It is just so very, very sad that such a proud and distinguished public service has been destroyed in this way and by such mostly small-minded and undistinguished characters who have never really understood what we did and how we did it.
Of course some of us will fight on and there's still the House of Lords who have always understood what we're about. It will all inevitably end in tears and chaos and I have no doubt we will be able to say 'we told you so'. But that's no consolation really. As many comments to this blog have demonstrated, the unique ethos this vocation nurtured and developed from day one is slowly ebbing away, to be replaced with one of bitter intransigence and cussedness.
It's not attractive and we feel guilty about the possible effect on clients, but it's changing as many excellent highly-skilled colleagues consider their future and increasing numbers up and leave a profession they loved.
So, the PCA has had the wake and marked the occasion with a fitting book of reflections:-
It's quite a story and it's just such a shame we've never been that good about telling it.
What a disparity. The ministry of justice tells the media it's setting us free to innovate. We all know that's not true and our mourning the potential losses.
ReplyDeleteEven Jim is writing as if there is no point of protest - there is GOVERNMENTS really do pull back from the brink - I cannot recall exact details right now, but I have noticed lots of times.
ReplyDeleteWhat about bombing Syria - I think the planes were on the runway, but never went - that was in the last year?
Then there was the sale of Forestry Commission land, something happened there at the last moment?
Way back, Gov nearly bought in three year confirmation period for probation officers newly qualified.
There will be MANY more examples - why cannot it happen with TR?
- Simon Hughes has replaced the compliant Lord McNally - he tweeted he wants suggestions & comments re his interview in The Independent last weekend, with the very last paragraph specifically mentioning:-
"Mr Hughes also pledged a fresh attempt to reduce the high levels of female imprisonment and reoffending and said he was determined to transform family courts to make them less secretive and less confrontational."
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/simon-hughes-legal-profession-must-do-more-to-reflect-modern-britain-9054692.html
AND
"1st MOJ tweet by end of working wk 1 as promised! Have set out initial thghts as Justice Minister in Indy tmrw. Responses welcome 2 me @ MOJ"
https://twitter.com/SimonHughesMP/status/422494160445509633
AND
"Simon Hughes @SimonHughesMP
Just for info - MOJ twitter handle is @MoJGovUK"
https://twitter.com/SimonHughesMP/status/422498540452347905
Andrew Hatton
I said 'some of us will fight on' Andrew!
DeleteGood - but it is dispiriting though predictable that folks would have taken those senior NPS & CRC jobs - if none from Probation had done so, Government would be stumped.
DeletePresumably none started out in probation on the salaries they are getting as bosses or were certain careers would have got them there, so if they had the integrity of practitioners they would at least return to be practitioners or go elsewhere for a management job.
Andrew Hatton
I think Jim hit exactly the right tone on this blog. I was there and it felt more like a wake than a celebration. People were sad and some wonderful talent is leaving the service at all levels. We should not be belittling the commitment if many right across the service. Practitioners are not the only ones torn apart by this.
DeleteA wake is a celebration of a life, but probation is not dead!
DeleteNapo's moves to restructure to align with CPA's suggests they don't believe there is a real prospect of winning this war
ReplyDeleteI suspect that more likely it is just a wise move so, whatever happens Napo retains legal eligibility to continue representing ALL probation practitioners.
DeleteWas it realistic to believe the UK would resist the axis forces in 1940 on the day after the Dunkirk evacuation and retreat?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/4/newsid_3500000/3500865.stm
Andrew Hatton
We have to fight to prevent the worst but also prepare for it. NAPO cannot wait until the changes happen to reconfigure. It has to be ready to move, even if it doesn't have to at the eleventh hour.
DeleteI'd call it a probation epitaph rather than a celebration of achievement. Probation chiefs & co could have collectively fought TR, but instead bowed down to the MoJ. If this book evidences the best of probation, then it signifies the weakness of probation leaders, unions and their political supporter's in protecting the service and profession. This book is of no use to any of us so let it placed on the probation gravestone.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the above (although not 100 o/o with the bit about the unions). I was really angry when the email came out to our Trust a few weeks ago asking for contributions for the book of achievements - it definitely felt like the PCA had given up and thought probation was already dead in the water. I'm sure the event DID feel like a wake, and I wonder how much secret regret there was amongst individuals for not having stood their ground? What might have happened if every CO had refused at apply for any of the jobs in the New world order? We'll never know, but it could at the very least have strengthened our negotiating hand, or maybe have stopped TR in its tracks. Apart from a few notable exceptions the PCA has sold out, imo.
DeleteWe're all tired, that was obvious at the Napo Branch Chairs meeting this last week, but we're still fighting. The strain is beginning to affect my health (the amount of crockery I am chipping, dropping, knocking over, smashing on an almost daily basis........!), but I won't give up now. As someone once said, a week is a long time in politics....
Deb
The true legacy of 100+ years of Probation is not found in corporate achievement but in the tens of thousands of stories of men and women with whom we have worked who have tried to change. Most have failed again and again, each relapse contributing to the learning that was required to secure the change. Then, one day, the stars are aligned and the Probation Officer/PSO was there, ready to do what was required to support the individual, to give them the best possible chance to make the changes necessary to stop the destructive cycles of behaviour that had blighted their lives. The successes for Probation are not found in corporate reports, annual business plans or performance statistics, they are found in recovering alcoholics, in former addicts, drug free at last after 11 failed attempts, in the tears of a man who has admitted his abusive childhood for the first time and started on a road that will help him to recovery, in the child protected from offences that will never take place because a diligent PO acted deceisively. These tens or even hundreds of thousands of stories will remain untold because they absolutely should remain untold. They are not the business of PR people and journalists, nor even for politicians to wave around at the Dispatch Box. They are for those involved and those alone.
ReplyDeleteBut we know. Every CEO/ACO/SPO/PO/PSO and admin worker in every Probation office in the country knows.
The strength of Probation is not that it always succeeds but that it always tries. Until Politicians realise that, they will never be able to recognise it's value and will never be comfortable with advocating for the abstract. Concrete thinkers need concrete outcomes where there may be none.
Brilliantly put Rob! I'm going to use that in the next post, if that's ok?
DeleteCheers,
Jim
Go ahead, Jim. You have been quoting me all along when I have posted anonymously (if I post on my Kindle Fire, I cannot identify myself as it won't save my posts; it only works when I am using my laptop which I am doing less and less). |Technology, eh? Should have gone to Steria!!
DeleteA celebration of success or should it be rewritten and renamed to a 'celebration of collaboration and self interest' a story of how shortsighted politicians, private sector vultures assisted by senior managers in NOMS and sadly probation helped to actively destroy an award winning organisation and dumped on and shafted loyal hard working probation staff
ReplyDeleteOver at the Napo forum;
ReplyDeleteProbation epitaph: is this the end?
We are all sounding rather weary....I agree entirely with Rob Palmer -'tis true we have never sought the limelight, content to go on our way, assisting, befriending, protecting without fuss and without public recognition. As a profession, we have always been rather understated, the complete opposite of most I have met in this line of work, Probation staff - who are larger than life, hugely funny, immensley brilliant show offs, and similarly, hugely enigmatic, brilliant, funny and complex clients...
ReplyDeleteI know not if I am to be a CRC or NPS, but whatever I am, and wherever they send me, I will take myself, as I always have, with the same commitment and desire to encourage and support people to change. To be frank, if I thought I would have to compromise on that, I'd be looking for another job.
As JB says, there is always the House of Lords and ultimately humiliation for CG et al....cold comfort I know but, comfort all the same.
And there's the problem. Achievement, reminiscing, legacy, looking back. What the grunts want at the moment is leadership from the Trusts whilst they're still there. Some idea of what they'll be doing, where they'll be doing it and when do they start. Nostalgia can come later.
ReplyDeleteI love this extract from Rob Palmers post above.
ReplyDelete"The strength of Probation is not that it always succeeds but that it always tries. Until Politicians realise that, they will never be able to recognise it's value and will never be comfortable with advocating for the abstract. Concrete thinkers need concrete outcomes where there may be none".
I am not at all religious but, to my mind, Probation is and always has been, first and foremost, an act of faith. Everyone knows punitive sentencing is futile in terms of changing behaviour. Someone realised this, 100 years ago, and thought 'let's try something else'. It worked, more often than not because, more often than not, that act of faith is rewarded by effort and investment on the part of the offenders.
DeleteIf you're reading this you are the resistance (sorry I couldn't help it, Terminator Salvation happens to be on as I type).
ReplyDeleteWhilst I am preparing for change and am realistic about whatever is to come, I don't think that we can stop fighting. With all of the recent database changes and the limited time given to them by the Government does anyone really think that the Trusts had time to make sure that their data was truly accurate before sifting staff? I don't see how it can have been. Surely this is an area the unions can explore further.
Resistance is NOT futile but the way to highlight the inadequacies and dangers of the 'new' systems of operation
ReplyDeleteBut the aim of my resistance is not just to highlight upcoming inadequacies it is aimed to actively encourage folk to campaign to stop those inadequacies occurring.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy for me to say don't collude - I am one of the foolish ones who colluded with the regressive introduction of the 1991 CJA after inadequately highlighting the inadequacies. - now I am retired I have nothing to lose financially or with career development.
I did once walk out on probation (before I understood my personal disabilities - dyslexia/dyspraxia and addiction) when I felt I was badly served by my then managers - 1988 - I just resigned - without a job to go to - though did very soon start working as a locum senior social worker in a Juvenile Court Team - before ( after about three months) re learning why I had chosen probation rather than SSD on qualifying in 1975 and went back to probation - in a city - I am a town boy after all!
My point being I did once resign in protest and I think were I working in probation now I would probably refuse to work for either a CRC or NPS and would do anything to get me an income as an alternative. In my case in 1988, when the 1st SSD job did not materialize I worked as temporary delivery driver for a few weeks - I had also been a part time private hire driver after 1st qualifying to supplement my family income when my 1st child was born. - There is a world outside probation where probation workers can earn an income - even nowadays.
PLus we can continue to actively campaign to stop the introduction of TR - rather than just wait for the inevitable failure if it is ever implemented. We need to find ways of spreading the campaign wider. I have had much encouragement from some including a Labour MP from 250 miles away from me who said of Grayling in an email to me yesterday
"I found the whole process very soul destroying to tell the truth. .... my belief in democracy has been challenged by this bill. I completely accept that we are coming at it from different ideological positions, but I still hoped that the common sense and the use of evidence would have informed the debate. Hey ho!"
There are people in Parliament who are doing all they can to preserve the best of probation, we can STILL get alongside them!
http://www.napo2.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=449#p2384
Andrew Hatton