16-09-2013 MPs urged to consider what the plans for the future of probation mean for their constituents.
The Independent Probation Alliance urges all MPs to consider the implications of the government’s plans for the future of probation services. Please click here to read IPA letter.
21-05-2013 What about the risks and accountability? The Independent Probation Alliance response to government's probation reforms.
Please click here to read IPA statement.
08-05-2013 Reforming rehabilitation services – at the expense of public safety?
The Independent Probation Alliance speaks out in advance of the government’s rehabilitation reforms. Click here to read our statement.
11-01-2013 Privatising Probation – the dangers of experimenting with payment by results
Independent Probation Alliance co-founder David Scott’s lead letter in The Times today expressed serious concern that the Probation Service is a national asset in danger of being squandered and potentially catastrophic for public safety and rehabilitation in England and Wales. He viewed the government probation proposals as nothing less than the dismantling of a state funded service to fund services to short-term prisoners. What’s more there is no government mention of the year-on-year improvement in probation performance nor its determined efforts to be at the heart of modernising criminal justice. He argued that it is vital the government’s proposals are vigorously and publicly debated and the risks exposed.
The questions that need to be urgently addressed are: What is the evidence for such a major extension of payment by results in a sector as complicated as criminal justice where so many social factors impact on reoffending? How will diverse local responses to offending be nurtured within a large-scale national privatisation? How will risk of serious further offending, about which the public is so concerned, be better managed across wider private and voluntary sector boundaries? How will the vital core of probation professionalism and expertise be developed and sustained not just to meet existing challenges but those posed by newly emerging patterns of offending, such as cyber crime, honour killings and slavery?
He reflected on the sad inevitability of criminal justice being caught in the crossfire of party politics and how probation’s current position is in large part due to being shorn of its national leadership years ago. Finally, he passionately urged champions of probation to step forward before the service is broken up for political and ideological experiment.
Please click here to read The Times letter The dangers of a privatised probation service www.thetimes.co.uk
26-10-2012 Dealing with offenders in the community - Serious concerns about the government’s proposed changes
The Independent Probation Alliance questions how public protection will be served in the absence of clarity over who has overall accountability for offenders in the community. Please click here to read our statement.
20-10-2012 Politics of Justice - Punishment and Rehabilitation
The Independent Probation Alliance recommends you read this thought provoking article, ‘The Politics of Justice’, described by one of our reviewers as “a typically superbly articulated piece from David Faulkner.” David is an Associate at the University of Oxford Centre for Criminology. Please click here
15-10-2012 Look at the evidence - The Independent Probation Alliance challenges the new Justice Secretary to look at what works
The Alliance responds to Chris Grayling’s ‘get tough on crime’ proposals – click here to read the IPA’s letter in today’s Guardian.
25-06-2012 Major reforms to probation - the Independent Probation Alliance responds to the government's proposals
An alliance comprising a group of people with an expert knowledge of probation - derived from academic, parliamentary and operational business and leadership experience - has been formed to speak out about the government's proposed radical reforms to probation and community sentences in England and Wales. Please click to read the IPA’s two submissions to the government’s consultations. Document 1. Document 2
25-06-2012 The Point of Probation
Why Probation? Brief and to the point - Professor Rob Canton, Head of Research, Community and Criminal Justice at De Montfort University, Leicestershire succinctly champions the value of probation, demolishing some of the commonly held preconceptions and mistaken assumptions about its role along the way. Click here to view
12-05-2012 The difference between leadership and management
Sue Egersdorff, Director for Early Years, National College for School Leadership, has come out top with her response to Chief Communications first tweet challenge, issued 24 April, to define the difference between leadership and management. She recommends listening to leadership expert and author Simon Sinek on the Ted Talks web site. Click on the image below to hear.