leavers were tagged in the first year of the scheme.

The initiative, which was further rolled-out in England in June 2022, sees prison leavers fitted with alcohol monitoring tags if their probation officer thinks they are likely to reoffend when drinking.

With alcohol playing a part in 39 per cent of all violent crime in the UK, the tags help probation officers to monitor the behaviour of prison leavers and support them to turn their backs on crime. They also provide people leaving prison with the incentive to break bad habits as breaching their licence condition could see them back in prison.

Around 12,000 orders requiring an alcohol tag to be fitted are expected to be issued over the next three years, covering both prison leavers and those serving community sentences.

7. Community Payback

Vegetables, flowers, and pumpkins are being grown by people on probation in Leeds and delivered to a hospice and community projects across the city.

Teams taking part in Community Payback – also referred to as Unpaid Work – have been busy helping to grow pumpkins and produce at Kirkstall Valley Farm.

The farm works with a wide range of volunteers and supporters and develops social and educational projects and grows produce on a 16-acre site a few miles from the city centre.

Community Payback supervisors lead teams of around eight to ten people on probation, who work at the site gaining skills while completing their community sentences.

They have grown flowers and plants, including pansies, marigolds and Livingstone daisies for St Gemma’s Hospice, and sheltered accommodation in Leeds.

The teams have also grown vegetables which are sold in boxes at reduced prices to the local community or donated to charities.

Adele Rae, chief executive of Kirkstall Valley development trust, said: “We have been able to do all we have over the last couple of years because of the support and help we get from Community Payback. They are a much valued and needed workforce and they make a real difference to the Kirkstall community.”

Unpaid Work can be added to community orders and suspended sentence orders made by courts in England and Wales. Depending on the seriousness of the offence, Unpaid Work can be imposed for between 40 and 300 hours to be completed within a year.

The public can nominate Community Payback projects in their local area via the nominations page.

8. Reform Programme Closure

The probation reform programme closes at the end of the year as planned. We’re grateful to everyone who has been involved for their support since the programme was commenced. We have completed 49 priorities out of 69 based on the target operating model. Highlights this month include:

• Launch of a new create and vary a licence tool to make the end-to-end process for creating and varying a licence easier and quicker.
• A new Education, Training or Employment (ETE) online portal, for eligible people with Community Payback. Initially this will help people on probation boost their employability and knowledge of first aid, manual handling, and health & safety, which is applicable to most employees or those seeking work. New courses will continue to be added.

Once the programme does close, we will continue to implement and embed the reforms set out in our Target Operating Model.

A final reform programme update will appear in the next issue.