News

File on Four covers probation privatisation

Yesterday BBC Home Affairs correspondent Danny Shaw investigated the government's plans to privatise probation for the Radio Four current affairs programme File on Four.

He found lots of people who thought it the plans were a terrible idea but few who thought it was a good idea. Apart...

19 February 2014
News

'Income inequality harms us all'

Research published in the journal Paediatrics has linked inequality to child maltreatment. Data from US counties have shown a relationship even after adjusting for...

19 February 2014
News

Jobseekers living in a 'culture of fear'

Jobseekers are being set unrealistic targets to find work by the Department for Work and Pensions under threat of losing their benefits. This leaving them, according to Archbishop Vincent Nichols, to 'depend solely on the handouts of the charity of food banks', reports...

19 February 2014
News

Police custody unsuitable for mental health patients

A ‘crisis care concordat’ signed by 22 national organisations, including the Department of Health, the Home Office and the charity Mind, says police custody should not be used because mental health services are not available, and police cars and other vehicles should not be used as ambulances to...

18 February 2014
News

Hundreds of probation officers appeal against new jobs

With the onset of probation work being contracted out next year, 'hundreds' of probation officers are appealing against the jobs they have been given. This is set to increase as more staff are informed of changes to their jobs and location of work.

Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, ...

18 February 2014
News

Police and Crime Commissioner abolition call

An incoming Labour government should abolish Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and replace them with boards that can better represent local interests, according to former Home Secretaries Alan Johnson and Charles Clarke.

...

14 February 2014
News

Once a thief, always a thief?

Baillie Aaron of Spark Inside gave a TEDx talk last year on resisting the label of 'offender' for people who have been convicted for offences. She calls for us to think of people as people first in a bid to...

12 February 2014
News

The House Magazine reviews probation plans

Our Director Richard Garside has written for a House Magazine policy review of the government's plans to privatise probation and introduce 'payment by results' (PbR).

Richard writes:

'Whether PbR will work in the terms the Government expects is impossible to

...
10 February 2014
News

Serco London Probation contract to end this year

In a further sign that the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is clearing the decks ahead of the planned probation privatisation, it has announced that Serco's Community Payback contract in London will stop by the end of this year.

The announcement was smuggled into a footnote in an MoJ press...

7 February 2014
News

When probation officers become debt collectors

We thought this Human Rights Watch (HRW) film on for-profit probation work in the United States gives a worrying glimpse into the possible future of probation work in England and Wales.

Chris Albin-Lackey of HRW says in the film:

'Many of these probation companies

...
6 February 2014