Jim Barton – SRO for Probation Reform and Electronic Monitoring Programmes
Update message to staff – Friday 22 July
As Amy is on leave this week, I am in the ‘hotseat’ for providing you with her regular update message and it certainly has felt very hot this week with the soaring temperatures we have experienced!
Thank you to everyone who has been in work and continued delivering our important services during this spell of unprecedented weather.
New ministerial team
As I am sure many of you are aware, we have recently welcomed a new ministerial team with Stuart Andrew MP appointed our new Minister of State for Prisons and Probation – you can find out more about all the portfolios here: Ministerial portfolios – Ministry of Justice HQ Intranet. We have been updating Minister Andrew on all the great work happening across Probation and we look forward to working with him and the rest of the team.
Pay
We know that you are understandably keen to find out what the latest position is on Probation pay and Ian Barrow and team are working hard behind the scenes on this. Negotiations with the recognised Probation Service Trade Unions are advancing quickly on what we believe will be a good and fair multi-year pay deal for all staff. Any deal will secure necessary reforms to our pay structure and deliver increases in pay to all staff. The nature of a three-year deal would also mean that staff can rely upon receiving any entitled increases on time, during the lifetime of the deal. You can read Ian’s latest probation pay blog here) and we will continue to keep you updated.
Community Accommodation Service
Next week sees the first anniversary of the Community Accommodation Service (CAS) 3 early adopter sites going live across five of our Probation regions. This important scheme has provided up to 84 nights of temporary accommodation and floating support for prison leavers, subject to probation supervision, who would otherwise have become homeless. A huge thank you to all the teams involved in setting this up across the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, East of England, Kent, Surrey and Sussex and Greater Manchester. Roll out of the scheme across Wales and the rest of England is now underway and due to be completed by the end of the year.
Probation Day
Just to remind you that Probation Day 2022 is fast approaching with this year’s theme being Belonging. I know there are lots of plans underway across regions to celebrate our second Probation Day and I hope you will be able to take part in some way. I am personally looking forward to being out visiting some of you in the lead up to Probation Day. We are holding a short national event on Friday 19 August at 10.00am to launch this year’s celebrations so please do join us if you can: Probation Day 2022 launch event
Recruitment
One of our aims from Probation Day is to raise awareness of the work of the Probation Service and encourage more people to apply to work for us. One of the big recruitment campaigns we currently have is for Community Payback supervisors and placement coordinators in six Probation regions. If you know someone who enjoys helping others and making a difference in their community, why not encourage them to find out more and apply by 17 August?
Thank you
Finally, as schools break for the holidays and we approach the busy summer leave season, I know many of you will be taking well earned breaks over the coming weeks. I wanted to therefore take this opportunity to thank you for all you have done this year so far in what has again been a very busy period and if you are taking leave, I hope you have a great time however you choose to spend it.
Thank you
Jim