Dear Editor,

TODAY, I was moved to writing to our MP Chris Vince regarding the appalling mess that is now the Probation Service. With underpaid, highly stressed and overworked staff many probation service workers are leaving.

This situation has created a near 10,000 shortfall in sentence management staff as revealed by the BBC in August 20 based on leaked documents they had received. This led me to write to Chris Vince due to my personal experience with probation in the late 1980s.

Even more concerning is that government ministers are considering privatising the supervision of unpaid work orders in a repeat of the disastrous Conservative government action in 2012. This is despite three unions at the time seeking an opinion from the United Nations’ agency International Labour Organisation (IL0) that it might breach the Forced Labour Convention, a convention ratified by the United Kingdom in 1931 and still in effect.

In particular the ILO warned: “It is therefore essential that the arrangements in place concerning the role of private providers in the delivery of sentences of unpaid work requirement do not result in the private provider placing offenders in compulsory work for profit-making entities for economic gain.”

The unions followed this up with the ILO in 2019 following the Tory government assurances of complying with the Forced Labour Convention not being delivered. Eventually the Tories relented and in June 2021 returned unpaid work in the community supervision to the public sector. Yet, despite this past fiasco, the Labour government is considering a repeat even though manifesto commitments suggested otherwise.

As a result of the above my letter to Chris Vince reads as follows.

I am writing to you as a concerned member of your constituency. Over recent weeks, I’ve been following developments around the probation service and they are disturbing.

Probation staff manage some of the most high-risk individuals in our communities including those convicted of serious violent and sexual offences. Their workload has increased sharply recently because tens of thousands of prisoners released early due to prison overcrowding have also been placed in their care. Their work is essential to public safety and should deserve respect.

The probation union NAPO warns that their members are underpaid, overworked, and increasingly unable to keep up with the demand. Probation pay has fallen by 60% in real terms since 2010 and 1 in 5 probation staff have used a food bank in the last year.

Caseloads are out of control and staff are leaving the service entirely. Over 103,000 working days were lost to stress-related illness in 2023. The severe shortage of probation staff dealing with sentence management was highlighted by the BBC on August 20, which reported a near 10,000 shortfall.

According to a government study compiled last year, some 17,170 full-time staff were needed to deal with sentence management in September 2023. Leaked reports seen by the BBC show that there is now just 7,236.

Incredibly, probation officers are now being balloted for industrial action because ministers have refused to come to the table with a serious pay offer. This is repeating past Conservative governments mistakes. For instance, in 2022–23 probation staff received just a 9.9% pay increase, despite years of pay reduction in real terms, when other workers in the criminal justice system received far better increases.

We have seen crisis after crisis in prisons and policing but probation is being ignored, meaning that the crisis will be on our streets instead of behind bars. That’s a grave mistake when public opinion is angry that too few offenders are ending up in prison.

I know from personal experience the valuable work that the probation service delivers which helped turn my life around. Plus, both of us know from our Labour Party interaction with the late councillor Frances Mason the caring and considerate attitude that probation officers possess.

Therefore, I would like to know:

1. What are you doing to push for investment in the probation service?
2. Have you asked ministers how they plan to keep the public safe if more staff walk away?

Consequently, I urge you to raise this with the Justice Secretary, to publicly back fair pay for probation staff, and to demand urgent action before this crisis deepens.

Yours sincerely,

David Forman