Thursday 26 February 2015

Guest Blog 28

Responding to Jim's request for contributions and generous offer to make space on his blog for pieces from guests I decided it was about time to get the keyboard out and put something together again. After over 3 decades in the Probation Service, going from Ancillary Worker (what PSOs used to be called) to SPO I handed my notice in and moved onto another job. Being over 60 I could have gone for retirement but I decided I did not want the likes of Grayling to decide when and how I stopped work. A little self determination was required.

Being a NAPO rep locally I suppose I saw earlier than many what the potential damage to the service TR represents. Of the four reps who were round the table at the beginning only one is now still involved in Probation work. That speaks volumes. When I first heard about TR my initial thought was that both the employers and the union should start to help staff get CVs together, think about alternative careers etc. Obviously, that was naive as both the unions and the employers wanted staff to stay where they were, for entirely their own ends. The damage done to the Service by TR and the effect on staff has been aired on this blog by people much more in the know than I am now. I still visit Jim's blog daily - you can take the person out of the Probation Service but not the Probation Service out of the person - and keep in contact with colleagues in both the NPS and CRC.

I suppose I left because there was a dawning realisation, whilst the apparent damage that TR was going to cause was being unveiled, that I could no longer stay and hold onto the tension that was increasing between my private views and what was expected of me as a team manager. As a union rep my opposition to TR was evident but I often felt poorly informed by NAPO HQ and could barely keep up with the reading, re reading and reading between the lines of all that was being spewed out by the Ministry of Justice - it was truly Double Speak Plus Good. So I made the decision to go. Turning your back on a job you have held for over 30 years is not easy - if I had retired I think it would have been seen as more acceptable but I did the seemingly unforgivable thing of getting myself a new job.

So, how has it been? The challenge of new processes, IT, language, new knowledge, training etc. has been tiring and, at times, worrying. My brain is not as flexible as it used to be but I am recognised as bringing with me the skills all Probation workers have in spades - those skills are being able to get on with people from all walks of life, digging for information, making assessments, writing it up in a legible manner, working under pressure, thinking on your feet, assessing risk, working with complex systems/situations and understanding how institutions work - all relevant to what I am doing now. 


Eighteen months ago I was considering retiring so I have done what I tried to persuade countless clients to do over the years – take some control back. Yes, I am getting paid less but I am not a manager any more. I have lost a few days leave but I go home at a reasonable time most days. Swings and roundabouts.

It is hard to say how I would be managing if I had stayed. I had been sifted (aka shafted) into the CRC so the turmoil being experienced by former colleagues is well known. Although it has been very, very hard, it is with utmost regret to say that I believe I made the right decision. I am sure many will disagree with me and I await your responses.

Anon Ex SPO No 2

49 comments:

  1. Its surely about being comfortable in one's own skin? Why become a statistic of ill health (physical or mental) because of others' incompetence? If we are to be effective we need to be able to function. I'm a tad envious - but working hard at my own exit strategy.

    If I may add this, as I only just saw the following Guardian article about the book ban by (written by Mark Haddon, Curious Incident author) last night:

    "So why did the Ministry of Justice make the mistake? Why did they decide to do something so inflammatory that had no discernible benefit? It had the words books and ban written all over it. It’s not like they weren’t warned.

    There is, I think, one main reason, and it is a theme that runs through so much coalition thinking about society: their inability – their refusal perhaps – to imagine what it is like to be on the receiving end of many of their policies.

    One aspect of the ruling that was seldom discussed during the campaign was that a ban on receiving gifts is also a ban on giving gifts. Most prisoners have families on the outside – children, parents, partners, siblings, none of whom have done anything wrong – and this was a punishment for them, too. Especially around birthdays. Especially in the run-up up to Christmas.

    I cannot believe that anyone at the Ministry of Justice thought this was a good way of controlling prisoners’ behaviour. I can only guess that no one there did much thinking at all."

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    1. A very good point indeed - empathy seems to be completely lacking.

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    2. Just one of the characteristics of a sociopath.

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  2. There was a time when I would have reacted to this guest blog by saying that you should have stayed and fought, but I am afraid that my overwhelming feeling at the moment is one of regret that I am not in the same position. Good luck.

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  3. 20 years in. Me too. Have always been a fighter and have a bit of a reputation for not giving up. But this ... I'm weeks away from throwing the towel in.....

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  4. I really admire what you have done. I am not as bleak as some about the future because I was always unhappy with being a slave to NOMS and its ridiculous need for control. I have taken the opportunity to drop some hours and am trying to fill the gap with my own creative ideas as to how to make things better. But I am clear that I need to be mercenary to a degree - no giving my ideas to my employers or other parties. It's not been an easy thing to do and so far there has been little reward. Having a young family means there are risks, but there are risks involved in not taking the risks - risks of regret and a low level depression of staying and sticking to a routine, risks of not being a good example to my children. Under full on NOMS control, as the Trusts were, there was a risk of just rusting away in front of a computer. For those in the NPS there is a risk of becoming moribund under ridiculous bureaucracy and terrible civil service speak - it seems that yesterday's blog shows how our new directors are already lapsing or fully immersing themselves in this. In my office people have left to start businesses and follow dreams. If you have a dream or an unfulfilled ambition outside of Probation then this as good a time as any to follow it.
    Best of luck Anon SPO.

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  5. You have made the right decision! Good luck.

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  6. Peace of mind and health should come first. With that in mind the correct decision was made. Its only a job not even a career

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  7. Life in many ways is just like a big game og Deal or No Deal. You pick your box and periodically the banker calls to make you an offer. You have to make decisions then, you take the offer or play on.
    But ultimately your deal is YOUR deal. Everyone else has their own deal.
    What you could of got, or what you may of missed out on becomes of little relevence. What you've taken is YOUR deal, and you have to make yourself comfortable with that.
    Taking another job after over 30 years in a service you've watched being destroyed is a great move. I think it may act as a bit of a 'filter' between now and retirement that mellows any angry feelings or resentment about how the service has gone.
    I think you dealt just at the right moment.
    Well done!

    'Getafix'

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    1. But I think life is about choosing the box you want, not coping with the one you are left with?

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    2. Life is decided greatly on what the boxes that you haven't choosen reveal. That determines your decision on when to deal or not.
      If everyone knew what all the boxes held everyone would have the perfect 'game'.
      It's far better to take a good 'deal' when the offer presents itself (or circumstances dictate) then to have to cope with the one your left with, but the point I'm making is that whatever your deal turns out to be, as long as you can you be comfortable with it, don't take any regrets away about what may or may not have been, and be happy in your own skin that you delt when YOU thought best to do so, then you'll always walk away a winner.

      'Getafix'

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    3. A few more shit analogies Getafix and you'll end up with another "Special" blog post, strange what with the huge disaster that is unfolding that there isn't at least a couple of blogs a day jam packed with details describing the meltdown...

      Today's Guest Blog is risible.

      Sounds like you've just "Hadafix".

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    4. I suggest your energy might be better utilised writing something constructive or informative yourself my friend.

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    5. OK, so my understanding of the Deal or No Deal game is a bit limited, and I see your point. But that is still a little passive for my liking. Making compromises is important, and they should allow us to feel safe in our skin, but we should also give ourselves permission to take risks and win the rewards.

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  8. As someone who was in the Probation Service for 20 years and left in 2002. I would say jump and try out the different sectors out there. I have found my niche in regional charity which I love. It is like being back in the old Probation Service; its focus is on its clients and doing the best for them. No corporate BS just great colleagues and an environment where we try to do our best for the clients.

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    1. All well and good if you can afford the drop in salary. Many of us have done the maths over and over but can't make the books balance.

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    2. Didn't drop my salary and I know earn far more than I did in the Probation Service

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    3. Good for you, but you're the exception

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  9. Hello SPO 2, this is SPO 1, also resigned, in December. Weird isnt it? I completely share your experience of the strain of being a manager in the midst of TR, not a minute without exhausting internal conflict, it felt like an apallingly compromising position so much of the time. I havent yet found a professional niche yet, but have comitted myself between now and May to campaigning for Labour: The obvious step following bellowing "Grayling Grayling Grayling Out Out Out on repeated occasions - Monday being the last one- was to contribute to making it so. Good luck

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  10. I'm getting the distinct impression that there is a disconnect between this blog and the general staffing population of CRC/NPS, we are eight months since the split, one month since sell and still the wheels have not come off as long promised by Mrs Jim.

    The majority of Probation do not care about what they do. So long as they are paid they do not care about the effect of what they are implementing, not one jot.

    TR will succeed, there are far too many brainless morons installed for it not too.

    For those who cannot cope have you thought about going sick or having a Baby?

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    1. "I'm getting the distinct impression that there is a disconnect between this blog and the general staffing population of CRC/NPS, we are eight months since the split, one month since sell and still the wheels have not come off as long promised by Mrs Jim."

      Depends how you define 'wheels coming off' doesn't it? And there may well be a 'disconnect' between the blog and real life in CRC/NPS. The answer is simple - we just wait and see.

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    2. Anon 19.07 I think you are completely wrong, the wheels are buckling with every day that passes.

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    3. Sorry reply to 19.05

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  11. To Anon 19:05 ROFL!
    You made me laugh out loud! Back to your process maps, off you go now!.
    A PO

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  12. we're all in it for the money - it suits me to stay but I don't volunteer for anything and participate as little as possible at team meetings, I avoid team meetings, away days and anything else I possibly can. I am having fun staying in Probation and reporting cock-ups anonymously on here and I believe the best is yet to come. Walking away would just be too easy.

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  13. Anony 20.03 you sound like my line manager. I often wonder how the heck he still has a job with his attitude. Money grabbing bullying boss. But i suppose he does a lot of ass kissing

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    1. anon 20:45 I am anon 20:03 and cant see how you can say I sound like your linemanager particularly as you refer to them as moneygrabbing and bullying.

      I am nothing of the sort, I keep my head down and do not volunteer for anything - I have a good attitude to my offenders, I take personal responsibility for them afterall my name is next to theirs as their offender manager. Finally I do not do any ass kissing - never have and never will.

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    2. Anon 21:01 you say it suits you to not do anything, dodge around and pick up your pay at the end of the month. I came into the service to help. By avoiding team meetings and away days, you are not embracing what is happening in the service. Just another om that does not care, the only thing you see is your pay at the end of the month. Money Grabber.

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  14. Good luck spo 2! Oh, and I like the deal or no deal analogy getafix, ignore the div, his comments hold no value or bring anything to the debate!

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    1. I wish Getafix hadn't mentioned it - I can't get Noel Edmonds running commentary out of my head.

      "This is one of the most extraordinary blogs we've had for some time but now you've dealt, I want you to play on with honesty".

      Let's just hope you've given the banker a spanking!.

      Tony

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    2. Well said on both points anon 20.50, could not agree more. Good luck to anon SPO1 to.x

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  15. What debate? You provide a shitty service most likely causing more trouble to your Clients than is worth. You are in it for the money, your colleague confirmed it.

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  16. With the exception of blatant fuckwittery & mischief-making, today's blog has been a good read. The wheels have already come off... it just remains to see how long before the momentum of the combined NOMS & CRC mass eventually grinds to a disastrous halt. There will always be some sort of service provision for those sentenced to supervision or released from prison - because that's what probation staff do, regardless of allocation. The courts won't stop making sentences. What is likely is that something terrible will happen and it will be evident that the disruption per the TR agenda was the cause. However... the disconnect of the MoJ/NOMS/CRC management structures from the reality of day-to-day practice is palpable; I would submit the argument that it is evident that they are making themselves ultra-distant from practitioners in order to distance themselves from any imminent disaster.

    The CRC decision was made to enable profit for global enterprise - hence the budget & recruitment freeze & the apparent lack of CRC ownership activity (they aint stoopid). The NPS decision was a Tory General Election smokescreen regarding high risk offenders & sentencing. Sad to say I fear that it will be NPS who fall foul of something dreadful first... and I suspect CRCs are hoping for this, so they can dodge any bullets & respond with some clever PR of their own.

    But some poor bastard somewhere is going to have to be the unnecessary victim in all of this.

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  17. So you're sat around waiting for a disaster to justify your views?

    What sort of "dreadful" would this be?

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    1. okey dokey, troll-baby, let's roll... Whilst I am by no means someone who wants to crow about my own achievements or sit back & celebrate a disaster, I also have to accept I am in no position to influence MoJ, NOMS or CRC executive decisions.

      I do my job as someone who manages the supervision of those allocated to me by the system. Those I work with get as good a service as I am able to provide during the time I am able to make available to attend to their needs. I have always gone the extra mile wherever I can, but putting my life on the line is the point at which I draw the line. In a 20+ year history of employment I've survived confrontations involving firearms, knives and various other weapons. That will never happen again (it shouldn't have happened before).

      The lack of interconnect between NPS & CRC is not my call; the lack of provision of services by CRC or NPS or lack of access to such services is not my call.

      I am a mere cog. I accept that. I know that. I'm okay with that. I would prefer those who make the cogs turn and interact have (i) some knowledge of how to make cogs interact; (ii) some knowledge of the consequences of those interactions; (iii) an overview of the whole machinery in which those cogs operate; (iv) preferably a knowledge of how the cogs are made, what they're made of and how much stress they can take.

      The "dreadful" is whatever you wish to imagine as being dreadful.

      I have sat with a client as they died (at their request); I've faced angry, sad and/or grateful family members of clients who have died/been killed. I've given evidence at numerous inquests. I've been outspoken at inquests where it was evident that a cover-up by some organisation or other was likely. I've been disciplined for being outspoken in such circumstances - on one occasion when given a 'corporate' script to follow, which I overtly failed to do; so I would argue I have been proactive in trying to prevent such disasters re-occurring.

      So, troll-baby, what sort of 'dreadful' would YOU want it to be for it to be meaningful to MoJ/NOMS/CRC? And what have YOU done, or what would YOU do, to prevent such a disaster happening?

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    2. Risk and dangerousness are both aspects of human behavior that are unquantifiable. When Probation representatives suggest that there is a risk that something bad will happen it means that and nothing more. The anger is directed at the belief that this risk is now greater because of the structural changes that have and are continuing to take place. The Government and the providers are playing the odds. Something bad will happen and they will say that it would have happened anyway, even under the old regime. Only those close to the action will be able to say it was or was not a consequence of TR. Government has shown it cannot be trusted to hold itself to account. Private companies have repeatedly shown themselves to be equally unaccountable. It is a question of how much risk is acceptable. The risks under TR are higher. It's the elephant in the room.

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    3. Please forgive the indulgence, but I'd like to add that in a recent anonymised survey most of my cases gave an evaluation of me that can be best summarised as "X is a prick. X won't let you get away with anything, but they're a sound & safe person to talk to."

      My favourite quote, & it might make it onto my headstone, is: "If you want a straight answer, ask X. If you want the answer you're after, save the busfare."

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    4. LOL.

      You obviously love all the many, many dangers you face, it's not your job it's your life, oh how you enjoy sticking your nose into other peoples businesses.

      I'll tell you a truth, you fully deserve all the crap you get, but then you feed primarily and solely off the crap of others, what do you expect?

      TR is of all of your own making, you are all responsible for the shit service you have been providing.

      Well done.

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    5. Annon 03:35

      Of all the millions of sperm that set off in a fight to get there first, you were the one that won through!
      That really amazes me. It really does!

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    6. Anon 03:48, with comments like that I am not at all surprised that you are involved in the Probation service.

      That's the level of quality that has welcomed and accepted all the problems you now apparently have.

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  18. What sort of "dreadful" would this be?

    Are you really saying that you can't work that one out yourself?

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  19. Anyone who has ever switched between utilities (Bank, Fuel or ISP), will know how something, seemingly unfuckupable, gets complicated and really infuriating. Normally, the customer is the one running around, trying to get the process back on course, whilst various low-paid "computer says no" twats try their best to fob you off.

    TR has put our 'customers' in a position where they could find themselves in the switching nightmare - except they are not bothered if both parties in the 'switch' (NPS and CRC) - lose them.

    I would bet the farm that we are already in double or treble figures with clients like this. Going back years, I've had someone stop me in the Street, telling me they'd been given an order but no one had been in touch. Easily put right, but how many cases would do that?. It's a rhetorical question, which by it's very nature, we can never know the answer to.

    TR has made the 'switch' between fuel companies and their 500 tariffs, look like a walk in the park.

    THAT falling between 2 stools problem, is where something dreadful will take place. You heard it here first.

    Tony

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  20. Thank you all for the good wishes and the range of differing responses to my contribution this morning.Was pleased to see that one contributor found my efforts even has some comedy value.
    Thank you for your comments,Getafix. I have always been baffled by Deal or No Deal and it seems I will remain so!

    Anon ex SPO no 2

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    1. I really wasn't bein flippent ex SPO no 2, and I'm seriously sorry if it came over that way.
      From reading this blog I realise that many are angry, stressed and frustrated at whats happening in the service.
      Some have left without the security of another job. Some have left and been able to find alternative employment. Others want to go but haven't been as lucky. Some comment and urge people to vote with their feet and leave. Some would love to but are financially tied. Some embrace the changes and some see oppertunity beckon.
      The point I was wishing to make (and regretfully seem to have made a pigs ear of it), is that those in the service may form a 'collective', each individual within that collective have very different circumstances, and very different reasons for making the decision on wheter to stay, go, like it or have to lump it.
      Whatever an individual decides, for whatever reason they decide it, I think that choice should be respected.
      I enjoyed reading your blog today, and have total respect for the reasons you've moved on.
      I am sorry, and very genuinely so, if my comments came accross as flippent, or disrespectful, I was really trying to achieve the complete opposite.

      (On a flippent note however), I'm also sorry if I've given anyone nightmares about Noel Edmonds!

      Sincere best wishes ex SPO 2

      'Getafix'

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    2. Please do not worry.I could never see the point of Deal or No Deal and assumed it to be a fault of mine!I appreciate your good wishes and was not offended by your remarks.
      Anon ex SPO no 2

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  21. "It is too early to say whether these issues are teething problems inevitable given the massive change that TR involves or fundamental flaws that will get worse over time." http://www.russellwebster.com/first-inspection-of-new-probation/?utm_source=ReviveOldPost&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=ReviveOldPost

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  22. Quite a few of the issues were present before !!!!

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    1. Yeah and for a long time before too. It would appear Human nature would include blaming everything else for the situation that you have put yourself in and are happy to sit in.

      But if you are making a living out of the crap caused by and inflicted upon others then what do you expect? At least some of it is likely to come right back at you.

      But then again, I'm not conviced TR is as big a fuck up as seems to be claimed on this blog.

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    2. "But then again, I'm not conviced TR is as big a fuck up as seems to be claimed on this blog."

      And your qualification and evidence for making this statement is?

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