I thought this was good, so deserves a post on its own:-
Dear Mr Jones,
"doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"The inspection results have been dire for years, but no-one has ever taken the management structure to task over any of those dire results, i.e. most of the culprits are still in post/have been promoted.
Why do I take such a view? Because my experiences of inspections have always been:
1. there is plenty of advance notice (usually months) of the imminent inspection, the cases to be inspected and the purpose of the inspection
2. local management order the toilets to be painted
3. case records are audited, adjusted and staff groomed
4. local management have cosy chats with the inspectors
And despite all of these 'advantages' and prep time, probation areas achieve shit scores... the failures are levelled at frontline staff... and not much changes at any level.
You say: "My conclusion, is that we are unlikely to see any significant improvements in our findings in the short term and I am concerned at the potential damage to morale on the front line and public confidence if we merely report similar findings."
I ask:
1. Why are there unlikely to be significant improvements? We've had decades of strategies & policies and consultations and political directives, yet nothing has changed for the better. Everything has just "gotten shitter".
2. Potential damage to frontline morale? Potential? The potential has been reached; and exceeded. I'm not sure frontline morale could be any more damaged than it already is. How about sacking some of the "excellent leaders" who have carelessly and callously led the service into this death spiral while being labelled "excellent" and "strong" by... the inspectors!
3. Public confidence? Most of the general public have no idea who or what probation is, except when some poor bastard on the frontline is being hung out to dry following a dreadful incident beyond their control, while the piss poor management make tutting noises and chunter about "lessons to be learned" or "a sad lack of professional inquisitiveness".
Have ***any*** lessons been learned?
https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/media/press-releases/2022/09/sfo-2022/
https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/2021/06/09-june-2021/
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/3582/transforming-rehabilitation-inquiry/news/99492/new-probation-system-must-learn-lessons-from-botched-current-model/
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/nov/02/probation-service-monitoring-inquiry-sonnex
https://news.sky.com/story/re-offending-fears-as-probation-service-fails-to-learn-from-past-mistakes-11987919
https://www.theguardian.com/society/joepublic/2009/jun/04/sonnex-probation-service
https://www.communitycare.co.uk/2006/02/28/probation-staff-suspended-following-critical-report/
No!
So, seeing as repeating the same format with no improvement is proving unhelpful, maybe HMI Probation could stop using the same tactics and start doing unannounced inspections where inspectors turn up at an office and look at random case records with the case managers, listening to them as they discuss the cases together, getting to grips with the local difficulties and impossibilities, reading the bullying emails, experiencing the true gravity of the situation.
Then, maybe, there might be some real progress in short order.