Performance and development

Accreditation and training for members

The year was a busy one for training and accrediting members in all areas of Parole Board work. As in other years, one of the largest events is the yearly new member training. This consists of a week of intensive work which familiarises the new members with the Parole Board, its processes and practices, the law and principles behind the casework and specific areas of casework. This training is followed up with mentored assistance in the casework before new members are accredited to sit on panels.

This year also saw the largest ever intake of new judicial members, both sitting and retired, in order to address the ever-increasing need for chairing oral hearings.

Following the work carried out last year where a group of members worked through a continuing professional development plan, we have begun the work of linking developing practice to accreditation and mentoring.  In order to enable this work to progress further the Performance and Development Committee commissioned a review of accreditation, quality monitoring and mentoring to look to create a model for the integrated development of members. This work was presented formally to the Committee in March 2010, and will be the basis for further consideration in the coming year.

At the same time work began on drawing together the competencies and resources for member development into a coherent format. This fed into the principles behind the recruitment process for new members in the 2010 recruitment round.

Other training activities included sessions on recalls, ICM and IPP chair training, and the year culminated in March in a four day residential training event for some of the judicial members that were recruited in this year.  Development days were held on the newly created reasons framework, victim participation in oral hearings and on the consultation launched by the MOJ on the future of the Parole Board itself.

The challenge for the coming year is to ensure that the next intake of new members receive the full support, development and time needed to learn the complex and different types of casework, while at the same time responding to the intense pressures to actually carry out the work. It is anticipated that the 2010 new member intake will be a large one, in order to meet business needs.

Staff development

Two significant programmes of staff development took place during the year, one for our Team Managers and one for our Case Managers.  The Team Managers focussed on managerial practice to support and shape their team workers efforts, and the Case Managers looked at, among other things, their own personal style and how this affected their approach to work and to their colleagues.  Both programmes were well-received and provide strong foundations for increasing our staff's ability to deliver the work of the Parole Board.

All staff took part in one of the seminars we ran in-house on equality and diversity.  The sessions were designed to help participants to be more aware of their legal obligations and to feel more comfortable with the standards of behaviour required and how to challenge unacceptable behaviour.  The sessions were facilitated by the Justice Academy, the Ministry of Justices learning and development section, which we have been able to access for the first time.  The Justice Academy has also provided training on Deputizing for your Manager which staff are required to complete before taking on extra team responsibilities in their managers absence.  A number of managers also attended a one-day seminar on dealing with difficult conversations in the workplace. In addition to this we have run a series of training sessions on Excel, to help staff work more effectively with this programme.

We have encouraged operational staff to work more closely with stakeholders and the majority of staff have attended prisons to contribute to Lifer days, therapeutic community visits etc where they have met with prisoners and facilitated Q&A sessions about the parole process.  A number of staff have contributed to seminars and workshops organised by the Ministry of Justice on improving operational processes, for example the Generic Parole Process (GPP) and Victim Liaison Meetings.  Some staff have also taken the opportunity to attend judicial review proceedings to broaden their understanding of legal implications of the work we do.

Two members of staff attended the Ministry of Justice's Lean Academy, which has been the catalyst for the Parole Board's programme of quality improvement and increased effectiveness of delivery.  Two Lean events were run at the end of the year, both of which resulted in significant improvements to processes, as well as cost and time savings.  Attendance at Lean events is a development opportunity, which all staff will have the chance to engage with during the coming twelve months.

The Parole Board for England and Wales

Grenadier House, 99-105 Horseferry Road, London, SW1P 2DX

Telephone 0845 251 2220