News

Probation Trusts England & Wales decorated for sustained quality with Gold Medal for Excellence

Publication date: 21-12-2011

Article:

The Probation Trusts of England & Wales have been awarded the Gold Medal for Excellence by the British Quality Foundation (BQF). The 35 Trusts received the medal in recognition of their continuous dedication to improvement. "It is a great honour for us to receive this award for excellence, particularly because we are the first organisation in the public sector to do so " says Sue Hall, Chair of the Probation Chiefs Association. The Gold Medal is presented annually by the BQF Board of Directors to an organisation that has shown outstanding and continued commitment to excellence over a number of years.

BQF involvement with the Probation Trusts
The BQF has several different awards, among others the Gold Medal for Excellence and the Recognised for Excellence (R4E) program. While the Gold Medal has been awarded to the 35 Probation Trusts in England and Wales as a whole, most of the individual Trusts are also in the R4E programme. In this programme, Trusts are rigorously assessed by the BQF for the quality of their work. It is clear that the Gold Medal is the result of a broad effort by Probation Trusts to continuously improve all aspects of probation management and service delivery.

High quality services
The goal of Probation Trusts is to reduce reoffending and protect the public.  Probation officers supervise offenders in the community. "But," says Sue Hall, "if you haven't got a good organisation that supports its staff then I don't think the staff can perform  - excellent practice needs excellent staff and an excellent organisation." In this way, the Gold Medal is recognition of the high quality of the way the Probation Trusts manage their business, creating the environment to achieve the best results.

Going forward
The Gold Medal is not the final destination. On the contrary, the award motivates the Trusts to continue to improve. "In the UK we are moving into a new world, where Probation Trusts will have to compete with the private sector and the third sector to continue to deliver services - this is already happening with Community Payback (unpaid work).  The award we have won for excellence strengthens our position as a competitive public sector organisation".

 


The people on the photo (from left to right) are:

Alison Searle, private secretary to Crispin Blunt
John Stafford, Chief Executive, Merseyside Probation Trust
Steve Hemming, Chief Executive, Humberside Probation Trust
Rob Menary, Chief Executive, Devon and Cornwall Probation Trust
Crispin Blunt, Minister for Prisons and Probation
Kate Knight, Probation Officer, Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust
Sebert Cox, Chair, Probation Association / Chair, Durham and Tees Valley Probation Trust
Sue Hall, Chair, Probation Chiefs Association / Chief Executive, West Yorkshire Probation Trust
Colin Allars, Director of Probation and Contracted Services, NOMS
Colin Pinfold, Director, Leicester and Rutland Probation Trust
Sonia Crozier, Chief Executive, Surrey and Sussex Probation Trust