Outcry after probation firm collapses after privatisation

A PROBATION services provider has gone into administration after what union bosses called a “disastrous privatisation programme” under former justice secretary Chris Grayling.

The collapse of Working Links, which owns three Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) delivering probation services in Wales, Avon and Somerset, and Devon and Cornwall, should be a “wake-up call” for the Government, unions said.

In Wales, the service is also due to be renationalised next year and the MoJ said it will be looking at bringing this forward.

The Cardiff-based Wales CRC employs about 430 staff in 23 offices across Wales and manages nearly 9,000 offenders, according to figures.

Napo, a union campaigning for probation services to be returned to public ownership, said it had repeatedly warned the Government of the situation.

General secretary Ian Lawrence said: “Napo has continually pleaded with ministers to terminate the contracts between the MoJ and Working Links following highly critical reports from HM Inspectorate of Probation and a litany of high-profile Serious Further Offences including a number of murders.”

Among those murders was that of Conner Marshall. The 18-year-old was killed in Porthcawl in 2015 by David Braddon, who was being supervised by the CRC but had missed eight probation appointments.

Under Mr Grayling, ministers overhauled the arrangements for managing offenders in 2014 in a partial privatisation known as Transforming Rehabilitation.

The National Probation Service was created to deal with high-risk cases, while remaining work was assigned to 21 CRCs.

It comes as a “deeply troubling” report by Dame Glenys Stacey, HM Chief Inspector of Probation, revealed that staff at one of the companies were “under-recording the number of riskier cases because of commercial pressures”.

Dame Glenys said: “The professional ethos of probation has buckled under the strain of the commercial pressures put upon it here, and it must be restored urgently.”

Justice Secretary David Gauke said Dame Glenys’ report was “damning” and it was “unacceptable” if offenders were being classified on the basis of trying to meet a target.

Shadow Justice Secretary Richard Burgon said the system was “clearly broken”, adding: “This is yet another public service severely damaged by Chris Grayling and the Conservatives’ obsession with privatisation.We need a probation system that prioritises keeping the public safe rather than boosting the profits of private companies.”