Bleak Futures Week 6

I would say that I'm pretty clued up about what ORA means however, that does not mean that I'm ready for the onslaught on new cases that will be landing on my desk. If I'm being honest the whole thing fills me with dread, the main reason being the workload that I will be expected to cope with. I was out of the office for 1.5 days last week for meetings etc, saw 20 people in between, completed an ISP, termination and breach report. I also done two HV's to drop off food parcels (which I also collected) and a further HV to drop off a Methadone script for someone who had flu. Most nights I worked until 6pm and for the benefit of my clients rather than anything else. This is with a caseload of 45. Should this double, which is expected, then what little help I now give to my client is going to be significantly compromised! Writing this has left me feeling more than a little sick and upset at the thought of what the future holds :(

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My concern is that magistrates will be imposing custodial sentences where a community order may have been given. More people will experience incarceration. On release they will likely have limited support. Less opportunity to find work. They will be treated like cattle and follow the conveyor belt. Supervision will be short and may be ineffective resulting in further offending in the distant future. It may be a short sharp shock for some and act as a deterrent. Prison will be punishment rather than protecting the public and managing risk. Then again I could be totally wrong. Be strong colleagues and let us continue to care for each other and the clients we manage....

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You're likely right. And what may have originally been a 6 month CO will now be a 12 month RAR/PSS/TGI Friday. Thus adding more strain on the service.

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I had lunch with friends yesterday 3 of whom are Magistrates (2 different courts) and they described real dissatisfaction with their roles for the first time. One described arriving for his duty sitting and 3 benches being sent home as the District Judges had insisted business was moved to their courts. Now, he pointed out DJs earn £115k pa whereas Magistrates get expenses so he suggested they are trying to protect their position in light of the cuts.

Another friend described the Clerks being really dissatisfied and talking about cuts to their numbers. Gossip around both courts seems to be no-one sees the point of probation any more. She said that oral reports told the Magistrates little other than proposed sentence and appeared pointless to her. She said their introduction had really damaged probation standing with Benches and the Clerks. Everyone described confusion about ORA and training not being delivered yet because "there's no-one available to do it", pretty much like probation experience really.

Talk also turned to defence solicitors and firms amalgamating, with people saying they feared being able to pay their mortgages for the first time. Overall a real sense that the Magistrates Courts are in disarray and a once pretty cohesive system falling apart. Really sad....

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Travel expenses for clients is already a thing of the past in some areas. Clearly, they'll go across the board very soon, causing many more problems. The thing that gets me in all of this though, is, what would a judge say if some bright client brought a case arguing that it's unfair and disproportionate, that having received 7 days imprisonment for shoplifting they now have 12 months supervision, yet the violent offender that attracts a 15 month sentence has only 7 1/2months supervision? Indeed, a 7 month sentence will see you receive a greater amount of engagement with the CJS than someone that does actually receive 15 months. Surely it wont be long before that's brought before the courts?

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At present bus fare is paid for Unpaid Work, Programmes, drug treatment and education but I can see this being cut. Then attendance will drop like a stone.

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Slight correction to the above. The violent offender who gets 15 mths will also get 12 mths supervision, 7.5 mths on licence topped up with 4.5 mths post sentence supervision. Everyone sentenced to over 1 day & under 2 yrs gets 12mths supervision in some form (those getting a 2 yr sentence already get 1 yr on licence) There are definitely questions about fairness & proportionality though.

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What happens to someone serving 2 years who's released on sentence expiry date?

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I assume this will be someone who was initially released on a 12 mth licence. They should (if eligible) get an initial fixed term recall of 28 days. If they are then released and recalled again the parole board decides whether or not to release on licence again. If they are not released until their SED then I believe that is the end of it. Compare this to someone who gets a 12 mth sentence ie 6mths in prison, 6mths on licence followed by 6 mths post sentence supervision PSS). The fixed term recall for under 12 monthers is just 14 days. If they are then released & recalled again they can only stay in until the length of the original sentence ie 12 mths. They would then be released on the 6 mths PSS. If they breach during this period the court has various sanctions the worse being 14 days in prison - but the clock keeps running for the whole 6 mths so they come back out on the same PSS & could potentially breach again & get another 14 days (or other sanction) perhaps I have learned things from our area's briefings (DLNR CRC)....

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I can envisage offenders being seen by the RO driving around all day to HVs - as long as they are seen it counts and it may be the only way to ensure completions so income is earned in the Probation for Profit businesses. Cheaper to provide a lease car and a tablet so records updated immediately than to support all those offices. One hub centre for each area and the ROs given a patch to work..

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Of course there can't be any training with regard to ORA. All the private companies are going to do things differently from each other, and that means that Sodoxos 'interpretation' of the ORA will probably be very different to Interserves 'interpretation'. Therefore training cannot be generic, but specific and relative to region and company approach.

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At what point was it ever okay or appropriate when Mrs McD was employed by Sodexo in a senior management position throughout? How can it possibly be that moving from ops manager & deputy top dog to top dog suddenly changes the goal posts? It stinks to high heaven - Justice Committee should be taken to task about not seeing through Grayling's smokescreen; Mr McD should be penalised for leading everyone a merry dance; Mrs McD's company's bid should be revisited for signs of insider trading. Its an immorality tale writ large. SHAME ON ALL OF THEM.

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If you think this looks bad from the outside looking in, imagine what it must look like for those on the inside looking out i.e. the clients. The whole MoJ has degenerated to the level of total farce which is something of an achievement really. No other SSJ has managed to wreak such total havoc on a system as Grayling has. It makes me wonder what he has on Cameron that would enable him to remain in post long after other incompetents Gove and Lansley were given the boot for their hash of the "reforms" of the education system and NHS respectively. It also doesn't say much for Cameron that he would leave such a ragingly incompetent psychopathic lunatic in charge of a major department, especially when the incompetent lunatic generates atrocious headline after atrocious headline.

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It is sad that few will come out of this unscathed in some way whether it be service users, victims, public or staff. All we can hope for is that common sense will prevail and labour if elected will do whatever they can to terminate contracts without cost to the taxpayer and reunify a service, take away bureaucracy and rebuild the award-winning, high performing probation service that served our country well for a very long time.

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Our boss has been hilarious basically along the lines of 'we're a great team we've had testing times before and come through so we'll be ok'. Also told us cases would be in 'dribs and drabs'. This reassuring email coincided with a 51 page document on the ORA from NOMS. I didn't realise even time-served people expected to do the 12 months - did anyone else? This is a curveball that for court staff to have to stop people as they skip out of the dock to freedom to be told 'hold on you've now got 12mths supervision' and lets not forget in many courts not all courtrooms are manned - definitely a gaping hole in the system with that lot!!

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I work in the Court team and was aware of this. The main problem was getting GeoAmy to hold them long enough for us to get down and see them. The response from GeoAmy was that they could 'delay' things but it would be beyond their remit and probably illegal if they held them. So, when one of our offenders walks out, and a first appt letter is sent to try and get them back in, whats the odds on it being returned as not at this address? Then what?

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One should never say never, and I would agree there has been catastrophic damage inflicted upon Probation over the last 20 years (when training was syphoned off from the social work degree structure). I would also agree that NOMS's prison-centric control-&-command managerialism has poisoned Probation waters; an approach many Probation managers (not all) have enjoyed as it allowed them to legitimise their aloof-ness.

And I would agree that practitioners have been naive, lambs to the slaughter and as such carry a level of culpability. I feel that I haven't taken the stand I ought to have done, mainly because the bullying structuralism and stand-together of management succeeded in frightening me off. That was my weakness and thus my contribution to TR.

I've been vocal and challenging in recent months, but sadly too late to stop TR and all the negatives it brings. BUT that doesn't mean practitioners can't continue the fight to prove they were right all along and ensure there's still an effective service when TR disappears up its own ideological fundament.

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You know, when all that matters is £££s, I wonder how many of the bean counters now in charge will factor in the true costs? The number of colleagues working their hours for the first time is amazing. I thought people would revert to working longer hours and missing lunch breaks after an initial protest but no, there has been a real change. This must be costing massive sums of money over all areas and I bet you will never hear about it but the employers should be aware all this has been lost and will cost them. The blog refers to the 'altruism premium' and guess what? The employers are now reaping what they have sewn and loss of this is a massive business cost.

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So, if the Government spent £15 million on consultants, how come the changes are resulting in such chaos? Should Grayling ask for a refund on behalf of the tax payers 'cos it is our money he's spent? It is utter crap.

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So TR begins with a shortage of POs and 50,000 newly directed clients on their way, no chief inspector, and existing staff with no training regarding the changes, and the companies taking over still to decide how to apply rehabilitation activities and who they're going to engage with. But nothing can go wrong - Grayling has a gut feeling after all.

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Our first ORA offender arrived this week - 7 days for shoplifting = 4 days custody, 3 days licence and 362 days supervision. Our community CRC is already preparing breach paperwork for the day he goes out NFA. We were told last week on ORA training that it has been estimated there will be an extra 5000 recalls coming into the system over the next year yet another prison was closed this week "temporarily".

Our CRC hasn't appointed the promised workers for our prison and don't expect anyone to be in post until May at the earliest, so the TTG programme is nowhere near ready and existing agencies carry on doing what they have been doing while wondering if they will be kept on as subcontractors to Lurking Winks (who have sewn up the South and Wales )or if they will be dumped sometime later this year - a bit like us PSOs in fact. And the prison computer system seems to be struggling to deal with the new sentence calculations leaving CAs tearing their hair out! This side of the gate is as chaotic as outside, who the hell thinks that any of this is working? Prison PSO

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None in my office yet, but we have a sweepstake going. Might be the first time I have asked my manager for an allocation! No TTG in Teesside yet and AFAIK no one has put their name forward. I know words have been had with the local Solicitors to advise them of the Premium Service that their newly released clientele will have and to write a letter of complaint to both Grayling and our CO if this proves not to be the case. We all know the old adage about where the buck stops!

I also hear of some serious falling out between CRC and NPS managers over office items, paperwork and procedures which is only likely to get worse over the next few weeks. Apparently they nearly came to blows!

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My area, Staffs and West Mids CRC has asked CAs to fudge numbers to show completions even when it's not true! Requirements that have never been completed are being signed off as having been successfully completed. This was an informal and unofficial diktat issued by line managers.

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The new paradigm of 'offender management' has driven priorities towards achieving targets set by remote bureaucrats. What used to be a role with 80% of the working week (& more) as direct client contact has been turned around to 80% chained to a computer inputting data & reading pointless email directives. That leaves me 30 hours a month to see 64 people, 23 of whom I have to see weekly. So in effect that's 30 hours for 130 appointments in a 4 week period. Like the teaching profession, where the experienced qualified professionals are locked in a cupboard processing data, whilst the teaching assistants are delivering the lessons. BONKERS!

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Hidden agendas aside, I am concerned to note that, days into this, we are already seeing the integrity of Probation in jeopardy. Companies with dubious histories, illegal sentences, perverse decisions arising from misinformation, misrepresentation, misdirection and incompetence, each borne of the reckless pace of changes. It bodes badly for the future.

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A kiosk is a 'reporting centre' for the digital age. Not everyone who is subject to statutory supervision needs actual probation supervision, as they may well possess all the attributes and resources to self-rehabilitate. With such individuals if it feels like a tick box exercise, that's because it is. However, a kiosk will not advocate on your behalf with a benefits agency or a housing department: it will not assist you to access mental health or drug and alcohol support; it will not support your release from prison on licence or find you suitable accommodation. You can fit a kiosk into probation but you cannot fit all of what probation does into a kiosk.

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The way forward for what. Once sentencers get wind of it, they will start sentencing more punitively. They don't put people on Community Orders to report to a kiosk. You should be careful what you wish for because your next sentence could be custody or Unpaid Work. As someone who writes PSRs, if that is how I think people will be processed in a CRC, then I will propose something else. I can see a culture developing in Magistrates Courts where they will ignore standalone Community Orders if they stop valuing them, and sentence to short spells of custody with the mandatory twelve months supervision - maybe then people can report to kiosks. Like I said, be careful what you wish for.

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Left the office at 2.35, arrived at home of client (lifer) at 3.05, didn't leave until 5.20! Totally worthwhile, meaningful and welcome; has been out 3 years and we still have conversations about his rehabilitation and what keeps him, and therefore others safe! No kiosk, no tick boxes, just a relationship we have worked hard to establish and maintain; it's not always been plain sailing but we respect each other neither of us thinks we have all the answers! 31 years in now and still motivated to do the best I can for our clients, although I cannot give all 43 the same amount of time, week in and week out they know that and we compromise and priorities accordingly!

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Sodexo justice services in our area has now started to roll out the great vision, however it seems to be increasingly blinkered and in some places blurred as to how to proceed other than the 'restructuring' mantra which seems a given. Yet when questioned as to how or why to restructure without getting a grasp of the complexities of the job there was no response, giving the impression that the take over is a cut n run job. Acquire as much cash as possible then hope we don't get found out.....

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Yes that is the mantra. 'We don't know what our operating model will look like but we know we will need X less staff to do it'. It is an approach that leads inevitably to unmet needs. I guess the received wisdom is 'we will never meet all of their needs so lets stop trying and meet as few as we can get away with. Re: kiosks. If someones needs and risks are minimal enough to require an intervention that superficial, they should not be under supervision. THAT is inefficient.

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I absolutely agree. According to the offender management model they should have been given Unpaid Work or a curfew.

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Dear Purple Futures, I've been allocated a short custody case and I have to advise what the rehab elements will be for the post sentence supervision - the problem is that you haven't let us operational staff know who, what or how these will be delivered. Any information will be gratefully received. Sincerely, OM

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Dear OM, Having asked around our office the general response was that we, quite literally, do not have a fucking clue. I also asked them your question and it would appear that you can use the above response as an answer. In fact it would be fair to say that, as a company, we are as much use as mudguards on a tortoise. However, and get this, we don't fucking care. Yours,
Purple Futures (Well, not really PF, but you get my drift)

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MOJ's own reoffending stats show probation has a much higher success rate than comparable cases in short term custody - they've got 'em 24/7 in jail but they can't help them desist. What works is the skillful engagement with an offender at the heart of the probation relationship - trust, empathy, motivation. Simple to say, very difficult to do well.

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All of this rang so true for me. As we were going through the split so our local drug and alcohol services were being privatised. There's a shiny new service in place of at least two others but the workers who migrated across didn't know which bits of the work they would get. I have a man with an ATR who had worked a long time with his alcohol worker. We were then told a new worker had been appointed but after weeks of trying to contact them I received an apologetic phone call-the person had been told they weren't taking ATRs after all! Its taken a few more weeks for his old worker to come back. Effectively the ATR part of the court order hasn't been operating for this man for a couple of months!

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Counselling and Family Therapy formed part of my CQSW training, we also had to complete modules in Sociology, Psychology and Social Policy. (I don't believe Sociology is even a relevant degree now for the PQF Award, Police Studies is though). There was always a strong emphasis on critical analysis and looking at innovative ways of working. Once in post there was frequent opportunities to train and explore new approaches. Government policy changes were debated regularly in conferences workshops etc. Been there, done that..a lot of us have well worn T shirts! The 'Desistance' model just like 'What Works' (or worked) turns on the quality of the relationship the person being supervised has with the supervisor. Without this everything else is just padding.