VOTE TO REJECT 2025 PAY OFFER
UNISON is recommending that you vote to reject the Probation Service pay offer for 2025. Our on-line consultation opens on 4 February and closes at 12 noon on 27 February.
You have received this communication because our records show that you are directly employed by the Probation Service on probation pay and conditions and are therefore entitled to vote in this ballot. If you are not employed by the Probation Service please ignore this information and please do not vote.
This bulletin sets out the terms of the Probation Service pay offer for 2025, reminds members what the joint union pay claim was for 2025, and summarises why UNISON is recommending that you vote to reject the offer.
The Offer
A one year award, covering the period 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026:
- 4% increase on all pay points
- 4% increase on the following cash allowances:
- London weighting: increase from £4,250 to £4,420/year
- Prison Supplement increase from £737 to £766/year
- Standby allowance increase from £46.07 to £47.91
- Deletion of the lowest pay point of pay band A (currently £55,615). Managers on this pay point will get a 7% pay rise
- All increases to be backdated to 1 April 2025.
You can see the impact of a 4% pay rise on pay points here.
Joint Union Pay Claim for 2025
UNISON and our sister trade unions in the Probation Service submitted the following pay claim on behalf of members on 15 January 2025:
- A one year pay award
- A 12% increase on all pay points
- A 12% increase on all cash allowances: London Weighting / Geographical Allowances etc
- A minimum wage in the Probation Service of £15 per hour
- The conversion of the current Regional Reward and Recognition funds into a single fund for staff retention purposes, to be the subject of collective bargaining.
The rationale behind the pay claim was to recover the catastrophic fall in the purchasing power of probation salaries between 2010 and 2024, address the on-going scandal of low pay in the service and ensure that the money being spent by RPDs on individual reward and recognition payments was fairly distributed to all staff, rather than just ‘exceptional performers’ chosen by those RPDs.
You can read our original 2025 pay claim here.
We are recommending that you vote to reject the pay offer because it:
- Is below the current rate of inflation of 4.2% (retail prices index December 2025)
- Does nothing to make up for the 12 years, between 2010 and 2021, during which probation staff received only a 1% pay rise – the very worst pay increase across the entire public sector
- Fails to address low pay. Even with a 4% increase, the lowest salary point of pay band 2 will still be overtaken by the government’s national living wage on 1 April 2026 – evidence that poverty pay is still alive and well in HMPPS
- Comes nowhere close to bridging the gap between probation pay and the pay of comparable public sector workers (probation salaries shown with the 4% offer added):
- Top salary of a probation officer = £43,680
- Top salary of a police constable = £50,256
- Top salary of senior probation officer = £47,840
- Top salary of police sergeant = £56,208
These comparative salary figures show that probation salaries are £7,000 to £8,000 lower than those of comparable public sector workers.
- Does nothing to solve the Probation Service recruitment and retention crisis, or the on-going workloads crisis. Salaries have fallen behind so badly, that the service is struggling to recruit or retain the staff it needs. This puts more pressure on you and your colleagues which you are not being properly rewarded for. Soon the service expects you to take on even more work to support the roll out of the Sentencing Bill.
- Fails to give back to staff the £100 million probation underspend this year, caused by the inability of the Probation Service to hit its recruitment targets. Instead some of this money will be given to RPDs to reward individual staff for ‘exceptional performance.’
HMPPS has stood by and allowed the value of probation salaries to drop to the bottom of the public sector pay league. Now is the time to take a stand. Vote to reject the pay offer and halt the erosion of probation pay.
UNISON Pay Offer Consultation Process
The UNISON consultative pay ballot opens on 4 February and closes at 12 noon on 27 February. This is an online consultation only.
It is absolutely vital that we get a high turnout in the consultation. Please vote and encourage your colleagues who are UNISON members to vote.
UNISON plans to hold two all-member online meetings during the consultation period. These meetings are intended to give members the opportunity to ask any questions about the pay offer, and/or UNISON’s recommendation that you vote to reject it.
Here are the details of the two meetings:
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Meeting 1: Friday 6 February 2026 (13.00 – 14.00) – Join the meeting here.
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Meeting 2: Thursday 19 February 2026 (12.30 – 13.30) – Join the meeting here.
UNISON recommends that you vote to reject the offer and indicate your willingness to vote for industrial action to seek to improve it.
If we don’t take a stand now, the Probation Service will think it can continue to run down the value of probation pay in the same way it has every year that HMPPS has been in charge. A strong turn out in the ballot and big majority to reject will help to get the Probation Service back to the negotiating table to improve the offer.
Any industrial action would be the subject of a separate formal industrial action ballot, so you will not be asked to undertake any industrial action on the basis of how you vote now. Industrial action could eventually take the form of strike action or action short of strike action.
Voting is now closed!
If you have any questions on the pay offer, please speak to your local UNISON branch in the first instance.