TR Day Four

I've seen that guardian jobs are specifically advertising for New Zealand and Australia probation officers working in the UK a higher salary than a standard PO. 

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The text of the guardian advert placed by 'Criminal Justice Skills' : Are you a Qualified Probation officer from New Zealand or Australia?

Are you looking to continue your career in probation whilst in the UK?

Criminal Justice Skills is a market-leading supplier of staffing services to the offender management work community

Currently in the probation market we have a scarcity of candidates with background in probation. In order to address this problem we are currently looking for candidates who are experienced Probation Officers, looking to break in to the UK Probation Service. Several of our probation trust clients are interested in employing probation officers from Australia and New Zealand on interim contracts. We are considering offering assistance to any probation officer from Australia or New Zealand who reside in the UK, and who may be interested in this line of work.

We are running a course in the next 3 months to place experienced Probation Officers from outside the UK who have a minimum of 2 years+experience. We will take you through the policies and procedures, as well as train you on the electronic systems that are currently being used in the Probation Service.

Main requirements for a Temporary Probation Officer Role are:

2 years minimum experience in a Probation Officer role
Available to work immediately, and have proof of eligibility to work in the UK
Experience in caseload management of offenders
Have not been dismissed from a probation officer role
This is an exciting opportunity to enter an industry where there is a lot of opportunity to work, and with an agency who are experts in recruitment in to probation.

If this is not right for you, but you know someone who would be suitable. Please call up with their details, and we would pay you £50 in vouchers for the referral if placed.

If you would like to be considered for this position and have the relevant experience, then please apply below.

The Red Snapper Group acts as an employment agency (permanent) and as an employment business (temporary) - a free and confidential service to candidates.

The Red Snapper Recruitment Group is an equal opportunities employer.

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No real problem with where we get appropriate qualified officers but the crass insensitivity of NOMS/MOJ again seeking to shit all over the workforce they have .....I continue to be amazed how a large civil service based organisation can GET IT SO WRONG!! They must have the most incompetent staff and no regard for staff whatsoever ...splitting staff, de professionalising, advertising for new NPS graduates, Aussie PO's ...what next???

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Simon Garden @TheParoleOfficr on twitter has noticed that they have just taken the advert down. Thanks to him he managed to get a screen shot of it.

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Bosses last few months: We're splitting in June - get used to it! We'll be two new exciting (etc) organisations
Bosses this week: Why are you acting like we've split? We need to work together for the sake of the business!

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I am a PO in a CRC. Last month I was managing 40+ cases, either high risk of harm, sex offenders, serious mental health problems or domestic violence. I was writing a PSR a week and Parole and breach reports when needed. This week I have 17 cases, no reports to write and once I've caught up on the backlog of the previous difficult caseload.... very little to do. Meanwhile, my PSO colleague has 91 cases, my old colleagues in NPS are overwhelmed and we are advertising for people to come from Australia and New Zealand to do what I was doing and still can do. Just bloody bonkers.

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Quite agree! I am a PO in CRC with half the caseload I had previously, as NPS colleagues start to look hollow eyed. I am prevented from writing PSRs, proposals for breach reports, managing MAPPA cases - my bread and butter! I feel as if I am operating with one arm behind my back. As for recruiting from Australia, I am lost for words!

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PO in CRC - twice the caseload, stressed to hell while NPS po's are kicking back, relaxed with small caseloads and knocking out reports. Similar with PSOs. Nationally, makes no sense whatsoever, inconsistent resourcing choices, staff shafted left right & centre.

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Just received an email to say that all CRC staff to carry on writing PSR's to minimise business failure/transition. They should have thought of that when they SHAFTED US ALL, why should we this was their idea. Also delius will not allow CRC staff to write PSR's, great another system F****k Up. They seem to be making this stuff up as they go along to pretend and LIE to Graying that everything is going smoothly. Next week they will tell us to keep all our high risk cases.

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Really good to stay in touch with other colleagues suffering the pain associated with this mess. Interestingly enough, I wonder how it is working in other areas - the SPOC (Single Point of Contact for CRC to contact in the event of Risk Escalation). Clearly there has not been any, or maybe a few which a Duty TM is dealing with. 

West Yorkshire is a huge area, you would have thought 12 months was sufficient notice and pre warning that the CRC's, in every office, would need to know who the SPOC was, as would the SPOC of course. We had a team meeting yesterday and apart from some clarity about how we need to manage HR PPO's/DRR's in the absence of the one colleague who knows what to do - we did not really make much progress, although we did identify a colleague who wants to work with women in NPS - previously all women were accommodated at another building, with a member of staff co-located there (the local woman's project) now all the previous directives about seeing women separately, and at a place conducive to their safety and needs, is no longer necessary. 

It is becoming more apparent that anything which doesn't neatly fit into TR, just gets displaced or those at the coal face are seemingly 'expected' to resolve the problems which arise.....................not bloody likely. In my team we are doing what we do best - work with clients and then, spend small amounts of time on confusing IT systems and Shared Services, just in order to be sure we'll be paid at the end of June. It took me 2 hours yesterday to clear my Officers Diary in NDelius - never used it - never saw the need to duplicate work and then went for a curry and a good belly laugh with some colleagues.

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Half a dozen cases allocated to CRC this week. NPS crown court colleague/s unable to complete RSR or any other paperwork "due to lack of time". Then it turns out crown court NPS staff have asked if one of the city CRC teams can pick up a dozen reports. This is Week One. Utter meltdown. IT DOES NOT WORK, Christopher Stephen Grayling. TR DOES NOT WORK.

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Courts all over the country not able too input results and in our office, ndelius chucking us out when trying to update contacts including breachable absences. I have given up and stopped trying to input the contacts. The clients won't be breached.

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Anyone else noticed that addresses are missing from NDelius? We've noted a few cases so far where current addresses have just disappeared and been replaced with old addresses. Meant I couldn't do a home visit (don't worry have managed to contact him and inputted new address and rearranged home visit for next week and have raised it at work) just wondering if it is national issue? I am assuming it is. It is worth checking and as could cause major issues if it goes unnoticed.

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On ND, on Monday they changed me to my IOM role but all my cases are still under my old OMU role. No alerts are showing in my officer diary. To input a contact I need to do so under my IOM role but it defaults to my OMU one. To get from my OMU role to IOM, it is 72 clicks. I managed to do this in 23 seconds. If I input 25 contacts a day, that is 575 secs (10 mins) spent on clicking to find my correct team; approx an hour a week. Luckily there is a quick way which is 'only' 11 clicks (6 secs).

Meanwhile, I see some enterprising person has designed a 'novelty mug' currently for sale on a well-known online auction site. 10 sold in 24 hours - I anticipate heavy demand and increased production.