Thursday 8 January 2015

Guest Blog 17

A farewell to NOMS: Borstal, Estrangement, Subversion and Surrender.

On 31 Dec 2014, I became redundant after 22 and a half years with probation. On 31 Dec 2013, our office consisted of an ICT manager and 7 staff. 3 of them (including me – Info Systems Officer) got VR. 3 much younger - and I have to say, more marketable in terms of skills – colleagues, have taken those skills elsewhere for better pay in the private sector. Our much - loved Trainer, who I posted about elsewhere in Jim’s blog, retired. The amount of work the new CRC expected her to do, was a joke. Our Manager has been redeployed and no longer has responsibility for ICT. Which is a good job really, as there is no ICT Unit left in what was Leics and Rutland Probation Trust.

This is on another level to ‘purges’ that had gone on in the past.

As an admin manager for the Records office and Courts team, many years ago, I lost a substantial part of my staff to voluntary retirements due to the austerity that seems to rear its head under governments of either colour. The work was never redistributed away from the team. We worked back then with typewriters, folders, record cards, PAC1s and court ledgers. There were none of the clever IT solutions that we have now (I know, it’s called irony). Eventually, people were recruited as temps, then became permanent and the initial losses, in terms of posts, were almost all gradually re-established. At no time was everything completely dismantled like now. Had it been, I can’t imagine the mayhem that would have ensued. It was bad enough, as it was.

At time of writing, I’m led to believe that one temp on a 2 month contract is replacing the last of the ‘class of Dec 13’ in Leics. S/he will be based in Derbyshire. DLNR CRC appear to be using the premises template – where a 60 mile journey to change a lightbulb is considered normal – for IT. Your call is valuable to us, you are in a (bl**dy long) queue.

My dad hated the fact that I work for Probation. He was a Borstal boy the year I was born, 1960. Back in 1980, he failed in an attempt to get Parole (serving time for a Ponzi scheme). Given that he’d never breached the terms of previous parole licences, during other numerous sentences, he demanded a Governor’s letter with an extra page to write to his MP. Apparently, an extra page was something of a rare privilege and they had a bit of a run-in over it. Eventually, it was grudgingly granted, only for him to find he was staring at a blank sheet, having comprehensively outlined his Parole moans on just the one. So, to fill up the extra page, he told of his horrific experiences of Borstal.

The infamously brutal regime he’d experienced at HMP Risley and Willie Whitelaw’s ‘short, sharp, shock’ proposals, held a resonance for him in the most horrible way. He thought no more of it but the MP was impressed. He got my dad to write an open letter to Whitelaw, which took up a page in The Times. Not long after, when he got his Parole, he was invited to appear as the ubiquitous Old Lag, on a programme called ‘This Week’. Not the present incarnation with Andrew Neil. If memory serves, it was on BBC2 on a Friday night. I say that with reasonable certainty as I left a pint at the bar to go home for half an hour to watch it. No video recorder in those days. For some reason, I expect it was because he was working and signing on, they gave him an alias ‘Mr Kennet’ and to emphasise every point ‘Kennet’ made; ‘bullying’, ‘staff brutality’, ‘colleges of crime’, etc, a piledriver smashed into one of the cars in the scrapyard he was filmed working in. It was quite a persuasive bit of imagery. So, if you think it all went a bit soft, you can blame my dad.

I was in the RAF at the time. It wasn’t until 1992 that I joined Leics and Rutland Probation Service. Given all the above and his not too positive view of his past Probation Officers – he wasn’t impressed and quite hurt that I was fraternising with the enemy. In fact, for that and other personal reasons, we lost touch and he died almost 4 years ago with us not having spoken for, well, I can’t remember how long but it was at least 15 years. I suppose I mirrored his behaviour. He was an absent father and I went on to become an absent son. I’ve never understood what a Cat and a Cradle have to do with that…

Notwithstanding my dad’s poor customer experience, I quite like the concept of Probation and other community punishments. I used to pray that the Queen would die and he’d be let out as part of a celebratory amnesty for the coronation of Charles and not have to be away all of the time. Not that I hated the Queen personally, you understand, it’s just that my grandma told me Royalty did that in other countries – amnesty - sometimes. Apologies to Her Majesty and I suppose, to Prince Charles.

I have almost no memory of him being with my mum. They were schoolchildren when I was born and weren’t together much longer. It didn’t seem fair that I only got fleeting times with my old man and he seemed harmless. His victims would say otherwise. He was likeable and a joker and my colleagues will attest to the fact that I take after him as regards being a joker – to the point of being annoying (I can’t help it, it’s in the genes). But from my experience in the modern criminal justice system, I can say with certainty, that he would have been very unlucky to get a custodial sentence for most of his offending under today’s sentencing guidelines. He got borstal – and did the full 2 and a half years – for stealing a pram full of Lead. I’m told you got out after just 6 months if you behaved, so he obviously didn’t. What would stealing a small amount of Lead (I think the pram was mine) attract for a 16 year old now?

Back in 1960, there were only 26000 prisoners in England and Wales. I know that because I’ve got the Guinness Book of Records for that year. I wonder if it was because sentences were harsh and conditions were brutal?. Even though my dad could barely stop himself going back in. Or simply was it that no one had much to steal?

Whether or not, I’ve come to the conclusion that community penalties will only ever work if the alternative is really a deterrent and I know that it isn’t to a lot of offenders. If Jail was of the ‘Norman Stanley Fletcher/Slade prison’ stamp (I know, hang ‘em/flog ‘em brigade, yadda, yadda), would that put a brake on the burgeoning population and stop creative sentence management? (ie, people doing a quarter of their sentence).

The victim should know that the offender has paid a penalty. The offender should know that a community penalty comes with the sword of Damocles. I recommend the book ‘A land fit for criminals’ by ex – SPO, David Steel. Which uses research from here and the US to make a similar point. By his account the very harsh US regime which everyone here points out as ineffective, is actually a correction of a regime that slackened off and will now take a generation to readjust. If I understood it correctly.

My old man was in his early 40s when he had a younger family and finally called it a day being a prat, by the way.

Changing the subject. Acquaint yourself with the Data Protection Act 1998: section 55, para 2, sub-para d:

‘That in particular circumstances the obtaining, disclosing or procuring was justified as being in the public interest’.
It’s to do with being a whistleblower, communicating with the press, this blog or whoever. If you have met the criterion above when sharing information, then you only need a reasonably able union rep - if you don’t think you can argue your own case - to get ‘them’ to see sense, should you find yourself on the carpet. That is not to say that you do so lightly. As a keeper of records for most of my career, (I was in charge of a classified registry in the armed forces – when it never once crossed my mind that anything was wrong or unjust, unlike now) it is something you must give thought to. Never be tempted to take money or you really will be in bother as several Police and Prison workers have found to their cost. Although, post-Leveson, it is doubtful journalists would dare to offer any. But still be careful.

I think I sent my first submission to Private Eye (PE) in about 2011. About the early disconcerted rumblings about what became TR, although they didn’t publish it.

There’s a very interesting aside about the PE journalist, Heather Mills, who seems to field most Probation info. I know what you are thinking; ‘it couldn’t be, could it?’. You are right – but someone else, with the same name, once stole her identity and took credit for her work – and it was for a while, so to speak. Search the Daily Mail Website: ‘Why Heather Mills pretended to be me’ for an interesting read.

I’ve been able to get PE interested in various bits and bobs that have involved TR though and I think one – just the one – made a real difference. I sent them a copy of a letter our Board Chair, Jane Wilson, sent to Chris Grayling. It was described as a ‘leaked letter’. Now, I’ve always wanted to be subversive but it was freely distributed internally and not privacy-marked, so hardly a ‘dead-letter drop’ kind of scenario. The PE article (issue 1351) did say that ‘Trust boards’ were voicing their concerns but Jane’s words were the only ones in the article, so either the other boards’ concerns weren’t ‘leaked’ or it was just word of mouth that they were voicing their concerns. Either way, it was out in the open and TR was pushed back from 1 April to 1 June. Er, that’s all – but I’m claiming credit for that small concession (thanks for helping, Jane) and hey!, what did NAPO do?

A footnote to this is, I obviously didn’t want TR and tried to do something about it in my own small way. I wasn’t mad on VR for that matter. Our team was a very pleasant place to work, I had a very understanding boss and I particularly enjoyed dealing with IT helpdesk queries – the tales I could tell!. Unfortunately, life doesn’t always go smoothly. My girlfriend (I don’t have to say ‘partner’ now I’m excused Diversity Training) though, is extremely ill, having spent more time in hospitals and the local hospice, than out in the last 18 months. Time is very precious and VR was an easy decision to make in the circumstances, so I don’t feel so much of a hypocrite right now – and 30 pieces of silver doesn’t stretch that far these days.

I hope you found this interesting, even if you don’t agree with some or all of it.

Keep fighting the good fight.

Tony Getliffe

44 comments:

  1. Really enjoyed this read, thanks for sharing Tony.

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    1. Yes - thanks to Tony and thanks for all you did to publicise the craziness before you took VR. I hope VR gives you an opportunity to have good times with your girlfriend.

      I am sure one day a place in a reformed probation service for such as you, an unsung hidden hero of probation, 'should' be available - should you wish - if something based on good practice is rebuilt after TR crashes as is inevitable.

      As a dyslexic/dyspraxic (something I did not properly realise until 18 months before my early retirement) my probation career absolutely depended on such as Tony beavering away with their result sheets and getting vital information to me in the field and at times dragging it out of me for the benefit of others in future!

      I can see cheerful folk with exasperated looks in their hideaway garret at 3A Great Crosshall Street, Liverpool, nonetheless striving to help me, when I "just popped in" as I was at court over the road - could they please find out this or that for me - they would dive into those card records and back offices of files and invariably - still cheerfully - come up with help. Often underpaid but the backbone of a public system that absolutely depends on good recording systems.

      Yet we read in other posts, that files are being thrown out as rapidly as possible, as some sort of protection against legal actions - before the 1st February and sell off day.

      What tragedies? - where have all the flowers gone, WILL THEY EVER LEARN?

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    2. Yes, thank you Tony - I didn't agree with everything, as you suggested, but I did enjoy it all.

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  2. https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/sara-ryan/ministry-of-justice-says-you-don%E2%80%99t-need-lawyer-at-inquest-trust-state#.VK4zt32sfuw.twitter

    More Chris Grayling idiocy.

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    1. You can meet my son, Connor Sparrowhawk, here in a 90 second slide show of his life. Connor is known online as LB (Laughing Boy), the pseudonym / nickname I’ve used on my blog since 2011. My son was 18 years old when he drowned in the bath in an NHS specialist facility (Slade House Assessment and Treatment Centre run by Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust) on 4 July 2013. He had learning disabilities and epilepsy and should never have been left alone to bathe unsupervised. Two months after his death, an unannounced Care Quality Commission inspection of Slade House found it to be inadequate in all 10 measures of assessment. Enforcement notices were issued and Slade House has been closed to new admissions since. In February 2014 an independent report found that Connor’s death was preventable.

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  3. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11331353/The-hypocrites-have-jumped-aboard-the-Magna-Carta-bandwagon.html

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  4. Off topic, but something everyone should be aware of, and maybe ask questions about too!

    https://johnnyvoid.wordpress.com/

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    1. As the NHS descends into chaos, a US healthcare insurance firm is quietly being installed to take over key front line services from GPs including providing certification to bosses for staff absences due to sicknesss. In addition employers are to be given tax breaks to fund medical treatment for staff when it has been recommended by these private sector healthcare professionals.

      The new ‘Fit for Work’ service is to be run by Maximus in England and Wales, the same company brought in to replace Atos to carry out the despised assessments for out of work sickness and disability benefits. In a major embarrassment for DWP Ministers, Fit To Work was expected to launch late last year but so far all Maximus have managed is a website and a phoneline.

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  5. Tony , I enjoyed your story, the insight and the quirky way you write. I have a personal life similar to yours, when illness comes to those you love life really is a roller-coaster and on top of that we have to cope with TR and that bastard Grayling.

    papa

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  6. Know The Danger -A #POA Branch take a bold stand - what next?

    http://tinyurl.com/n7kgff6

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  7. Andrew, have tried to access this - it is no longer available.....

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    1. I just got this of that link!: -

      " Know The Danger
      8 hrs ·

      Please post anonymous

      Holme House -A meeting took place this morning at 07:35 hours, it was intended to be outside the gate but the duty Governor kindly gave permission for us to hold it in the visits hall, it was a very well attended POA meeting with approx 110 members present and the following motion was passed by a considerable majority;
      This branch is totally opposed to compulsory detached duty and is incensed by NOMs plans to recruit above the benchmark staff in post figure to facilitate an increase in compulsory detached duty.
      With immediate effect members remove all good will and abstain from delivering any payment plus and adhere to their contracted hours until compulsory detached duty ends.
      The following was also read to the meeting
      Members who do not adhere to the above motion will be deemed through their own actions to have worked against the best interest of the branch and could lose the right to representation in accordance with Rule 25 and 26 of the POA Rules and constitution.
      All staff who were scheduled for PP left the establishment, the situation will be reviewed following the NEC meeting on 14th January 2015."

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    2. The comments are also informative

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    3. The last post about an urgent need for information by Napo for tomorrow 5pm has been deleted! Bloody ridiculous without any e-mail to members and nothing on Napo website. Could all be a hoax as far as I'm concerned and if not, Napo are just proving they are even more bloody inept than any of us imagined.

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    4. It is not a hoax it was from

      nps.LondonNAPO@London.probation.gsi.gov.uk

      and is cross referred in Ian Lawrence's Blog Yesterday where he writes: -

      " That’s why it is vital that we continue to gather evidence that the system is operationally unfit for purpose. Look out for the next Campaign Bulletin for further details, due to be issued shortly"

      https://www.napo.org.uk/blogs/public-duty-and-responsibility

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    5. Meanwhile the email is here - 5pm Friday seems quick but that is what it says: -

      http://www.napo2.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=911

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  8. Speaking as an ex-offender I find this blog fascinating as it simply does not jibe with how the service user experiences being on probation or dealing with the service in any way. I attended my usual monthly appointment on Tuesday at the CRC for the usual 20 minute complete waste of time tick box meeting where I listened to my OM rant on about the NHS and giving smokers free lung transplants if they get sick. To be honest I'd have more fun going to the dentist and I have a total phobia about them and I think I'd have a better result being supervised by your average chimpanzee. Maybe this is all a result of the changes to probation since Grayling took over at the MoJ but that seems unlikely. I've been talking to a criminology professor at the local uni as I've been participating in a study she's doing and from what she's said my experiences are typical and not the result of recent changes. I keep hoping things will turn around and that being on licence will become a positive and helpful experience. I guess I'm lucky that I have few needs, can take care of myself and have no real issues that need to be dealt with. If I did I think I'd be really up s**t creek and its no wonder so many get recalled because there simply seems to be no help or support of any kind which then leads one naturally to wonder what the point of probation is. I've yet to figure out what it is to be honest because it all seems a pointless frustrating exercise. I would be really interested in some sort of discussion with working probation officers about what the service is like from our point of view as it seems that you operate in some sort of vacuum where your "clients" apparently don't even register as real human beings and you do things to people rather than work with them which isn't exactly helpful or supportive. We get judged and found worthless; we get treated as if we are congenitally incapable of reform or turning our lives around (so what then is the point of prison if we go there to get reformed, come out only to be treated as if we're on day one of the sentence and will never change or reform??). I've also been told that probation sets out to make going straight as difficult as possible which seems ridiculous. If you make going straight easy people will go straight. make it difficult and people will simply go back to committing crime because its easier because 99.9% of humans always aim for the path of least resistance. It seems a hugely counterproductive attitude to take

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    1. Aon 18:34 You raise some very big and uncomfortable issues that have been discussed pretty much from the start of this blog. A dialogue would be a very good idea - as would a guest blog from you - but may I also suggest that you root around in the early years for coverage of some of what you are describing?

      There's no simple answer and certainly no uncontroversial answer, but it all gets a jolly good airing from the early days of this blog.

      I'm not trying to put you off - far from it - so please stick with it and carry on putting your perspective. I may well cobble something together in the next few days.

      Cheers,

      Jim

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    2. Anon Ex-Offender....this might be interesting reading for you.

      https://lifewebuk.wordpress.com/2015/01/08/from-offending-to-desistence-the-demise-of-the-probation-service-or-a-new-era/

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    3. Very interesting, until it gets to TR!

      "Although controversial, Transforming Rehabilitation offers hope that probation services will once again move closer to those who need them. The mere mention of the term ‘rehabilitation’ is welcome, after a long period where ‘risk management’ was presented as the only effective method of reducing harm to the public. Although the profession fears a ‘race to the bottom’, with profits coming before positive outcomes, the contracted providers have a real opportunity to find effective methods and champion rehabilitation through a return to a focus on worker and service user collaboration. Those who are brave and serious about engaging with the potential rewards of the Payment by Results agenda should create operating models that keep collaborative working with service users central to their operating models, especially if they wish to create a positive reputation.

      Their starting points will be to create an identity separate but not isolated from NOMS, and signal a move towards more effective and efficient rehabilitation and risk management methods. High on their priority lists should be a replacement system for OASys and a move to a new generation of efficient and effective assessment systems that re-focus on the relationship between provider and service user. Any other model in this high-risk sector is likely to fail, with the potential for significant reputational and financial damage for those providers where re-offending rates rise.

      Probation staff seem ready for this change and I will believe will accept a new methodology based around collaboration with service users. The challenge for contracted providers is to have the confidence to facilitate this empowerment of service users in their journeys from offending to desistance."

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    4. Have a look at the previous page on that 'blog' - two sentences stand out:

      "LifeWeb – a new generation in offender assessment and management systems."

      "LifeWeb is a service user centred approach to offender management..."

      This is clearly advertising...

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    5. Your going to get a lot of scam merchants looking for a cut of that sweet justice pie with new Systems all wrapped up in buzz words "Desistence" being the big one if favour at the moment

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    6. Mixed feelings about that site. Advertising? Yes. But there is a thread of truth in the analysis....and it does allude to 'desistance' as being just a rebrand of old values.

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  9. The 2015 Offender Feedback Survey is imminent. Have your say.

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  10. it's been fixed pal

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  11. Our new CRC owners are going to ditch NDelius and Oasys by end of year! Woopy Do.

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    1. That's right. So when the SFO's start coming through & you are unable to show your working out of what you did & didn't do it makes it easier for the company to get rid of staff.

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    2. They won't be able to ditch NDelius completely as it has to be used for data reporting to NOMS and for attaching reports etc, though they might find a better contact entry database. OASys has to go, surely.

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    3. Which area is that?

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    4. I suspect there will be private companies able to produce "platforms" or apps which manage a data drop from any system to ensure the NOMS demands are met. This happened with DIP and NTDMS

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  12. Thanks to all for the kind words above. Tony Getliffe.

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  13. Area is DNLR and West Mids.

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    1. Ous Sodexo area is also doing this. Is West Mids Sodexo too?

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  14. Anon 18:34 - your comment resonates with my own frustration. I find more recently that I frequently feel quite hopeless in being able to enable people to make changes. With our increasing caseloads we have very little time to spend with service users and little time to make the necessary referrals. We're encouraged to refer to other agencies for expertise however it feels at the moment that all the agencies are doing the same thing; signposting to other agencies, ticking boxes, no-one is actually doing the real work that is so important in enabling others. Most of the agencies are in chaos themselves and working with limited resources.

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  15. Excellent blog Mr Getliffe. It seems there are an increasing number of voices turning on TR & this wicked government. Having read some economics articles recently (with an eye on the possibility of VR) I calculated that of my £36k gross salary I pay about 50% of that in taxes, including income tax, national insurance, VAT, fuel & other duties. Meanwhile, NOMS are spending £millions in train, plane and automobile fares; MPs are due 11% pay rise & their expenses are more top secret than ever; blah blah blah.

    Sadly the recent TRagic events in Paris will be exploited by this control & restraint government - Thatcher had the Falklands, Blair brought us several special events, now let's see how Dave & co make out.

    Je suis Charlie.

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  16. Tony thank you for sharing. May I wish you all the best and my thoughts and prayers are with you and your girlfriend at this time. Very poynant reading. Teresa

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  17. Off topic, but worth a note.

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/tories-blew-72k-failed-attempt-4945066

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    1. Bungling Chris Grayling blew tens of thousands of pounds on a failed attempt to defend his cruel ban on prison books.

      A High Court judge ruled last month that the Tory Justice Secretary’s ban on families sending books to jailed loved ones was unlawful.

      It followed a high-profile campaign led by writers including Philip Pullman, Salman Rushdie and poet laureate Dame Carol Ann Duffy.

      Now the Ministry of Justice has admitted Mr Grayling lavished £72,000 of taxpayers’ cash on legal fees in a desperate bid to uphold the ban.

      Shadow Justice Minister Andy Slaughter raged: “We all knew the ban on sending books to prisoners was a half-baked policy from an out-of-touch Government.

      “Now they have spent thousands of pounds of taxpayers’ money on losing the case.”

      “Chris Grayling should focus on the bad decision-making in his own department, rather than waste public money in this way.”

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  18. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/jan/09/circle-exit-private-contract-hinchingbrooke-nhs

    Off topic but i can see the same happening with probation once the private companies get there head round what they bought. Will theybe using same reasons when they walk away.

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    1. A politically charged hand grenade has been thrown into the general election debate on the NHS after the healthcare company Circle said it planned to pull out of its contract to manage Britain’s first privately run hospital, Hinchingbrooke in Cambridgeshire.

      Circle Holdings issued a statement to the London Stock Exchange blaming funding cuts, a surge in demand for accident and emergency services and a failure to deliver “joined up” reform between health and social services. It said the company had entered into discussions with the NHS Trust Development Authority “with the view to ensuring an orderly withdrawal from the current contract”.

      The company said that funding for Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust had been cut by about 10% for the current financial year and that the company had spent £4.84m to support the trust. Circle is allowed to withdraw from the contract if it spends more than £5m.

      Conditions had worsened in recent weeks and that its franchise to operate the trust was not sustainable, it added.

      A report by the Care Quality Commission new regime is expected to be highly critical of the hospital. The Circle statement said the report’s conclusions, which follow a preliminary report last year, would be unbalanced and that it would contest many of them. In preliminary findings released in September, the CQC reported that patients at the hospital were being neglected, hygiene was inadequate and Hinchingbrooke was facing staffing problems.

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  19. Well said, Tony. Very well said, in fact. You're missed here in the office - and so are the rest of the team. It was a pleasure to work alongside you, albeit briefly (at least in probation terms), and it's good to see you've kept your infamous sense of humour.
    I'm now the last in the office, the least qualified member of the team. When I joined last year, it was a busy, lively (and not to mention a bastion of gallows humour), enjoyable place to work and also learn. Now I'm sitting in an office fit for 10 people, on my own, with little clue of what needs doing or how I'd even do it if it did.
    Good luck Tony, thanks for the company and the laughs - especially your Saturday night fever routine at your desk over the last few months.

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  20. All quiet from Working Links in Wales. No information on what is happening or when. As for Innovation Wessex..................

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  21. Yes cheers Tony - I'm the most recent leaver and I must say we did have a few laughs - most memorable was probably the 'sex with a horse/theft of a small ladder' one. Take care fella

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  22. Ingeus with CRI and St Giles Trust (in the amusingly acronymed Reducing Reoffending Partnership, with 90% of that partnership being Ingeus) have got the whole of the Midlands (Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire & Rutland CRC and Staffordshire & West Midlands CRC), with plans to replace the entire IT infrastructure, network and case management systems by September 2015. It's hard to imagine a continuing need for any of the IT teams in the region after that.
    http://www.rrpartnership.com

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