Amy Rees – Director General Probation, Wales and Youth
Update message to staff – Thursday 14 April
Firstly thank you for all the work you have been doing to make the necessary changes since we published our updated PPE and Safe Working Practice Guidance in response to the lifting of national COVID restrictions. Everything you are doing is helping us ensure we move forward safely as a Probation Service and increase the delivery of our important services to victims, communities and to people on probation and I am very grateful to you all.
Kim Thornden-Edwards and team continue to progress with the Prioritising Probation project and are making changes wherever possible to reduce the pressure upon front line staff. They have recently reviewed and simplified the Prioritisation Framework to make it easier to read and understand. They are looking at how to simplify and improve a range of our existing processes including inductions based on your suggestions. They are also exploring how central requests to regions could be better managed and streamlined. Click on this link to read the latest updates on Prioritising Probation.
The next trainee probation officer recruitment campaign opens at the end of May. As with previous campaigns, this will include opportunities for part-time or full-time courses. The campaign will also be open to staff across MoJ and external candidates. The team will be running webinars throughout May to introduce the programme and provide tips and guidance on the application process. Look out for more details in Probation News.
As I set out in our recent all staff MS Teams live event (watch again here) we know that pay is an area you are concerned about and it is a key priority for us to address. Ian Barrow and team are working with Trade Union colleagues on proposals for a multi- year pay deal which would be applicable to all Probation Service staff and include reform to the pay structure. You can read the latest update from Ian on this work by following this link: Probation pay reform update.
I am delighted to have lots of congratulations to share with you this week:
Firstly, congratulations to the National Security Unit – East and South Central team for receiving a Chief Constable Congratulations from Hampshire Constabulary in recognition of their collaborative efforts to protect the public – well done to all involved.
Congratulations to Hester Knox from the North West region who was the recent winner of the monthly Permanent Secretary award for showing great initiative in producing a directory for the North West region to help improve understanding of roles and responsibilities post unification – well done Hester.
Finally, congratulations to all the Probation Service finalists for this year’s HMPPS staff awards and a big well done to the Gwent Community Payback team who are confirmed as this year’s Team of the Year. I look forward to seeing you all at the ceremony in June. Please click on this link to find out who our finalists are this year: HMPPS Staff Awards 2022: finalists
I would like to send my sincere greetings to everyone observing the Holy month of Ramadan. You can find out more about Ramadan and how you can support your colleagues who are fasting here. Also sending my best wishes to everyone celebrating Vaisakhi today (14 April) – you can find out more here.
As the bank holiday weekend approaches, thank you in advance to all of you who are working including our Approved Premises, Community Payback and Electronic Monitoring teams. For those of you not at work, I hope you enjoy the long weekend and hopefully some nice weather.
As always, thank you for all you are doing.
Amy