Published 7th May 2014
Why is splitting Probation dangerous for users, staff and the Public?
The current Probation Service consists of 35 local Probation Trusts, successfully reducing re-offending by providing support in a unified, coherent way. Probation is a great success, with all 35 Trusts assessed as good or excellent.
From 1st June this will change. NOMS is dissolving Trusts and splitting delivery between:
- the local arm of their National Probation Service (NPS) - dealing with all court duties, parole boards, recalling offenders to prison and supervision of high risk cases.
- 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) who'll supervise low and medium risk cases. The intention is to sell-off these CRCs before the General Election with contracts being mobilised from 2015.
Napo is not alone in having grave concerns about the splitting of this work and the handing over of 70% of services , including new, additional and untested work supervising offenders released after serving less than 12 months in prison as a result of the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014.
Splitting service delivery is potentially disastrous and will impact on public safety and public confidence in Probation, as well as on staff and users. The real difficulties are already surfacing as Trust's prepare for the split - dividing staff, increasing bureaucracy, and making risk management more complex and controversial. Indications are that it is also proving to be more expensive then NOMS stated, and Napo fears that if CRCs are sold-off then NOMS will not have the capacity to safely manage further budget constraints. Inevitably they will need to focus upon finding savings in the area they most directly control - meaning disproportionate future cuts in the NPS managing high risk offenders.
Why it's not too late to make a difference and SAVE PROBATION?
Despite the splitting of the service from 1st June 2014; if contracts are not signed and CRCs are not sold-off before the General Election then the situation can be recovered. By supporting Napo over the coming weeks you can help to ensure the foundations remain in place to re-unify a local, accountable Probation Service.
Napo intelligence tells us that the competition process is in serious difficulty. NOMS will not confirm how many bidders remain, but we know some contracts may only have one bidder. The payment by results (PbR) model has been questioned, with the Social Market Foundation (SMF) saying it contains disincentives to reduce re-offending. The SMF and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) have recently said charities and social enterprises are unwilling to bid because of the risks in the contracts, which we believe contain up to 25 termination clauses. Those who are bidding include companies with a poor track record of delivery in Grayling's DWP Work Programme.
Critically, with so much detail still unknown as to how the split service needs to be delivered, tested and developed during a pre-sale "bedding in period" (post- split on 1st June but pre-sale later in 2014) bidders are being asked to second guess processes and costs. Our intelligence is that bids will, accordingly, be higher than expected, dangerously squeezing the NPS budget. A sell-off in this timescale and these circumstances just isn't safe.
Napo will be keeping all Parliamentarians up to date with developments and briefings on these risks in more detail through our weekly bulletins. We now need you to ask questions for us and help save probation.
Here are some of the questions you might like to ask in Parliament
- What is the cost of the the overall budget for the NPS?
- What amount of the NPS budget has been allocated for the management of high risk cases?
- If the anticipated CRC costs rise during the bidding process to a point where they impact on the anticipated NPS budget, will the Secretary of State honour his promise and delay the share sales as unsafe?