In a letter to youth justice service (YJS) leaders and youth offending team (YOT) management boards, seen by CYP Now, the departments “acknowledge the challenges many of you are facing with current levels of probation staff vacancies”.
Signed by Steph Roberts-Bibby, chief operating officer at the YJB, Alan Webster, deputy director of the MoJ’s Youth Justice Policy Unit and Andrea Bennett, regional director of the probation service, the letter states that the high level of probation officer vacancies in the youth justice system is “reflective of the current national resource pressures in the probation service”.
It notes that “increasing the recruitment, training and retention of probation staff is not a quick solution,” adding that government is committed to recruiting 1,500 newly qualified probation officers joining the service by March 2024.
Work is ongoing to retain current staff, it states.
Service leaders are also being encouraged to claim available funding for vacant posts, backdated to when it was last filled, as well as sharing data on empty posts and funding claimed so the MoJ and YJB can “have a clearer picture on what is happening at working level of the system”.
Chief inspector of probation Justin Russell wrote in his most recent annual report: “I recognise the strain the probation service is under to meet its own staffing requirements, it has a statutory obligation to fill these roles, which are essential to the effective transition of children from YJS to adult probation services and to the assessment and management of risk.
“As the staffing situation in the probation service improves over the coming year, I expect these posts to be filled as an important priority.”
Meanwhile, in a speech at the Association of Youth Justice Service Managers Conference last month (28 June), YJB chair Keith Fraser told services managers that they would be receiving a letter detailing plans to fill vacant posts.
He added: “As the prison population swells, I am aware of the pressure that is being leaked into the youth secure estate and onto YJSs. This is, of course, exacerbated by probation service recruitment issues.”
Fraser urged service managers to share views on “what a long-term and realistic solution looks like to probation support”.
Latest MoJ figures show that in the year ending March 2022 there were around 88,600 first-time entrants to the criminal justice system, of which around 8,000 were children aged 10 to 17.
