TR Week Thirteen

Last week I attempted to apply for an NPS post. When I logged onto website it said I had no application, despite receiving an email that I had not completed my application. No-one could help me in probation and I gave up phoning the 0845 number. I've now missed the deadline. Staff in CRC are on their knees and then expected to complete a full application process to do a job they already did prior to June 1st. Surely up to share sale we should be able to move to the NPS, that was the impression we were given prior to the sift. NPS staff did not apply. Anyway, I left the service emotionally weeks ago. Not in terms of working with service users. Shame on those making money out of our misery by temping and sessional work. They are the ones not interested in the people we work with only their own greed.

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My mate down the pub told me that there is a CRC office in London where all the staff are on three month contracts; no stress and no commitment and they are off a soon as the kitchen starts to warm up. I'm ready to walk, only a few years to go why should I take all this shite? Like most people I joined the service to help individuals and their communities, now that the market and the profit motive is our raison d'etre, I'd be a bloody mug to stay.

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Perhaps its time that we the grassroots took a stand...literally - the next time we have a meeting with one of the many quisling CEOs at a given time we stand and quiety depart - a silent but dignified response to a loud and undignified slaughter of a much loved service.

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My Director told me that the NPS were hiring 100 motivated Probation Officers!! Great I thought, that should bring the total up to 101 :)

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How on earth have you managed to retain one motivated staff member??? Even my friend on maternity leave is dreading coming back....there are already 3 PSR's waiting for Tuesday...I kid you not. She does not even know how to work Delius!!!! I have a feeling that baby #2 will not be long away!!!!!

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How on earth can a realistic assessment of how the split is going - so far - be made, when NONE of the work involved in supervising 'less than 12 months custody' offenders' licences has even started? This is going to add a massive amount of work, and is one major flaw - along with the low morale, and growing chance of disengagement of so many essential staff. It feels dangerously precarious to me.

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Role Based Access Controls (RBAC) can be resolved by local ICT managers. Really? Take it from me, it isn't that simple. Especially as ICT themselves log in to nDelius and find that their own RBAC settings change on an almost daily basis for no apparent reason. What the letter is, is an optimist's deluded aspirations, not a description of events as they are unfolding.

By the way, if you give the letter to 2 colleagues to print, you will find that the NPS colleague will wait up to 20 minutes longer for their copy than the CRC colleague - another bit of ICT that doesn't work but it's ok, because the predicted delay was considered 'an acceptable business risk' by the implementation team. Go and make yourself a cup of tea, your honour, this PSR may take some time..

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"Furthermore, the data reconciliation work carried out after the migration confirmed that cases had been successfully moved across and that none had been lost." The cases may have been migrated across, but do you care to comment on the number of cases currently 'unallocated' due to the poor IT system?

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The IT is truly awful mainly because they want it to do too much. Keep It Simple Stupid used to be the key. Make it be as complicated as you possibly can seems to be the future.

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'It is possible that some staff believe that records have disappeared simply because they no longer have access to them'. Yes Chris, because we're that stupid.

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I can, at present, access both systems and can confirm that data has been lost. The other garbage about testing the processes pre share sale...huh...we are saying that the systems do not work, for example the risk escalation model, RSR etc..yet I hear no word that anything is to be changed, dare I say improved..this period is just for all of us to get used to the new piss-poor systems. Insulting.

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Just heard that there are fifty five thousand documents that delius has been unable to download/upload nationwide. Systems are working, everything going smoothly, I think not. MP's should make evidence based comments rather than trying to fool everyone with their LIES.

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I work in a busy local prison where all of the effects of benchmarking are felt on a daily basis. Constant stream of new prisoners with the multitude of problems we have to deal with all the time. Mental health issues, drug and alcohol detoxes, anger, violence, distress, self harm, etc etc etc. and all to be dealt with by fewer staff, in increasingly poor conditions.

It feels like it is only time before something will give but apparently there is no crisis! New staff will be on a much reduced salary scale and turnover will be high, the experience of long serving staff will be gone and the consistency of approach will disappear. This is what happens when a public service has to compete with the private sector. Sound familiar?

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As an ex po from years ago, I look back to working with many prison officer colleagues who were models of professionalism and good practice in dealing with both welfare and security. It grieves me considerably to see how the government have failed to appreciate that you cannot replace the skillset that so many of these officers had with a gizzajob temporary casual wonk from a security firm who's previous job experience has not extended to anything beyond something like shelf stacking or flipping burgers. It seems to be their belief that just anyone can be a prison officer. They can't. Peanut, monkey, recruitment, etc.

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I work in Durham Tees Valley and we have just been advised in the CRC that ALL offenders will be switched to fortnightly appointments, although TC's are allowed each week if you still think there are risk issues! Spot the bloody obvious contradiction!

Also, and in addition, NPS staff have been told that from next month there will be no managers present for late night appointments. In the past there has always been a rota of managers who remain in the building until the last offender has been seen. NPS staff have been told that they must get a colleague to stay back with them as it's too unsafe for them to be in the building alone! *double face/palm*

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I forwarded two emails to home email yesterday....both have failed to arrive! I'm not sure if there is some way that IT can block this feature? That said, it's not as if they have nothing else to do as looking after the Probation's computers appears to be less of a priority than stopping leaks from occurring!

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It's a nightmare - I've just spent 30 mins trying to identify and locate a prisoner's PPCS (Public Protection Case Officer in Parole Board) however, all documents have old 020 numbers and email addresses, cannot access Oli - where the information used to be, FFS!