Successful appeals total more than 100 already, says Napo
More than 500 probation officers are appealing against reassignment to new jobs as part of reforms being overseen by Justice Secretary Chris Grayling.
According to the National Association of Probation Officers (Napo), 119 of 553 appeals have already been successful, with the expectation that the number of total and successful appeals will rise substantially.
The job reallocations are part of a £450 million process of contracting out most probation work from next year to private contractors. The new roles involve low-to-medium risk offenders being supervised partly on a payment by results basis.
In addition, some probation officers have been told they will be working for outsourced companies, while others have been told they will be working for a soon-to-be-formed National Probation Service, which will exclusively deal with high-risk offenders.
As well as describing the splitting of roles as “divisive” Joanna Hughes, Napo deputy chair, said: “It’s not going to create a good atmosphere for reducing reoffending or protecting the public.”
The Probation Chiefs Association has said the move will waste “hundreds of years of experience” when the new structure rolls out.
The figures for successful appeals come from just 18 of 35 probation trusts, which operate in England and Wales. These trusts are responsible for overseeing offenders released from prison and licence and those on community sentences made by judges and magistrates in the courts.
Last week Napo and two other unions which represent probation professionals – Unison and the GMB – said they had referred the UK government to the International Labour Organisation because the Transforming Rehabilitation proposals Grayling is responsible for “will breach the ILO’s Forced Labour Convention by handing over the supervision of community payback to the private sector".
In 2012 the Ministry of Justice awarded the London Community Payback contract to the private contractor Serco. But according to Napo, the convention expressly requires that forced labour, carried out under a court order, should be supervised by the public sector, and those undertaking the labour should not be placed at the disposal of private companies.
Napo represents more than 8,000 members.