Government’s announcement on probation – 2019

We commend the Government for taking decisive action on the plethora of evidence over recent years that the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms have not delivered. Today’s announcement is a huge opportunity to drive dramatic change for people leaving prison or under community supervision and for wider society.
The new system must have people at its heart. People leaving prison need access to high quality rehabilitative and resettlement services and need consistency of support.  We know from our work at Nacro that having somewhere to live, financial support, a job or training, access to healthcare and family and support networks are all crucial to resettlement and reducing reoffending. Now is the time to truly get all of this right. Through this period of significant change we need to keep our focus on supporting the people probation is there to help and those who work to support them.