This week, thousands of probation staff across England and Wales will begin voting on whether they are prepared to take industrial action if the Government and HM Prison and Probation Service fail to tackle a workload crisis that is pushing one of the country’s most important public services towards breaking point.
The probation service supervises the very same people who have passed through police custody and prison. People convicted of serious violence, domestic abuse, sexual offences and organised crime.
Their work protects victims, reduces reoffending and prevents further harm.
But probation staff are asked do so with fewer resources, lower pay than comparable public safety professions and, too often, far less political attention.
One of the biggest strains probation is facing by far is the workloads crisis. The National Audit Office has suggested that probation is short of over 3,000 staff.
Recruitment has failed to keep pace with experienced practitioners leaving, and those who remain are increasingly expected to absorb the pressure. Across the country, probation staff routinely work well beyond their contracted hours—much of it unpaid—simply to keep people safe.
For years, probation has been held together by extraordinary professional commitment. Staff routinely work through lunch breaks, evenings and weekends simply because they refuse to let public safety become an issue.
This is about public safety
This ballot is not just about working conditions.
It’s about whether probation professionals have enough time to carry out thorough risk assessments, enforce court orders, visit offenders, protect victims and intervene before warning signs become tragedies.
When workloads become unmanageable, corners are not deliberately cut, but the time it takes to do the work is.
That should concern everyone.
When someone convicted of a violent, sexual or domestic abuse offence leaves prison, their sentence doesn’t end. Communities depend upon probation working effectively. That requires enough skilled staff with enough time to do the job properly.
Just as demand increases, the evidence is disappearing
This September, the Government’s sentencing reforms are expected to increase the number of people supervised in the community as efforts continue to relieve pressure on overcrowded prisons.
At precisely the same time, HMPPS intends to remove the Workload Measurement Tool—the only system that records whether individual practitioners are carrying safe workloads.
The timing is mind blowing.
For years, the tool has shown what probation staff have been saying all along: many practitioners are already working significantly above safe capacity with many scoring well over 100% on the tool.
Instead of responding to that evidence, HMPPS is choosing to stop measuring it.
If you can’t measure workloads, you can’t properly manage them. Or perhaps more cynically: if you stop measuring the crisis, the statistics become less inconvenient even though the risks remain exactly the same.
Collective action delivers change
This ballot comes only months after probation staff fought one of the longest pay campaigns in the service’s recent history.
Collective action helped secure movement where none had existed before. While the outcome fell short of what staff deserved, it demonstrated an important lesson: progress happens when frontline workers stand together.
Now the focus has shifted.
Because pay means little if staff are carrying workloads that threaten both their wellbeing and the safety of the public they serve.
The question facing Government
This ballot asks probation staff one simple question: if nothing changes, are you prepared to take industrial action?
But there is another question for ministers and HMPPS: how many more warnings will it take before you act?
For years, probation staff have continued to deliver despite chronic understaffing, rising demand, increasing complexity and relentless pressure.
They have continued because they believe in rehabilitation, protecting victims, and safer communities.
They cannot continue to do more with less forever.
The public deserves a probation service that is properly staffed, properly supported and able to do its job.
Ballot opens on 10 July and runs until 10 August. For more information visit https://www.napo.org.uk/confidence-broken
