Reforms to part-privatise the probation service have created an “irredeemably flawed” system in which professional ethics have “buckled” under the strain of commercial pressures, the watchdog has warned.
Presenting a scathing annual report, published on Thursday, Glenys Stacey, chief inspector of probation, said that a shortage of qualified staff, poor performance by private contractors and a breakdown in the relationship between probation officers and offenders had weakened the service across England and Wales.
Probation teams currently manage more than a quarter of a million offenders a year, including inmates preparing to leave jail, prisoners who have been released and those serving community or suspended sentences.
Six years ago, the service was part-privatised with the public sector continuing to manage high-risk offenders, while low-and medium-risk offenders were transferred to private sector supervision. Eight organisations — including Sodexo, MTCnovo, Ingeus and Working Links — were awarded contracts worth £3.7bn to run 21 “community rehabilitation companies” (CRCs).
Dame Glenys, who is stepping down from her post at the end of this month, suggested that although it might be suitable to outsource some functions — such as staff training — public ownership was ultimately the only safe way of managing offenders.
“We are not talking here about who supplies your internet access,” she said, arguing that probation is not a “transactional” service. “To be plain, public ownership is the safer option for the core work. There’s no doubt about that but it’s all in the detail of the model.”
The privatisation reforms — designed to bring down reoffending — have been repeatedly criticised by MPs and by parliament’s spending watchdog. Earlier this year, the service came under renewed scrutiny when Working Links, a company running three CRCs, went into administration.
The Ministry of Justice is due to end the current contracts in 2020, two years earlier than planned, but has not ruled out further privatisation. Currently of the 258,157 offenders on probation in England and Wales, 151,788 are under CRC supervision and 106,369 are managed by the National Probation Service.
Dame Glenys concluded that the probation model delivered by transforming rehabilitation is “irredeemably flawed”.
“Above all, it has proved well-nigh impossible to reduce probation services to a set of contractual requirements,” she wrote. “Despite capable leaders, there has been a deplorable diminution of the probation profession and a widespread move away from practice informed by evidence. This is largely due to the impact of commerce, and contracts that treat probation as a transactional business.
“Professional ethics can buckle under such pressures, and the evidence we have is that this has happened to some extent.”
Her report found that, while both the public-sector NPS and privately owned CRCs were failing to meet some of their performance targets, the former was performing better overall.
The NPS recorded significantly more contact meetings with offenders than CRCs but the report makes clear that the number of probation professionals is at a “critical” level, with too much reliance on unqualified or agency staff.
Rory Stewart, the prison and probation minister, said the report “redoubles my determination to continue working towards a probation service that puts public protection first, commands the confidence of the courts and breaks the cycle of reoffending”.
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“Our reforms mean 40,000 more offenders are being supervised, which is a positive move for public safety, but it is clear the current model is not working and there is much more we need to do,” he said.
“We have already taken decisive action to end the current contracts early and have invested an extra £22m a year to support offenders on release — and we are carefully considering how best to deliver an effective probation service for the future.”
Ian Lawrence, general secretary of the probation union Napo, said the findings vindicated his view that the current CRC contracts had “significantly failed in a number of key areas including public safety”, and had only been sustained due to “numerous taxpayer funded bailouts” as the operational costs increased well above original expectations.
“Increased workloads and staff shortages have had a ripple effect with there being a significant rise in serious further offences, and 38 per cent of magistrates indicating they have less confidence in probation now than they had under previous arrangements,” he added.
