Members may have seen an announcement of HMPPS’s latest U-turn this week, and the plans to appoint a Director General (DG) Probation to sit in the HMPPS senior management structure and the prospect of further, ill-defined “wider structural changes” to follow.
It’s odd that when Napo repeatedly push Ministers and HMPPS to enact the Government’s manifesto commitment to review Probation governance, which we hope will see Probation move out of the Civil Service, we are told that staff have ‘no appetite’ for wider changes, but when it suits HMPPS apparently this is no longer an issue.
Members will rightly question the bizarre position currently outlined in the most recent communication, where the Area Executive Directors (AEDs) who are responsible for line managing Regional Probation Directors (RPDs) will be managed by the Director General Prisons and not Probation.
HMPPS need to be open and honest with staff about what this means for the current structure they work in, rather than just vague words about the future. Also, what does any future restructuring of staff at this level say about the disgraced ‘One HMPPS’ programme and the millions of pounds of public money wasted on this sorry venture, as well as whether anyone in HMPPS is to be held accountable?
While the prospect of a distinct Probation voice within HMPPS at a Director General level may seem like a positive development members would be advised to be extremely sceptical.
HMPPS have an established track record of abject failure, for which many of those who may be under consideration for this role bear significant levels of responsibility. It’s clear that what we believe would be required of a person in this role almost certainly bears little relation to what Ministers and others in HMPPS are looking for.
It’s fair to say that, given the general and wide-ranging loss of confidence among much of the workforce in HMPPS to value Probation and meet their responsibilities to its workforce, coupled with the rank disfunction of the employer, the scale of the task faced by any incoming Director General Probation is almost certainly insurmountable.
The joint trade unions will be formally responding to this announcement and more news will follow.
4 responses
Not sure that the Probation Service needs to leave the Civil Service to be honest. Where do you think we should be?
Prior to the disastrous splitting and part-privatisation of the Probation Service in 2014, probation managed quite well through locally accountable authorities and trusts. In fact it 2011 it was awarded the prestigious British Quality Foundation Gold Medal for Excellence for its outstanding public service performance and high inspection ratings. It was the first public sector organisation to win You don’t need need to be part of a centralised and bureaucratically managed Government Department to provide good, not-for-profit, accountable services
Well said Chas (& succinct too which helps ! 😀 )
As a separate body. Non dependant Public Body I think is the phrase.