Neighbourliness

Regular readers will be aware that this blog has regularly quoted the Chair of Avon and Somerset Probation Trust, one Joe Kuipers. Through his regular blog posts we have learnt an awful lot more about the TR omnishambles than we otherwise might. As far as I know, he is the only Board Chair to have regularly put his head above the parapet in order to say something useful during this whole shameful process and when most so-called independent Trust Boards have demonstrated they are nothing more than loyal placemen and women determined to do the government's bidding without question.

ASPT recently held their last-ever staff conference with the CRC CEO John Wiseman and NPS Angela Cossins in attendance, and I notice that Joe has turned his address into what he indicates might prove to be his swan song blog. Here are the edited highlights, published at a time when things are getting decidedly fractious and ugly recriminations are beginning to make an appearance both as comments to this blog and on the Napo forum pages:-  

"Just before this conference I saw a tweet from Lisa expressing a hope that the conference would be an opportunity to reflect and to be re-assured. There has been quite a lot of reflection, and what I reflect on mainly is that your efforts and achievements have ensured that this Trust has moved from the bottom performer nationally some 6 years ago to a business that ranks amongst the best. And we have done this whilst making year on year cuts. Pro rata we have won more awards than any other Trust, adding together those we have gained as an organisation to those that teams and individuals have triumphed in. I thank you for this – ASPT used to be called ‘a basket case’ when I worked in the civil service, but not any more. I suspect there are other names for us now.

Can I reassure you? Not really; Sally, the Board and I are of one mind – overall TR is not a good idea, in particular splitting the offender cohort and the staff. We are not alone in this view – I know that many of the new leaders of the CRCs and NPS think this is a flawed design, but they have decided to try to implement this in the best way possible. I do not hold this against them, and we will work cooperatively with Angela and John. What TR creates though, amongst other things, is at least two new major territories when there was one (within which there were already minor territories). There will be more when the CRCs are contracted out. And, what happens when you create territories? You create tensions, interfaces, potential barriers and obstacles, accountability confusions, communication challenges and errors and possible ‘warfare’, either open or guerrilla. It will be a key role for Angela and John to work together and to make sure the territories can join together into a cooperative whole and that the threats are minimised.

But, as John has said, we are where we are and we have to get on with it, as we are doing. It is not my job, nor Sally’s, nor the Board’s, nor yours to obstruct the implementation of TR. We have not been obstructive as an organisation, but we have not been shy in expressing our sincere concerns and asking necessary questions. It would be irresponsible for us not to apply our intelligence and analysis to the TR proposals. I was pleased to learn that our views as expressed at a Business and Systems Readiness Review meeting early in January were so appreciated by NOMS / MoJ.

So, we will get on with TR and in that process we will try to treat you with the respect and dignity you so deserve in what is an undignified process.

You may be aware that there is a Radio 4 programme called Last Word? I was reminded of it when I was told, Joe, you will have the last word at the conference. Last Word highlights the lives of, usually, 4 famous or infamous people who have died in the last week, and describes their value or infamy. Well, this week Pete Seeger died, the American folk singer so lauded by so many performers both during the 60s and 70s and since. His most famous anthem was ‘We Shall Overcome’, three apposite words for now? But, what were they singing about, he and other folk rebels? About Vietnam, and support for the public protest movement to get American soldiers out of that divided territory. He also wrote, ‘Where have all the Flowers Gone’ a question that might apply to probation’s future?

This is all leading me to Plan B.

I think I am safe in assuming that we all remember the Berlin Wall? That was an idiotic, daft, ideological wall dividing a natural territory into two with fatal consequences for those who dared to escape from the East to the West. That wall was there from 1961 for 28 years, and grew bigger, stronger and more and more sophisticated. For those unsure of its origins:

At the end of World War II, the Allied powers divided conquered Germany into four zones, each occupied by either the United States, Great Britain, France, or the Soviet Union (as agreed at the Potsdam Conference). The same was done with Germany's capital city, Berlin.

As the relationship between the Soviet Union and the other three Allied powers quickly disintegrated, the cooperative atmosphere of the occupation of Germany turned competitive and aggressive. Although an eventual reunification of Germany had been intended, the new relationship between the Allied powers turned Germany into West versus East, democracy versus Communism. 

However, the wall did come down, and John F Kennedy in 1963 uttered the famous words, "as a free man, I take pride in the words Ich bin ein Berliner! (I am a Berliner)."

Similarly I take pride in the words ‘I am a probation officer’ but they are not quite the right words as they exclude too many from our worthy organisation. Rather I take pride in the words ‘I work for the probation service’ and more specifically for ASPT. I hope that Angela and John note we do not have ‘back office staff’ – such a misnomer. We have corporate services and support staff, who work as part of an integrated whole, making the whole so much bigger than the sum of the individuals. ‘Back office staff’ always sounds to me like staff stuffed in a cupboard somewhere, doing nothing so they can be shed without impact. Not so here.

So, what has this to do with Plan B? I have irritated both officials and ministers with the question, ‘What is plan B if TR just does not work or deliver what you expect?’ I have been told there is no need for a Plan B, but by default (and I can’t believe it is by intelligent design) Plan B is there right in front of our eyes, not least as a result of a number of changes made to both the original design and timetable.

On May 31 very little changes, except for the complex implications of staff working in two different organisations and sorting TOM out. Despite this fundamental difference, you will all be in the same offices with the same equipments; the CRC and NPS will have significant shared responsibilities (you might call this duplications) in relation to working with and attending statutory partnerships; you will continue to share the delights of n-delius and either OASys or new shared assessment systems and frameworks; you will share offenders despite the forced separation as they move to and fro; you will share coffee and tea making facilities (if these are still allowed); and you will share your mugs with your shared word cloud on them. And, it is just conceivable that the awarding of contracts just does not go as smoothly as anticipated so you may share these things for longer than planned.

So, you will be neighbours, and I am asking you to be good neighbours. Be good neighbours because to do otherwise you will not be true to your values and principles; be good neighbours because we owe it to our communities to do the very best we can in uncomfortable and unwanted arrangements, where John and Angela will need to work so hard to share the territory. Be good neighbours just in case that wall comes down. But I do understand that there will be huge tensions in implementing this ask, not least because however looked at, you will be in different territories probably with different organisational demands and pressures that are out of your control and which will play themselves out within localities. I suspect there will be a lot of unintended consequences, but I repeat, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."