Union’s survery shows 55% of probation staff ‘looking for exit’

By The Press Association3rd September 2014News EnglandNews England, Unison

More than half of probation workers have been actively looking for a new job in the last 12 months in the wake of Government proposals to privatise the service, a survey has suggested.

A survey of staff released by probation union Napo and Unison, which between them represent 12,000 probation workers, found 80% have considered leaving their job and 55% are actively looking for a new job.

A package of £450 million-worth of probation contracts have been offered to private and voluntary sector organisations, covering the supervision of 225,000 low and medium-risk offenders each year on a payment-by-results basis.

Contracts are to be split across private community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) in 20 English regions and one Welsh region, while the National Probation Service (NPS), a new public sector organisation, will be formed to deal with the rehabilitation of 31,000 high-risk offenders each year.

The survey revealed 74% of respondents said that workload and pressure has increased since they transferred to the new model of service provision, with 86% indicating that stress levels have increased since the transfer.

And 82% said staff morale has decreased following the transfer, with 46% of members identifying themselves as “extremely stressed”.

Ian Lawrence, general secretary of Napo, said: “We have been campaigning against these dangerous reforms since they were announced last year.

“Our campaign now has the support of the Labour Party, as well as many stakeholders both in probation and in the wider criminal justice system. They are untried and untested and will undermine public protection if they go ahead.”

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “Our members working in probation have spoken loud and clearly of their despair over the Government’s botched changes to their service, which is affecting the morale of staff and public safety. Selling off half the probation service to the private sector would be a disaster.

“The Government must act in the public interest and put a stop to this sell-off now to save the probation service before it is too late.”

Almost all (99%) of the 1,046 respondents revealed they do not support the Government’s probation reforms, while 93% do not believe that the changes will provide value for the money for the taxpayer.

In addition, the survey found 98% of workers had no confidence in Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.

Justice minister Andrew Selous said: “Each year there are more than half a million crimes committed by those who have broken the law before, and 50,000 of the most prolific offenders are released on to the streets, totally unsupervised and free to go back to their criminal ways.

“Living with the status quo just means accepting more crime and more victims, and that is not acceptable.

“Through our crucial reforms all offenders will receive 12 months rehabilitation in the community to turn their lives around, including those who are sentenced to less than a year in prison and currently get no support on release.

“Probation staff are working hard to implement these reforms and we will continue to support them throughout this process.”