‘Madness’ of reform must be stopped, say Warwickshire probation workers

Robin Verso, the Warwickshire Probation Trust chairman, sent a letter to Chris Grayling to urge him to delay the reform for a at least six months.

And probation workers in Leamington staged 24 hours of industrial action from noon on Tuesday, urging passers-by at the town hall to sign their petition against the Government’s plans - which are abolishing probation trusts in England and Wales and transferring the supervision of 225,000 low and medium-risk offenders to ‘community rehabilitation companies’ on a payment-by-results basis by October 2014.

A much smaller national probation service is to manage 31,000 high-risk offenders and public protection cases.

In his letter to Mr Grayling, Mr Verso said: “We consider that the risks arising within the timescales planned are unacceptable.

“Our assessment is that performance is bound to be damaged and that public protection failures will inevitably increase.”

Dave Adams, chairman of the Warwickshire branch of the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO), said: “We cannot sit back and watch a high performing, highly-valued local probation trust be dismantled and sold off to the highest bidder for the sake of political dogma. We cannot allow history to record that we did nothing to try and stop this madness.”