THE collapse of a company hired to run probation services in Avon and Somerset has sparked criticism of the "expensive waste" of privatisation.

Working Links, which owns three Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) managing offenders in Avon and Somerset, Wales and Devon and Cornwall, went into administration last Thursday.

Seetec, owner of Kent, Surrey and Sussex CRC, will take over the Working Links CRCs.

Seetec executive director for community rehabilitation companies Suki Binning said she hoped the appointment would give some certainty to staff who have endured "a challenging and uncertain period during which they have worked tirelessly to support the people they manage and protect the public".

She added: “The immediate priority is to complete the transfer and stabilise the service. We will listen to our new colleagues and partners and work quickly with them to put in place an investment and improvement plan.

“Our approach is based on supporting staff to build strong, face-to-face relationships with the people they support and investing in evidence-backed interventions shown to reduce the likelihood of reoffending.

"While we recognise that confidence in probation services is shaken and do not underestimate the challenge and complexities ahead, we are determined to build a viable and sustainable service that maintains the confidence of communities in the south-west and Wales.”

A total of 21 CRCs were set up nationwide to handle all but high-risk cases under the then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling in 2014 in a partial privatisation called Transforming Rehabilitation.

Unison national officer for police and justice Ben Priestley said: "He was repeatedly warned then that privatisation would fail. The collapse of these contracts is proof.

"Despite the chaos, the Ministry of Justice is still planning to award more probation contracts to private firms."

GMB national officer Kevin Brandstatter said: "The failure of three CRCs in the South West of England and Wales should serve as a wake-up call to the Ministry of Justice.

"The involvement of private companies in the justice sector is an expensive waste. Services remain undelivered while thousands of jobs are sacrificed in an attempt to deliver profits."

A report by HM Chief Inspector of Probation Dame Glenys Stacey said: "The professional ethos of probation has buckled under the strain of the commercial pressures put upon it here, and it must be restored urgently."

Ian Lawrence, general secretary of Napo, a union campaigning for probation services to be returned to public ownership, said: "This is exactly what we warned the Government about from day one of this disastrous privatisation programme that has seen an award-winning service fall into total chaos in just four years.

"They admit it has failed and are ending the contracts early, but the situation with Working Links is beyond the pale.

"They are avoiding their responsibility to staff and the public by not intervening and allowing the company to go bust rather than bring it back into public ownership."

Justice Secretary David Gauke said Dame Glenys's report was "damning" and it was "unacceptable" if offenders were being classified on the basis of trying to meet a target.

He added: "Clearly it's not acceptable what we've seen and it's important we make changes in this individual case, which I think is particularly bad, but we also stepped in in the summer to make changes to bring these contracts to an end and to reform them.

"We've consulted on that and we're considering our response to that consultation."

Shadow justice secretary Richard Burgon said the system was "clearly broken", adding: "This is yet another public service severely damaged by Chris Grayling and the Conservatives' obsession with privatisation.

"We need a probation system that prioritises keeping the public safe rather than boosting the profits of private companies."