Probation and the Car

When I joined the Probation Service in 1985 it was basically a requirement of the job to be able to drive and have a car. I think I am right in saying that without a car you would not have been appointed. I was certainly not aware of anyone who could not drive and it was generally accepted that prison visits, home visits and meeting attendances could not be undertaken without a car. This was recognised by employers in the form of the so-called Essential Car User allowance that was paid monthly and depended on engine capacity. Of course this was in addition to the amount paid per mile travelled on business. 

Probation officers who have been around awhile will remember how the car was often extremely useful in ferrying clients about in all sorts of circumstances and not infrequently with their belongings as well. This ability was invariably regarded positively by clients and in my experience often afforded the opportunity for some really in-depth conversations that would either have been more difficult or not as fruitful if attempted in the office. Over the years some of the most valuable and revelatory conversations have occurred in this way and during journeys in the car. Access to a car also meant you were able to respond to a crisis, take advantage of new information and you had a safe haven or bit of neutral space available in difficult situations.

I well remember calling on one client some years ago to conduct a PSR interview specifically for the purpose of getting a feel for his home circumstances. He had a learning disability and I knew he lived at home with his parents and brother and sister. On arriving at the house I was met by the larger-than-life mother who duly bellowed for her son, whilst serving up tea for her husband in the living room. Whilst waiting for him to appear, she proceeded to bellow at her husband who  merely responded by turning up the volume on the TV. An interview was clearly going to be impossible and I suggested we went out to the car. I remember being stunned by the sheer chaos in the young mans home and my enquiry as to if it was always like that was met with a bemused grin. It seems he coped by simply 'switching off' and absented himself for long periods. I fully understood why.

Of course management eventually got around to taking our car allowance away on economy grounds and I remember our union only managed a compensation payment of a few hundred pounds. In more recent years I've noticed that other branches have managed to increase this to several thousand pounds. In essence management increasingly seem to be of the view that a car is not now necessary, or indeed the ability to drive. I still find it astonishing to accept that, disability issues aside, a colleague using public transport can be as efficient or effective as an officer using a car, but there it is. Of course I have already outlined why I feel video links to jails are inadequate and unlikely to engender a useful working relationship and discussion of highly sensitive issues. Just ask yourself if you would discuss personal stuff in this way? 

But actually in reality it's much worse than that because current standing instructions in my Service now basically forbids the carrying of clients in a private vehicle, unless in exceptional circumstances, I assume for health and safety reasons. Another astonishing example of changes within this job over my working lifetime. From it being a routine and expected part of the role, to being forbidden. I find it so worrying that yet another tool is removed from our armoury in being able to help clients change and basically cope. 

For those possibly unimpressed I will give the following recent example from my time in court as a Court Duty Officer. It was a case of a youngish man with a significant learning disability and granted bail for a serious offence. I'd managed to get him a place at a probation hostel in the big city some 15 miles away by bus or train. But he did not have the capacity to make that journey independently and my manager confirmed that payment for a taxi was not an option. In my professional judgement the right and obvious thing to do was drive him there myself and this is what I did. As a bonus the journey time of some forty minutes gave me the opportunity to really get to know the guy and the many problems life threw at him by virtue of his disability. Isn't this exactly what the job is supposed to be all about?