It’s time social work and probation reconnect in England and Wales

The Probation Service in England and Wales is in crisis like the prisons and there are sound reasons to reform it, especially by using social work training and qualifications, with local rather than centralised delivery. 

This would also benefit the wider social work profession which has similar issues.

Significant problems in probation were set out in the outgoing chief inspector of probation’s annual report for 2022/23 and included:

• Long waiting lists and delays to the assignment of offenders
• Serious high profile case reviews following homicides (with more to follow)
• High caseloads and underfunding to meet increased demand
• Retention issues and low morale, together with reduced experience in staff due to the retirement of experienced officers 
• Centralised management within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) linked to the Prison Service since 2021, which lost the benefits of localised management and stronger partnerships with allied organisations.

How did it get to this? 

In the 1990s social work training and qualifications for probation officers in England and Wales was changed and replaced with separate offender management training (PQiP), albeit with some social work elements. This continues, without a recognised – or regulated outside of the service – professional qualification. 

In 2012 most of the service was privatised which seriously eroded standards and outcomes. Then in 2021, the damage by privatisation was recognised and the service was re-nationalised within the MoJ Prisons and Probation Directorate (HMPPS).

The prison crisis in recent years has increasingly led to most of the service being focused upon discharge licences – especially the large recent increases of early releases.

Probation staff morale and retention has deteriorated with examples of overwork, stress and resignations seen in a 2023 survey. Half of those surveyed said they experience stress and 40 per cent said they were likely to leave.

Outcomes have also deteriorated, with reoffending rates of over 55 per cent for those supervised after release. The lack of experience and social work skills in the staff inevitably increases pressures on them in assessing and managing risk, as well as coping with high workloads.

Community sentences preventing prison admissions are down by half compared to 2010, due to a lack of confidence by the courts in the probation service. 

The disproportionate number of women, care leavers, people from Black and minority communities and those with mental health issues in prison shows the failure of the criminal justice system in addressing social justice. 

How do we fix it? 

The most important reform would be to ensure the training, qualifications and professional development of probation officers are in social work, with PQiP as a career specialism like AMHP in mental health. The inclusion of criminal justice in this would have a positive impact on children’s and adults social work practice as well.

Currently, university probation trainers on PQIP cannot arrange social work placements for trainee probation officers due to MoJ restrictions, although the values and approach to rehabilitation include social work principles. 

The restoration of social work practice and qualifications for probation officers would help overcome the problem of retention and of wider engagement and professional development of probation officers within the social work sector. 

The new government has announced funding for 1,000 trainee probation officers, which is a big opportunity to make the change back to social work. 

There are skills and knowledge in probation which would also benefit social workers in other settings through training and multi-disciplinary work, including criminal justice and the voluntary sector. 

Other stakeholders have noticed gaps in knowledge about criminal justice issues among children’s and adults’ social workers.

The inclusion of holistic social work skills has a great deal to offer the rehabilitation of offenders and their communities. But the separation of social work and probation has led to a loss of interdisciplinary knowledge, skills and collaboration in person-centred interventions, addiction, trauma, mental health, domestic violence, family mediation, as well as working with those with lived experience and the focus on social capital. These are integral to social work practice and local community partnerships which could help reduce reoffending.

In Scotland and Northern Ireland criminal justice social workers never had their social work training and qualifications removed. They remain within, or allied to, local authorities – with better outcomes and reduced retention issues compared to those in England and Wales. 

Local delivery of probation is largely absent due to the civil service-run HM Prison Probation Service (HMPPS). Hence the governance and performance regime is disconnected from local networks and communities and is focused largely on prison discharges. 

There is limited or patchy probation involvement with local partners in key social work issues like safeguarding, domestic violence or lived experience within marginalised communities. The over-representation of Black, ethnic and other minorities in prisons illustrates the need to combine probation with local partners in work with offenders. 

The Youth Justice Board model has been more successful achieving higher quality performance and outcomes than the HMPPS. Youth Justice is also networked with local stakeholders such as councils or police and crime commissioners.

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority has shown how local joint commissioning of support to ex-offenders can be successfully developed between probation, the police and crime commissioner and local partners. 

There is concern about restructuring within the probation service. And local authorities experiencing unprecedented financial and capacity pressures in social care and generally are are wary of any transfers of responsibility without adequate resources. 

However, there is also a gathering consensus that the current situation is not working for staff, offenders or victims. 

Councils are also inevitably involved in victims and offenders through housing, care leavers, mental health and victim support. Engagement and partnership at a practitioner level is both practical and essential for probation and social work alongside better managed workloads and investment in community sentences and prison licences.

Social work practitioners, trainers and stakeholders all have an opportunity to submit views to the government review of sentencing chaired by David Gauke this month. We advocate putting probation central to restoring rehabilitation and restorative justice within our communities. 

A locally delivered and expanded Probation Service with social work skills and networks, combined with better use of technology, should be part of the solution to reducing prison admissions. 

Improved performance and transparency of outcomes of probation delivery in the rehabilitation of offenders in the community would come with localised partnerships and governance. Equally, social work would benefit from closing the gap that exists in England and Wales across the profession in not having criminal justice in scope.

Radical improvements are needed to achieve this ambition, alongside wider reforms in the criminal justice system and across social work. 

Keith Skerman has worked as a chief social worker in Scotland and a director of social services in England. Now retired, he is Co-chair of ADASS Associates.

Caroline Bald is co-chair of the BASW Criminal Justice Committee, a social work lecturer, and co-editor of the Routledge Handbook of International Criminal Justice Social Work. Both trained in social work and have worked as probation officers