Lord Beecham – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Ministry of Justice

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Beecham on 2015-02-12.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what budgets have been set for professional development for (1) qualified, and (2) trainee, probation officers.

Lord Faulks

Under the Government’s Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, probation staff are now employed either by the National Probation Service (NPS) or one of the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs).

Probation Officers in the NPS are supported by the National Offender Management Service’s Human Resources Learning & Development team, which delivers professional skills training for the NPS. Funding for this work is found from within the National Offender Management Service’s overall Human Resources budget.

In addition, all NPS staff have free access to Civil Service Learning which includes a range of generic face to face and e-learning modules covering a wide range of subjects.

The professional development of probation officers employed by the 21 CRCs is the responsibility of those companies.

As regards trainee Probation Officers, their training and development is overseen by the National Offender Management Service, through the Probation Qualification Framework (PQF). Recruits undertake on-the-job training and study, leading to graduation in 15 months as qualified probation officers. The final budget for delivery of the PQF will depend on the total number of trainees recruited. Last autumn, we made over 270 training places available for new probation officers and a similar number in January this year. A further intake is planned for April. This represents the biggest investment in the professionalism of the probation workforce for some considerable time. The NPS will continue to use the PQF and the CRCs are also free to do so should they choose.