Guidance

Probation Service Change Bulletin - Issue 16 - February 2023

Updated 15 December 2023

Matt Grey - Executive Director Reducing Reoffending, Partnerships and Accommodation

1. Foreword

Welcome to the bi-monthly Probation Service Change Bulletin – keeping you updated on what is happening across the Probation Service. I’m Matt Grey, Executive Director for Reducing Reoffending, Partnership and Accommodation.

I recently visited Grand Avenues in Cardiff to learn more about this fascinating project and the great work it’s doing in supporting people on probation by engaging with them directly in their local communities. As you can read below, our Permanent Secretary visited a few days later and was interviewed as part of a pioneering podcast.

You can also learn more about Electronic Management in this bulletin. We’ve seen increases in the number of offenders, defendants and people on immigration bail tagged, with a ten per cent rise last year.

The number of offenders wearing alcohol monitoring tags has doubled, with the vast majority staying sober while tagged.

It’s the fiftieth anniversary of Community Payback this year (the first Community Sentence, as it was then known, was issued in Nottingham in 1973) and there are events going on across England and Wales.

The first event involved the clearing of undergrowth and litter beside a popular riverside walk in north London and was a great example of partnership working with London Borough of Waltham Forest.

The symbolic Golden Shovel was then passed onto East of England where a number of celebrations and tree-planting events have taken place in Essex, Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Bedfordshire.

You can read more about these events below and will hopefully see activity taking place soon in your local area.

2. Permanent Secretary’s visit to Wales

Permanent Secretary Antonia Romeo visited a prison and took part in a podcast with people on probation in a visit to Cardiff earlier this month.

Antonia and HMPPS CEO Amy Rees visited Grand Avenues, a ten-year reducing reoffending pilot in Cardiff where people on probation are supervised and supported through community hubs in the Ely and Caerau wards of the city.

As well as having access to a wide range of support and services, men at the project are encouraged to volunteer in their local community and take part in activities including participating in podcast training, which is delivered voluntarily by a local church.

Antonia was interviewed by the ‘Men Changing Lives’ support group who have begun to produce a new podcast called ‘It’s all about the Journey.’

The aim of the podcast is to boost their self-esteem and confidence and to develop their employability skills. Antonia was asked what her role as Permanent Secretary entailed, why she chose to work in criminal justice and what was the best part of her job.

Antonia also interviewed the men who spoke about how Grand Avenues has transformed their lives, improved their confidence, and relationships with family members.

While in Wales Antonia and Amy also met with the Permanent Secretary to the Welsh Government, Andrew Goodall, visited Mandeville House approved premises and HMP Prescoed, which has a working farm to develop prisoners’ skills.

3. Probation in Court

In January 2023 the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales reissued the ‘Better Case Management Revival Handbook’.  This handbook emphasises the ongoing commitment to the Better Case Management principles, which were first introduced in 2016 to improve the way in which cases are progressed through the court system.  For the first time the handbook makes reference to the ‘Pre-Sentence Report before plea’ protocol and the Pre-Sentence Report on committal to Crown Court process.

These two initiatives will support the Probation Service in taking a more proactive approach to the identification of cases where the court may benefit from expert pre-sentence advice. It also supports the need for Probation practitioners to have more time to carry out necessary checks, for example, with police and social services and to prepare quality pre-sentence reports. The provision of quality advice at an earlier stage in the court process is an important step in the Probation Service commitment to supporting ongoing court recovery work.

4. One HMPPS Update

One HMPPS is a change programme aimed at protecting the public and reducing reoffending through a more joined up prison and probation service.

An objective of the One HMPPS Programme is to refocus all HMPPS services on enabling and creating easier practices for frontline staff to work together across HMPPS to protect the public and reduce reoffending. Part of the programme is a new Area Model to sit above existing prison and probation regional boundaries.

We are developing the Area boundaries based on levels of caseloads, existing probation and prison boundaries (which won’t change), cost, and the identity of an Area as we seek to enable prison groups and probation regions to work together in a more joined up way. We hope to finalise the Area boundaries as soon as possible and to begin sharing this with staff and partners. This will enable us to move on to developing how the Area Model will work and the opportunities it affords staff and partners. Throughout the development of the model we are engaging with a range of stakeholders, including staff and where appropriate formal consultation with our recognised trade unions.  This will allow us to fully understand the impact of any proposed changes.

Any questions should be directed through the One HMPPS Programme mailbox: onehmppsprogramme@justice.gov.uk

5. Electronic Monitoring

The latest electronic monitoring statistics were published in January, showing the number of offenders, defendants and people on immigration bail tagged at any one point increased 10 per cent last year, from 14,335 in December 2021 to 15,760 in December 2022.

This increase is driven by extensions to the use of GPS monitoring tags for new offender cohorts, particularly for immigration bail, and the further rollout of alcohol monitoring tags to offenders on licence.

The figures also show a 79 per cent increase in the number of people wearing a GPS tag in the last year – from 3,188 on 31 December 2021 to 5,694 a year later.

More than 1,700 burglars, robbers and thieves were made to wear a tag and have their movements tracked in 2022, bringing the total to over 2,500 since GPS tagging was expanded to acquisitive criminals in 2021.

The number of offenders wearing alcohol monitoring tags on a given day has also doubled – increasing from 773 to 1,859 in the last year following the national rollout for prison leavers in June 2022. Those banned from alcohol by the courts have stayed sober on 97 per cent of the days they were tagged, with those who do drink facing a return to court for further punishment, including prison.

6. Workforce

The updated Probation Workforce Strategy (2020-2023) was announced in early February.  The strategy, developed by HM Prison and Probation Service, sets out our collective ambition for a more positive, inclusive, and diverse probation workforce and the steps to be taken to achieve this.  Since this strategy was first published, the Probation Service has been unified, providing the opportunity for us to deliver a single, consistent service with a focus on excellent practice,

This update sets out our continued ambition through to 2025 and builds on our original focus of investing in staff well-being and professional development, whilst reflecting on the considerable progress that has already been made, including the recruitment of 2,500 trainee probation officers.

7. Community Payback 50th Anniversary

A year-long series of events and activities marking the 50th anniversary of Community Payback has been launched in London and the East of England.

The first Community Service Order, as it was then known, was made in Nottingham in 1973. A series of events are taking place across England and Wales marking the anniversary and celebrating the work of staff and the positive impact of projects in local communities.

Each month this year a golden shovel – symbolic of Community Payback work – will be passed from region to region as stories of current and historic projects and long-serving staff are shared.

The year of activities began with a focus on path repairs and clearing of undergrowth alongside the River Ching in north London. The project is being run in partnership with London Borough of Waltham Forest. Repairs are being made to a pathway on a popular riverside walk. Hundreds of trees are also being planted across the Borough.

The Borough has provided the Community Payback team with tools and its first electric vehicle to transport teams of up to eight who work on site five days per week.

People on probation have worked with the Borough to clear unadopted land, plant trees, paint playgrounds and refurbish parks, footpaths, and car parks and even clear snow.

In February the Golden Shovel was handed over to East of England region where celebration events were held at Luton, Watford, Northampton, Soham and other locations and trees planted.

In March the activities and celebrations continue in East Midlands.

Caroline Morrison, Community Payback Head of Policy, Projects and People, said: “It’s great to get the year off to a fantastic start. I love to see the difference the work makes and that it’s appreciated.

“It’s a big year for everyone working in Community Payback. Communities have benefitted and lives have changed with people on probation completing their sentences and learning new skills through half a century of this work. I’m really excited to see the fantastic efforts taking place right across England and Wales this year.”

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

8. Restorative Justice

The Probation Service has launched a new approach to delivering Restorative Justice to help people on probation make positive changes to their lives, support victims and reduce reoffending.

The Restorative Justice Policy Framework launched at the beginning of February because we believe RJ can play an important part in supporting people on probation or in prison to rehabilitate and can also provide help for victims. The changes mean that HMPPS now has a consistent and coherent process to deliver RJ practice across the service, recognises RJ’s importance in effective sentence management and encourages staff to deliver RJ practice.

Victims who access RJ services report increased levels of satisfaction with the justice system. They can feel empowered, better informed and have improved feelings of safety and personal wellbeing.

Perpetrators of harm report that RJ increased their insight into the impact of their offending. When targeted appropriately RJ reduces the likelihood of serious and persistent offending.

Some of the key elements of the framework include:

• RJ activity can be started at any point from the beginning of an individual’s sentence to the final day
• There are no blanket offence type exclusions
• Participation by victims and offenders is voluntary and based on free, informed and ongoing consent
• The Victims’ Code states that all victims have the right to be referred to support services, including RJ services
• Oversight on all sensitive and complex RJ cases is led by HMPPS’s Re:hub team.