Community Probation Services' change programme

The Expert Panel established to work with Community Probation Services (CPS) in March 2009 recently released a comprehensive change programme.

Chair of the Expert Panel, Paula Rebstock, says the programme has been developed by CPS with the support of the Panel.

“CPS is in a strong position to make major changes in its approach to service delivery. It also benefits from the commitment of skilled staff, which will help it to move forward,” she says.

“CPS has been predominantly focusing on sentence compliance and has achieved some significant gains in this area. However, this focus is only one of three critical and overlapping areas. It is equally important that CPS focuses on reducing the likelihood of offenders re-offending and minimising the risk of harm to others.”

A critical feature of the new approach will be better targeting of time, effort and resources according to the risk each offender presents – not just  according to the sentence they are on.

A new assessment tool being piloted in Canada and New Zealand will also be used to provide a more accurate measurement of the offender’s dynamic (or changing) risk throughout their sentence. This will help probation staff make decisions as they manage the offender.

A new chief probation officer role, reporting to the general manager of CPS, will also be established. The chief probation officer will be responsible for practice leadership and will provide direct support in the ongoing design of probation practice. The Expert Panel considered that with the move to a new model of practice, where staff will be making more decisions within a new, well-structured, supported decision framework, the senior management group, managers and staff needed more support.

The chief probation officer will also review practice in specific cases, and when undertaking reviews of major incidents will report directly to the chief executive on findings and recommendations.

A knowledge bank will also be available for staff as a key part of the practice framework. This will hold all the relevant research and information to support staff in implementing mandatory standards and making decisions within the supported decision framework.

Paula says that having worked with the senior management group over the last few months, the Panel is confident they have the capability to drive these significant changes in the organisation.

“CPS has developed an exciting change programme that will transform both the way probation delivers services and the results it will achieve.”

Key recommendations of the Expert Panel:

• Sentence compliance will continue to be a major focus, but CPS will also concentrate on two other key areas – reducing the likelihood of offenders re-offending, and minimising the risk of harm to others
• Establish a chief probation officer role
• Shift from classification of risk to the management and reduction of risk
• Move from a highly prescriptive and procedure-based framework to one where more professional judgment is used
• Promote clearer accountability and greater responsibility among staff
  Significant gains can be made from a fundamental rethink and redesign of probation activities
• Changes to be rolled out from March 2010 to March 2012.