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<p>The workforce position, at 31 March 2024, was 20,758 FTE Staff in Post working
in Probation Service grades (including those working in Approved Premises). This is
an increase of 728 FTE (3.6%) since 31 March 2023.</p><p> </p><p>Recruitment and retention
remain a priority across the Probation Service and we have injected extra funding
of more than £155 million a year since 2021 to deliver more robust supervision, recruit
more staff and reduce caseloads to keep the public safer.</p><p> </p><p>We have recruited
4,582 trainee Probation Officers between 2020/21 and 2023/24. Many of these trainees
have already qualified and taken up Probation Officer posts and we expect the remainder
of these intakes to qualify by the end of 2025 and begin to take on Probation Officer
caseloads. We will continue to run centralised recruitment campaigns in priority regions
to help bolster the number of applications.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Table One: Vacancies
across Probation Service Regions, March 2024, all Probation Service grades.</strong></p><p>
</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>45</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
East of England</p></td><td><p>204</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Greater Manchester</p></td><td><p>18</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
Kent, Surrey & Sussex</p></td><td><p>100</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS London</p></td><td><p>446</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
North East</p></td><td><p>50</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS North West</p></td><td><p>89</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
South Central</p></td><td><p>103</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS South West</p></td><td><p>71</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>67</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS
Yorkshire & the Humber</p></td><td><p>109</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>PS Approved
Premises</p></td><td><p>0</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p> </p><p><strong>Notes</strong></p><ol><li><em>Data
shows average resource across the month, adjusted for joiners and leavers within the
month. Data shown as of March 2024, aligning with the most recent HMPPS Workforce
Quarterly publication. More recent data cannot be provided due to potentially pre-empting
future statistical publications.</em></li><li><em>Vacancies have been calculated as
Target Staffing (Full Time Equivalent - FTE) minus Staff in Post (FTE). </em></li><li><em>Where
the number of Staff in Post (FTE) in a region exceeds Target 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 to the surpluses
in some regions that haven’t been shown in the table. </em></li><li><em>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.
</em></li><li><em>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). </em></li><li><em>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. </em></li><li><em>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 Probation
Services Officer 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 Target Staffing and frontline delivery.</em></li></ol>
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