Bleak Futures Week 1

It's Sunday, the first of a brand New Year and I've decided a bit of a revamp is in order. Nothing too ambitious you understand, but the 'TR Week' series has been pensioned-off in favour of the brand new 'Bleak Futures' series. I've nicked the idea of course so can't claim much credit for it, but it made me chuckle when I read it in a comment recently. 

It also occurs to me that ever-increasing numbers of people read this blog on mobile devices rather than PC's (yes remember them) and laptops. When out and about I have to resort to a Blackberry in order to watch the comment thread and have been horrified to see how italics gets treated. So, in deference to everyone on mobiles, I've dropped this and hope the presentation is improved as a result. 

So, here we go and welcome to a brand new regular Sunday feature. The future isn't bright, or orange, or purple - it's just bleak!

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All those regular posters, please ensure we document the mayhem and chaos....

The last week has been nothing short of a splitting headache, as I have been trying to produce SDR's via OASys for my local Crown Court - serious cases, that an FDR just cannot do justice to. However, due to the f**king (new years resolution, cut down on the fucking cussing) IT non-negotiable shite support systems, I have been unable to get the OASys, as previous assessments remain open or it's somewhere, who the fuck knows where? 

So, a great start to 2015 - if my local Crown Court want to know why they are getting strange looking self styled SDR's (on A4 word) then they can always ask me. Thankfully, I get a lot of feedback from Judges and Barristers, mostly good about my work, so they just might ask the question. I will be measured in my response, NOT!

I recall many of us resisted the temptation to say, hell scud it into them (doesn't sound right without a Glasgow accent), but we were also aware that as the omnishambles hits the buffers, our clients will be the people who get hurt, but as 1st February 2015 fast approaches, I know it will fail and it is a disaster, and so we must all do what we can to reduce the harm caused, oh, isn't that what we do? And look out for each other. Here's to the fight ahead and 2015!

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I suspect there may be an increase in indirect postings as we see action taken against those who speak out. I foresee NPS taking a hard-line disciplinary route and CPAs arguing business sensitivity, you know, "your job depends on our business continuing to be strong and viable and sometimes we have to take decisions because they are absolutely necessary".

Either way, this is the time for the much vaunted "new ways of working" to emerge and this blog will be a great venue for sharing such information. In particular, I look forward to how those prisoners released from short term sentences "with £46 in their pockets" will be "supported". This is time for delivery of Grayling's TR in action, I suspect we are all waiting anxiously to see what enfolds given this is the main reason for the dismantling of probation. If I were an enterprising journalist, I would see this as a great opportunity to follow up. "They promised me support, but all they did was put me in a B and B". 

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As a life long heroin addict, TR has a yet to be defined significant impact on my life. I think it hugely unfair, and probably challengeable, that my next 14 day vacation for feeding my habit from Tescos supply of gold blend coffee, will attract the same period of supervision as someone who receives a 2 year sentence for a violent or sexual offence.

Having said that (and Grayling may regret his lack of thought on this one), my next short period of imprisonment will see me 'ENTITLED' to 12 months of continued support and assistance, and as a result any breach or reconviction I may incur in that period (and there surely will be), will expose any failures in the support and assistance extended to me by the courts.

For many in my situation, the degree and level of assistance and support given (or lack of), may well form a basis of defence to argue against a further custodial sentence. After all, the SoS for justice has said that I'm in need, and 'ENTITLED' to 12 months 'support and assistance'. That I think may become a very very expensive statement Mr. Grayling! But thankyou for the opportunities you are extending to me.

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At a recent group induction for new clients I was asked by a client who had been round the block a bit why we now did group inductions rather than individual ones and TR was explained to him. I may, somewhat inadvertently, advised him and everyone there that once the ORA is implemented then EVERYONE who gets released from Prison following a custodial sentence from that date will be met at the Prison gates and took to their new house (or whatever they need). This had been promised by Chris Grayling and if they found that this was not the case then to speak to their Solicitor about it.

Whoops!!! I anticipate Solicitors up and down the country are rubbing their hands at this poorly conceived piece of legislation. It will be interesting to see the Courts view of the matter when it continually gets brought up in mitigation!

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I hope the released prisoners don't expect accommodation and a job on release. Councils in England have no duty to house released prisoners and this stops in Wales from April. They will need a bond and at least a months rent in advance. If they are dangerous and with NPS this may be different. I guess all unemployed released prisoners will be referred to the Work Programme. At the moment it's all those with over 12 mth sentences. Win win for Working Links who are running some CRCs and Work Programme in the same areas. At the moment there are Partner agencies working in Probation offices with both NPS and CRCs who are experts in Housing and ETE but their contracts stop at end of March.

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I have a good friend who is a senior housing officer. She regularly attends MAPPA Level 3 meetings and has worked hard to promote a good level of training with her staff. They really had a great relationship with former probation. Former probation and this housing group (the main one in this area) forged great professional relationships and there was a good understanding of balancing the need for stable accommodation to actually manage risk. It is one thing to recognise risk but a very different matter to successfully manage risk and reduce it by doing so. They were a major partner for former probation in this area. She told me that there is much disquiet about post TR dealings having experienced "demanding meetings" with several charities and the planned Through The Gate team. She said "no-one understands what probation is any more". It appears that the new way of working has many teething troubles...

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Does any area have a running TTG team and if so what is their brief? They asked for volunteers in my area but I think everyone politely declined.

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TTG-Transforming Tragedy Group

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I like this :) How about Total Tragedy Group? 

In my office ALL staff have indicated that they will not apply for anything which serves to promote TR and I would presume that this depth of negativity is replicated in other offices. Pandora's box has very much been opened but I fear that hope will not be found at the bottom, no matter how deep our masters rummage.

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St Giles, according to their post since removed on Twitter, will be working with 30% of CRCs. I understand they are running a TTG pilot in Cardiff, not that you'd know, and ran the Peterborough pilot. Since 28 Oct have been advertising for staff across the board in 'the hope they are awarded the contracts'.

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I am a Probation Officer and have been for 7 years. I can tell you that St Giles has a terrible reputation amongst those in this line of work. Most of my colleagues fear more for probation being out sourced to the likes of Nacro and St Giles who have such a poor understanding and amateurish approach to this work than we do the big management companies like Serco et al. Either would be disaster. St Giles and others are presently like vultures over a not yet dead animal trying to pick off something for their own gain. They provide a poor service and use amateurish, poorly paid staff as opposed to highly trained and skilled professionals.

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I hear that one of the private companies are going to assess offenders' readiness to change by using a new assessment tool. I hope that doesn't mean that they are going to focus their attention on those ready to change and ignore the others.

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Sorry but that is plum in the middle of creaming and parking. Plus it can be deceptive. Sometimes those who could be assessed ready for change but have nasty surprises in the background that can arise.

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I for one will be posting as much information as i can before they boot me out the door.

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Just found out we have been offered increment of 1 pay scale with effect from February and backdated until last April, for CRC and NPS staff.

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Corporate services in DLNR start leaving on Wed. Skeleton service left is totally inadequate but I expect Ingeus have their own plans to cover the 'back room' services and decades of experience will be easily replaced by whoever.

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Corporate services in Merseyside have already been identified, offered and accepted their voluntary redundancy packages and quite a few are leaving on 31st March.

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The one thing I find hard in this process is that I passionately believe in a public sector probation service. Not split and not contracted out. But from an employee perspective, let's face it, we are rightly dubious of the private sector, but our public masters treat us with absolute contempt in every possible way. Thankfully, I have found my escape route and 2015 will end my career as a probation officer. What a shame.

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I got my p45 yesterday after 20 plus years and come next Wed, there will not be a single person left in my office who was there 12 months ago. 

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Sometimes tho', there is a place for, if not bitterness, at least the timely reminder that all is not good and some decisions may require further scrutiny and reflection, and sometimes people should be held to account. How many times have you heard it said in your office 'we are where we are', as if yesterdays decision (however poor, misguided or downright dangerous) must just be sucked up and accepted without comment as the 'change machine' rolls relentlessly on. You may believe it prudent to just go with the flow, but some of us are either unwilling or unable to just 'let it be', so we keep banging that drum, even if we sound out of step with the status quo and bitter. 

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The fact is there is no reasonable debate and no fair process for members to be part of. Those in positions of power have disregarded, shut down, isolated alternative voices. The approach from my experience has been 'we know better' and NAPO have chosen to shake the hand with the devil for reasons of self interest. I can think of a number of examples to evidence this. When a victim in DV starts to resist and fights back the perpetrator criticises her for complaining i.e "there you go complaining again and having a go". This is what we are witnessing here. 

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NPS is not just high risk, like Grayling claims, but all MAPPA nominals, regardless of risk. There are large numbers of MAPPA cases which are low or medium risk, but have been in prison for 12+ months for a violent offence or are on the sex offenders register. My CRC caseload contains individuals that are much dodgier than many of those I used to work with before the split, but because they're not living with a partner (i.e. their next victim), they count as medium risk. For the moment.

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Grayling doesn't know the difference between PO's and PSO's and it may be that they will simply be called Offender Managers. Those warning of a Tsunami of bullshit coming our way are right. In London Staff in the London CRC MTCnovo received a letter stating 'between now and February, the MTCnovo team will be working hand in hand with the CRC senior team to ensure a seamless transition' It's the same old 'business as usual' bullshit that has been used to hoodwink staff from the outset. Don't fall for it.

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I've heard those in the CRC will be called 'Responsible Officers'. As in [held] responsible when your client decides to offend.

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I am a PSO based in a prison, I may not have a degree but to say that that I'm not trained is quite frankly an insult. I have 10 years experience, have done every training course going and hold a caseload of everything from remand prisoners to lifers. I have the same caseload as PO's and Prison Officer Band 4's but will be removed in the near future as I won't be good enough apparently. To add insult to injury, we have 'colleagues' gloating that we will be joining the dole queue. I know everyone is now looking after their own interests but TR really has brought out a very unpleasant side to some people. Being a PO does not automatically make you good at your job. We should make sure we support each other. The work is still the same and the clients are still the same. Surely there should be roles for PSO's and PO's?

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PSOs in prisons were automatically assigned to NPS and must have an employment tribunal case somewhere along the way - I understand when the prison changes come in, PSOs will be offered training to work as prison officers (who would want to do that any time in the near future?) or offered redundancy. 

Here's my point: NOMS knew about these planned changes when they automatically assigned prison PSOs to NPS. Prison PSOs should be offered the enhanced redundancy available at the moment. How can we help support prison PSO colleagues with this? It is the most unfair thing to happen to employees in the whole TR thing.

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An alternative model to TR needs to include getting rid of NOMS. Reduce the prison estate and put more funding into community sentences. Let probation get on with the real job instead of meaningless and time consuming targets. Allow public sector probation to commission third sector and voluntary organisations to do the work they do best. It's not rocket science.

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I agree about NOMS being the problem. They stifled any ability for Trusts to be innovative and efficient. NOMS will be the thorn in the CRCs side as well. I have looked at the contract specifications, and there is a lot which is still to be governed by the Authority's whims. NOMS will still believe they can pull the levers - and if they are right, the CRC providers might as well give up now. I anticipate a power struggle between NOMS and the providers. The first battleground will be OASys, or at least anything that the new providers want to replace OASys with.

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"Once the ORA is in place I'm going to have a hard time convincing them to support a proposal for said sentence if they know that the offender will be getting Probation once released. Over a very rare (as in infrequent rather than uncooked) lunch break today, there was not an Officer there who felt that the Bench would have any confidence in reports recommending community over custody sentence or indeed see any need for them". 

You may well be correct, particularly if it is combined with a loss in confidence in breach procedures; as things stand, I think many magistrates will feel there is little or no incentive for CRCs to breach offenders, and possibly quite the opposite. 

There is now an almost complete divorce between local benches and the probation teams, because the commercial nature of the system rules out contact. Are breach rates and all the other stats that used to be discussed now going to be commercially sensitive and therefore secret? Will NPS really be able to monitor CRC breach rates, let alone communicate it to the local bench?

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There will be an incentive for CRCs to breach troublesome community order cases quickly, to get them off the books and onto curfew-only sentences. There might will be little value (at a corporate level at least) to recommend custody, since they'll just come back again in a few weeks - although I'm hearing that the requirements on managing the ORA cases will be very minimal: see them on release, point them towards a couple of other agencies, and wave goodbye.

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I'm not sure that the 'point them towards a couple of other agencies' is necessary and, unless the CRC's are taking backhanders, will only be deemed a waste of precious time, time that could have been spent completing Delius to make sure targets are hit.

The other two are pretty much guaranteed though, the first being a cash linked target. I just hope that their mentor at the Prison gates brings them in on time. I'll write Spurrs' phone number on their Licence and ask them to call him. Just out of kindness of course.

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Who has time to breach people? I've got clients on their 4th Risk of Breach letter and whilst I'm prioritising breaching them, my time is taken up breaching those on their 6th Risk of Breach letter. To suggest that the Courts now have ANY confidence in Probation being able to do what they propose in PSR's is laughable at best.

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I have an idea that will help with the management of those facing a caseload of 100+. Get them all to report on the same day, tick their name off your list without seeing them or checking if there are any problems then shoo them back out of the door. This will leave you free to concentrate on feeding Delius and making money for our overlords.

If only we had some sort of centre that we could get them to come to at the....oh! Oh dear! It appears that somebody has already thought of this. Back to the drawing board I suppose.

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I have a funny feeling that the next 12 months are going to be very eventful. Hold on tight everyone cos we're in for a bumpy ride!!