Crisis in probation service staffing sees killers and paedophiles go unmonitored

01 January 2024 , 17:50

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Sexual predator Jordan McSweeney, 29, who killed Zara Aleena in Ilford, east London, in June 2022, but was wrongly considered medium risk (Image: PA)

Murderers, child abductors and sex offenders are at risk of not being properly monitored amid a shortage of more than 2,000 probation officers.

Staffing deficits have rocketed by fivefold since June 2020, with Labour analysis revealing the workforce gap has grown from 400 to 2,141 people. Every probation service in the country is now understaffed by at least 95 officers. The most extreme deficit is in London, which has a 351 shortfall – nearly 40% of required workers. Meanwhile, nearly one in five prospective probation officers are quitting before they even qualify.

A damning report earlier this year revealed failings in the probation service led to law graduate Zara Aleena’s killer Jordan McSweeney being wrongly considered medium risk. At the time Keir Starmer warned “a botched-then-reversed privatisation, after a decade of underinvestment” by the Government was to blame. In its 2022/23 report, the Probation Inspectorate slammed the Tories’ management of the service.

Ms Aleena was walking home when she was sexually assaulted and killed (PA)

The statement added: “The Probation Services’ ability to accurately assess and robustly manage potential risks of serious harm from people on probation was already its weakest area of performance before the pandemic.” It added two-thirds of individual cases inspected across ten regions were “insufficient”.

Shadow Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said: “These findings paint a vivid picture of a service in chaos. The Conservatives are failing to keep the creaking probation service properly staffed or managed effectively, and these shortfalls have dangerous consequences.

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Labour Shadow Secretary for Justice Shabana Mahmood (Philip Coburn /Daily Mirror)

“Given the high-profile and tragic failures in the probation service, the Tories must sort this out urgently. Chronic understaffing points to a demoralised workforce and overstretched officers.” In 2021 the Government unified the Probation Service, meaning staff from private sector rehabilitation companies were included in the stats from then on. The required staffing levels therefore increased, with staff absence numbers also jumping. And a Ministry of Justice spokeswoman said: “We’ve recruited an extra 750 frontline probation staff in the past year, adding to the record 4,000-plus trainees who’ve joined thanks to £155million of extra investment every year since 2020.”

Sophie Huskisson