Action

In his speech at HMP Downview, Lord Timpson contrasted the misogyny and sexual harassment experienced by a young prison officer at work with the bravery of staff responding to help prison officers attacked last month at HMP Frankland.

“They ran towards danger, when others would run away. They are true heroes. And our thoughts are with the injured officers as they continue to recover.

That kind of bravery isn’t rare in the Service. Our probation officers, too, manage risk constantly, working with dangerous offenders to keep the public safe.

These are jobs where heroism happens daily, in environments more stressful, more pressurised, than people could possibly imagine.

The question is, then: how do we make this a Service worthy of the heroes at Frankland? Worthy of every hero in the Service?”

Recommendations

The Government has accepted all the recommendations from the Rademaker review and has pledged to begin implementing them immediately as part of its Plan for Change and says that it is committed to ensuring that unacceptable behaviour is tackled quickly and effectively. Lord Timpson made it clear both that this was the morally right thing to do and that it is key to try to staunch the continued loss of staff from both the prison and probation services. He said that the changes will go a long way to improving staff morale, safety and retention rates will the intention that prisons and probation can focus more on doing their jobs.

There are twelve recommendations in the Rademaker review with the three most important probably being:

• The establishment of an independent central unit to handle the reporting of claims of bullying, harassment and discrimination. At the moment, complaints are mainly heard by line managers who may themselves be complicit in the  bullying, harassment and/or discrimination behaviour
• The creation of an Independent Commissioner for HMPPS Professional Standards.
• Improving data collection on complaints by creating one database and regular updates to all staff.

Lord Timpson also said that work is underway to improve prison officer training via the Enable Programme  – “to ensure they not only have the technical skills needed but possess strong ethical foundations, too”. There will be a more structured, longer-term approach to training with higher standards, so staff will be better equipped and more likely to thrive in the workplace.

The Minister also mentioned that HMPPS’s Counter Corruption Unit is working directly with police forces across the country to identify and remove staff who abuse their position or engage in criminal conduct. There have been concerns that the ongoing rapid recruitment of prison officers in attempts to rebuild the workforce after the cuts during the years of austerity has resulted in less rigorous vetting and the appointment of a small number of staff who have entered the profession with the intention of exploiting their position. In 2024, tis Unit prosecuted 37 staff for involvement in corruption.

Lord Timpson pledged to roll out the values-based recruitment recently piloted for the probation service across the Prison Service.

Thanks to Road Ahead for kind permission to use the header image in this post which was previously published on Unsplash.