- Conference
- 2022 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 14 June 2022
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes that on 16th May 2022, the government announced an ambition to reduce staffing levels in the Civil Service to 2016 levels by cutting 91,000 jobs. In this government’s distinctive style, these plans appeared hastily drawn up and vague, with no concrete indication of the Civil Service departments where these cuts may fall.
Conference may be aware that HMPPS have previously announced ambitious plans for the future of the Probation Service. These plans require a significant increase in staffing levels to a service that has been appallingly understaffed for many years. If the government’s recently stated aims of reducing Civil Service staffing directly impacts on the Probation Service, our already overworked members will face the prospect of workloads increasing even further as a result of the Target Operating Model which will significantly increase the levels of workplace stress, making what is already a difficult job virtually impossible.
Conference, this may, as a result, lead to a haemorrhage of staff from the Probation Service, making the lives of those members who remain, intolerable.
Conference therefore calls upon the Service Group Executive to work with the Probation Service Sector Committee to:
1)Organise a national campaign along with regions and branches to seek to oppose any proposed job cuts within the Probation Service in England and Wales by all means at their disposal;
2)Strongly and convincingly promote to HMPPS and the Probation Service the need not only to maintain current staffing levels but to implement the planned increase in these levels in order to realise the proposed plans and aspirations of HMPPS for the future of a Probation Service fit for purpose, which can effectively rehabilitate People on Probation and significantly reduce re-offending.