Amy’s message 29th April

I hope you had an enjoyable Easter Bank Holiday weekend, especially for those of you celebrating the religious significance of Easter, and that you got to spend some time in the spring sunshine.  For those who were working, thank you again and I hope you have managed to take some well-deserved time off since.

It does feel in many ways as though we are now at the beginning of a new term with colleagues returning from the Easter break and our renewed focus on our journey to delivering excellent practice.

One of the key areas I am really keen that we continue to build on is our hybrid model of working and ensuring staff across all our teams are back working in offices at least two days per week.  I know the vast majority of our operational front line staff have been doing this throughout the pandemic and I am very grateful to you all for doing so. It is now really important that all other staff also embrace the hybrid model and return to offices if you are not already doing so.  I have heard from lots of teams about the creative ways you are using the opportunities afforded by hybrid working to really strengthen how you work and make the most of the time when you are together and in our offices – you can find lots of tips and ideas here too.  If you have any particular individual concerns about returning to offices then please do speak to your line manager.

Sonia Flynn and I recently met with the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales, Sir Charles Anthony Haddon-Cave and his Deputy Senior Presiding Judge Lord Justice Edis.  We meet with them regularly to review our work in courts and to update them on key probation issues.  During our recent discussion, they were highly complimentary about your work in preparing pre-sentence reports and how valuable they are to assist sentencers.  They were keen to share their appreciation with you and you can read their full message here.

This week has been National Stalking Awareness Week and there have been lots of great events and resources made available to raise awareness and help you when working with people who have committed stalking offences.  If you have not yet been able to, please do check out the information available here.

Finally, I previously mentioned that the next trainee probation officer recruitment campaign opens to staff on the 30 May.  As with previous campaigns, this will include opportunities for both part-time or full-time courses including a 15 month course for PSOs with a Level 3 qualification or above who have completed their six month probationary period.  The campaign is also open to staff across the Ministry of Justice and external candidates.  If you are interested, please visit the Probation Hub to book your spot on the webinars taking place in May where you can learn more about the programme, and receive guidance on the application process.

As always, thank you for all you are doing.

Amy