TR Week Twenty Six 1

I have made the point repeatedly that most SFOs come from medium and low risk cases because probation have always managed the high risk cases well. One of the most dangerous consequences of TR is to introduce mass reporting centres to reduce costs NOT to offer a more suitable service catered to offender needs. This will mean no-one can monitor safety or risk.

One of the things we know is that stress raises risk of both harm and re-offending for most offenders. So let's stop responding to them as individuals and treat them like cattle - processed in large centres by stressed staff with targets to meet rather than service to provide to their fellow human beings. The alternative which seems to have developed is lone working with no-one monitoring staff safety.

One of the precepts of my own practice has been "there but for the grace of God go I" it is often easy to see how people's back story has sowed the seeds of their criminality and to see how you might have ended up the same in their circumstances. This leads you towards developing insight into what could possibly bring about change for that individual. All of this is being blown to the wind by TR. I hope the CRC officer in Wales recovers and lessons are learnt.

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I am someone who can't go until I'm wheeled out, never been very good at interviews and it seems that most of the jobs I know how to do are linked to this TRavesty anyway. So I am stuck trying to negotiate the hoops..I'm not going to jump them, that's for senior managers, but I am going to keep saying that this isn't working.

And it so isn't working. Whilst senior managers worry about the RSR and case allocation tool, a rubbish bit of kit that no-one will ever look at again once the case has been put on one side of the divide or the other, (assuming of course that you can find it), probation staff are struggling to manage their work as there just aren't enough staff to do all of the needless tasks that are now required as a result of the divide.

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Sadly I am not in a position to resign, but would if I could. I have children to support so I have been looking for alternative work with no success. Given that every practitioner knows how dysfunctional our work has been made under TR, I try to muddle through like so many colleagues. Like you I despair about the impact this has upon Domestic Violence cases where probation had worked so hard with partnership agencies over the years to bring about holistic work with victim safety given prominence for the first time. However my main concern arises from our work with sex offenders.

I have seen a trade off between the level of focus needed in this work and move (in NPS) to our entire case load being all High Risk offenders. Previously a practitioner has been able to use their professional judgement to focus most intensively with the cases that needed it at any given time. A completely responsive approach to risk which worked. 

Now that professional judgement is lost, mired in a fog of cases all needing maximum attention, at a time when many were simply transferred en masse to practitioners who did not know the cases and had to try to catch up with speed being the only requirement due to limited work time available to do this amid all of the changes forced upon us. The scope for damage is immense.

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It is encouraging that some senior managers have the courage to make a stand. Had the former chiefs and Trusts been more vocal in their opposition to TR, we may not be in this mess. We all know they were not allowed to raise a collective voice but they (and their Association) have to take some responsibility for what has ensued. As for risk, it's interesting that CG has not published a 'nil return' for SFOs he was hoping for!

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A report by Nick Hardwick published last week about North Sea Camp open prison noted:-

He raised concerns that the prison was struggling with extra work especially with staff shortages - noting at least 20 vacancies in the offender management unit unfilled at the time of inspection.He said: “The offender management unit simply could not cope with demand and often felt as though it was under siege from prisoners who wanted help and advice about the completion of their sentences, but could not get a response from over-stretched staff.”

TRs through the gate is obviously very well prepared then??!!!

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Like you I have resigned from the Probation Service because of TR but did not feel ready to stop work. I reasoned why should CG and his chums make me retire ahead of my own schedule? I have been lucky enough to secure work with a nearby local authority, back to social work. I have three months under my belt now. It has not been an easy transition for me but I think I am getting there.

The casual manner in which the service has allowed expertise to walk out of the door amazes me and it is in some sense how the service, over the past decade or so, has lost its way. At my leaving "do" one of the ACOs said that it was not surprising I was going into social care and she mapped out my Probation career from her perspective, pointing out that I had always sought out the "difficult people to work with". Funny, I had thought that was what the job was about. Silly me.

Like you, I still follow this blog every day to see how my colleagues are faring in both the NPS and CRC. I am yesterday's news to my former colleagues, gone without so much as a passing glance. At one of my last Leadership Forums one SPO said that staff were leaving because TR "wasn't for them" as if this was a lifestyle choice.

I am seriously concerned about how TR is dividing up the work and how in the short time I was there post the split I felt my ability to function as a front line SPO was compromised on a daily basis. The foolish way the resources and workload were allocated have stretched the sinews of an organisation that was never over-staffed in the first place. Take front line staff away to do pointless deskwork, invented to cover the cracks in your new structures seems to me to be a lesson in how not to manage. In years to come TR will be up there with other classic Governmental howlers and folk will shake their heads and ask why it happened. The history of government is littered with many examples of waste and social vandalism and TR will be up there with the rest.

Good luck to JR NAPO - I will be following its progress

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As one who has also resigned, I can only agree with "The casual manner in which the service has allowed expertise to walk out of the door amazes me and it is in some sense how the service, over the past decade or so, has lost its way." I too, am moving over to social work, but my main focus is on supporting Napo and JR and getting rid of TR, and stopping this govt getting in again. 

Should we succeed, I'll go back to Probation because, as anyone who works in the profession knows, it's in the blood. That the new guard can casually say goodbye to those of us who have worked for years, and can treat those who stay with such utter disdain, shows their utter disregard for humanity and their contempt for professionals. I've been thinking recently that most people in power are bankers, politicians, CEOs, those in right wing think tanks and the media. None of these jobs need any kind of professional status and they hate those of us who still believe in it. GOOD LUCK NAPO

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I've resigned too, as I have to work & trained after POs were social workers have joined an agency. 4 people have resigned from my office recently. One to be fair to do something she always wanted to do but TR did make her bring it forward. The others are 2 agency, one social work. It's sad.

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No doubt the bidders for TR will be just as interested in the contents of those testgate reports as everyone in the probation service are. And just a personal note:- I love it when Grayling is made to do something he doesn't want to do. It makes me feel that the bully is getting some of his own medicine back, and feeling the way he makes thousands of other people feel on a daily basis.

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Staffing crisis as NPS + CRC's compete for staff - concerns about CRC's losing OM's and newly trained PSO's eager for TPO recruitment opportunities. More chaos ahead?

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Can I just ask? For those of you switching or going back into social work, what has been the position over not being a registered social worker? Did you keep your registration active (from when we could have signed up for free or at minimal cost... didn't think then that I would ever consider going back to social work!) or have you been able to register on the offer of a job or after appointment? It is just that when I've looked I've been led to believe that as a CQSW holder who has been out of social work (but in Probation) for many years, I need to be a registered social worker in order to apply for jobs. Thanks.

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I applied for a job as a senior social worker and when offered it applied for HCPC registration. I had got a list of the training I had done in Probation for the past ten years or so and sent off my application. I received a response very quickly and that was that. I have a CQSW and a Diploma in Social Studies. Hope that helps

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Like everywhere else TPO's being given High Risk Offenders especially Mappa cases so many NPS left or off sick thru stress. I fear it just goes over the heads of TPO's

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After reading the blog tonight I think I'm going to re-register my CQSW and get on the look for social work jobs. There is an alternative to the NPS!

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Given that the HMIP report on TR is now not to be published till after the the JR hearing, shouldn't NAPO be trying to get the court to ensure either it is made available or that the report author/HMCI are summoned to court to be cross examined given that the SoS has made much of HMIP' s silence on TR?

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I cannot for the life of me work out how ANY contracts can be signed prior to a report being published into any possible impact of it. It's a bit like buying a car and then being told that you cannot check it for faults until some months later. It just does not make sense and if Ian Lawrence/NAPO have got any nous they'll raise this question with both the Judge and Grayling. The latter will only be able to mutter 'stubbornly high re-offending rates' like some glabrous idiot, but you might get some raised eyebrows from the Judge. Just a thought.

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Does anyone seriously think the report will say anything other than 'nothing to see here...move along'. I've said it before, when it comes to devious, lying, manipulative and mendacious bastards, you gotta be going some to beat the Tories. A pox on their houses. All of them.

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What legal implications are there for CEOs if they do not make sure all Trust and NPS data is destroyed/moved on before share sale? It seems a big job, they seem a bit scared.

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It's a genuine question. We have been told there are legal implications if this is not done. What legal implications are there and will it hold up share sale?

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The key will be how they evidence meeting their targets. Preparing a 'sentence plan' is easy but the easiest way to evidence this and collate the information is to use OASys, not an easy tool and very time consuming. Here is what I am wondering... 

If staff complete a sentence plan on a piece of paper therefore meeting the contract target, but CRC management struggle to find a way of evidencing that target as being complete, can they take disciplinary action against staff for not completing sentence plans on time?

We're being threatened with disciplinary action if we don't get OASys ISPs done to target however there is no OASys target, just a sentence plan target. The next 12 months will certainly be interesting...

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Oh My God! I have just spent a week chasing myself up my own bottom and getting nowhere. I come on here to try and get some feeling that I am not alone and what am I faced with ......... Fucking gobbledygook ..... Wake up you bastards the Service is gone!!

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But it's not gone yet and just like Al Capone was jailed for tax avoidance, there might be things we can do...What if we don't complete any OASys but do all out plans on paper? They will miss their targets. What if we don't have time to do all the bits and pieces that make it legal to sell us off. Will they have to postpone? Information is key here. What will have most impact and what can we get away with?