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New plans to cut the salaries of specialist probation officers who manage the risk of sex offenders could have a “catastrophic” effect on public safety, unions warn.
Sex offenders in England and Wales are often required to take part in Horizon, a programme designed to reduce their risk of reoffending. Around 1 in 10 sex offenders go on to commit a similar crime.
The programme is facilitated by specialised officers, many of whom have decades of experience working with sex offenders, but the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has decided the role will drop from band 4 to band 3 for new recruits from 1 August 2024, which will result in a pay cut of up to £10,000.
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Facilitators will no longer be required to be qualified probation officers, which comes with two years’ training, including risk management and risk assessment.
Around 93% of Horizon facilitators think the public will be at increased risk following these changes, according to an internal survey of members of the union Napo seen by Byline Times.
These changes are like “putting the teaching assistants in charge of the school,” says Laura, a specialist probation officer with experience facilitating and managing these programmes. Laura, (not her real name) added that it takes a lot of experience to be able to idenitfy the signs that someone may reoffend.
“People with 10 to 20 years’ experience are really good at picking up on the signs when someone is becoming risky,” the specialist probation officer says. “And we have a degree-level qualification in managing risk.
“My concern is that we’ll lose these experienced staff who are good at identifying risk, and I can think of a number of situations where staff running these programmes have identified risk that has led to us finding out that men have been having contact with children they shouldn’t have been, which has led to them being recalled to prison.”
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Facilitators who are currently at band 4 will have their pay frozen for three years, then it will drop to band 3, and their job roles will encompass a broader range of programmes.
The decision has caused a “serious loss of trust” among facilitators, says Max (not his real name), a probation officer with over a decade’s experience of facilitating sex offender programmes.
“A lot of people around me, with a lot of experience, are thinking about leaving the service,” he says.
According to NAPO’s survey, 77% of specialist probation officers say they will leave their team. This will leave inexperienced staff to do the work, says Napo’s Tania Bassett.
“Inexperienced staff will need to be trained in Horizon, which will take time, and in some cases there is no training provision,” she told Byline Times.
As a result, we expect large parts of the country to be left unable to deliver any sex offender work for quite a few months
Tania Bassett, Napo
“Existing groups are likely to be withdrawn as there won’t be any staff left to complete them. Evidence shows that, where a programme is only partially completed, risk of offenders increases.”
Probation officers that manage people on probation are supported by divisional sex offender units, which consist of specialist probation staff that deliver Horizon. They’re trained to conduct thorough risk assessments and sentence management plans for sex offenders, and provide tailored interventions.
“A lot of probation officers with caseloads lack the confidence of how to work with people with sexual convictions, and look to us for advice,” says Max.
The new plans will eliminate this oversight across the country, says Rebecca (not her real name), a senior probation officer, who declined to provide her name.