Amy’s Message 1st March 2022

I wanted to firstly focus upon wider global issues and acknowledge that the conflict in Ukraine will undoubtedly be a source of concern for many of you and for many of the people on probation we work with.  Please do remember that we have the Employee Assistance Line available for staff members which can be accessed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on: 0800 019 8988 and speak to your line manager if you have particular personal concerns. For people on probation impacted, please consider any additional support which could be factored into their sentence plan and think about the locally based organisations which may be able to assist in your region.

Along with all government departments, we are closely monitoring the situation and reviewing our business contingency plans as a matter of course.  You will be informed of any updates or changes to how we work resulting from these reviews.  In the meantime, please do continue to support each other and those we work with in the way you are all so fantastic at doing and do speak to someone if you are finding things difficult yourself.

Turning back to Probation, I recently held my quarterly update event with senior leaders from across the organisation.  These discussions are an opportunity to reflect on what is happening, where we want to put our efforts and what we need to think about going forward.

When I became Director General three years ago, I set three priorities for us – getting the change right, professional recognition and maximising influence.

For the most part we have done well, especially given the backdrop of a global pandemic.  But to ensure we hold ourselves to account, we will be doing some work with external colleagues to identify what has been delivered and where we still need some focus.  There will be an opportunity for some of you to contribute to this review and we will share the details with you of how you can get involved.

Looking forward however, and in discussion with senior leaders, we believe the time is right to move away from these priorities and instead move to a single new priority of ‘Delivering excellent practice’.  We know the last three years have been all about transactional change, but the time is now right to move away and refocus on our delivery and all of you, our frontline staff.  Everything we do now must be about quality and ensuring the work we are doing is the right work, that we have the right numbers of staff and you have the right tools and environment to deliver that important work.  I will be discussing this with you in more detail at our next all staff live event on the 30^th March and look forward to hearing your thoughts then.

Another area of discussion at the event was the recently released People Survey results.  This was of course the first time the Survey had been held post-unification and we do not therefore have a previous baseline to compare findings with but based on your feedback, two of the biggest areas of concern you have are Pay & Benefits and Resources & Workload.  Given the complexity of these areas, we are going to be taking these forward centrally through the Workforce Programme and the Prioritising Probation project. Alongside this, we have asked all regions to also identify two areas for regional/local focus.

Only a third of respondents believed we would act on the findings of the People Survey and I would like to personally assure you that we will act and, provide regular updates to keep you informed as to how this work is going.

In other news, I am delighted to update you on our Reduce Reoffending (RR) plans. In November’s Spending Review, we secured £550m to reduce reoffending – a transformational investment that gives us the opportunity to make a genuine difference by providing the people in our care with the support they need to lead a crime-free life.

Last year the RR team launched a new scheme to provide transitional housing to prison leavers.  We are working with education providers to create a new Prisoner Education Service and roll out local Employment Boards and Hubs across the country.  We are also strengthening the continuity of care for people with substance misuses issues.   To support all this work, we will be recruiting over 500 new staff – some based in prisons and some in the community – who will be responsible for driving this agenda at a local level.

This is exciting work being led by Matt Grey and his team in the Reducing Reoffending, Partnerships and Accommodation directorate and we will be keeping you up to date with progress.

Finally, today (1 March) is St David’s Day so wishing all Welsh colleagues Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus – A Happy St David’s Day and I look forward to joining the HMPPS in Wales awards ceremony being held today to celebrate the achievements of some of our staff in Wales.

As always, thank you for all you are doing.

Amy