Two views from yesterday that admirably illustrate the mess we're in:-
Would there be less individual pain if there had been more collective solidarity? Probation workers were terribly weak and naïve in failing to appreciate the threat. There were leadership failures but there was also a disturbing amount of apathy. More surprising of workers who one would suppose would have an above average awareness of political realities. Clearly not. Given what individuals now know about TR, would they have acted differently if the clock could be turned back? Many individuals in probation worked hard to oppose the dismantling of probation over many years – attending meetings, marching, lobbying, leafleting and striking – but more did nothing. This would be a good time to hold a strike ballot. Yes, I know Napo have signed up to the framework agreement, but they were at pains to tell us they never signed up to the assignment process – the process which is causing a lot of the pain. Those POs assigned to the CRCs have precarious futures.
If there is pain out there, there is also anger. What better time to capitalise on this and call a ballot over the damn assignment process. I suspect not as union jobs at Chivalry Road are safe, they have a seat on the Probation Institute and they have probably already calculated what membership base they need to maintain their status quo. This is an opportune time to do something radical. Don't just say we do not like the assignment process and leave individual members to their fate – say this assignment process is fundamentally unfair, and warrants a call to members for solidarity and collective action.
*****************
Hate to state the obvious but there just isn't the stomach for strike action. As regular readers/contributors to this forum we are sensing a more militant tone. Unfortunately it is a relatively small group of regular named bloggers, combined with what I guess is also a limited number of "anonymous" colleagues that make up the majority of the content of our daily debate. In my office only two of us regularly discuss this site and I can tell from reading our area "talking wall" that the hottest topic in recent weeks was the seemingly devastating announcement that those allocated to the NPS would be paid at the end of the month (in arrears) as opposed to the current arrangement of the middle of the month! People generally seem resigned to their fate.
I am equally convinced that neither NAPO or Unison have the bollocks to call for strike action . . lets be honest, they were almost embarrassed/apologetic in instigating the one day . . .errr two day . . .errr two x half day strike last year. By all accounts some areas are just getting on with it, identifying high ROH cases in readiness for the split. Colleagues allocated to CRC are far from envious of their NPS colleagues, instead discussing the merits of not having to churn out robotic PSRs on a daily basis. I note that some regular contributors to the 'PO Twiitter' site are commenting that they won their appeal against being sifted to CRC, but then opted for CRC as a preferred option.
Another observation which doesn't seem to have generated much discussion is the proliferation of senior management posts. I thought anyone at SPO level and above were seriously concerned that they would be joining the ranks of the unemployed . . as far as I can see there are going to be two distinct organisations with double the number of managerial roles!
For every one of us that will stick to our guns and only perform the tasks commensurate with our job description there will be others ready to go the extra mile in the hope of fast - track to management. We are a disjointed bunch made weaker by ineffective unions. When we eventually find out who the successful bidders are for the CRCs, what happens if only one 'mutual' is chosen? e.g. if the Manchester area Mutual prevails does that mean that all the other Mutual bids were somehow inferior . . will we ever get to know the sifting criteria?
National Audit Office Comment on DWP's policy implementation failure.
ReplyDeletethese things are so common they almost don't seem truly newsworthy!
I guess when they take the MOJ & Cabinet Office's efforts with Transforming Rehabilitation apart - we might think that newsworthy - if we haven't been overtaken by apathy and/or exhaustion by then.
http://www.nao.org.uk/report/personal-independence-payments-pip/
Thanks for keep bringing thoughts to public attention about probation and giving others an opportunity to join in.
I wonder whether Napo folk will take the chance of using the Special General Meeting on Wednesday to galvanise members for action and take vital decisions to direct the policy?
The Agenda does not inspire me. I suspect the Secretariat and National Officers will be relieved if there are enough people present to make the meeting effective by satisfying the quorum.
http://www.napo2.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=535
“It is too early to conclude on the Personal Independence Payment programme’s overall success and all major programmes run the risk of early operational problems. However the Department did not allow enough time to test whether the assessment process could handle large numbers of claims. As a result of this poor early operational performance, claimants face long and uncertain delays and the Department has had to delay the wider roll-out of the programme. Because it may take some time to resolve the delays, the Department has increased the risk that the programme will not deliver value for money in the longer term.”
ReplyDeleteAmyas Morse, head of the National Audit Office, 27 February 2014
A clip from the guardian relating to above.
DeleteEach new PIP claim - worth between £21 and £134 a week to disabled claimants - costs an average £182 to administer, compared to £49 under the disability living allowance, said the report.
I guess it those sort of massive savings????? that make probation privatisation so attractive to Whitehall?
They won't have any figures about actual costs and consequences until it has been running for at least a few months.
DeleteFortunately with the new DWP system as it is being introduced gradually they can just suspend further inaugration until they have amended the management and got it right at an affordable cost.
It will not be like that with Probation and Transforming Rehabilitation - if it goes wrong - presumably MOJ will have learned from previous IT and outsourcing contraction failures with Facilities management, hostels and and Community Punishment in London, by the time June the 1st comes and any problems will just be of the minor teething variety - a bit of grizzling but the teeth do break through eventually - with just a cuddle or two and some soothing painkilling gel!
Mr Grayling has already announced that The Probation Trusts will be disbanded on 31st May, so in the unlikely event of problems that the MOJ folk have not anticipated, he will not have local organizations in place to manage any staffing problems that need individual hearings - for example.
His TR genie will be out of it's bottle, spreading through the world of courts, prisons and the wider justice system - who will be the first to raise official concerns - apart from the workers and how long will it take?
Suggestions please?
Well you would hope that the relevant Government Dept will be checking the documentation which accompanies the bids....I am sure I heard on Channel 4 news last night that one or other - Atos/Capita said there would be 600 ESA assessment centers my memory isn't that bad, it begs the question? Exactly what are all those conferences about - how to make a fraudulent bid? How to make promises, confidently, when there is no possibility of them being achieved? What to do when found out?
ReplyDeleteBoth capita and athos are also in trouble for an under performance of more then 30% in delivering wca. 30% each that is!
DeleteAnd off topic but Graylings making himdelf popular with other parts of the cjs again.
http://www.legalbusiness.co.uk/index.php/lb-blog-view/2050-worst-fears-confirmed-as-grayling-announces-final-legal-aid-reform-package
Despite p*** poor performance, Crapita are doing very well indeed, and appear quite confident of winning probation contracts this year.
Deletehttp://mobile.businessweek.com/news/2014-02-27/capita-sees-buoyant-2014-on-rising-u-dot-k-dot-demand-for-services
There was never likely to be much compromise and so it proved. The Government today (27 February) confirmed its final package of reforms to the legal aid system following consultation, that includes a range of measures 'specifically designed to support lawyers through a period of transition and modernisation'. The package – which the Government hopes will slice more than £200m from the £1.2bn criminal legal aid budget - was swiftly condemned by the profession with the Bar Council claiming the measures confirmed its 'worst fears'.
DeleteUnveiling the reforms, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) said that barrister fees would be reduced by an average of 6% under the advocates graduated fees scheme (AGFS), which will cover 99% of crown court cases.
The MoJ said it would reduce solicitor fees in a 'phased manner' and extend the timetable for new Duty Provider Work contracts. Rates for new cases will fall by 8.75% from 20 March as part of an 'initial reduction'. The MoJ said the impact of the new contracting structure would be reviewed after a year of operation in 2016.
The plans confirm some concessions, including dropping controversial proposals to restrict client choice of a solicitor and an earlier model of price competitive tendering.
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling has agreed with the Lord Chief Justice that a review will be undertaken to identify ways of streamlining court processes, which will look at ways to reduce the number of pre-trial hearings, which require advocates to travel to and attend court.
Grayling commented: 'This Government is dealing with an unprecedented financial challenge and I have no choice but to look for the savings. I cannot exempt legal aid from this but that doesn't mean I don't understand how challenging these reductions will be.
'I have genuine respect for the quality services provided by the independent criminal bar and solicitors. I have spoken at length with solicitors and barristers about these reforms and listened closely to their views.
'Today's publication reflects many of the changes asked for. It does mean fee reductions but it also includes a series of measures to ease their effect on lawyers, including a range of support and assistance requested by The Law Society. I also want to make clear today that this Government will not seek further savings from criminal legal aid.'
Bar Council chairman Nicholas Lavender QC responded: 'We are bitterly disappointed that, despite a sustained campaign emphasising that these proposals are contrary to the public interest, the Government is pressing ahead with significant cuts to legal aid for advocacy in the crown court. These cuts are financially unnecessary, will cause significant damage to the justice system and to our international reputation for upholding the Rule of Law and will drive skilled and experienced advocates away from publicly-funded criminal work.
'Today, our worst fears have been confirmed. Regrettably, many skilled and experienced advocates are likely to have to leave criminal practice altogether. The quality of justice will suffer as a result, and the harm done may well be irreparable.'
Chris Grayling listening, now that is a novel idea....oh and this bit about 'it also includes a series of measures to ease their effect on lawyers, including a range of support and assistance requested by The Law Society' is that something like a hardship grant?
ReplyDeleteMr Grayling is making himself so very unpopular with all public services that come the day of reckoning, I feel sure he'll have sneaked out of the country to one of his buddies tax havens, where he can stare at his smug reflection in the ocean........and swim with sharks, must be his his nearest relatives. Apologies if this is too personal an attack, but I am losing patience, with him and his kind.
I think NAPO should make a public statement regarding the comments in this article.
Deletehttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/supportservices/10665556/Capita-shares-hit-new-high-on-5.5bn-bid-pipeline.html
Such statements and such confidence makes me feel that Capita have already been told what contracts they'll be getting!
DeleteI also agree that such statements require challanging.
"Probation officers spend less than 25% of their time in offender-facing ... And 75% doing admin they're not very good at..."
DeleteFirstly, Noms, why & where has that figure come from? As a direct result of your stupid target-driven bollox, I seem to recall, when you hamstrung every professional in the service with insane, inane, deskbound tasks linked to crap, unfit-for-purpose software.
And so is this the reason I'm now seen as sitting in a bid pipeline waiting to be Spurr-ted out when some suited and booted accountant worth £Xsquillion in share options decides to push the button?
What a load of utter, utter shite.
Paul Pindar is bowing out as chief executive of Capita with the shares at an all-time, boosted by a record bid pipeline including potential new work for the probation service.
DeleteShares in the outsourcing group shot up 73p to £11.58 as Capita accompanied its full-year results with the news that its bid pipeline had jumped to £5.5bn, a better-than-expected increase on the £4.2bn reported in November.
The company, whose contracts include operating radios for police forces and collecting the television licence fee, won two in three of the major contracts it bid for last year, its highest ever success rate – though the value of contract wins fell by £700m to £3.3bn in 2013.
Mr Pindar, who is stepping down after 26 years at the group, including 14 as chief executive, said last year’s performance, which saw underlying profits rise 14pc to £475m pre-tax, provided “a strong platform for further growth”.
He is handing over to Andy Parker, himself a 13-year stalwart of Capita, who said the increase in the bid pipeline was partly down to Capita being shortlisted for seven of the 21 regions under the looming part-privatisation of the probation service.
“Probation officers are typically spending less than 25pc of their time on offender-facing tasks, with 75pc of it spent on admin, which they’re not particularly good at,” he said. “We see huge opportunities to free up their time for what they’re better at – front-line duties.”
Capita’s consortium is also down to the last three bidders for the £400m contract to help run the Ministry of Defence’s estate, where it is up against groups including Serco and Telereal Trillium. Mr Parker expects a decision on the contract “in about two weeks”.
He said he was not concerned about taking on such high-profile contracts in wake of the political vilification of rivals G4S and Serco after the criminal tagging contract scandal.
“We have a very open relationship with our customers and if we have any difficulties on a contract we flag them immediately,” he said.
Central government work is now down to just 11pc of Capita’s portfolio, with 52pc of 2013’s revenues coming from the private sector and 48pc from public sector contracts.
Such a balance gave Mr Parker few concerns, he said, about the 2015 general election – a traditional hiatus in outsourcing work, with government departments refraining from letting contracts in the run-up to the poll.
Major contracts to date this financial year include winning back the £145m, five-year contract to operate London’s congestion charge, due to start in November 2015, and a £325m deal over nine years to develop a network for Scotland’s public services.
Reported profits before tax fell from £281m to £215m after Capita took a £147m charge for selling part of its insurance distribution business and closing its self-invested pensions administration unit – a figure Oriel Securities analyst Hector Forsythe said was “higher than we expected”.
Excluding those businesses, revenues rose 15pc to £3.85bn, The dividend increased 13pc to 26.5p.
William Vanderpump, an analyst at UBS, said: “Capita describes ‘excellent revenue visibility’ and we understand 7pc of 2014 organic growth is now guaranteed.”
Who's provided him with that statistical data? And who's furnished him with the knowledge of ' not very good at'?
DeleteThere can be no doubt that there has been back room meetings with the MoJ to obtain that data and sentiment.
Capita & Sodex(h)o are both talking about pipelines. Presumably large diameter opportunities down which they'll syphon vast amounts of public money from the Treasury into their Size 9's? Money we'll never see again as it will fund arms deals and dodgy governments globally. The UK taxpayer will be inadvertently funding regimes of terror and abuse, drug & human traffiking, human rights abuses - all because a handful of spoilt brat Tory mofos want their own way, and they'll dish the money out to anyone with impunity.
DeleteThis is way bigger than our jobs.
Andy Parker of Capita, you are a jerk !
DeleteInteresting information on Sodexo since their take over of HMP Northumberland, what a great success it's turning out!!! 200 redundancies in and Offender Supervisors each have case loads of 150 and have been told all targets have to be met. That includes sentence planning targets, referrals, parole reports etc. Clearly it is not going to happen because it simply is not possible. I've seen the future and it's..........CRAP!
ReplyDeleteAnnon 18:50
DeleteIf your interested in Sedoxo this link may make good reading for you.
http://www.corporatewatch.org.uk/?lid=834
Without British and American government policies over the last twenty years encouraging the privatisation of public services known as Public Private Partnerships, Sodexho would probably have stayed an inoffensive medium-sized catering company. 'Privatisation', and the lucrative contracts that go with it have turned Sodexho into a multinational giant.
DeleteSodexho greatly benefited from the Conservative government policy for "Compulsory Competitive Tendering", under which a number of local government services, including school meals and cleaning services, had to be subjected to competition from the private sector. It was based on the idea that tendering council work in competition with the private sector would lead to better, more cost effective local services. Compulsory competitive tendering was a regulatory regime that extolled price over value, quantity over quality and generally disregarded health, well being and sustainable development. It was superseded in 2000, for local government, by the Best Value regime, which aims to overcome the more debilitating features of CCT, although still prioritising cost-cutting and league-tables.
The 'Private Finance Initiative' is another way in which Sodexho is making money out of the public sector. It is the main way of financing new public sector buildings. The private consortium behind the project is then contracted to run the building typically for 30 years paid for by the public purse. Introduced by the Tories in 1992, it has since been expanded by the Labour government, who claim that it is a way of completing new capital-intensive projects without increasing public spending. Its critics claim that it will end up costing the public more as the money flows into corporate pockets and quality of service provision drops.
From the outset of de-regulation and competitive tendering within the public sector it was clear that not all services delivered for decades to meet a basic need could be replaced for less money by a private contractor obliged to make a profit. Margins must, after all come from somewhere. As the unions have pointed out, 'efficiency savings' generally come through cutting staff wages and renegotiating contracts so that basic rights, such as sick and holiday pay, are excluded. Sodexho has found other ways of increasing efficiency and saving itself money, as illustrated throughout the 'Corporate Crimes' section.
Sodexho’s attitude to privatisation ranges from being unduly modest (especially about it’s involvement in prisons) to evangelical about the wonders of Public/Private Partnerships.
Does anyone know what date NOMS informed trusts of the actual date for Delius data pertaining to the sift?
ReplyDeleteTwelfth of Never - sorry, don't know. Its an excellent question unlikely to be answered until the opening of the 30 yr rule box in 2043.
ReplyDeleteWhat do we do now?
ReplyDeleteHow about we take a shot of penicillin? Mr Kuipers (slightly tarnished) speaks of Sisyphus and his rolling rock...
... I rather think there's a typo in there and in fact, with all of the being fucked over and backscuttlin by various agencies, we've ended up with corporate syphillis.
As someone with a diagnosed illness I feel able to describe this whole omnishambles as 'fuckin mental'.
In my own humble opinion, I feel this blog is read daily by the MoJ, and researched frequently by the private sector to obtain information about issues that knowledge of may assist a successful bid. I know if I need to know whats happening or I need to gauge feeling or emotion about any particular aspect of TR this blog provides me with front line and current response. I can't get anywhere near as much information on the Napo websites, so this is where I look to know what's going on.
ReplyDeleteAs such I believe this blog can have a formidable influence on TR, and I'd urge commentators to think carefully about that when posting a comment.
Let's use the tools available to us to carry the struggle forward.
Let's be strong and show no weakness.
An interesting point. If you're reading this MoJ my message is quite simple. Knock it on the head will you?
DeleteCheers,
Jim
Yes I probably do spend only about 25% of my time in face to face offender contact time. The other 75% is in Child Protection meetings, MAPPA meetings, Court, report writing for everything under the sun, oral hearings, driving to far flung prisons for tripartite meetings oh and a little bit of admin that I could do better if it wasn't confounded by not fit for purpose IT systems. Mmm I'm not very good at it all. Bring on the redundancy. I've had enough.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, for the last 20+ yrs I've given selflessly of my time, claimed little if anything back for toil or expenses, believed what I was doing was useful, given probably £££thousands away in cash, fags or bags of food, carelessly misplaced a marriage hence lost contact with my children, been pilloried and sacked and re-hired, been physically and verbally abused, been shot at... And now, as a CRC allocated member of staff, l'm also ready for a jolly nice redundancy option.
DeleteXmas eve, 8pm, family of five living in a drugs squat, PO delivering xmas presents for the clients children (from the local radio charity collection) and two bags of seasonal foodstuffs from the local church collection, whilst 14 or so others are in the flat using various drugs. No-one notices the PO except one who says 'cheers', and hands the PO a rock of crack cocaine as a token of gratitude.
DeleteThe life of a Probation Officer! God, we are good. The hardest thing for me doing this job has been the level of death. I'm sure in every Probation Office across the country we share experiences of our first death. Often through drugs, sometimes from violence, sometimes their babies and children, sometimes suicide, sometimes illness, sometimes domestic violence, sometimes never known. All of them have had tears from me.
DeleteI sincerely hope the above post from 22:49 last night is read and digested by anyone who thinks they can make a fast buck from TR. This is the reality of our work.
DeleteI lost six clients in one year in the late 90s. Two suicides, one murdered, one death in custody, one unexplained (poss overdose), one confirmed overdose and one from good ol' natural causes. Tough times. None since, weirdly.
DeleteAnon at 22:49 - Your entry reminds me that this blog hasn't always been about a campaign to save an entire profession. In the early days it was pretty much all about practice, my experiences and thoughts. Here's something I wrote way back in 2010 entitled 'Death on Probation'.
ReplyDeleteAt some point in every probation officers career one of the clients you are supervising will die. It goes without saying that the more service you've put in, the more instances there will be. It's always a shock and upsetting, not least because we're not usually talking about quietly of natural causes in their own bed here. I haven't had an instance in recent times, but I understand there's a process now, with a form to fill in and the offer of counselling. I think that is definitely an improvement because all the deaths affected me enormously to the point I have never felt able to release the files for shredding - I simply can't or don't want to let go and they remain hidden in a filing cabinet down in the basement. I'm sure a psychologist would understand completely.
By it's very nature of building a relationship with a client, there is always a balance, a fine line between over-identification and professional detachment. In the role of probation officer we are 'messing' with peoples lives and although under the social work model we would always clearly strive to help achieve improvements, sadly and inevitably in some cases it is not possible and tragedy results. In each instance, in addition to feelings of sorrow and loss there will often be an intense period of self analysis as to the handling of the case. Signs that were missed, more that could have been done, a judgement made that proved to be wrong. There are still some cases that I cannot recall to this day without shedding a tear.
I can still remember vividly the young PC from the Coroners Office taking my statement and asking the deceptively simple, but heavily-loaded question 'Why did you let him collect the tin of thinners?' It so succinctly summed up our very differing viewpoints of the world. That PC would possibly never be able to understand that in reality by the time that young client had reached probation, he had been so failed by society that in spite of all our endless efforts on his behalf, he was sadly doomed and set on a course of ultimate self-destruction. I recall taking a deep breath and giving a very long answer that I suppose could be summed up as 'because in the end we all have freewill to act recklessly.'
In our work with offenders we are often dealing with some of the most damaged individuals in society. They have invariably been victims themselves and I think this aspect of offending is not understood nor appreciated by most people and particularly the right wing press. Unless treated or the hurt in some way excised, anger, loathing and hatred can be focused in many directions, including to others, society in general or towards themself ultimately. Reckless behaviour, a spiral of depression and decline, self harm or suicide are all real possibilities for this group and what began with a very poor childhood can so often turn into a much bleaker adulthood. Into this situation step probation officers, ready to try and apply sticking plaster to some very deep wounds on occasion.
For all these and numerous other reasons, I still feel probation officers should be social work trained and preferably educated 'in the round' by a degree of experience that hopefully can help prepare them for the responsibility, stress and inevitable failures that will occur during their career.
http://probationmatters.blogspot.co.uk/2010/12/death-on-probation.html
Losing the social work training an absolute pivotal point for the probation work you outline above....
DeleteThanks for that Jim.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of .... (Over 25 years on I am still not sure about writing his name - his widow might read it etc., etc.)
A young man who warned me he could not face what was coming though previously he had made light of prison sentences. Found dead in a car with a hosepipe connected, in a remote place on the day he was due in Crown Court. Mother came to see me saying I knew him better than her - widow asked me six months later if she could go on a date - she was twenty.
Ugh I shall go to my grave knowing if I had not been so busy I might have picked up on his very clear spoken warning which I dismissed with a quick, 'you 'll get through it OK - it won't be that long' and it wouldn't, probably 12 - 18 months.
There were significantly more when I worked in a London prison, when I was on the suicide watch review panel - some of my close colleagues had opened cells to find a dead person - oh what folk at our end of the criminal justice system do and are so often disregarded by Joe Public as they celebrate the brave soldiers and police - as do I.
Maybe that is a reason we keep on speaking about the dangers of TR because we know it will lead to more people recalled to prison on "technical" breaches - who will wake up in a cell and have that thought - not again - I can't face anymore!