Probation officers’ funds cut in London

The effectiveness of youth offending teams in 11 London boroughs
has been threatened by the withdrawal of funding for their agency
probation officers.

The London Probation Area (LPA) has taken the decision to scrap
the £40,000 annual funding to each of the 11 local authority
YOTs because of “budgetary pressures”.

The money enabled the YOTs to employ an agency probation officer
to work with young offenders.

The LPA said it was assessing how it could reallocate the
existing two-thirds of its YOT resources equally across all 32
London boroughs. It is also trying to recruit up to eleven new
probation officers.

A number of London borough YOTs managers told Community Care
that until the situation was rectified, the withdrawal would
undermine attempts to meet standards.