Midlands Consortium: Becoming a Probation Officer: The work of a Probation Officer



Becoming a Probation Officer > The work of a Probation Officer


	Introduction

	About the training programme

	What a trainee does

	How to apply

		The work of a Probation Officer

	Hear from offenders

	Professional organisations and trade unions



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	The full time salary for a trained Probation Officer starts at £26,229 (under review)


	Find out more about the work of a Probation Officer Download PDF (184k) Download DOC (40k)

	Did you know? Offenders completed over 5 million hours of compulsory unpaid work across England and Wales last year - and the Government intends this to double next year. If you would like more details about performance matters in the National Probation Service visit the website of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) HMIP reports independently to government ministers concerning probation services performance and makes recommendations for good practice.

The work of a Probation Officer

Probation staff:

provide reports on people charged with an offence - this helps Magistrates and Judges decide on the sentence they pass in court
enforce community sentences by ensuring offenders are supervised and undertake interventions to reduce the likelihood of re-offending.
This may include:
- unpaid work that benefits the community
- offending behaviour programmes
- drug misuse testing and treatment

If offenders don't co-operate then probation staff arrange return to court for a further punishment. This may be an additional requirement of their community sentence, a fine or in some cases imprisonment
deliver specialist programmes for offenders proven to reduce further offending
provide Prison Governors with specialist reports. These help assess whether or not a prisoner should be released into the community. And if so under what conditions e.g. curfew/tagging order or probation supervision
work with prisoners before and after their release from prison. Tackles the causes of their offending. Re-integrates them into the community on their release
liaise with victims of serious crime. Keeps them informed about prisoner's progress in prison. Obtains feedback about any concerns they have about proposed release
work with employment, education and accommodation services to help offenders live crime-free lives. Support in these areas has been shown to reduce the chances of people offending again
work with other agencies and organisations for local crime reduction and community safety e.g. police, courts, local authorities, health services, substance misuse/drug services, voluntary agencies, Youth Offending Teams.



		Community Sentencing As part of the reform of sentences, the various kinds of community order for adults have now been replaced by a single generic community order which has a range of possible requirements. Courts are now able to choose different elements to make up a bespoke community order. Download an information sheet about the new generic community sentence: Download PDF (48k), Download Word Doc (32k). Find out more about the Criminal Justice Act. Read a copy of the Act.



		Find out more about How we manage offenders who are given a community sentence or are recently released from prison. For a full outine, and rationale, behind current ways of working with offenders visit ‘What Works to Reduce Offending' Probation staff work alongside a range of other professionals to help reduce all types of crime, from alcohol and drug-related crime, to domestic violence and hate crime. Find out more about the different ways of reducing crime. For facts about crime see the British Crime Survey. Visit the Victims Virtual Walkthrough on the criminal justice system. Victim Support is an independent charity which helps people cope with the effects of crime: www.victimsupport.org.uk The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (CCJS) is a charity which aims to inform and educate about all aspects of crime and the criminal justice system from an objective standpoint, and in accordance with the Centre's values. They hope to encourage and facilitate healthy debate and understanding of the complex nature of issues conerning crime.

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