The Probation Service的动态

Transcript

Good morning and thank you all for being here today for the launch of our new strategy statement. I welcome everybody online as well. It's great to have so many people here and tuning in to hear about the work of the probation service as we move ahead into the next three years, changing lives in our communities for safer futures. That is the title of our new strategy and I'd like to pay particular thanks to Una Mcphillips, our Secretary General, for coming across this morning. To launch the strategy, owning a very welcome. Can I also acknowledge Channel Callahan, Deputy Secretary for Criminal Justice, who's joined us today, Amanda Stewart, chief executive of Preparation Board for Northern Ireland, Kieran Debris, chief executive of the Parole Board, Judge Michael White, Chair of the Parole Board, Helen Hall, chief executive of the Policing Authority and just arriving in at the back, Assistant Commissioner Paula Hillman from guardianship. Carter, thank you all for being here today with us. It's an important date for the Probation Service as we plan ahead. The publication of this three-year strategy articulates our ambitions and strategic areas of focus. I'm delighted with the support and endorsement of the Minister for Justice, Helen Mcentee TD that we can now share that strategy with you today as I start into my fifth year as Director. I stand proud of what the probation service has achieved and is achieving staff, a proud of a body of staff that is fully committed to us realizing our vision for safer and more inclusive communities. We're offending and this causes are addressed. The Probation Service provides a unique contribution to the criminal justice system, providing robust supervised community sanctions. We are a national organization delivered locally. We are operating in more than 50 locations around the country. And we work in the courts in the community and in prisons with adults and children and with all levels of the criminal justice system, including circuit, district and central criminal courts. And with the full range of offence types from public order up to including sex offences and offences involving loss of life. And regardless of who we work with. Or, where we work, the probation service remains focused on enabling those that are referred to us to consider the impact of their behaviour on victims, to take responsibility for that behaviour and to make meaningful and lasting changes to their lives in order that we can reduce the harm caused. In 2013, we worked with approximately 17,000 people in the community and 3000 people in custody. Our engagement and assessment and supervision skills are the core of our work. And we approach our work from the social work base, always believing in a person's capacity to change. Achieving our outcome through developing meaningful, impactful relationships with our clients whilst remaining fully aware of their obligations to comply with the order of the Court. The work we do with clients in the community has real and tangible benefits. For example, in 2023 the probation service staff managed over 1600 community service orders. Amounting to more than 200,000 hours of unpaid work in the community. In lieu of nearly 780 years of time spent in prison. Contributing over ???2 million worth of work in communities. As director, this is the second strategy that I've had the honour to compile and launch. Three years ago, still in the grips of the global pandemic, we gathered under far different circumstances to launch our previous strategy online. Despite the challenges we faced over that three-year period, we have successfully restructured our senior management team to enable us to more effectively Dr. our activity, strengthen our HR and innovatively respond to recruitment challenges. Revise our suite of risk assessment instruments so that we can respond more effectively to both our and our stakeholder needs and completing research to ensure our next steps are evidence based and can lead international. Best practice. In preparing our new strategy we have considered how we can add greater value to an ever evolving criminal justice system, how we can respond to the pressures on the Irish Prison Service. How we can prepare for increased activity with the appointment of new judges and how we can strengthen the quality and consistency of our work. In responding to these challenges, our new strategy builds on strong foundations established in probation practice in Ireland. Our strategy is designed to do to ensure we can deliver higher quality supervision and best practice to achieve positive outcomes for our clients and also for victims. It is focused on strengthening partnerships across the criminal justice system in terms of wider sectors and with communities to deliver a whole of society approach to rehabilitation. Under the strategy, the Probation service will build our capacity in response to social inclusion, including homelessness, addiction, mental health and employability, purposefully engaging cross departmentally and cross sectorally to find solutions to these well known and long standing challenges often faced by those. Referred to us. As an aside, this month is 40 years since I started my first social work training placement in Focus Ireland where we were aspiring to end homelessness and too many cases still are referred to us where this is a a real challenge. A core pillar of our strategy is empowering our staff. We recognized as a national organization we need to have the right people in the right place with the right skills, staff who feel supported, empowered and enabled in their challenging roles. And we will continue to invest in your training and development, in supporting your well-being and ensuring that you feel safe and feel appreciated and valued in the work that you do. The strategy also commits the full implementation of the Irish Probation Framework. The framework. The framework provides for the essential supporting structure for supervision of offenders in Ireland. It has been designed to capture the an approach which is consistent, effective and works to the highest standards across our professional practice and you'll hear more about this shortly from Una Doyle, Director of Effective Practice. Under the strategy, the service is also committed to maintaining our positive work environment, maximizing our use of technology and being more data centric. The strategy commits us to build organizational capacity through stronger governance, proactive workforce planning, and embracing both diversity and lived experience. My colleague Killian Smith, Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications, will give more detail about how we as an over 100 year old national organization are continuously moving forward. It is important today that I also recognise the vital role played by our community based organisations. In 2023 we provided over ???20 million to 60 projects that work with four and a half thousand of our clients. These projects respond to the needs of adults and children, men and women, members of the traveling community and new communities, providing a range of tailored services in local communities including training, education, offender behavior programs, accommodation. Services and drug and alcohol programs. Each project adds unique value to the work of the service and provides a range of interventions to support people making positive changes in their lives. Over the lifetime of this strategy, the Probation Service is fully committed to creating a network within our funded projects and together deliver dynamic service services that are responsive to the needs of our clients and to enable each one to play an active, positive role in their communities. Today we also publish a detailed action plan for 20/20/24 which identifies 65 actions linked to our high level goals in the strategy. The action plan, which is well underway, is sharpening our focus and will be used to measure outcomes on our performance. In the lifetime of our new strategy, we will implement a range of additional work plans which will inform key practice areas including restorative justice and community service. Shortly, my colleague Feeling they Canada Director of Operations for Prisoners and Reintegration, will speak in more detail about how we are driving and innovating community service delivery. Likewise, through a communications plan, we will continue to build a greater awareness of the role of the probation service and highlight what we are achieving each and every day. To conclude, much of the work of the Services Collaborative in nature, particularly with the Department of Justice, the Irish Prison Service and Guardianship Comma and the Court Service. Over the next three years, we will continue to maximise our alignment with these partners and strengthen our relationship with more recent partners, including the Parole Board and Cohen. We will also continue to purposefully engage with colleagues across the public service and civil society, including the HSE, Tusla, Pubel and local authorities and many others. Through the strategy that we launched today, the Probation service will evidence the value and impact of our work in the delivery of supervised community sanctions and our unique role in achieving safer and more inclusive communities. We're offending at its causes are addressed. Before I pass back to Michelle, I want to leave you with a short video which will give you a flavor of the direction of the probation service journey over the next three years. Thank you.