Should I stay or should I go? What to do about the probation staffing crisis
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/02645505231200125 |
| Author | Nicola Carr |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
Should I stay or should I
go? What to do about
the probation staffing
crisis
After the turbulence of years of reforms and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,
the Probation Service for England and Wales, in common with other public sectors
faces a staffing crisis. The latest workforce data released by HMPPS, and the MoJ in
August 2023 shows that there has been an increase in staff working within the
Probation Service over the past year (13.2%). This is largely due to the recruitment
drive for new trainees and the expansion of the PQiP training programme, which
has seen new providers come onstream. However, despite the opening up of the
recruitment pipeline, the workforce statistics point to a continued shortfall in staffing
numbers and a concerning trend of more experienced staff departing the service.
The workforce data reports that the number of Probation Service Officers (PSOs)
have increased by almost a fifth in the past year (19%), largely due to PQiP recruit-
ment. However, the number of Probation Officers working in the service has
decreased over the past year and follows a longer-term trend of the departure of
more experienced staff. PQiP trainees work as PSOs during their training, so a pro-
portion of the existing PSO cohort will transition to Probation Officer roles, but the
issue of staff retention remains a concern. While the number of Senior Probation
Officers (SPOs) has increased, there have been rising rates of PSO resignations
over the past year and there is still a substantial shortfall in the number of
Probation Officers required:
Within the Probation Service, there were4390 FTE Probation Officers in post, a shortfall
of 2390 FTE against the required staffing level of 6780 FTE. (HMPPS and MoJ, 2023)
Moreover, the number of people leaving the service has ‘increased considerably’
since June 2021 (i.e. the point of probation unification), a trend that the workforce
analysis states ‘is likely attributable to competition in the labour market’. Perhaps so,
but it is imperative to develop a more granular understanding of why people are
deciding to leave probation work, particularly as new trainees embark on the
PQiP programme with a view to starting a career in probation.
Some of the initial findings of research exploring staff experiences of working in
the Probation Service post-unification point to some of the factors that may be
Editorial The Journal of Communit
y
and Criminal Justice
Probation Journal
2023, Vol. 70(3) 221–223
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/02645505231200125
journals.sagepub.com/home/prb
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