‘Probation poser’ raises plenty of questions

IN your Editorial (Yorkshire Post, October 5), you talk about a “probation poser” and the challenges that the Government’s proposal to privatise its work raises. You rightly suggest that the Government should think twice due to the vital and serious nature of the work of probation, managing offenders, some high risk, in the community.

Probation work is extremely complex and requires skilled and experienced practitioners. Such expertise is unlikely to be acquired overnight by new providers of services.

Currently probation trusts work with offenders in all risk categories and throughout each stage of the criminal justice process.

Bringing in a number of new providers could jeopardise the existing integrated approach to managing risk.

Nationally, probation is delivering high performance across the piece and was 
recently the first ever public sector winner of the British Quality Foundation gold medal for excellence.

These are hardly signs of a struggling organisation.

Locally, West Yorkshire Probation has been consistently reducing reoffending since the current statistics began in 
2005. We are continually in
the top six trusts in England 
and Wales for reducing reoffending and have just received a very good bill of health as the result of an inspection of our work.

Rather than struggling to work closely with the police, colleagues in West Yorkshire Probation and West Yorkshire Police founded what are now national public protection arrangements.

Our working arrangements could hardly be closer, which is a significant benefit to our local communities.