Apparently the powers-that-be feel that probation staff are 'just going to settle down and get on with it.' If this is what they think and it's what the MoJ are telling potential bidders, then they really don't know us very well and are in for quite a nasty surprise!
Here's to another million!
(I stole the images off the internet and hope the creator/copyright owners don't mind)
Well done Jim and all the others that contributed. I think this could be the start of something big; as far as I'm concerned this has given Probation a voice and a new way of organising. The African Spring was organised on the net lets hope the demise of this and other neo-liberal UK goverments can be organised similarly.
ReplyDeletepapa
A well deserved achievement for an outstanding blog Jim. Congratulations.
ReplyDeleteDear Jim I stumbled across your blog by accident several months when looking up info on privatisation. It has been a lifeline being able to rant and read the views of colleagues and others who feel the same way. Thank you a million times x x x
DeleteGreat blog. Has come into its own with TR as people have wanted to exchange info,have a voice & feel part of supportive community at time of attack. Keeping up such regular blogs no mean feat-well done Jim!
DeleteVery well done Jim, I appreciate all your efforts. Please keep it going, we need you!
DeleteThanks Jim
DeleteVive La Resistance !
Thankyou Jim, you have been a life line and an outlet for all this craziness.
DeleteJust an interesting read.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/may/31/nhs-cuts-mental-health-prisons
I am new to posting in blog but not new to reading. Seems it is going to be safer than Facebook or twitter. I am all for an Arab spring .. General strike . Revolution occupy probation. Whatever it takes
ReplyDeleteJilln
Don't know how to indicate tongue-in-cheek... I got my BAGA Level 3 award for a succesful Arab Spring.
DeleteWell done JB. Now lets kick arse. Message to NPS and CRC - please don't stop posting. The 'anon' tag has become de rigeur. Perhaps JB (or his doppelganger, Edward Snowden) will be able to advise if the MoJ can trace posts?
Sad to hear about the death of a colleague at this time. In the absence of any facts I hesitate to encourage or post comment or views to the effect that such a tragedy might perhaps be collateral damage of TR.
Fantastic jim well done and thank you for all the time and effort you have put into your blog. It has been very important to me over the last six or so months. I have only posted once but greatly appreciate all the views opinions and information which has been available. I am so sad about what has happened to our wonderful probation service and I hope that grayling and all his cronies get their just deserts - I'm sure they will.
ReplyDeleteDoes outsourcing enhance performance? Obviously not!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.educationinvestor.co.uk/(X(1)A(JvSqe3yyzwEkAAAAZTIxMjU3MGItYmFhOC00ODMxLTgwNGQtOGNhNzE0ZmE2NWZhXtW1Xbgb0DzywwftTHzocE_V-Fs1)S(r3mpws45sir5txqc31aekd45))/showarticle.aspx?ID=3899
The Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted) is to bring all its inspections of schools and further education back in house.
DeleteThe watchdog said it would not renew current contracts with CfBT, Serco and Tribal when they expire in August 2015.
Ofsted said the move would give it more control over the "selection, training and quality assurance" of so-called 'additional inspectors' (AIs). AIs form a large proportion of Ofsted inspectors, and are mostly employed by private outsourcing firms. But teachers have complained about the consistency of inspections in recent years.
In March, Ofsted chief Sir Michael Wilshaw said a "root and branch review of outsourced inspection” was needed.
Jonathan Simons of the think tank Policy Exchange, said: "The outsourced nature of many inspectors meant that they were 'twice removed' in accountability terms from oversight by HMCI. Bringing inspections in house will help drive up quality which will be good for schools, teachers and most importantly the children.'
Commenting, Barbara Bradley, Serco’s director for citizen services, said: “We are very proud to provide this important service to Ofsted and are obviously disappointed that the contracts will not be renewed in September 2015."
Tribal also said it was proud of its inspections, but added that the announcement did not affect its business outlook for 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The reform means that from August next year, all FE and school inspectors will be contracted directly by Ofsted. Tribal and Prospects Services will continue to provide early years inspections for the watchdog, however.
Ofsted’s director of corporate services, Nick Jackson, said: “With the conclusion of these contracts the time was right to look again at how Ofsted can best deliver a service that is both efficient and flexible. We are confident that this is the right model.”
Well done Jim. I completely agree with the comments above. You have just been totally amazing. Thanks for being here, trust me it helped. Love Anarchist PO xxx :-)
ReplyDeletePresident Obama: "What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by [insert appropriate name] to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne" (in 2002 talking about the Iraq war).
ReplyDeleteThis is a word to MOJ central if they think things will settle down and roll over. Ha
ReplyDeleteYou will be called up on your bullshit.
Well done you! Let's keep up the pressure! I share the sentiments already stated above.
ReplyDeleteYou have been my source of information and I thank you for all the hard work and providing a space for people to express freely exactly how they are feeling x
ReplyDeleteCongratulations & well done Jim. You have done probation staff proud, reaching out and getting the issues out there in public. We have shown that we can be resilient and creative more then Grayling could have ever imagined. In my area our CEO admitted that she did not expected this level of opposition amongst staff. We are getting the message through. We might not be able to control decisions made by the power that be but we can control our co-operation. Lets keep the pressure on x
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Jim, the mandarins know very well that this Blog represents a lightening rod for disenfranchised staff across the service betrayed by so few among the many in positions of trust that Its difficult to know who to turn too for solace . Unions have capitulated spectacularly in a whimper. And middle management have been drawn to the rewards of a false prospectus as remote from the original mission values of Probation than can be imagined. If we are to make a difference we must encourage the 'Community of Probation' to share its concerns without fear or favour .
ReplyDeleteWell done great achievement Jim a Million I have a few of those I can tell you ! Well done to Pat W London If Ms Monroe takes such a passing shot at her in this way it because as rep love her or not Pat is effective. One man one blog 1 million views and counting. Unpaid campaigner !!!
ReplyDeleteIts not finished yet.
Dino
F Off Grayling
ReplyDeleteA million congratulations Jim.
ReplyDeleteOn this day too.
Please keep up your excellent blog!
Bloody scary face at te start of this blog. Almost gave me heart attack.
ReplyDeleteThanks for all the warm words guys - just in from a lovely night out and really moved by all the comments. It's great to know you're out there reading, thinking and writing. Lets keep it up.........
ReplyDeleteThanks again
Jim
If only staff were ready to act in numbers on the industrial action days.....but through those dark days when I and others were laughed at by colleagues who believed that 'they would be looked after or it wont matter to them this blog acted as a rallying point-from rural isolated offices to large connurbations it was always good to know that I wasn't alone and that there were others prepared to fight-the resistance may not have been strong but it was and is there and this blog acts like a beacon-long may it continue...
ReplyDeleteI have been lost for words on the travesty of the dismantling of Probation, the lack of action by NAPO, the Media Officer and recent resignation by the Chair. It has only been through the determination of others (refer Probation blog) that I have been able to keep updated due to the vacuum from the Union that are employed to represent our members. The only reason
ReplyDeleteI have not resigned is the continued need to represent members which was the reason I opted to be a Union Rep in the first instance.
Even at this last hour there is no media coverage that I can see on the plight of Probation, why haven't NAPO paid for media coverage to get the message across? Our plight should be on the headlines of every National Newspaper today.
Unfortunately I was sick when BBC Question Time contacted me to attend QT in Radlett, I had to turn this down and I was saddened at a key opportunity to bring Mr Grayling to account, he was let off with no questions asked. I have been on leave this week and unfortunately I was taken to A&E by ambulance, for the moment this is a national public service. In A&E as I lay in quite a traumatic state, the word Serco came into my view printed on the paper towel dispenser, I was incensed, clearly this Hospital use this company for all their cleaning needs, I was equally horrified when a young lady came in with her apron marked 'NHS' and 'Serco' side by side which appeared to be an auxiliary nurse. I also had an 'offshore Medic' accompanying the nurse, when I later queried this, I was told his day job is in Iraq however he was updating his skills. With the build up of the NHA campaign against privatisation I wonder if the Government are preparing military staff to be on standby! I reflected also that my mum's monthly bill for meals on wheels states Sedexo; we are definitely sleep walking into this private world as it is right under our nose!
As the last time I write under this guise, going into the new NPS, I am saddened to be split from colleagues that I have worked with and respected for many years. I will continue to work to the best of my ability, however I am angered that Grayling has been allowed to rough shod everything in his path, party political collusion is rife! FOI requests should look at activities with these multi national companies who are reaping financial rewards and one day I hope the truth will come out and those implicit held to account.
My final thought is to our CEO who choose to lead the CRC, her blog has been empty for nearly 2 wks, her partying words at recent staff conference highlighted her career as a NAPO activist, I'm not sure what went wrong, it is now clear where her interest lie, the rest will be history!
Jim,
ReplyDeleteCan I add my name to colleagues above expressing unstinting admiration for hitting the one million milestone.....whilst CG was spared any grilling on the most recent QT programme on his TR Omni shambles...the audience reaction to an earlier Q on the R4 AQ highlighted the paucity of his arguments..
A question about the proposed privatisation of the probation service sparked noisy audience reaction when Chris Grayling defended the Government's intentions. His view that the new scheme would provide more support for people leaving prison was not shared by other panel members, nor by a vocal section of the audience.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03nt8rl.
Appreciate that this might be cold comfort to colleagues now having to cope with the fall out at the sharp end of the demise of a public PS ....
But OP Blog will I hope continue to expose the sheer historic folly of TR & bring its forensic lens on those marketising predators about to feed off the carcass of probation!
Regards
Mike Guilfoyle
...
"But OP Blog will I hope continue to expose the sheer historic folly of TR & bring its forensic lens on those marketising predators about to feed off the carcass of probation!"
DeleteThanks as always Mike - that's the plan!
Cheers,
Jim
Thanks Jim, and big CONGRATS, excellent blog that's helped me when I have felt alone, not only battling the system but some of my colleagues too when were initially shafted.
ReplyDeleteYou all have reaped what you sowed.
ReplyDelete"You all have reaped what you sowed"
DeleteStated so baldly that is unhelpful, although there is considerable truth in the statement.
By 'you all' I take it Anon at 09.01 is addressing current probation service practitioners, be they at the "front-line", those who engage one on one, with supervisees and subjects of court orders or probation service managers, administrators and service specialist personnel, such as information technologists/operators, finance workers and what I call personnel staff (now - sadly in my opinion termed 'human relations' workers)
Well firstly, those folk did not sow TR or even appoint the sowers who are simply the UK Government. Despite what many think we do not have a fully representative system of democracy that starts from citizens - rather we are subjects of a governmental system, with a strange way of appointment, firstly sanctified by the head of state, to perform the task from time to time, as long as a majority of the elected members of one of the Houses of Parliament do not pass a motion of no confidence in them.
Our parliamentary system, as far as the parliament of the UK is concerned has us as subjects NOT citizens, most of us are able to stand to be a member and to vote for a member to represent the area where we vote. The voting system is not proportionally representative, so ultimately a Government that can withstand a vote of confidence may not have the support of the majority of the electors but it necessarily will have the support of the majority of MPs thus elected - that seems perverse to me!
We certainly 'reap' what the Government sows as probation policy, because we have a choice about whether to continue to be a probation worker - so if we refuse and resign our contracts, either other people will need to be engaged forthwith or possibly the policy will be amended for lack of people capable of executing that policy.
I am surprised, the opposition has not been far more vociferous and was not started sooner, particularly by board members of Probation Trusts and senior managers and am VERY disappointed there has been a willingness to attempt to implement what to my mind is a seriously flawed set of policies and even to seek new managerial positions within the public organisations created to execute these dangerous policies, be that MOJ, NOMS, NPS or a CRC - for all such people share responsibility for the fact that such dangerous policies are being implemented.
In my opinion, every probation employee who objects, could still refuse to be involved and simply resign, after all it is presumptuous, in the 21st century to assume that there is such a thing as a job for life, when in recent generations so many other sorts of jobs have either been swept away or radically changed.
It is tough losing out on a possible (enhanced) redundancy settlement or a full continuous pension, but might be better lost than to carry a sense of responsibility for implementing a policy that will harm people and for which, by being an employee one risks being held personally responsible for some of that harm, and additionally experiences the emotional stress involved in endeavouring to carry out these horrendous policies.
I have immense respect, for those who have refused a job in the NPS or a CRC and also those who have taken such a job determined to do the best they can for the clients and their victims who will increasingly probably be the greatest losers of these perilous public policies - which are still a long way from full implementation despite this being day one!
Meanwhile continued thanks to 'Jim Brown' for his commitment & detailed attention & for researching & publishing information, in one place, that would be hard to come by but for him. I fear there will be worse days with TR than today, but that today has come and the Trusts have now been abolished and all probation work in England and Wales been centrally managed as part of the Civil Service, for the first time ever, is grim enough to be going on with!
Thanks Jim for all your hard work commitment dedication and persistence in carrying the campaign opposing probation privatisation and the act of political vandalism perpetrated by Graylng and pathetically supported aided and abetted by some probation CEOs and senior managers. Hopefully people will be keeping a dossier on all of those who helped TR get this far, just following orders is not acceptable as an explanation. Those who have colluded with TR should be named and shamed when a serious incident occurs or corruption is uncovered. We need to make sure that when a front line practitioner is part of a serious case review that any aspect which can be linked to TR ominshambles is vigorously highlighted and place at the feet of those who promoted it. This is not the end, guerrilla tactics are the way forward, Grayling has on the resources but he has not won over probation staff's hearts and minds, the Vietnam war provided that you can possession overwhelming resources but that does not necessarily mean that you can win or impose your will. A visualisation one man, in front of a line of tanks in Tiananmen Square - keep opposing TR, keep strong and don't let the bastards grind you down - whistleblowers can bring down governments keep your lists, keep your evidence your day will come when it will be published, that's why this blog and blogs like it are so important - proud to be anonymous
ReplyDeleteIf anyone ever deserved a "Butler Award" or "Probation Champion" or "for Services to Probation" gong.... more so than the CBE's and MBE's proliferating in our upper ranks!
ReplyDeleteJim for Chair. You'd get elected straight away!
ReplyDeleteThat picture of grayling at the top of this page is VERY disturbing. He looks at best like a detached posh boy millionaire who played a lot of soggy biscuits at boarding school (I bet he was bullied) and at worst like a complete psychopath who is about to launch a massacre at a school!
ReplyDelete