Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the retention of experienced (a) prisons and (b) probation staff in the last five years.

Overall resourcing levels are monitored through a number of processes which provide the appropriate level of information for staffing decisions to be made. At a local level, the workforce planning processes which are in place for prison groups and probation regions have the level of detail needed to manage current staffing levels and make accurate predictions around future needs.

A link to national resourcing is in place to ensure the accurate forecasting of Prison Officer Entry Level Trainees (POELT) and Professional Qualification in Probation (PQiP) new starters needed to maintain the recruitment pipelines and allow for the required qualification and training standards to be met. This is monitored nationally and feeds into national workforce planning decisions. Specialist staff are also in place to monitor major organisational changes.

We have created a retention programme which is linked to wider activities around employee experience, employee lifecycle and staff engagement at work. In parallel, we are looking at leaver trend data and using exit interview outcomes to establish the drivers of attrition in Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. This work consists of reviewing existing policy, process and benefit arrangements for staff and establishing how best to optimise them order to retain a leading presence in the labour market, as an employer of choice.