30/08/2022
Police Oracle
Probation performance has been predominantly above target during the latest quarter according to MoJ figures.
Last week the Ministry of Justice published the annual probation performance statistics covering the year up to the end of March 2022. As regular readers will know, this means that the stats cover the last three months of the Transforming Rehabilitation era and the first nine months of the reunified probation service.
The statistics make a welcome contrast with the inspection reports conducted in the reunified era. So far Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation have published nine reports on the performance of probation delivery units undertaken since the reunification of probation in June 2021. Of the nine PDUs to be inspected since reunification, six have been rated “inadequate” (the lowest possible ranking) and three as “requiring improvement”.
The Chief Inspector, Justin Russell is so concerned about performance levels, many of them closely linked to dire and worsening staff shortages (see our article here), that he told the Justice Select Committee that the probation service is currently “in survival mode”.
However, the MoJ stats strike a more encouraging note, revealing that probation performance has been predominantly above target. The stats show that, on a national level, 8 out of 16 probation service levels were above or equal to their target at the end of 2021-22. Of the 14 service levels measured quarterly, 13 improved in the January to March 2022 quarter compared to the October to December 2021 quarter.
The employment figures for people on probation are particularly encouraging. In the year to March 2022, 13.0% of prison leavers were employed 6 weeks post release (excluding cases where the status was unknown), this is up from 9.6% in the previous year.
In the same one year period, 17.3% of prison leavers were employed 6 months post release (excluding cases where the status was unknown), this is up from 14.0% in the previous year.
Finally, 38.8% of persons sentenced to a community order were employed 6 months post their sentence (excluding cases where the status was unknown), this is up slightly too, from 36.7% in the previous year.
The long-standing problem of finding secure housing on release from prison may be improving slightly too. In the year to March 2022 86.8% of prison leavers were housed on the night following release (excluding cases where the status was unknown), this is up from 85.5% in the previous year.
In the same one year period, 75.3% of prison leavers were in settled accommodation 3 Months post release (excluding cases where the status was unknown), again up slightly from 74.4% in the previous year.
Finally, 84.8% of persons sentenced to a community order were in settled accommodation 3 Months post their sentence (excluding cases where the status was unknown), this is up from 82.5% in the previous year.
Despite the overall increase in performance, there are still clearly plenty of areas for improvement. While the percentage of targeted interventions for people convicted of sexual offences exceeds the target set, the fact that the target is just 48.2% speaks volumes of the persistent problems in this area of operation.
The same can be said about unpaid work where performance again exceeds the target but the target is pitifully low – just 35% of unpaid work orders are expected to be completed within the one year period allowed by the legislation. Of course, the work involved in reunifying probation at such speed during the pandemic cannot be over-stated. If the service can succeed in recruiting sufficient staff, we can hope to see further improvements in performance when the annual statistics are published this time next year.
Readers interested in reading the full report can do so here.