Anniversary Fever

I'm conscious that this piece of self-indulgence will shortly reach it's first anniversary and being somewhat sentimental, I can't let my impending enforced sojourn from the computer interfere with marking the occasion in some way.

It's been quite a journey of surprises, enlightenment and not infrequent laughs. I've been genuinely surprised by the amount of interest, especially from clients and I must admit I had never considered myself particularly well prepared for the role of 'agony aunt.' It's been a great relief not to have attracted so-called 'trolls' that seem to be the bain of so many blogs and I'm not being platitudinous in saying that feedback in the form of readers comments really does lift an authors spirits when it seems you might just be 'whistling in the dark.' Thankyou to everyone who took the trouble to comment.

This blog started out of my personal outrage and pent-up frustration about a vocation I care very much about. Probation as a concept or as a 'job' has never been particularly well understood and if my mission has been about anything, it's been about trying to convey the subtleties, skills and workings of a simple idea that's been around for well over a hundred years. But sadly too often I've found myself responding to it's systematic marginalisation and without mincing words, impending destruction. 

It's quite ironic really that at a time when our still fairly-new government is using rhetoric such as 'localism', the same government is doing its best to further centralise major aspects of the criminal justice system such as Magistrates Courts, Police and of course Probation. All this whilst imposing across-the-board cost savings and at the same time encouraging an explosion in prison numbers as a result of recent riots. A truly effective Probation Service is needed now more than ever.

A year on I wish I could say that I felt more optimistic about our future, but I can't. The recent Justice Select Committee report failed in my view to get to grips with OASys and it's fundamental negative effect on Probation. The Pre Sentence Report, an absolute cornerstone of our work, is all but dead, killed off by OASys and Probation Management no less and now seemingly with the full support of senior Judges. This is a recent quote from the Director of Operations of a large metropolitan service:-

"In respect of our work with courts, we are looking to shift the bulk of offender/defendant assessment from pre to post sentence........This approach has been endorsed by two senior Judges........We are currently in discussion about the relevance of this approach in the Magistrates Courts."  

So that's it then. No need for PSR's. I'm not sure there's much of a need for Probation any more. But maybe I'm just getting carried away with anniversary fever and the feeling will pass? All being well, I hope to be back in mid September.