Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of trends in the level of (a) recruitment, (b) morale and (c) retention of probation staff.

In April 2021 we published the first national Recruitment and Retention Strategy for the Probation Service which identified several key areas of focus.

The Probation Service is committed to increasing recruitment to fill Probation Officer vacancies, particularly in areas with significant local employment market challenges.

In 2020/21, we recruited a record 1,007 trainee probation officers. We are further increasing our recruitment to unprecedented levels, with a target 1,500 trainee Probation Officers being recruited this financial year (2021/2022).

As of 30 September 2021, the overall leaving rates for the Probation Service is 7.7%, which is an increase of 1.1%points from 6.6% at 30 June 2021. This figure is lower than the overall HMPPS leaving rate as of 30 September 2021, which is 10.1%.

The Probation Services Officer (PSO) leaver rate for 12 months to March 2021 (7.0%) was the lowest it had been in the past 5 years. The percentage as of 30 September 2021 stands at 8.4% which is an increase of 1.1% points as at 30 June 2021.

The Probation Officer (PO) leaving rates are 6.9% as of 30 September 2021 which is an increase of 1.1% points from 5.8% at the 30 June 2021.

The Senior Probation Officer (SPO) leaver rate for 12 months to March 2021 (3.3%) was the lowest it has been in the past 5 years; however, the decline needs to be treated with caution as this is likely to be an artificial decline due to the pandemic. It has since risen to 4.3% as at 30 September, which is an increase of 0.9% points from 3.4% at 30 June 2021.

As outlined in the Recruitment and Retention Strategy, our focus is addressing recruitment and retention challenges within the Probation Service, particularly for those Probation Delivery Units (PDUs) with the highest average Probation Officer vacancy rates over a 12-month period.

We have identified six common drivers of attrition across those regions where it is more challenging to recruit and retain probation officers. These drivers include:

• Pay and benefits
• Newly Qualified Officer (NQO) attrition
• High caseloads
• Lack of career progression
• Wellbeing
• Bullying, Harassment and Discrimination

Work is underway to address these six drivers of attrition and we are developing solutions to help regions retain staff which will strengthen our ability to help manage staff wellbeing and resilience.

We have introduced three new pathways to help retain experienced staff approaching retirement. This allows them to continue their current roles on more flexible terms or utilise their experience to help guide new starters by taking on new roles as Practice Tutor Assessors or Learning Coaches and reduce the pull on existing experienced Probation Officers to help with this workload.