Amy Rees message – 11 June

Amy Rees

Director General for Probation & Wales

Unification day is fast approaching with just two weeks to go until we welcome nearly 8000 CRC, Parent Organisation and supply chain colleagues and together create our new Probation Service.

I know huge amounts of work continues to prepare for 26^th June. I am really grateful for all your contributions.  My executive team and I met senior leaders yesterday to discuss our reforms and future ways of working and they shared some really valuable feedback with us on the key things teams have on their minds and also what you are looking forward to when we unify. This will be helpful as we shape our focus and plans.  We were also really pleased to be joined by our Permanent Secretary – Antonia Romeo – who spoke very highly of the work you have all done and how proud she is of you.

I wanted also to acknowledge that this is a worrying time for some, with uncertainty in terms of future roles and in relation to recent job evaluation outcomes for the Unpaid Work Operational Manager; Programme Manager and Treatment Manager roles which we were disappointed about and will challenge. I cannot emphasise enough that this is absolutely no reflection on your work and the invaluable contributions you make to probation delivery.  There are roles for everyone in our new Probation Service and indeed we will continue recruiting to ensure we have the staff we need to meet future demand.  We are wholly committed to ensuring everyone is clear on their future role as soon as possible and there is lots of activity happening to make sure this happens.  In terms of the job evaluation process, Jim has recently shared information with you via your senior leaders – you can read it here.

Alongside our reform work, we of course continue with our organisational recovery. We are making steady progress wherever it is safe to do so.  We have seen further increases in delivery over recent weeks and continue to recover services where possible in accordance with government and public health guidance. I know more of you are returning to offices and I hope you have enjoyed seeing people in person again, as I did during my days in Cardiff and London this week.

It is of course crucial that we remain vigilant to the risks presented by the virus and continue to follow the basics of hands-face-space.  It is also important that we all continue with regular testing and take the vaccination when it is offered to us.  You may have seen coverage about the emerging variants of concern.  Your senior leaders are closely monitoring the situation with these in regions, making adaptations to Exceptional Delivery Plans where necessary and – if required – pausing the delivery of particularly high risks activities.

In more cheerful news, I hope you saw our Minister was able to announce last week here that we have recruited more than 1,000 new trainee probation officers – a crucial element of our Workforce Strategy and absolutely key to our future service.  We have set a target of recruiting a further 1,500 trainee officers this year and I look forward to welcoming our new recruits when they join us

Finally, as part of the Senior Leaders event I mentioned, we asked staff to submit their six word stories, sharing what makes them proud to work for the Probation Service and what they are looking forward to for the future.  We heard some fantastic thoughts and they made me think what I would say if asked the same questions so I wanted to share my six word stories with you:

Why am I proud to work for the Probation Service?

“Committed professional staff making communities safer”

What am I looking forward to for the future?

“Unified stronger innovating delivering excellent probation”

Thank you as ever

Amy