December 2020
Price: £150 PLUS VAT
Format: DOWNLOADABLE PDF
***Full-scale policy conference taking place online***
This conference focuses on significant changes in the remit of HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).
Areas for discussion include:
- the NPS’s new responsibilities - implementation and resourcing
- the enhanced role for the voluntary and third sector - future provision of probation services, and how it will work and be run
- next steps for offender monitoring and supervision
- meeting the individual needs of service users
- the impact of the pandemic
The conference is bringing together stakeholders with key policy officials who are due to attend from the NPS; HMCTS; HMPPS; Home Office; the MoJ; DHSC; the Government Legal Department; and the NAO.
A scan of relevant developments:
- Government launches Root-and-Branch review of the parole system - looking at the future of the Parole Board, and aimed at improving transparency and public confidence
- A Smarter Approach to Sentencing - launch of the Sentencing White Paper, with the Lord Chancellor announcing that the government will:
- empower probation - with a focus on proactive supervision with greater room for discretion and building relationships with offenders, and a Dynamic Framework
- deliver a Prison Education Service - so offenders can obtain the skills needed to re-join society, whilst reducing crime levels
- scale up the Community Sentence Treatment Requirement programme - for tailored support for more offenders with addressing mental health and substance misuse issues
- expand the use of electronic tagging and the introduction of sobriety tags, and legislate to increase the maximum amount of time monitoring devices can be imposed to two years
- Government to take control of unpaid work to strengthen community sentences - the announced transfer of responsibility for probationary unpaid work schemes and behaviour programmes away from Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) to the National Probation Service and taking effect in June 2021
- the third sector - their new role in probation, with:
- charities able to compete for £100m to provide services in education, employment and accommodation, and support those with addictions
- Government highlighting last year that it did not believe it had done enough to involve charities in the Transforming Rehabilitation Programme
- the Probation Workforce Strategy - recently announced by the Government, and designed to improve offender supervision and public protection:
- enhancing training - new training programmes to help upskill and retain staff following concerns surrounding staffing shortfalls
- easing workload - providing new opportunities to prevent overwork and enable increased case sharing
- recruitment - expanding the NPS workforce and addressing recent difficulties in filling vacancies, with a target of 1,000 new probation officers by 2021
- utilising technology - including AI, to enable more time for working directly with offenders - particularly low-risk criminals with underlying problems, such as addiction
- diversifying the workforce - and recruiting ex-offenders in appropriate roles to ensure the NPS is more representative of service users
- the National Probation Service Health and Social Care Strategy 2019-22, that aims to:
- reform the healthcare afforded to offenders - across seven priority areas, including substance misuse and physical heath
- develop pathways into care for those in the probation system
- allow local areas to develop their own action plans to help reduce variation in quality of care between regions
- Coronavirus (COVID-19): The impact on probation services - the recent Justice Select Committee Report, with concerns that some checks on high risk offenders were not carried out during lockdown
The discussion in detail:
- transfer of responsibilities to HMPPS:
- impact - what is needed for the changes to be able to improve the quality, consistency and effectiveness of probation services in the UK, including reducing regional variation
- skills and resources - ensuring that the NPS and HMPPS have sufficient funding and staffing to meet the new responsibilities, and that staff are provided with sufficient levels of training
- future structure and provision of services
- standards, regulation, oversight and accountability - the future design of probation service delivery, and the way forward for implementation
- CRCs:
- their future role with government indicating that it still envisages their involvement in the delivery of specialist services, such as addiction support, employment and training
- how best to integrate these privately-provided elements within the broader probation framework going forward
- the third sector:
- its wider role in service delivery
- how it can structured so as to complement and enhance work which will be done by the NPS
- meeting needs at a local level - as well as developing services to fit with the demands of prison governors, Probation Regional Directors and Police and Crime Commissioners
- collaboration - the working of the partnership model announced last year between the MOJ, HMPPS and the DWP aimed at better preparing offenders for future employment
- offender care and monitoring
- the Sentencing White Paper - the impact of the Government’s objective of empowering probation, with new structures, professional discretionary powers and approaches to supervision
- the National Probation Service Health and Social Care Strategy - examining its plans for healthcare reform and local approaches to probation
- tackling re-offending - looking at rehabilitation through education, social integration and employment, including
- current risk assessments
- approaches such as the risk-need-responsivity model
- meeting offenders’ individual needs following prison - timely provision of accommodation and benefits payments, costs of mental health and other relevant treatments and support
- offender monitoring - design and implementation of the new responsibilities for the NPS in respect of low or medium risk offenders as well as those consider high-risk
- consistency - what more may be needed to ensure sufficient levels of scrutiny in the monitoring of offenders throughout all stages of the probation process
- technology - its potential to improve co-ordination and inform decisions in the administration of probation services including the introduction of sobriety ankle tags
The agenda:
- Equipping the NPS for its new areas of responsibility - next steps for ensuring adequate funding, staffing levels and staff training
- Improving the quality of probation services and reforming the system - standards, transparency, accountability and the continued role for CRCs in the provision of specialist services
- Assessing the key goals for the probation service and how best to meet them - rehabilitation, reoffending rates, proportionality and public safety
- The way forward for ensuring high standards of offender monitoring, observation and support throughout the probation process
- Next steps for policymakers in implementing reform of the probation service
Policy officials attending:
Our forums are known for attracting strong interest from policymakers and stakeholders. Places have been reserved by parliamentary pass-holders from the House of Lords and the House of Commons Library, and officials from the National Probation Service; the HMCTS; HMPPS; the Home Office; the Ministry of Justice; the Department of Health & Social Care; the Government Legal Department; and the National Audit Office. Also due to attend are representatives from the Achieve NW Connect; Addiction Recovery Agency; Agoriad Cyf; Aspire Oxfordshire; Bedfordshire Police; Brighton Women's Centre; B Thompson Consultancy; Calm Mediation; Collective Voice; Derbyshire County Council; Devon and Cornwall Police; Durham Tees Valley Community Rehabilitation Company; Gamcare; Henry Smith Charity; Hestia; HM Inspectorate of Prisons; National Approved Premises Association; Office of the Police and Crime Commissioner; Probation Institute; RFEA Project Nova; SafeLives; School Of Allied Health & Community, University of Worcester; Sheffield Hallam University; Shelter; Staffordshire University; The Reader Organisation and Wales Restorative Approaches Partnership.
This is a full-scale conference taking place online***
- full, four-hour programme including comfort breaks - you’ll also get a full recording to refer back to
- information-rich discussion involving key policymakers and stakeholders
- conference materials provided in advance, including speaker biographies
- speakers presenting via webcam, accompanied by slides if they wish, using the Cisco WebEx professional online conference platform (easy for delegates - we’ll provide full details)
- opportunities for live delegate questions and comments with all speakers
- a recording of the addresses, all slides cleared by speakers, and further materials, is made available to all delegates afterwards as a permanent record of the proceedings
- delegates are able to add their own written comments and articles following the conference, to be distributed to all attendees and more widely
- networking too - there will be opportunities for delegates to e-meet and interact - we’ll tell you how!
Full information and guidance on how to take part will be sent to delegates before the conference
