May 19, 2004: More Money for Probation
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Correctional Services Paul Goggins MP has announced that local Probation Areas will be awarded an extra £16.1m. The money will provide:
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an increase of 1 per cent to each of the 35 non-metropolitan probation areas, totalling £3.3m
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£3.5m for the seven metropolitan areas (including £1.3m for London)
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a further £2.3m to improve services in London (making a total of £3.6m or 3.9 per cent additional funding for London)
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£6m additional capital funding for investment in new buildings or the refurbishment of existing properties
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£1m to cover new revenue costs that the extra capital spending will entail
In addition, areas will receive funding to recruit 780 Trainee Probation Officers (TPOs) and 365 Probation Service Officers (PSOs), so that the Probation Service is equipped to deliver new community sentences that will be brought in as part of the Criminal Justice Act 2003.
The Criminal Justice Act 2003 introduces a new sentencing framework and replaces current community and custodial penalties with the Community Sentence, Custody Plus, Custody Minus, and Intermittent Custody. It is anticipated that the current workload of the National Probation Service will rise from 205,000 offenders daily to approximately 245,000 when all the provisions are implemented.
The new National Offender Management Service (NOMS), which brings together the management of the Prison and Probation services, is critical to the successful delivery of the Act and more information about the changes is contained in the Government’s response to the Correctional Services Review, Reducing Crime, Changing Lives.
TPOs undertake a two-year degree course that combines academic and practice learning and leads to the award of the Diploma in Probation Studies and qualification at NVQ Level 4. PSOs operate at NVQ Level 3 and have a variety of in-service training courses to equip them to deliver services such as enhanced community punishment, accredited programmes and basic skills assessments. They also have the opportunity to study for the Certificate in Community Justice.