Spotlight on recruitment
September 2022
A relentless focus on recruitment is a priority for the service, and of equal importance is retaining our talented people, both experienced and new to the service.
To support retention of our staff, we’ve established a number of initiatives including internal PSO progression pathway to trainee probation officer (PQiP) and, alongside embedding a standardised national exit interview process, we have launched the first retention toolkit to support our HR Business Partners in applying targeted regional interventions. We have also introduced three career pathways for staff approaching retirement and have recently reviewed this to add a further pathway into Community Payback.
Work is also underway on several other initiatives including:
- supporting regions working with newly qualified officers (NQOs) to remain in the region in which they qualify
- publishing a list of national keyworker housing providers in October for employees to reach out to
- a review of staff loans and secondments
Latest recruitment campaigns
751 new contracts were signed in July which included 109 new Case Administrators, 119 Probation Services Officers, 8 new Probation Officers, 35 Senior Probation Officers and 64 Community Payback staff.
A recruitment taskforce has been established to tackle blockages and expediate solutions and our dedicated recruitment team has been expanded to focus on streamlining processes and providing regions with tailored expertise.
On the 30 August two new national recruitment campaigns for Case Administrators and Probation Services Officers opened. The initial focus will be London, East of England, Kent, Surrey & Sussex, Greater Manchester, North West & South Central. We also welcomed the next cohort of c620 trainee probation officers at the beginning of September. They will be supported by staff from across the organisation.
Access the latest published data on Probation Service workforce statistics.
