Napo welcomes the Sentencing Review and in particular its focus on the critical role the probation service plays in the supervision and the rehabilitation of people in the criminal justice system. The review vindicates Napo’s long held view that radical action is needed to resolve the staffing and workload crisis probation has been struggling with for a number of years.
The review is right to look at the culture of the probation service and how it has shifted to far towards being a law enforcement agency and has lost sight of its core purpose of rehabilitation. We welcome the view that there needs to be greater balance between compliance and enforcement and that of advising and supporting people to turn their lives around.
We welcome the recommendation that Rehabilitation Requirements and Post Sentence Supervision are revoked and there is a return to greater flexibility in how an individual is supervised. A probation requirement would enable our members to tailor supervision to meet the needs of the person they supervise as opposed to the rigid approach probation has adopted over the years.
Whilst the measures outlined in the review will not give immediate relief to our members, it will offer some light at the end of the tunnel. However, Napo has reservations about HMPPS’s ability to make the necessary changes when they were the architects of many of the problems the service now faces. As we saw with the publication of the Rademaker report, our members will be sceptical as to whether or not senior leaders in HMPPS are capable of making any real change. Napo was clear in our submission that we do not believe that the probation service can survive while it is still part of the civil service.
General Secretary Ian Lawrence said: “This review offers some hope for the future, but Napo has been asking HMPPS to make many of these changes over the last 2 years to little avail. We need a commitment from the government that they will take immediate action not only to implement the recommendations, but also to put its hand in its pockets and reward our members with a decent pay rise.”
A key aspect of the review is the call for significant investment in the probation service. Napo firmly believes that after years of pay freezes, Napo members must see the benefit of this investment on the frontline. Ian Lawrence said: “Any previous investment in probation has been spent on the private sector for either IT or electronic monitoring. What we need to see now is a direct investment in staff. Without that we will see a continual rise in retention rates and continued staffing crisis. Our members cannot be expected to pick up the mess of the prisons crisis and see little in return for their efforts.”