Amy’s latest update for all HMPPS staff is now available on the intranet.
This issue covers:
The Workforce Planning System (WPS) is a single, joined-up workforce planning system designed to strengthen regional workforce planning arrangements. WPS will provide probation with an accurate and integrated means of planning staffing requirements, ensuring staffing needs are responsive to the impact of operational changes in the service.
The WPS project will run until 2024 when it will be integrated into business as usual (BAU) to support workforce planning and probation management in the longer term. At the heart of the WPS approach is ensuring that the staffing data we use is evidence-based and robust to support the priorities of frontline operations to achieve our aim of reducing reoffending and protect the public.
Currently the method of managing the workforce is through several disparate systems and tools, with people often following different processes. WPS aims to simplify this and introduce a system which will be one source of the truth for reporting, governance and decision making.
The rich picture below illustrates the various components of WPS ensuring that the system is driven by good quality information and informed by frontline staff to provide regions with the right solutions and tools to underpin and support excellent practice.
Working collaboratively and co-design is critical to the success of WPS to maximise the accuracy and evidence base of our staffing data and understanding the impacts of change upon the workforce. This work is being led by the Impact Assessment team within WPS who are running a programme of workshops with relevant operational staff in relation to priority operational changes. These workshops support WPS to specify the activities associated with each role which are being captured in a live activity and weightings database currently under development for probation.
The WPS team have already facilitated workshops for Electronic Monitoring and Acquisitive Crime and Serious Further Offences (SFO). Activities and Timings workshops for all probation activities will be facilitated throughout 2023 – 2024 through a sequenced and agreed rationale / framework. There will be ongoing consultation with probation leaders to maximise opportunities to work with frontline staff and benefit from their expertise and experience.
The Workforce Measurement Tool (WMT) has been under review for some time and is an integral part of WPS. This work forms part of the WPS in ensuring the system is driven by good quality information. Live events are taking place to communicate changes to WMT during December. These are scheduled for:
Q. Why do we need the Workforce Planning System (WPS)?
WPS will deliver a single, clear, and accurate system for understanding workforce changes to include demands, activities, weightings, and resources for probation. We have been through enormous organisational changes over many years and our work can change in line with priorities set by Government. These changes can impact on the workforce and available resource. WPS is a system that seeks to address this by providing understanding of the potential resource impact of any proposed changes and enabling everyone to better prepare for implementation.
Q. Is this the same as WMT?
The Workload Measurement Tool (WMT) has been in existence for some time. WPS incorporates a review of WMT alongside planned future work to develop the system and include aspects of our work which are not currently considered.
Q. Is this the same as our Workforce Planning tool?
WPS does incorporate workforce planning. The WPS project also includes the design and implementation of an IT solution that will underpin all key components of the system. This system will provide a single source of information and include scenario testing for regions to plan and manage their workforce requirements.
For any questions contact the WPS team.
We are also developing an intranet page which will be updated to provide key information as WPS moves forward as a project.
Last Thursday (17 November) marked one-year since alcohol monitoring on licence was rolled-out in Wales.
The tool, which was further rolled-out in England in June 2022, provides a way to monitor people leaving prison who are at risk of reoffending from alcohol by an additional alcohol monitoring licence condition. It may see alcohol banned or restricted following release, with compliance monitored using a tag for a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of 12 months.
How do the tags work?
The tags are available throughout England and Wales for those who have a history of alcohol-related offending behaviour.
The tamper-proof device works by checking the alcohol level in the offender’s sweat, taking a reading every 30 minutes.
If a tamper or alcohol is detected and confirmed, the offender’s probation officer is alerted. The probation officer will take action as appropriate, such as a conversation, a warning letter or a return to court or prison.
One-year on, what difference are the tags making?
We know that alcohol is believed to play a part in 39 per cent of violent crimes in the UK and roughly 20 per cent of offenders supervised by the Probation Service are identified as having drinking issues. Latest statistics show:
How are the tags supporting people on probation?
Natasha (not her real name), aged 22, from Cardiff, has been on a tag since the beginning of September. She said: “I was nervous about being tagged but it does help. It’s a physical reminder for me not to drink.
“I’ve been on probation before but this time I’m doing really well, and I do think the tag’s been good for me. I’m sober and not getting in trouble.”
How are the tags helping to reduce reoffending?
Becky Tait, a probation officer from Stoke on Trent was interviewed by BBC Frontline Fightback recently about how alcohol tags are helping to break the cycle of drinking and reoffending.
Becky said: “The tag is almost like the angel in your ear ‘don’t have a drink, don’t have a drink’, or a conscience attached to your leg.
“Where people have patterns of offending and keep on offending, it’s very difficult to help them to change because they are in a cycle of substance misuse, violence and domestic abuse.
“People don’t think of the consequences when they are under the influence of alcohol – they can become more aggressive and impulsive. So, if we can help people make changes to their alcohol use and think more about the impact of their alcohol use on their behaviour, that in turn then allows them to be safer and less of a risk to the public.
“For a lot of people having that additional monitoring and enforcement allows them to make better choices which helps them not drink.”
Further information
If you have any questions about alcohol monitoring on licence, please email emchange@justice.gov.uk.
All HMPPS employees working in prisons, probation services and HQ are eligible for a free flu jab. (This includes agency staff and contractors.)
If you are not eligible for a flu vaccine with the NHS, you can simply visit your local pharmacy and claim the cost (up to £16.99) back on SOP. (Selecting the expense type as ‘flu vaccine’.)
Alternatively, every public sector prison will hold at least 2 days of vaccination clinics starting in October. (Look out for details locally.)
Prison-based staff, particularly frontline operational staff, who are eligible for a free NHS flu vaccine are welcome to attend a prison vaccination clinic. (But please remember to inform your GP practice if you have had the flu vaccine so your NHS records can be updated.)
Getting the flu jab means your symptoms are likely to be milder and not last as long if you catch it. It will also reduce the chance of you spreading flu to others who may be more at risk. This will also help reduce pressure on health services during the busy winter months.
In case you missed them, here’s the recent updates to the Probation Hub in the last month.
Amy’s latest update for all probation staff is now available on the intranet.
This issue covers:
We want to draw your attention to some of the benefits contained in the revised Smarter Working Toolkit (launched in September) which will help you in your work.
In simple terms the Toolkit will help you be more effective by building up networks, sharing information and maximising technology.
It will also assist you in working in a hybrid way by getting the most out of our buildings and facilities.
Sometimes, and partly as a result of working conditions during the pandemic, we might think of where we work as one or two locations: our main office location or home, perhaps. However, Smarter Working allows us to book and meet at other locations, so we can build networks and share knowledge and make better use of available space.
In the coming months we will provide updates and guidance from the Toolkit on use of MS Teams, and our buildings, as well as Leadership expectations.
We’d welcome any questions you may have, and we will publish these with answers in the forthcoming updates. Questions can be sent to probationsmarterworking@justice.gov.uk
The latest electronic monitoring statistics have now been published. This is the first quarterly publication that has been produced and contains details of the number of individuals in England and Wales with an active electronic tag fitted, the numbers of new notification orders and the number of completed orders. It also contains details of the number of individuals with an alcohol monitoring tag and the numbers monitored under the acquisitive crime pilot. The next quarterly publication is due to be published in January 2023.
Key highlights
Amy’s latest update for all probation staff is now available on the intranet.
This issue covers:
Following the result of the recent trade union ballots, we shared our intention to offer impacted staff the opportunity to ‘opt in’ to the same terms and conditions set out in the harmonisation package.
We are putting the processes in place to run the scheme as quickly as we can.
If you are an impacted member of staff, who is currently employed, but is leaving the organisation, you can signify your intention to opt-in to the harmonisation package before you leave. This means you will receive a formal opt-in letter, allowing you to benefit from pay assimilation and therefore any potential back pay after you have left.
The process to do this is:
We will acknowledge your email, giving assurance that you have signified your intention to opt in.
Once the opt in process is in place, you will be sent the formal ‘opt in’ letter to your personal email address.
The Probation Service multi-year pay offer has been approved at ballot by members from all three recognised Probation Service trade unions. This means we can now proceed to implementing the offer with immediate effect. We are now working with our payroll provider to ensure payment will be made in October pay packets. Click here to read the full article on the intranet.
