- Conference
- 2022 Police & Justice Service Group Conference
- Date
- 27 June 2022
- Decision
- Carried
The Probation Service has existed since 1907 when the Probation of Offenders Act was passed in Parliament and work that had previously been carried out through missionaries, was given official status.
The mantra of Advise, Assist and Befriend gave the Probation Service it’s rehabilitative ethos within which it functioned for many years.
The 1990’s saw a distinct shift towards Public Protection and Enforcement but nevertheless it’s early rehabilitative roots and caring stance was not lost.
The huge blow that our service suffered as a result of Transforming Rehabilitation shook our identity as a service. A third of it went to the Civil Service whilst the rest went out to various bidders of varying quality, in the private sector. At senior levels talk of support and rehabilitation was lost to a language based on targets and profits.
The inevitable collapse of the TR model has meant re-nationalisation into the public sector but now the Civil Service. This has meant being a step closer to the will of ministers and their political agendas. Since reunification it is clear that at senior management and ministerial level they do not appreciate that Probation has a distinct and very separate job of work than our colleagues in the Prison Service. Our early roots are still embedded in the work that we do and maintaining this is identity is vital in order for our work not to become simply an off-shoot and an add on to what happens in the Prison Service.
The Probation Service has it’s own collective bargaining structures and it’s own recognised Trade Unions and this feels under constant threat.
We call on the SGE to resist attempts by the employer to impose policies which are designed for the Prison Service, which have been agreed and developed with Prison Service unions and which are often a poor fit for Probation