TR Week Twenty Five

Is it me or does anyone else think it's strange the wall of silence from the winning bidders? Maybe they don't want to antagonise the losers and again I also think their silence is strange too.....

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It's because they aren't winning bidders yet. They are preferred bidders, but they are essentially still part of an active competition. The bidders can still drop out and the MoJ can still decide not to contract with them. No one is going to say anything substantive until contracts are signed.

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The competition isn't over until contracts are signed and share sale happens in February. Until then there will understandably be limited amount heard from the mercenaries in waiting.

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Chris Grayling is not taking responsibility for the prison crisis, neither is the government holding him to account. They are all complicit in this, they are all in it together. 

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He accounts for the problem in prisons by placing the blame on the prisoners. Not me Guv, my hands are clean. It's those nasty Proles, coming in here with their rights and all that. Don't they know that I don't give a f*ck?

If he could make it a criminal offence to 'self inflict death' (it's suicide you immoral bastard!!!) he would. 

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I understand Chris Grayling used to work for Burson Marsteller, a global public relations company. Go on folks, have a look at the Wiki entry, I particularly enjoyed the reference to BM being subject to "protest and criticism for its use of smearing and doubt campaigns" .....so that's where he learnt his dark arts....

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My CRC are discussing using Social Workers to replace disappearing POs. Their qualifications are acceptable and, with some sort of conversion training, they would be welcomed.

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Regular readers will have noted that EPIC has adverts for Social Workers on there, highlighted here a couple of weeks ago, it's interesting!

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If it was easier for CQSW qualified probation staff to register/demonstrate professional competence then they would fill some posts.

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Thé government have already got troubled families waiting in the wings to fill the gaps.

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Grayling will get his platoon of old lags to plug the gaps, perhaps recruited by Old Chums Archer, Black & Aitken.

CQSW & DipSW qualified POs spend £hundreds & minimum 12 months registering despite their probation background, whilst the old lags just walk in through the back door with MoJ approval. Sweet!!

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How can the HMPI say anything negative about TR in his report? To do so would put his wife's company at risk of loosing £millions of government contracts. So there will be no truths from him.

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In Northumbria CRC, all is tickety boo, unless you look at the never before seen and ever rising sickness levels, which as management are happy to tell us, is due to stress. But hey all will be solved by downloading an app. Who needs human contact as we are all just numbers!! Like voting on the Xfactor app, but without a right to an opinion!

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Couldn't face work today, not all that well. At one time I would have gone in, not now. They need to come and spend à week in one of our offices. They'd soon see the chaos they've created.

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Of course NOMs are saying the publishing of these figures are a one off. Any future measurements for the profit making companies will not have to worry about these. They'll have he goal posts widened for them. One quick change will be the removal of the current OASys. They won't have staff spending hours on it, plus the RoSH completed by NPS will assess the risk issues. Job done as far as they will be concerned.

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The MoJ statistics have their flaws, but overall don't they seriously challenge the narrative of probation as being in meltdown, of staff leaving in droves, of high sickness levels, of performance being on the floor? It is fair to raise arguments about quality and shifting criteria, but court reports have been receiving the 'expediting' treatment for years and SFO criteria has been revised many times. The MoJ figures do not lend any credence to 'service in crisis' assertions, perhaps because probation staff have been adept at workarounds, taking on sessional work and keeping up goodwill.

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In a word no. Not all that can be measured counts, and not all that counts can be measured. If you had hundreds of staff saying something is not working, would it be prudent and defensible to ignore this? What needs to be put into perspective is the fact that TR has only being going for a few months and it's fair to say that all is not going to plan. Factor in that the CRC's will be run by mainly inexperience people (those at the most senior level probably have little experience) as well as the empirical evidence that those who get these form of contracts inevitably end up making a pigs ears of things, and you can see why the concern exists. 

Now, when people start dying due to these mistakes, it's those who said and did nothing that some may also level blame at. Probation IS in meltdown. I know, I'm there, trying my best to do my job with 101 new PI's every month. Yes targets are being hit but the point is very clearly being missed!

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Inspection due next month in the North West, anywhere else? Usual bollocks REQUESTED by managers. Check your cases that could be in there. Cook the books with acceptable retro entries please, as much as you can. Let's make it appear as if all is well eh? Not a fucking chance, they will see it as it is in our office. 

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We had an inspection a few weeks ago just CRC. Most of us told him how It is, he said "I know."

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We have a Safeguarding audit as well (North West) and we've been given the heads up about what cases etc.

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Yes, ours was safeguarding. We had really short notice so didn't really do anything extra with the cases. I did go to review the OASsys the day before then decided not to bother. I'm not managing to do initial OASsys, so why would I do a review because we're being inspected?

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SFOs take a while to happen and for people to be charged. Would like to see the data for July/August to October instead. Bet it shows a whole different picture.

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Why bother with the stress? If your workload is over 150 per cent, tell your manager that this equates to over 17 hrs per week and that you will do 37 as contracted unless they pay you for extra hours or they guarantee toil. Do not work extra hours and when something is missed, tell them what your workload is over and over and repeat until they retire to their office, hold their head in their hands and cry buckets! Do it tomorrow and watch the stress evaporate. 

Put a collective grievance in, tell them you will not stand it anymore. Tell them you will not accept it anymore. Tell them you will fight TR to the death, we are nearly there. Don't lose face, never give up. We will win this, I can guarantee this! Displace your EXTRA responsibility back on them and remember the mantra of Pass it up, Pass it up, Pass it up! I am not in the union and on over 200 per cent and as chilled as a bottle of Chardonnay in the freezer! It's easy, it's not your fault, it's impossible to do it all. Don't let anybody tell you it!

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It would be helpful if you could provide a template of the grievance steps you took to tackle excessive workloads, the management response and the actual outcome.

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The steps were simple and straight forward. All it took was one person sending a collective e-mail asking each person what he/she could not do. We did our own workload check from the old existing data log. We then all signed a collective letter which was effectively a vote of no confidence highlighting what we felt we could not do within our contracted hours and all said we will be working our hours and no more. 

Highlighted a number of actions such as paid overtime instead of toil etc. Threatened to withdraw flat rate report writing. Got the union to have a meeting with the Chief. Chief responded and agreed to overtime being paid. Got extra staff in from quieter areas. Still not come up with the goods in telling us what we can no longer do, so next step formal collective grievance which we all put our names to. Certain things put in place but the view is too little, too late.

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Re-alcohol bracelets. I hope they are going to have good assessors. For some it is dangerous to just stop drinking..

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I see in the USA up to 80% of the costs of alcohol bracelets are borne by the wearer. And effectiveness is linked to participation in alcohol treatment/support programmes.

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I was just reminiscing about when supervision, was just that - tailor made for the individual and their consent to the making of such an order was crucial. When Attendance Centres were for 'football hooligans' to stop them attending home games - that's why they are 1.45 - 4.45 every other Saturday and Electronic Monitoring was to ensure night time burglars were tucked up in their own beds, and not entering those of others.

Now it's not about the clients, victims or the general public, but for profit; to generate income for the few, at the expense of the many. That 'means test' re Criminal Court Charge - I hope it works better than the one devised in 1991, when it was decided that the amount of the fine should reflect the clients ability to repay - that worked, or did it? I don't recall any departure from the Magistrate's Sentencing Guidelines, and they made no allowance for the income of the client before them.

I am getting so despondent, and just wish a crater would open up and swallow CG and his Government. Just how much pain do they want to inflict on people? At least I am on leave this week, and I will now go and do something to take my mind off this.

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I've read recently too, that IDS is trying get a restriction placed on the prescription of methadone for addicts, and instead use more 'holistic' methods of treatment. Is is of course an attempt to 'save' the user a lifetime of unemployment he boasts. No doubt Graylings friends in companies such as Sodoxo or Working Links or Interserve would be given the contracts to provide such 'holistic' therapy. I hate this government, its just a 'rich leach' on the rest of society.

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In my area CRC told can't apply for secondment NPS jobs because they can't spare Band 4s. Somehow I don't think Working Links will see it that way. Still, the senior manager won't have to worry - no doubt EVR available to them, just sod everyone else - need to make sure targets are met pre Feb 2015. Bastard.

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I think may also be worry about what guarantees there are about what CRC jobs would be at end of secondment period with NPS

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I kind of like it when someone goes 'off message'. TR is a worthy headline issue and the future of probation work is important. There were many working in probation who argued that it went off message itself when it went corporate and embraced a target and performance culture. That was the zeitgeist and I don't think the public services could do much about it. The road to TR was a long one and in part the probation service obediently marched towards the gunfire.

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The truth is that Con/Libs have made such a mess of everything, in such a cavalier way, whether its legal aid, prisons or probation, in attempt to dupe the electorate, that they no longer have any idea of whats going on or how to turn things around. All they know is that they've made a huge mess. Unfortunately, even if they pulled the plug on all these disasterous reforms, you're left with Humpty Dumpty syndrome, "all the kings horses and all the kings men, didn't know how to put Humpty back together again".

And that's another truth. Everything so broken by incompetence, and lack of foresight, and just plain stupidity, it would be almost impossible to get everything back in order again. Together the Con/Libs have destroyed a fully functioning CJS, where there's no benefit for anyone, least of all for the 'hard working tax payer'. Shame on the lot of you!!

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Where is Grayling?- his absence is like watching Psycho without the shower scene!

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Simon Hughes wants an end to sentences of less then 12 months? Will that mean fewer people going to prison? Or more people being sentenced to 12 months or longer? It strikes me that there's a time bomb for the prisons ticking away within society at the moment, one which is about to have its fuse shortened.

That bomb is that how ever many people are in prison, there's at least the same amount on licence serving the second half of their sentence in the community and another 60,000 to be added with the <12 month group, all subject to recall. The prison population is not only governed by those being sent there by the courts, but also by the number subject to breach proceeding by probation service.

In a world of profit making enterprise, it cannot be long before private companies realise that they have considerable influence on the ebb and flow of numbers on an already stretched and crisis ridden prison service. That to me would seem to give the private sector considerable negotiating power over the MoJ when they find their contract difficult to deliver on. Just a thought!

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Looking at internal NPS Probation Officer jobs. Got the following response 'Unfortunately we can not proceed with your application as this vacancy is only open to surplus staff'. How many surplus Probation Officers are there within the Civil Service? Utter madness.

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I think Graylings silence over the past few weeks is very telling. Indeed, the only reference to him I can find in todays press is about the decline in the use of cautions. In the last 3 months, he's lost several JRs, probation bidders have pulled out, theres been 2 murders in the prison system, (god knows how many suicides), he's been brought to account several times by the PAC, least of all for the huge amount spent on consultation fees for TR, had constant criticism for his unnecessary and dark ages prison reforms and book ban, had to say sorry for recording confidential phone calls between prisoners and their MPs, he's been turned on by his own party very publicly in the commons (called a tyrant!) amid never before seen uproar in the Commons over his dodgy underhand approach to the EAW, and been asked to account for the number of empty prisons and court houses littered around the country costing tens of thousands a month. 

One court house in Stoke is occupied now for several days by protesters complaining about its closure, and insult to injury, an empty court house in Harringay is now occupied by squatters with a number of large dogs that keep neighbours awake at night. His own local newspaper in Epsom is one of his worst critics, and the prison governor of High Down prison has announced to the world from the witness box that the MoJ have admitted getting things wrong, despite telling the public the total opposite, and calling concerned charities 'left wing agitators for questioning his policies. 

There's much, much more too! I have a feeling that someone, a bit more important than Grayling in the Party, and who can't be bullied by him has had a few words, and that's why Graylings had to "wind his neck in" of late. He's an embarrassment to his party, and a liability to the CJS and the nation.

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Rochester & Strood - what a hoot. I'm not a ukip fan by any stretch but they are exposing the mainstream parties for the false fools they truly are. Gove got roasted by Eddie Mair (R4), Lucy Powell led a merry dance by Krishnan (C4)... Tories & Labour desperate as to who can offer the warmest embrace to Rochester's now famous Sun reader with his van & St George flags. 

Politics is in total disarray, directionless, lost in the wilderness. He's just a bloke who lives in a house who drives a van - presumably to earn a living. Comment was made when his mate showed up earlier (when BBC news were doing a piece) in his Chelsea Tractor. So what? They're just people. Now it seems those who were killed in Cadogan Sq were "Polish workers". So fuckin what? They were people; sons, maybe fathers, maybe brothers. Politics is eating itself alive. The Media is providing the garnish.

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Today I had to pass a case over to the NPS due to an escalation in risk. I completed the necessary form yesterday, waited until today for a response, when I was told it had been accepted by the NPS. I was also told I could no longer make an entry on Delius or complete an OASys review! 

Seems stupid to me that prior to the split I would have had a consultation with my SPO, raised risk to high, reviewed OASys and maintained management of the case as I am the person with the knowledge and experience. Now it is out of my hands and I have information that can't be passed on to the new OM... how is this managing risk, or providing end to end management?? Frustrated.com

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I have made this point many times by posting on this blog as a case allocator.

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Information considered crucial to understanding risk can be passed on in a letter.

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No, that is not correct. Any information should be contained within the risk escalation tool, that is the assessment in it's entirety. To start writing letters to pass on risk information merely supports the point I am making, it is not fit for purpose. It is cumbersome, time consuming, rolled out without training and DANGEROUS.

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I have a female case with Personality Disorder who has committed a further offence and pre split would have, as others have pointed out, managed her increase in risk myself. If I go through the risk escalation process she will be sent to another office and of course be seen by a new officer. In this case I know it will increase her risk even further and therefore in a dilemma!