Emma warned that the Government’s reforms to the probation service would make managing offenders more difficult, as she questioned the Justice Secretary in Parliament today.
Under the Government’s proposals high risk offenders will continue to be managed by the public sector, but low and medium risk offenders will be supervised by private contractors. Many in the Probation Service have questioned how this fragmentation of the system will impact on the way offenders are managed.
Emma asked the Secretary of State: “Local service providers have expressed concerns to me about how a fragmented service will manage changes in offenders’ risk levels. Given that risk levels change in about a quarter of cases, it will be common for offenders to transfer between providers. How will the Secretary of State ensure the continuity of offender management does not suffer as a result?”
The Secretary of State replied that ‘co-location’ would help retain links between providers, by keeping all providers on the same site.
However, local service providers in South Shields have warned that separation of services is highly likely as private companies take over probation contracts, as well as warning that inexperienced contract staff will not have the expertise to be able to recognise the ‘triggers’ which determine how offenders move between categories.
Speaking after Justice Questions, Emma said:
“The Government’s probation reforms will break up a service that is working well. Every single Probation Trust is rated as either good or excellent, yet the Secretary of State wants to take offender management out of their hands and give it over to private companies with no experience in this area.
“What is now a well-coordinated system will become an organisational nightmare, as responsibility for managing offenders transfers is passed between different organisations. Ultimately these changes will put public safety at risk.”
Northumbria Probation Trust was recently given the highest grade of ‘Excellent’ in the latest review by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS).