Sunday 2 November 2014

Summing It All Up

I thought this was so good and succinct, I'd republish without delay! Many thanks to the contributor:-

So, we have reached Week 22 and far from systems "bedding in" and adjustment to the new working way, everything just gets worse!

1. IT moves from weakness to weakness with "workarounds" hastily brought in to at least get some semblance of process working now being removed progressively and staff again having to figure out what to do. Still no definitive tried and tested systems but rather bodge jobs that someone must have been paid an awful lot of tax payers money to develop.


2. Courts now progressively moving to majority of reports being done by tick box orals, yes even High Risk, read the PI, it is the national system. Court staff instructed to do this against their professional judgement and OMs becoming increasingly angry at the hasty assessment done by court staff and the absence of information to complete Initial Supervision Plans with. Knock on effect is of course ISP targets being missed and very many likely to be of poor quality due to errr, lack of information. Best not mention that lack of information leads to poor risk assessment eh? 


3. Case Allocation and RSR (Risk of Serious Recidivism) tools proving to be a disaster with most areas having paid scant heed to the detail required and very many having been done incorrectly in the absence of clear guidance and training and of course, appropriate staffing levels. Three line whip on this I hear now with NOMS panicking and sending staff around the country to talk to court based case allocators trying to figure out why everyone is doing this differently.


4. Risk Escalation - the Jewel in the TR Crown - takes 3 hours easily the first time anyone tries to use it (that's CRC 3 hours plus NPS 3 hours) to replace a simple line management discussion. Official timing on this is 24 hours for a decision, previously took perhaps half an hour max? Now takes two PO/PSO grade staff and two managers (CRC/NPS side) so double the staff just to make the decision!


5. Staff split - chickens are really coming home to roost - numbers wrong, locations wrong, roles changing without any discussion or agreement or even consideration of Equality issues. A great example is an NPS colleague trying to use Shared Services who has hearing issues and is told to email rather than phone (yes this has happened) but email will only get a response in 7 days as opposed to hearing colleagues who can get a response instantly on the phone.


6. Breach processes - CRC staff having cases rejected by NPS enforcement officers but not told why and only discover this by a delius entry because NPS staff told not to communicate directly with their former colleagues, there is no time. 


7. Cases still unallocated or being warehoused and held by managers so NOMS can say they have been allocated, but really they are held until a resource (that's PSO/PO) becomes available. So remember for 'case' we really mean a person with complex needs and risks to be assessed. Perhaps sexual offending, perhaps domestic abuse, perhaps mental health, perhaps child protection...perhaps SFO???


8. Duty of care...to service users and to staff being totally disregarded. Truly an Omnishambles of Epic proportions!


Postscript

Don't forget the never ending amount of emails that we keep getting telling us what processes we are now supposed to be following, what changes have happened, the latest instruction etc. Who has time to read them?!

18 comments:

  1. But remember this is just " teething problems" and this crock of shit is working. Isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  2. God, it is Sunday evening and I cannot describe how I feel, I know I have another five days of chaos and bullshit coming my way. Why oh why can't something be done about this. My wife is a teacher and has exactly the same feelings, my sister is a nurse and is close to tears most of the time! These bastards have taken our pride in being a public servant and wanting to do the best job possible and corrupted it in the eyes of the rest of the population. They are corrupt themselves and when asked to explain their actions simply refuse to appear on radio or television and this is acceptable. I am coming to the end of my tether and really don 't know which way to turn. Maybe the only answer to this situation is revolution!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Everything that has been privatised has been screwed up - from the railways to the utilities to health and social care, housing. All we see is an erosion of the public good. We currently have a shrinking state, but for many it is a failing state.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent analysis overheard last week, to the effect that Thatcher sold off what she could get away with (privatisation through share sales), Blair mortgaged everything he could think of (PFI), now Cameron's simply giving away what's left (outsourcing).

      I struggle to understand how & why the Tories claim to be the "great British party" when their ideology has meant that in 2014 virtually everything In the UK is owned by overseas organisations, ALL PAID FOR by the British taxpayer.

      Delete
  4. It's because these companies are all satisfied with creating an illusion that is sufficient to get them paid. The villains of the piece are the commissioners and inspectors that fail to recognise this fact. The fail because they know the failure of these outsourcing companies is THEIR failure as commissioners.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The old adage still holds true: the minimum expected is the maximum required.

      Delete
  5. After being on leave for a week with half term, dreading going back tomorrow. Been feeling tearful and snappy all day, my poor family bearing the brunt...I hate it and would welcome redundancy if it was put on the table tomorrow

    ReplyDelete
  6. I 2 am dreading work tomorrow . The thought of it stresses me out

    ReplyDelete
  7. You should do an expose on what it's really like to work for private probation aka serco

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This govt utterly contemptuous of the skills and dedication If public servants and has declared war on the public sector, wasting millions of tax payers money, plundering public funds for their own greedy ends. What is happening in this country is absolutely disgusting.

      Delete
    2. We'll have our opportunity to respond at the next election...and every one after that. I very much doubt that thr Condems will EVER get a vote from anyone in Probation for as long as we all live. Sadiq Khan best take note of our mood as well as the phrase 'my name is Legion, for we are many'. Should, and it's a big ask, he commit to reverse these changes then he would not only get our votes, but that of our families. I have a big family!!!

      Delete
    3. Even if Labour do get in, they will also go down this route, they'll just take more time in doing so.

      Delete
  8. What happened to the risk assessment?

    http://wp.me/p1kePY-1vr

    via @IanChisnall A Blog about #Probation the Chief Inspector & the Minister!

    https://twitter.com/Andrew_S_Hatton/status/529034163932782592

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. When he was appointed as IOP by Chris Grayling, both men and the Justice Select Committee in the House of Commons knew that he was at that time the Chief Executive of NACRO, the reoffending charity. This information was relevant because NACRO was one of the bidders for a number of the new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC) that have just been established to carry out much of the work of the probation service. This meant that there was a predictable outcome of Mr McDowell being asked to inspect organisations that he was previously in charge of if NACRO won any of the 21 contracts. However for other reasons he has a solution which apparently is acceptable to Mr McDowell and Mr Grayling, and may have been acceptable to the JSC which is that he won’t personally inspect these contracts. As we now know, NACRO are involved in 6 schemes which means the new Inspector of Probation will exclude himself from personally inspecting 29% of the contracts for which he is responsible. In effect he can only carry out 71% of the job that he has been appointed to.

      Delete
  9. Im off to bed now but have found something that i may have mis-understood whilst researching the bidders on Reuters website. Has the midlands preferred bidder Ingeus, been sold recently to a Tucson, Arizona based firm Providense Service Corporation. Does this include the Ingeus in the midlands then???? I might just be sleep deprevated but could someone look into this or know something to the contary. Thanks, now I am off to bed ready for another week of confusion.

    ReplyDelete
  10. re 22 35- according to websites for Providence Service Corporation, it started the buy up of Ingeus, the Australian firm, in March and completed the purchase of 100% of Ingeus business for 35K, and over £14mills worth of shares, with a promise of a further sum of around £75 mill over 5 yrs, based on the achievement of certain levels of performance criteria by Ingeus .

    Providence outsource anything and everything from transporting medic aids, to counselling and foster care. Both businesses are described as working in the 'human field', with Ingeus concentrating on back-to-work health and well-being of the vulnerable, disabled, older people, single parents, and of course, is a market leader in the UK of Pensions and Work programmes.

    Providence only gives a passing reference to correctional services, offering counselling. Ingeus says not a jot about crime and probation.

    I hope this makes sense to someone out there. And don't know if it's the same Ingeus, but sounds likely. Can you hear Providence share prices collapsing??

    ReplyDelete
  11. Slightly off topic but just had this http://weownit.org.uk/take-action/ask-your-mp-back-public-service-users from We Own It please follow the link and ask Your MP to sign it.

    ReplyDelete