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<p><strong>Table One: Vacancies across Probation Service Regions, September 2023,
all Probation Service grades</strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><strong>Probation
Service Region</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Vacancies (FTE)</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
East Midlands</p></td><td><p>28</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS East of England</p></td><td><p>274</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
Greater Manchester</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Kent, Surrey &
Sussex</p></td><td><p>77</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS London</p></td><td><p>457</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
North East</p></td><td><p>32</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS North West</p></td><td><p>77</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
South Central</p></td><td><p>176</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS South West</p></td><td><p>74</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
Wales</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS West Midlands</p></td><td><p>32</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
Yorkshire & the Humber</p></td><td><p>59</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Approved Premises</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p>
</p><p>Data shows average resource across the month, adjusted for joiners and leavers
within the month. Data shown as of September 2023, aligning with the most recent HMPPS
Workforce Quarterly publication. More recent data cannot be provided due to potentially
pre-empting future statistical publications.</p><p>Recruitment and retention remain
a priority across the Probation Service. We have injected extra funding of more than
£155 million a year to deliver more robust supervision, recruit thousands more staff
and reduce caseloads to keep the public safer.</p><p>We continue to focus efforts
on enhanced, centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions alongside regional
recruitment to help bolster the number of applications and improve time to hire for
key operational roles. We have also accelerated recruitment of trainee Probation Officers
(PQiPs) to increase staffing levels, particularly in Probation Delivery Units with
the most significant staffing challenges. As a result, over 4,000 PQiPs joined the
service between 2020/21 and 2022/23 which will increase Probation Officer staffing
numbers.</p><p>The Probation Service is in its second year of a multi-year pay deal
for staff. Salary values of all pay bands will increase each year, targeted at key
operational grades to improve a challenging recruitment and retention position. The
Probation Service has also introduced a Prioritisation Framework to provide clarity
on prioritisation of tasks and what can be reduced/paused when capacity issues begin
to impact on operational delivery.</p><p> </p><p><strong><em>Notes</em></strong></p><table><tbody><tr><td><p><ol><li>Vacancies
have been calculated as Required Staffing (Full Time Equivalent - FTE) minus Staff
in Post (FTE).</li><li>Where the number of Staff in Post (FTE) in a region exceeds
Required Staffing (FTE), the number of vacancies has been shown as 0 FTE. Summing
the figures in the table will not give the overall number of vacancies across the
Probation Service due the surpluses in some regions that haven’t been shown in the
table.</li><li>Vacancies have been netted off between grades and business units. As
a result, the overall vacancy figures presented mask the presence of vacancies at
both grade and business unit level.</li><li>Data have been taken from the Workforce
Planning Tool and are subject to inaccuracy as a result of the manual nature with
which returns are completed. This approach differs from the published statistics,
which uses data from the Single Operating Platform (our departmental HR system).</li><li>Staff
in Post (FTE) has not been adjusted for long-term absences (e.g. Trainee Probation
Officer training time). In addition, we have not factored in loans / temporary cover
/ agency and sessional.The actual resourced position will therefore differ as a result
of these.</li><li>Trainee Probation Officers are included in the data. Trainees spend
a proportion of their time training and the remainder of their time carrying out work
at a Band 3 PSO level. Both training time and time spent delivering caseload are included
in the Staff in Post (FTE) calculations, which means that number of vacancies is lower
than the actual gap between Required Staffing and frontline delivery.</li></ol></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>
</p></td></tr><tr><td><p> </p></td></tr></tbody></table>
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