The Parole Board. Working with others to protect the public.
Recruitment
I am a Professor of Criminology and I joined the Parole Board because I think it is important for academics to keep their feet on the ground and be involved in making 'real' decisions about 'real' offenders. I started my working life as a probation officer and worked for ten years in a probation office. Then I worked as a Lecturer in Social Work with special responsibility for students training to be probation officers. So my work involved me with the probation service for some 20 years and I hope this has given me a degree of understanding about the challenges of supervising offenders in the community.
Find out more about specialist members of The Parole Board
Assessing the risk a person represents to society is the single most important thing we do at the Parole Board. In making these assessments, we recognise the value of the scientific approach taken by trained and experienced psychologists. Your skills are absolutely indispensable to support the difficult decisions we make.
You must be an accredited British Psychological Society member. Your professional expertise and experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team environment will earn you the confidence and respect of fellow members and practitioners, who welcome and value your vital input. You'll call on your strong analytical and organisational skills, as well as the ability to interpret volumes of complex information and convey your arguments clearly and precisely. Enthusiastic and committed, you will be as keen to listen to others, as you are to share your knowledge.
An empathy with and understanding of the effect our decisions have on people's lives is critical in this role. The Parole Board serves to protect society and reduce the risk of future victims. You will need to demonstrate an understanding of and empathy for victims and those affected by crime. This could be through direct experience of being a victim of crime yourself, through having links to other who have been victims of crime or through a wider understanding of the issues victims face.
Your commitment would be around 35 days a year. This includes preparation time for panels, which can be worked at home and in the evenings, to fit in with your other responsibilities.
Assessing the risk a person represents to society is the single most important thing we do at the Parole Board. In making these assessments, we recognise the value of the scientific approach taken by trained and experienced psychiatrists. Your skills are absolutely indispensable to support the difficult decisions we make.
Although specific experience in forensic psychiatry is not essential, it is highly desirable. Your professional expertise and experience of working in a multi-disciplinary team environment will earn you the confidence and respect of fellow members and practitioners, who welcome and value your vital input. You'll call on your strong analytical and organisational skills, as well as the ability to interpret volumes of complex information and convey your arguments clearly and precisely. Enthusiastic and committed, you will be as keen to listen to others, as you are to share your knowledge.
An empathy with and understanding of the effect our decisions have on peoples lives is critical in this role. The Parole Board serves to protect society and reduce the risk of future victims. You will need to demonstrate an understanding of and empathy for victims and those affected by crime. This could be through direct experience of being a victim of crime yourself, through having links to other who have been victims of crime or through a wider understanding of the issues victims face.
Your commitment would be around 35 days a year. This includes preparation time for panels, which can be worked at home and in the evenings, to fit in with your other responsibilities.
Assessing the risk a person represents to society is the single most important thing we do at the Parole Board. In making these assessments, we recognise the value of having an input from experienced members of the judiciary. Your skills are absolutely indispensable to support, underpin and provide legal backup for the difficult decisions we make.
In particular, you will be called upon to use your professional expertise in chairing oral hearings, giving directions to the parties involved and dealing with procedural issues at directions hearings, as well as assessing the risk posed to the public by the release of prisoners. You will assist in other Board duties as required including keeping abreast of legislative changes and judicial decisions and contributing to procedural and policy discussions in relation to the work of the Board.
You must be a Circuit Judge or a retired Circuit or High Court Judge in order to qualify as a judicial member. You will also need authorisation for murder, or attempted murder, or rape cases or have significant Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) experience.
An empathy with and understanding of the effect our decisions have on peoples lives is critical in this role. The Parole Board serves to protect society and reduce the risk of future victims. You will need to demonstrate an understanding of and empathy for victims and those affected by crime. This could be through direct experience of being a victim of crime yourself, through having links to other who have been victims of crime or through a wider understanding of the issues victims face.
You will be expected to offer a minimum of 15 days per year. This includes preparation time, which can be worked at home and in the evenings, to fit in with your other commitments. For retired judicial members only, the work is fee based at set rates and the one fee covers both the background working and attending the panel.
Please note that we are not looking to recruit probation members in this campaign. Consideration will be given to whether we need to recruit additional probation members in the autumn. If you want to be notified of the next campaign to recruit probation members please e-mail diana.greene@justice.gsi.gov.uk so that your interest can be recorded.
You will be involved in a wide range of cases. In particular, you will be called upon to use your professional expertise in managing risk in the community to assess the risk posed to the public by the release of prisoners in terms of the adequacy of the release arrangements and to reduce the risks to future victims.
You will be expected to offer 50 days per year. However, a large proportion of this includes preparation time, which can be worked at home and in the evenings, to fit in with your other commitments. You will be expected to attend panel hearings, which are held in London, at least once or twice a month. You will also be expected to attend the Parole Board annual conference. When more experienced in the role you may undertake oral hearings in your own region. The work is fee based and covers both the background working and attendance at panel hearings.
You will need to be able to demonstrate extensive and broad based achievements within the Probation Service and the ability to gain the confidence and respect of fellow members and prisoners. You will be faced with incredibly complex cases. You will have to study detailed information, form a conclusion, construct a rationale, defend your logic and ultimately justify your decision and its impact on victims and society. It takes strength of character, intelligence, an open mind, diplomacy and confidence in communication, both on paper and in discussion to serve on parole board panels.
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