"Yesterday ten Probation workers met with Chris Grayling and members of the Probation Board and the Senior Management Team. We were all seated around a table and the meeting could be compared to a game of dodge ball. We threw lots of balls and he dodged them. Mr Grayling started off by implying that he had saved the Probation Service and without this great innovation, half the trusts would go due to the financial situation.
At this point, he cited his reasons for the privatisation as financial and said that in 2015-2016 there will be a 12% budget cut. Thoughts ran through my head about 45% tax cut for the rich, reduction in corporation tax, Cameron's flood quote, 'we're a rich country', but I didn't want to get thrown out so soon.
The Chief then asked for pre-arranged questions, but we were given free rein to ask whatever questions we wanted and it felt a very fair process. Apart from one incident with the fawning Probation Chair, we occasionally interrupted without being told off. He was asked, amongst other questions, about the risk register, the lack of a pilot, victims and the new victim code, serious further offences and communication between organisations.
After a couple of questions Grayling batted-off, the meeting really started to hot up when it was mentioned that, at the Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday, it was admitted that £9 million has been spent on consultancy fees for TR, of which £3 million has been for legal advice. The PO then asked whether this was an appropriate use of taxpayers' money as he had ignored all professional advice given for free. After a straight answer 'yes', he gave some typical anodyne answer about the necessity for this 'reform', for those poor creatures who come out of prison on £46 etc etc
I then interjected with evidence of the meeting in January 2013 when Joe Kuipers said to Michael Spurr and Jeremy Wright that Probation Trusts would make any cost savings to work with the under 12 months people, but this was flatly refused. I asked him why and cited Gloucestershire's resettlement scheme for £75,000 a year funded by the PCC and ended up saying, 'this involves 20 offenders a month - you are privatising us for 20 people a month!'
I really wish I could tell you what he said but nobody afterwards could remember a thing that came out of his mouth. I think it is politicians' magic - miraculously words come out but are so lacking in any emotion or meaning that they are immediately forgotten. Even the PO who was taking notes showed blank spaces after the questions, as she couldn't hear anything worth writing down.
This was then followed up by a question which started by mentioning the risk register's finding that there is a very high risk of putting the public at risk, the ignoring of all evidence-based advice and the one pilot being discredited by Professor Heddiman and also by Grayling himself when his only evidence in File on 4 was that he sits with prisoners in Peterborough and 'just knows it's the way forward'.
It was then asked whether he really believes that this anecdotal evidence is justification for TR and whether he is fulfilling his social and moral responsibility as a minister to protect and represent the public. At this point, he started in on the expense of 'custody plus' and, when it was reiterated that trusts were already doing it cheaper and with their own funding, he just said that he didn't think it could be done. I'm afraid that was it. He started quoting stats about re-offending having risen in the last 10 years and I tried to tell him MOJ figures showing that re-offending has fallen and he just went on about his statisticians being independent. I'm not making it up.
When asked about the appalling record of private companies and how they end up being ineffective once the government has pulled out oversight, like in HMP Oakwood, he contradicted most reports in saying the riot was exaggerated. He said it wasn't about money and the 70% of our service wouldn't go to the lowest bidder, completely contradicting himself from earlier when he presented himself as saving our service from financial oblivion.
As a politician, he was a consummate performer and at one point put his hand on his heart and said, 'We want the same thing - to reduce re-offending' and stared me right in the eye for what seemed like an eternity, until I'm happy to report that he looked away first.
Mr Grayling showed by his body language that he was surprisingly uncomfortable at some of the questions and he often had his eyes downwards or looked shiftily round the room. As I had been quite passionate and identified myself as the fellow contributor to File on 4, he came up to me afterwards and said he hoped I wouldn't resign and put his hand out for me to shake. He is so unbelievably tall that I looked up at him and said, 'Wow, you're so tall', then gave him my hand and apologised for it being rather sweaty as I was so angry!
He then said this wasn't some right-wing privatisation and I said I didn't believe him and he was part of a neo-liberal government and it had a right-wing plan to reduce the state and destroy the public sector and his was a moral vision opposite to everyone in the room and every public sector worker. He offered for the third time to spend an hour talking to me, so I might take him up on it. He asked me what I planned to do and I said that I was going to run as an Independent MP and would see him in the House. For the first time, there was a glimmer of a smile but I can't say he looked unduly worried!"
Trawling the news lonks gas revealed thus -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/rolling-news/cumbria-probation-officers-set-to-strike-1.1123117
Around half of Cumbria's probation officers will strike later this month in a dispute over plans to alter how criminals are rehabilitated.
ReplyDeleteCumbria Probation Trust said almost 50 per cent of its workers were part of the National Association of Probation Officers, which is due to start the 24 hour action at 12noon on March 31.
Probation workers across England and Wales are to strike over Ministry of Justice plans to outsource probation work for low and medium-risk offenders to private firms and charitable groups.
Sargon Sait, director of corporate services at Cumbria Probation Trust, said the county's service would continue as best as possible during the action.
He said: “There will be some disruption to services across Cumbria Probation Trust on Friday, March 31 as a result of the NAPO 24-hour strike action over the Government's plans to transform rehabilitation.
“Cumbria Probation Trust has well-established business contingency plans in place, which allow us to prioritise the work we deliver, as directed by the courts, to protect the public across Cumbria.”
The decision to take action was made at a NAPO general meeting in Birmingham on March 5.
Ms Hughes makes ref to an important statistic I've neither heard nor seen before, i.e the number of u12 month cases for each of the 31 Trust areas. What were the 2012/13 figures for each Trust area? Court statistics will tell us, shouldn't be hard to find out. This might help dilute the terrifying headline figure that seems to be a key source of validation for the TR process in Grayling's world.
DeleteWhat an excellent account of a what sounds a surreal experience. It places the TR programme in a real context, i.e it truly is the madness of one man and his followers. I found this extremely helpful to read.
ReplyDeleteAmazing what you can find when you look - here's the link to the methodology paper for NOMS assertions about their facts relating to sentencing etc. Most seems to be based around 2009 data - or earlier.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/0910431_methodology.pdf
And then I found this - any statisticians out there who can unravel these terrifying figures?
Deletehttps://www.justice.gov.uk/statistics/reoffending/proven-re-offending
And then this appeared...
Deletehttp://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/sites/crimeandjustice.org.uk/files/CommunitysentencesRSS.pdf
Page 17 shows the u12 month sentences figures. Not surprisingly everyone seems to make the figures fit their argument regardless.
Shouldn't all of this data have been collated, made widely available by napo/unison and challenged already, rather than leaving it to a sad bloke sitting on the throne with a tablet on a Sat morning?
Poor old neighbour's wifi is taking a hammering today. According to ONS, "Latest figures from the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) estimate that there were 8.0 million crimes against households and resident adults in the previous twelve months, based on interviews with a nationally representative sample in the year ending September 2013. This was down 10% compared with the previous year’s survey, and is the lowest estimate over the history of the survey, which began in 1981."
DeleteCCJS began the Reform Sector Strategies project in 2010, with the intention of exploring the extent to which current directions in penal reform offer genuine alternatives to custody in England and Wales. With this eighteen-month project, funded by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation, we hope to generate an open, forward-looking dialogue about the development of coherent and
Deletecredible approaches to tackling penal expansion, and to think through the challenge of reducing the prison population in the longer term.
As its name suggests, Reform Sector Strategies is a project explicitly for, and about, those engaged in the process of bringing hoped-for change to the penal system. This paper refers
to ‘penal reform organisations’ and ‘penal reformers’. This is intended to describe nationally focused organisations that view the use of prison as a last resort, are committed to policies aimed at rehabilitation rather than punishment, and undertake lobbying, media work, research and campaigning on criminal justice issues to achieve these ends. To keep the scope of this project manageable, the focus here is restricted to organisations largely devoted to national campaigning and lobbying, as opposed to service delivery.
Categorising organisations by the term ‘penal reform’ incorporates a diverse range of activities, with key organisations and initiatives over the past decade including the Howard League for Penal Reform, the Prison Reform Trust and SmartJustice, Nacro, the Criminal Justice Alliance (and its predecessor the Penal Affairs Consortium), Payback, Rethinking Crime and Punishment, and Make Justice Work. The use of the single term ‘penal reform’ is not intended to suggest that the organisations considered under this umbrella are uniform or that they all agree.
This paper will be followed by a second, which will explore the challenges facing the development of coherent strategies to curb penal excess and offer a series of ‘promising ideas’ to address these challenges.
it must have been hard for the staff there to meet him. There is a man with some severe cognitive deficits, very maddening.
ReplyDeleteToo many mixed messages from NAPO/unison etc. out flanked by grayling his narrative has prevailed. The messages those outside probation have heard have need louder, clearer, and consistent even though they are underpinned by lies, deceit and right wing political ideology. Grayling has annexed part of probation family to turn it into the NASTY PUNISHMENT SERVICE, arm of his Gestapo ministry. Napo and unison have failed to
ReplyDeleteProtect the continuity of service for ALL probation staff
Colluded in the forming of a probation institute which forms an integral part of TR
Haven't the organisational capacity to challenge TR
Focused on internal in fighting and setting up of PI rather than focus all of their limited resources on the fight against TR
Haven't galvanised their memberships instead assisted with the split by agreeing the principle of staff split at national level and also NAPO changes its constitution
There is more to add which I will leave to others to do. But I am so sad at what has been done to probation and totally disagree with TR in all it's pernicious forms, hopefully many more probation staff will reply to this post even if it is a one line to say - I as a probation worker disagree with TR...
And yes another anonymous post because in the new NASTY PUNISHMENT SERVICE that I've been auto dumped in recrimination and nasty consequences will face those who openly criticise TR, no more guide assist befriend just quick summary justice on the back of worthless oral and fast FDRs. Ps got 4 job application in at moment outside of Probation and CJS hopefully one will come off and grayling will lose my 19 years of experience, commitment and dedication to public service, plus I will be on strike on 31st and 1st working on these days if you are a passionate probation practitioner is effectively supporting TR and that's how grayling, MOJ and history will protray your actions.
Yesterday London Probation Trust evacuated one of its probation offices after noxious fumes and nasty smells were discovered to be coming from the basement. A search was made and staff were relieved to learn that this was merely the result of a gas leak that could potentially have destroyed one probation office rather than the result of a decomposing visiting Tory or LibDem politician who had inadvertently locked themselves in the basement whilst potentially engaged in destroying an entire service.
ReplyDelete12% budget cut to what? Its not clear. Ok he has shipped a load of my colleagues to CRC and that's a way of saving money. But he hasn't explained how he will pay for interventions delivered by CRC and if in the unlikely event these CRCs meet targets.
ReplyDeleteHe says that co-location will help re escalation in risk, however we all know that once CRCs are able to move out of buildings they will. Then you will see NPS staff in some cases rattling around in half empty buildings. Is MOJ really gonna pay for part occupied buildings after CRCs have moved out, I don't think so.
How the held does this idiot think that I and other NPS officers will manage with the endless stream of PSRs, doing court duty and managing high risk cases. I too am looking for jobs as I do not want my name dragged through the mud when the smelly steaming turd that I see before me hits the fan.
I hope Joanna and many, many others resign - they cannot do it without staff.
ReplyDeleteI hope she is well supported in her plan to become an MP and already getting a support team around her. If Doctor Taylor could do it in Wyre Forest, Joanna Hughes can do it in a constituency in Gloucestershire .. and what is more I think I read that the old boy said he is going to have another go in 2015 - by which time he will be eighty!
http://www.healthconcern.org.uk/
It would be good to have a go at an election by standing for whatever local elections are available to her this May. It will be time to submit nominations in a very few weeks. Sadly many areas do not have local elections every May, in which case it will be worth having a go at any council by elections that come up. Even a seat on a Parish Council is useful experience. One does not have to live exactly in a Parish or Town Council to be eligible as a candidate, but if she is serious, she or anyone considering doing likewise in their area will be able to look the rules up.
Meanwhile thanks to her for the write up - probation folk know how unreliable criminal records are and how difficult it will be monitoring precisely when any re offending ACTUALLY occurs because they do not get recorded chronologically, court appearances happen for older offences after newer ones and 12 months is not a long enough period over which to judge anyway - and that is just for starters!
Resigning is a very big step indeed and anyone thinking of taking such drastic action needs to consider things very carefully indeed. I think Joanna is an exception, but clearly many people are actively looking at other career options and indeed applying for other jobs.
ReplyDeleteAll the po's in my team have all expressed a firm indication to leave the service. Of course that does not mean all of them will actually take the step but I would expect around half taking up jobs outside the service in the next 12 months. I've always thought the thing that may scupper tr is the exodus of staff....we shall see
DeleteIs resigning such a big step?
DeleteObviously if you have no idea how you will get an income next, it is not risk free, but there are nearly always some other jobs. Probation workers have very transferable skills, albeit not all are immediately qualified for a front-line social work job like I was in 1988.
If I had put a lot of years in, I would want also to explore the possibility of redundancy, but I would not wait for a chance redundancy IF another half decent job was available now.
When I resigned in 1988, I did not walk into the next job as quickly as I first anticipated and claimed Unemployment Benefit, as it was then termed. I was initially refused but appealed on the basis, of my particular circumstances as I believed it was reasonable that I had resigned, I was ultimately awarded Unemployment Allowance - to my surprise - without needing to even attend an appeal hearing, but in actual fact, I did not draw any actual Benefit as for each week, I was without a permanent job, I worked more hours (from week 1) and earned an amount that made me ineligible to actually get any Benefit - but - if such work had not been available, my National Insurance would have been paid and I would have got a small amount of income.
I was VERY determined and made lots of phone calls, and went round agencies any day I did not have paid work to go to. Admittedly I was in Essex, but back in 1973 when I first arrived in Liverpool, when unemployment was already far higher there than nation wide, and I had a wait of a month before my Pbn training course started, I also claimed UB, was refused - appealed - awarded it but never drew it because again I found temporary work. Similarly my son turned up in Liverpool in 1997 and got paid work that same day and was never out of work for more than a day or so before he got regular work a few months later.
One wont get well paid work or get to do their chosen career, but with a good work record and skills I suspect it is STILL possible to get another job, almost immediately, if one is prepared to keep looking - every day - take just about anything that pays more than you would get by not working and do a good job wherever one ends up.
More recently - my daughter and husband both pitched up in a current unemployment hot spot - three years ago - Burnley and both got work with agencies within about two weeks, all they had was good work records and a willingness to do just about anything.
Similarly whilst a new pbn officer, I was short of money when my 1st child was born and wife not available to work, I got a part time w/e job as a minicab driver - and had some great learning experiences - driving prostitutes onto the Liverpool Docks and such like - one woman was so desperate she asked me to let her get in the boot - I refused - cars were sometimes searched by the Dock police AND I could not afford to invalidate my own insurance - I also needed my car to be a probation officer and at that time I wanted to keep that job!
I also think folk leaving probation jobs on or soon after the split may have very good constructive dismissal cases - I would certainly seek personal legal advise, if I left a pbn job at that time.
I am now not sure whether to post this - oh well if it gets deleted - so be it - no one will have died and at least one person, will probably have read it!
In my office (of around 15), at least half have indicated that, regardless, they are actively seeking new jobs. Even if 1 or 2 leave, that's still 1-2 which might be replicated across offices.
DeleteNow, the last 'count' indicated that around 50k people per year are released from custody after serving a sentence of less that 12 months. Rounding things up, that's 1k people per WEEK, divided by 22 CrC's; around 50 new clients per week per CrC. Every week!!
That's a hell of a lot of work with a workforce that is lacking in motivation and will be decimated by both those leaving for new jobs and those taking redundancies!! This does not take into account the fact that there has been no new PO's for the past few years to replace those we have already lost.
50 new Oasys (by the NPS) every week, 50 new sentence plans, 50 new risk assessment, 50 new everything.
All for the same money.
All with a reduced workforce.
All when chaos reigns.
Methinks Mr Grayling has not done his sums!!!
Yes I think resigning is a big step-single parent + mortgage- so am not rushing into anything.And one should get advice about constructive dismissal before resigning.I'm not convinced it would be so essy to win such a claim:its not a quick process and ET fees have gone up too.
DeleteNo one would stand any chance with a claim of constructive dismissal. It must be remembered that
DeleteNapo reached a collective agreement with the MoJ. They signed up to TR on behalf of members. So there would be no possibility of constructive dismisal over any contract breaches. And that said, constructive dismissal cases are notoriously difficult to win because you must show a fundamental breach of contract. You cannot simply save 'constructive dismissal' for a rainy day. There will be no legal remedies for individuals.
Resigning is a massive step and not something I would do without securing another job first and, to be frank, something that comes close to my present salary. So therein lies a problem! Also, times change and having a CQSW is not the automatic passport to social work that maybe it was. In some ways you are better having the DipPS, at least if you're considering YOTS. If you haven't already registered then you have to and prove that you've maintained your professional practice in order to work as a qualified social worker. I did not register when even if you were in probation you could do that automatically as, to be honest, having worked as a child protection social worker before coming into probation I never thought I would have to consider social work again. It is not a job that I would go back to lightly, if at all. Whatever probation is or may even become child protection social work is in a different league, for me anyway, when it comes to stress.
DeleteHas anyone renewed their social work registration recently, whilst still in probation, and can reassure me that it is not as difficult as it looks?
So for now I am staying, for good or ill. In another 12 months... 2 years, who knows?
I'm aware that there are relatively short social work 'conversion' courses available, at a price naturally.
DeleteBennism was the the fight to move the labour Party to a socialist socialist position; producing to meet need and all that. Instead, New bloody Labour with a neoliberal agenda emerged. Neoliberalism is the marketisation and privatisation of society. Many said Ben was a silly dreamer and Blair a political pragmatist in a rapidly globalising world and the Blair fallacy won the day. This is what happened because we accepted the logic of the lie now we are sacrificed to the whims of an elite who seek only profit regardless of the consequences to people or planet.
ReplyDeleteIt a race to the bottom and its only just started, hold on it's going to be a rocky ride. Keeping your head down and doing a good job just is not going to be enough from now on.
papa
Public Accounts Committee probes TR - Highlights of the day
ReplyDeleteMargaret Hodge - only asking a few simple questions.
The most disgraceful performance in the history of probation by Dame Ursula Brennan, Permanent Secretary, Antonia Romeo, Director General, Criminal Justice Group, Michael Spurr, Chief Executive, National Offender Management Service, and Sarah Payne, Director, National Offender Management Service, Wales, Ministry of Justice
youtu.be/p9lFTNJrk1g?a
@AnarchistPO
The only way to really reduce reoffending is to stop re-electing the offenders
ReplyDeleteOff topic and from January, but with no other news to find I think it makes interesting reading and gives a few insights.
ReplyDeletehttp://beanbagsandbullsh1t.com/tag/transforming-rehabilitation/
The beanbag page revealed this link to a fairly recent story
ReplyDeletehttp://www.justiceinnovation.org/understanding-innovation/innovative-people/streetcraft
StreetCraft - Stories from the frontline of criminal justice innovation
ReplyDeleteStreetCraft is a collection of interviews with some of the UK's leading criminal justice innovators. The book relates their stories of obstacles faced, opportunities realised, successes achieved and failures absorbed, as they set out to make a difference in the British criminal justice system of the early 21st century.
In their own words, these practitioners from the worlds of police, probation, prison, courts, and the third sector tell their experiences of doing things differently, in a changing and challenging world. In a sector which can at times seem conservative and rule bound, StreetCraft demonstrates that social innovation is alive and kicking in the criminal justice system.
Anton Shelupanov, Associate Director at the Centre for Justice Innovation said:
“StreetCraft demonstrates that frontline criminal justice practitioners have a multitude of excellent ideas to reduce crime, help victims and make our streets safer. In these challenging times for public services, innovation is all the more necessary.”
The book features interviews with:
Heather Munro, Chief Executive of the London Probation Trust
Steve Heywood, Assistant Chief Constable at Greater Manchester Police
Evan Jones, Head of Community Services at the St Giles Trust
Danny Afzal, prison reformer
David Chesterton, Magistrate for Youth and Family courts in East London
and many more.
The ten StreetCraft lessons
The interviews give contrasting views of what it is like to try to innovate in the criminal justice system. Reflecting on their stories, the book offers ten key lessons for other justice innovators:
Start with a passion for solving problems.
Be clear about the problem you want to fix (and work out whether it is a problem for others).
Engage with the people who care about the problem you are trying to solve.
Have a convincing idea of how you’ll get there (even if the evidence is unclear about what is going to work).
Build partnerships early and maintain those relationships.
Balance your self-belief with humility and the capacity for self-reflection.
Perseverance and persuasion are necessary, though not sufficient, attributes if you want to make a difference.
Money is not your only resource.
Successes and failures are seldom black and white.
It’s people, not systems, which matter.
StreetCraft demonstrates that frontline criminal justice practitioners have a multitude of excellent ideas to reduce crime, help victims and make our streets safer. In these challenging times for public services, innovation is all the more necesssary.
There street craft top 10 tips for being innovative. Could have asked most probation practitioners and would get examples of these being done on a day to day basis for over 100 years. That's why every probation trust meets its government imposed targets and excels in most of them, how the hell do people think probation has managed this on reduced budgets, reduced staff, not fit for purpose IT systems, constant and often unnecessary change for change sake. So the top tips are great, but we in the probation field have been doing this for years. Grayling is smashing that. Plus one tip missed off list is...
DeleteFor innovation to flourish in any organisation the staff must feel valued, trusted and share the vision of the organisation they work within. With the latter point in mind how many probation staff going into NPS and CRC feel valued and trusted, especially as we see the screens, office moves, reduced security levels for CRC staff who by the way apparently cannot submit mappa referrals. Not much trust there !!!!!!!
Nicely put!
ReplyDelete