Probation staff red tape cut plea

26 July 2011 Last updated at 19:24 ET

Probation staff have been accused of taking an overly administrative approach to their work

Probation staff in England and Wales should spend more time dealing directly with offenders, MPs have said.

In a report, the Commons justice committee said it was “staggering” that probation officers can spend up to 75% of their time on paperwork.

MPs said the value effective probation officers can add comes primarily from direct contact with offenders.

Ministers say changes are being made to give probation staff more independence and cut bureaucracy.

The committee found staff had taken an “overly administrative” approach to their work.

‘Bean counting’ culture

A survey of probation officers found they were in contact with offenders for only 24% of their working day and the rest of their time was spent on the computer, in meetings, or writing letters and reports.

The committee blamed much of the paperwork on the National Offender Management Service, known as Noms, which it described as having a “tick box, bean counting” culture and said needed to be radically restructured.

MPs questioned whether Noms, which was established in 2004 and effectively merged the prison and probation services, was delivering good value for money.

The committee queried whether Noms was giving probation trusts the support and freedom they needed, or co-ordinating the supervision of offenders in jail and the community.

The report by MPs said: “We accept that probation officers have to do a certain amount of work which does not involve dealing directly with offenders.

“However, it seems to us staggering that up to three-quarters of officers’ time might be spent on work which does not involve direct engagement with offenders.”

‘Major problem’

It added: “While we do not want to impose a top-down, one-size-fits-all standard, it is imperative that Noms and individual trusts take steps to increase the proportion of their time that probation staff spend with offenders.

Meanwhile, the sentiments echoed by the committee of MPs were echoed by Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of probation service union Napo, who said the report confirmed that Noms has been “a major problem from the start”.

“Napo warned in 2004 that Noms would be a bureaucratic nightmare. It is scandalous that probation staff now spend 75% of their time on form-filling and responding to centrally driven emails,” he said.

He said the last 10 years had seen a “massive rise in the constant government monitoring of probation staff, to the detriment of face-to-face contact with offenders” which, he said, “does not enhance public protection but undermines it” and should be reversed.

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