Connect...with Kevin Robinson, Chief Executive
Certainly the publication of the Probation and Community Sentence Review has had an impact upon me. We are assured by NOMS and Crispin Blunt (the Minister) that this is a true consultation, that there is no plan hidden away to be produced at a later date. What is required though is to open up Probation work to other sectors and give Probation Trusts the commissioning responsibilities if we so wish or alternatively opt to be a provider of services. We are told we cannot be both although Prisons are, as will London Probation Trust if they are able to successfully commission and then provide in partnership with SERCO, Community Payback.
Confused yet? Well that's the challenge of the consultation for the Probation Service nationally and as a Trust to find a way that retains our history, allows us the Freedoms to operate in a competitive environment and most of all allows us to demonstrate conclusively that we can Manage Risk, Change Lives, Improve Communities and reduce reoffending .
Currently we have sentences in the community under the 2007 Offender Management act that, for example, give sentencers the opportunity to impose 300 hours of unpaid work, a curfew with an electronic tag and attend a 22 week programme for people to address their offending behaviour. In addition to that they would have to report to see a probation officer as and when required to do.
If there were other issues such as housing, or employment, or indeed alcohol or drug problems, that individual would be referred accordingly to the relevant agencies. Is that not tough enough?
Alternatively, offenders can be sentenced to custody along with another 90,000 offenders. Statistically, offenders who are under 24 and are released from prison have a 13% (52.8%) higher reoffending rate within 12 months compared to approximately the 40% who reoffend after the community orders that this Government say are too soft.
The suggested reforms are complex, and will in my view, create a multitude of problems by outsourcing the management of offenders to private sector investors who by design are in the business to make a profit.
Indeed the plans are aimed at outsourcing the lower risk cases that research shows accounts for the majority of serious further offences that occur whilst on community orders.
In essence these are the cases where the experience and vigilance of the Probation workers is crucial in identifying any escalating risk factors such as domestic violence health issues and child care that could be indicators of any incident likely to occur.
The current system is by no means perfect, but like the health service, the Probation Service have demonstrated improved performance over the past five years whilst managing cuts to its budget of approx 25%.
But the political ideology is that Private is better and cheaper. The general public are unaware of the excellent work that is undertaken with complex and difficult individuals, many of whom have a social and emotional history that would not go unnoticed in a Charles Dickens novel, and yet Probation Officers improve the quality of their lives, give them self esteem, challenge their behaviour, make them recognise the impact on victims of their crimes and in many cases stop them ever reoffending again.
So when reforms such as these come into the public domain at the same time as a fuel crisis and hot pasty row it is unlikely that the work of the last 100 years of the Probation Service will be heard and it is likely that the eventual outcome will be a less robust rehabilitative service being offered to the court, and the punishment culture will prevail with more offenders being sent to prison where their hopes of achieving anything worthwhile in their lives will be a distant dream.
My visit, with an amazing group of staff from across the country, to the Butler Trust Awards at
I have also recently been to see our judiciary in both
- why is it that Probation Officers don't attend court with their PSRs?
- be realistic in reports, have courage of your convictions and offer a credible analysis for that.
However it is very clear that the Judiciary value the service we deliver to their courts.
Indeed Judge Lunt has accepted our invitation to officially open Edith Rigby House on the 28th March and is really very enthusiastic with a genuine interest in the AP and the wider womens' agenda. Good luck to all the new staff who are soon to take up their new roles.
So one door opening, and for many others closing, as staff who have taken the opportunity of voluntary redundancies or early retirement start new careers, retire and go on holiday or generally begin new chapters of their lives. I'm grateful to HR and Finance for making this come to fruition within very tight timescales and indeed to the patience and understanding of staff and unions in their co-operation with this difficult process.
The Trust's financial settlement has been received for 2012-13 and we are currently still trying to make some sense of the detail! However, staff will be pleased to know that we will be closing 2011-12 accounts with a balanced budget which in essence means we have spent all our money and will not have an underspend that would have been required to be sent back to NOMS.
Our Business Plan Staff Roadshows that we will launch next month will consult on our strategic plan for the next three years and seek an understanding and ownership whilst giving staff an update on our staffing and financial position going forward.
If you are still with me and seeking further exciting news, then is there anything better than the Probation Review, delayed again! The review is no longer a stand-alone as it is now, rightly so, being twin tracked along with a review of community sentences. The latest date given for it to be published for consultation is the 31st March 2012.
Nearly, there now and two more issues left to discuss.
Firstly, the North7 Community Payback consortium remains very committed to securing a successful public sector bid when the process finally gets to a stage where it becomes competitive. Again, watch this space and when anything changes I will let you know.
Finally, it was St Patrick's day on Saturday and as much as I enjoyed my Guinness with the Irish at Twickenham for the Rugby International, I was willing on
If we could all adopt this in principle through different forums, would our communities be a better place?
We are as a Trust changing from the top down. New senior leader structure, new terminology - leaders and leadership are the words and actions of today and hopefully tomorrow as we create new opportunities to Manage Risk, Change Lives and Improve Communities.
I'm sure many of you recognise our new strap line and for all those who voted for it, I am sure you will be as proud as I am that we now have something to say about what we do.
Manage Risk, Change Lives and Improve Communities is only the start of my vision to enhance our public profile and develop services to offenders accordingly. Your commitment and skills are at the core of achieving that vision and your ownership of this will make the journey a lot more enjoyable and successful.
We still await the Probation Review to be published, that in essence will set out the future shape of Probation.
The talk of commissioning, providing services, outsourcing, competitive tendering and Pre-Qualifying questions are the type of language that none of us came into the Probation Service to hear and indeed use. But they are here and will be for sometime and I genuinely believe that they will be in the Probation Review when it is published.
So what does this mean to us? Well it means we have to be smarter with how we use our valuable resources and assets - "YOU". We need to sell our skills and expertise or even better, get people, agencies, organisations to recognise our worth and value and buy our services.
We need to be flexible in how we work, innovative and creative in our delivery of offender services and most importantly make a difference and change offenders lives.
Thank you for taking the time to read this and I look forward to discussing this further with you all over the coming months or catch me on Twitter @LancsProbation.
Kevin
