Probation staffing crisis laid bare in damning reports as alarm sounded over public safety

Inspectors warn of ‘unsustainable and counterproductive’ situation as one local probation unit found to be 55 per cent short of officers

The former government’s early release scheme caused ‘absolute mayhem’ for probation, unions have warned (iStock/Getty)

A string of new probation watchdog investigations have laid bare the staffing crisis blighting the service’s ability to supervise offenders in the community and keep the public safe.

With prisons already dangerously full, justice secretary Shabana Mahmood announced this month that some 5,500 prisoners will be freed 40 per cent of the way into their sentence, starting from September.

But questions have been raised over how the probation service will be able to cope with this new influx of offenders who will pass into their care, amid warnings that the early release scheme enacted by the Tories – which saw 10,000 inmates freed in nine months – had caused “absolute mayhem” for the service.

Each of the four reports published by HM Inspectorate of Probation in the week following Ms Mahmood’s announcement highlighted understaffing as an issue which is already undermining probation workers’ efforts to keep the public safe.

In Essex South, the watchdog found just 45 per cent of the required number of probation officers in post – something inspectors said was understandably hampering the probation unit’s ability to supervise offenders.

As a result, the delivery of probation services in Essex South were judged to be to a level sufficient to effectively support public safety in as little as 23 per cent of cases examined by inspectors. Improvements were also needed in assessments to assess and manage the risks offenders posed in the community.

Similarly, in Northamptonshire, the probation officer vacancy rate was 40 per cent and workloads were too high as a result, with a situation further exacerbated by staff absences. Staff spoke of feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about what to prioritise – which had a detrimental effect on risk management, inspectors said.

In Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, inspectors warned that “almost all the assessments we inspected were insufficient in relation to keeping people safe”, with senior supervising officers forced to handle cases themselves because of staff shortages and “very high” sickness rates, which further reduced capacity.

“The situation was unsustainable and counterproductive,” inspectors warned.

Justice secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced new plans to free inmates early to ease the prisons crisis (Joe Giddens/PA)

Inspectors in Hertfordshire warned that the probation unit’s staffing levels meant workloads too high across all grades. They said managers were signing off risk assessments which too often did not incorporate key information related to domestic abuse and child safeguarding.

The findings came as HM chief inspector Martin Jones reiterated the stark reality that 30 out of the 31 local probation units inspected across England and Wales in 2022-23 were judged to be either “inadequate” or “requiring improvement”.

While the government has pledged to have 1,000 extra trainee probation officers in place by next spring to help the service cope with the emergency prisoner early release scheme, Mr Jones warned it would take time for new recruits to “bed down” and gain the experience needed to supervise offenders.

Thousands of probation staff have left the service over the past two years, with almost two-thirds of the 359 officers who quit in the year to March 2023 taking with them five or more years of experience. As of March, 5,113 full-time probation officers were in post – 25 per cent below the required staffing level of 6,794.

One officer who joined the probation service as a “job for life” in 2018 told The Independent last year that she now reluctantly planned to quit, saying: “We are completely overwhelmed, morale is low, and we have multiple people in our offices on long-term sick leave – so six months or more – because it is so stressful.”

Thousands of probation staff have left the service in the past two years (iStock)

Responding to the four new inspection reports, Tania Bassett of the probation union Napo told The Independent: “The staffing crisis in probation is not going to go away anytime soon. Too few staff and dangerously high workloads lead to increased sickness of staff which only compounds the issue.”

Ms Bassett added: “As we enter the summer holidays, staffing will be at a critical state with many regions seeing their workforce reduce by 50 per cent as many people take annual leave.”

The timing of the government’s new prisoner early release scheme in September means that the pre-release work required for cases will need to be completed over this period – which “will only exacerbate already high workloads and cause additional stress to staff”, Ms Bassett warned.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “The prison system is in crisis which is putting significant pressure on the whole justice system.

“We are gripping the situation and supporting our hardworking staff by improving training and recruiting 1,000 more probation officers nationally to deliver robust supervision and protect the public.”