TR Week Five

I must admit I didn't think that the 'names out of the hat' story would have legs, because unlike Chris Grayling, most of us knew there was provision for 'random' selection under certain specified circumstances during the sifting process. But this story really does seem to be taking off and Grayling has very definitely backed himself into a corner.

I notice that yesterday's blog by Ian Lawrence claimed responsibility for getting the ball rolling:-

No, it is more likely that it will be his propensity to be consistently economical with the truth and bore everyone half to death at the same time that will do for him; and if so he will have been helped on his way by the direct contributions that you are feeding in to the campaigns@napo.org.uk inbox, which is providing fuel for some testing Parliamentary Questions, such as the one which asked him whether staff names had been ‘pulled out of the hat’ as part of the dreadful assignment process which was used to determine the staff split.

The story has been picked up by a number of blogs such as the Huffington Post:-

Justice secretary Chris Grayling has been accused of ignoring warnings that probation officers have been forced out of the public sector Probation Service and into the private sector entirely at random. The government has outsourced large sections of the service to companies such as G4S. Labour MP Toby Perkins has complained that the decision as to which employees have to now work for the private companies is apparently being decided by names literally being "drawn out of a hat".

Grayling has dismissed the allegation as "absolute nonsense". However a letter chain between South Yorkshire Probation Trust and one probation officer seen by The Huffington Post UK reveals staff are being told the opposite.
"There was a random selection process and employee numbers were used to select between NPS and CRC. The details of this process were shared with the Trades Union," the trust told one probation worker who questioned why their job had been privatised.

"Employee numbers were drawn out of a hat by a panel of 3 including an ACO, a board member and an HR representative. No names were used in this process and this gave an order or what was pulled out 1st, 2nd, 3rd etc. The ranking was subsequently used to fill in the NPS posts unto establishment."

On Tuesday Grayling told the Commons "names were not drawn from a hat" and that "there was a carefully constructed process of selection".

There's no doubt that Toby Perkins MP has absolutely skewered Chris Grayling and has handily published not only the South Yorkshire Probation Trust email trail, but also a photo of his note to the minister offering him the opportunity of correcting his answer, together with Grayling's terse response. Naturally, given the evidence, Toby Perkins has written to him demanding an apology and we all await the response with interest. As with most bullies, it won't be easily forthcoming and it certainly won't be gracious.

Meanwhile, the following comments from the frontline are dedicated to all outgoing chairs of Probation Trusts who might be as deluded as this guy quoted in the Swindon Advertiser:-

Paul Aviss, chairman of Wiltshire Probation Trust, said the initial buck against the plans has now subsided after the Wiltshire Probation Trust officially disappeared at the start of the month. “Locally in the Wiltshire Probation Trust most people are saying they know what is going to be happening, we have some issues but let’s get on with it,” he said.

I left my role as a probation officer back in February. My decision was two fold, family circumstances along with the uncertainty the changes brought. I visited my IOM team (with cakes) this week and saw first hand the strain my colleagues were under. Today as I read about the mess in pay I can honestly say I'm so thankful I was n a position to leave. My thoughts are with you all.

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Im a Probation Officer in the CRC. One of our CSOs got a PSO job and has left - this only leaves one CSO for our LDU and the vacancy is not being advertised. So now we have been told that we have to take standalone UPW. It's a nightmare - each day before I do any of my bread and butter job I have to trawl through to see who did or did not turn up for UPW the day before. Also it is taking the best part of an hour to induct people on ICM cases - half an hour for a regular probation order plus another 20mins on top for UPW. We're all fed up - oh and the dedicated UPW CA is also being trained on the probation side of things so she can cover and vice versa - they are just spreading us too thin.

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Hi I just want to say, I work within the Unpaid work bit of CRC - have been informed that they are trying to get us to take on the Supervision of Offenders in light of the shortage of staff within CRC and their caseloads. Please note we are also understaffed - has only been 2 of us running our Unit since the SERCO takeover. I have not been trained to do or take on Probation cases or work. 

The higher body who is trying to do this, is only interested in targets, rather than the repercussions this will create on the mental and physical health of the staff members in question. I used to love my job, but this has sent my anxiety and stress levels through the roof. We struggle with the Unpaid work as it is which has escalated since the 1st June and now this, one really doesn't know what to do anymore.

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I am a PO in the CRC with a completely new caseload of 75 and rising (on a 4 day week) My two PO colleagues are in the same boat with a PSO colleague carrying nearer 100. I haven't been near oasys since the split and don't anticipate accessing it any time soon - no time. If the client's file has arrived on my desk (and many haven't to date), and if I'm lucky, I'll manage a quick skim of the PSR, read the last couple of delius log entries and that's it prep wise. 

My Manager is aware of this. I've still got a copy of the enquiry report following Sonnex, and I know what I am walking into. However, I am also very clear that, should there be an SFO on my watch I will not be taking responsibility for it. I seem to remember post Sonnex that some colleagues in LPT were described as 'bad eggs' or 'bad apples' or something as the blame game started. Management had better not try that with me.....

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True, true, true. One CRC office in our area has a major staffing crisis with no replacements for 4 PSOs who have left/are leaving, 2 PO vacancies and no current local manager in post. Caseloads have escalated by almost 100% in 8 weeks, i.e 30 mixed bag pre-split has become 50+ med risk post-split for POs; up to 75+ for PSOs, with programme duties in addition. 

Caseloads will continue to climb as 90+% of new cases are allocated to CRC. Current estimate is 30% of oasys incomplete, especially since NPS were excused risk management plan duties. Although not necessarily the highest risk by definition, it is a widely held view that the most volatile cases, the most likely to be involved in SFOs, are within CRC, e.g. DV, PPO, IOM, new entrants to the adult CJ system.

Bidder Beware. The Perfect Storm is brewing.

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I am aware our area NPS - ACO (Assistant Chief Officer) had been doing the rounds, supposedly to show support for staff. I am so glad I was on leave. I hear the individual made a series of unhelpful and in my opinion, inappropriate comments in response to real concerns being raised by staff....things like, now is a good time to make a mistake, as nobody will be held accountable...for me, this is a dereliction of duty. This senior manager, all managers, should be offering helpful advice, sharing information in order to generate some stability. An insincere 'don't worry, do what you can' attitude, is not what staff need and it is, quite frankly, insulting to think staff want to hear such clap trap. I would appreciate it if the ACO just earned their your inflated salary, did something constructive to manage the chaos, and challenge the MoJ. It is shameful.

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Want to hear something funny - the most helpful people I've come across in past week are the Serco community payback team. Used to think there wasn't many of them but they now have better staffing levels that CRC and they're really helping us out with Delius and sorting out our cases. That's not their job but they realise what a mess we are in. How did we get screwed over more than the private sector staff before we even work for private sector?

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Serco staff also have dual access to delius so they have NPS access plus CRC access to whole of London. Why are they getting special treatment and none of the rest of us?

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Looked on NOMS jobs today and saw PO grade officers required for NPS - Liverpool and Tees Valley.....CRC can only apply as a secondment! How does that work then???? Shafted ....you bet

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More news of staff hemorrhaging today - one NPS & one CRC ( both POs) have baled for bigger salaries and less hassle. One said: "... Probation used to be easy money but its started to get hard now. If I have to work hard I may as well get paid properly."

I'm not sad to see that person go, but it will be tough. That's nine staff (po & pso) in six months, with not a single replacement.

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I have been analysing offender data this week and have spent the last three days wrestling with nDelius and eOASys. I spoke to two IT people locally who are tearing their hair out because these news systems are poorly designed and do not talk to each other in the way the previous systems did. In shoot, they said that the introduction of nDelius has, in effect, bombed them back into the IT stone age

Worse still, I have just found out that two of my colleagues, both highly competent and one a Butler Trust award winner, are leaving to take up new jobs outside of Probation. Neither wants to leave but each fears for the service and its professionalism. Tragic waste of decades of experience and training.

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"Treating the future of dedicated and experienced probation staff as if they’re no more than balls in a game of bingo" 

There in black and white. Precisely what our Lords and Masters think of us. I left early today, told my manager I was at my GP's but had a job interview :) Whilst I think my job is somewhat secure, I no longer enjoy doing what I'm doing and the constant stress of one report after another is just doing my head in.

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It's shocking to know that my 31 years in the service went down at a pick of a ball from a hat. This has got to be rectified.

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I'm only seven years in but I still think the taxpayers have been short changed by training me to work with High Risk people, sex offenders, to write pre-sentence reports and appear at Oral Hearings etc, etc. All gone at the pick of a name from a hat. Meanwhile they are trying to recruit new people to do what I can already do. It's a nightmare that I can't wake up from.

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Every comment that Grayling makes sounds sooo childish, I don't know why those asking him question about this omnishambles don't just dismiss him. How can he continue to get away with it and now names out of a hat fucking shyte. What next?, All I can say is that I have never felt so low as I do now working for the Probation Service and I really don't know what I am doing anymore battling with delius and oasys everyday along with all the LIES.

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25 years' service/experience/sentence - goodness knows how much spent on training - plaudits from high court judges and others about quality of work with high risk and highly complex cases - now CRC, no explanation beyond the "11/11" response. Having to endure being managed by young thrusting ambitious eager people with blinkers fixed and eyes on the £££s.

Would rather shove a barbed implement into my genitalia than go back to work next week. However, a direct debit of blood, piss and pain don't impress HSBC. Thanks, Chris. Now, given you've been creaming your pants about bidders, why don't you have the good grace to tell us who has bid for where? It won't affect their final sealed bids, but it might help staff decide whether to fuck off sharpish.

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Anon 20.30, I felt the same fighting the process with both managers, colleagues and ACEs, no one gave a shit. I'm still the same will never bow down to the disseminating of our service, but just like you I did not get heard especially by those picked out of the hat to be in NPS. I am waiting to be made redundant I hate what has happened to the service and to some of the people whom I thought I could rely on after years of working with them. The British colonial way of divide and rule has worked for centuries but I didn't think the people who work in Probation would fall for it, I thought we all knew better and fought against it, but it continues to be good tool.

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Our NPS teams are in tatters. We are in survival mode - not even managing to do the bare minimum. Court processes are a disaster. Allocations are all over the place. Many staff have gone off with long sick notes, others have decided it's a good time to have babies (and probably won't come back). It is unsafe. People's personal resources are running out. It's an unbelievable shambles, so news that names were drawn out of a hat is not a surprise. I can't see CG lasting much longer, he's an idiot for all to see, but the damage is done.

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My grievances are ongoing and I'm in touch with a solicitor. I haven't given up just yet.

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Signed off with work related stress, I went to GP today. Locum, so I had to start the whole sorry story again. Mid account, she asked where I worked. "Probation Service" I said. Her face fell. "Stay away" she said, scribbling.