Monday 16 February 2015

Taking the Piss Again!

So, having waited as long as possible before getting rid of the 70% Chief Inspector of Probation because his wife runs 30% of now-privatised probation, Chris Grayling takes the piss yet again by appointing Paul Wilson CBE as interim Chief Inspector:-

Paul Wilson has been appointed interim Chief Inspector of Probation today.

He will lead the Inspectorate while a permanent Chief Inspector is being recruited.

Mr Wilson was chief executive of London Probation Trust from 2009 to 2010, having started his career as a probation trainee in 1972.

On his interim appointment, Paul Wilson said:

"I look forward to taking up the post, helping to ensure the independent inspection of probation services during a time of great change in the criminal justice system.

The inspectorate’s work will be vital over the coming months in testing the impact of probation services and promoting effective practice, in order to ensure that the public are protected and reoffending is reduced.

I am also really looking forward to working with youth offending teams and inspecting their work to prevent young people from reoffending and to keep them safe."

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said:

"After more than 40 years rising through the ranks of the probation service, Paul has the ideal knowledge and experience necessary for this role. I am confident that he will bring the leadership and drive necessary to steer the inspectorate and safeguard its independence whilst a permanent Chief Inspector is appointed."

An absolutely astonishing decision, given that if you cut Paul Senior in half you'd find 'probation' written right through him, and if you cut Paul Wilson in half you'd find NOMS written right through. He's assured not to find anything untoward with privatised probation, him only being a non-executive director of NOMS FFS! 

"Paul Wilson - Paul joined the Probation Service in 1972, working in Teeside, Kent and West Yorkshire where he became Chief Officer in 1999, receiving a CBE for services to the National Probation Service in 2005. After a spell as Offender Manager in NOMS Yorkshire and Humberside, Paul resumed his probation career as interim Chief Officer in Sussex (2007/8) and London (2009/10). Currently Consultant Partner with the Equality Works Group, he is an active runner, cyclist, fly fisher and gardener."

20 comments:

  1. err, there is no comment worthy of publication....

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  2. Securing public confidence is in this man' blood. Remember Boy George & Big Brother?

    "In a letter explaining his decision, chief probation officer Paul Wilson told Boy George it would undermine public confidence in the criminal justice system if it became known that he had been allowed, while being punished for an offence, to take part in “a high profile, controversial television production that would promote your status as a celebrity an earn you a lucrative sum of money”."

    Pity this didn't apply to serving MPs...

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    1. I still can't find a way to indicate irony when offering a comment... I just re-read it !

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  3. I saw this flagged on Twitter earlier and thought " what will Jim think about that?" ...well I agree , this is defo taking the piss..independance! PW is as much a NOMS toady as appointing any of the board of NOMS. As a consultant I will wager there will be skeletons in the cupboard here too.

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  4. https://www.napo.org.uk/blogs/sound-hinges-falling-gates-already

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  5. "we're not making our money".
    We'll we'll change everything says Mr. Wilson.

    http://youtu.be/4IBFRax0CL8

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  6. All the things that were identified as failures in this case, when Paul Wilson was London chief, appear to me to be reacurring as a consequence of TR reforms.
    I hope he remembers the case, aswell as the identified concerns that related to it.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/5443792/French-student-murders-probation-chief-says-ministers-partly-to-blame.html

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    1. Paul Wilson wasn't the chief then. He came in after.

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  7. http://www.theewgroup.com/clients/

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  8. Thanks 19:08 for your post - the article is a good timely read...and I urge you all to do so...my favourite quote from Phil Wheatley then DG of NOMS
    "A well managed probation service would not have placed that officer in that position."
    Let's hope we can rely on a similar attitude in the current chaos...

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  9. Shouldn't that read Regional Offender Manager in NOMS Yorkshire & Humberside? And wasn't he the one whose "vision" involved Offender Managers rolling up to prisons and drawing keys before going about their Offender Manager seamless end-to-end offender management business within the establishments? Most thought it delusional rubbish at the time and most were right.

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    1. Ha Ha Ha ROFL! Yes!! More stories to come out over the coming days. As they say, watch this space.

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    2. Whoa, hang on there, readers. This is THE Prof Seymour Klientz, an eminent academic who has the honour of being awarded Visiting NOMS & ROMcom Professor at the Vienna Insititute of Dystopia.

      Professor - its so good to have you join this blog community. We're honoured. I don't think Mr Brown recognised your moniker, but hopefully the full courtesy of the offer of a Guest Blog will be available.

      The opportunity for readers to revisit your Theseus on "Mr Wilson - Dead or Alive?" would be most welcome.

      Oh Look!! Another Squirrel.

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  10. If Mr. Wilson (and I'm not being critical of him), really believes and stands by the 'errors' he Identified in the Sonnex case, then surely a quick glance around and he has to say the current situation in probation must indicate that another 'disaster' of similar magnitude is possible at any moment, and TR is proving dangerous!

    " It emerged Sonnex was supervised by a probation officer in Lewisham with just nine months experience and who was responsible for 127 case files at the time.The new acting chief probation officer for London, Paul Wilson, said the case was a "wake up call" for London probation but that frontline staff should not be blamed.It also emerged the probation watchdog was aware of problems in services in London as early as March last year - three months before the murders.An inspection of London Probation Service found there were "fundamental problems with the timely completion of basic tasks to a high standard" adding that a third of risk assessments were not completed on time.ADVERTISEMENTIt is the second serious failure by the capital's probation service which faced a scathing attach by watchdogs and ministers following the murder of city financier John Monckton in 2004 by two offenders under its supervision.In 2008, the female probation officer who took on Sonnex had only been qualified for nine months and joined the Lewisham team at a time of staff shortages so immediately inherited the workload of a sick colleague as well as her own cases.It meant she could see Sonnex for no more than 20 minutes a week.Two senior officers in the area were also doing the work of five. Since the scandal some 60 additional staff have already been employed across London and another 80 are to be recruited.Mr Wilson accepted that "serious errors were made by London Probation", including management failings, central resource allocation and workload pressures.But he added: "It comes down every time to a young offender manager overwhelmed by an unfair workload and not experienced enough to grasp the risk posed by Sonnex."

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  11. How much more fucking depressing can this whole debacle get?

    Lies, deception, fraud - and that's just in Parliament. Then bullying, collusion & manipulation; followed by incompetence (financial, organisational & strategic), theft & more lies; nepotism, cover up, asset-stripping & even more lies, more explicit nepotism & blatant deception.

    Then just to round things off, overt squirrel abuse.

    Monika.X

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  12. Just seen the reference to the old ROMcom. Our CPO went on secondment to the home office. The stationery all had to be changed so that people were left in no doubt that we had an 'Acting CPO' for the 3 year tenure. At the insistence of the substantive CPO. She came back as CPO, he got the job as ROM. Funnily enough, she took early retirement shortly after..

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  13. I feel this blog is full of personal abuse, which does bloggers no credit and discredits the message that probation services would be better if resources available were greater. For those who have only or mostly worked in probation, you should note that this level of personal attack is regarded as bullying in other sectors.

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  14. This blog is NOT "full of personal abuse", it raises many diverse topics and is a vehicle for (mainly, but not exclusively) practitioners having a voice. It is clear for many years but emphatically with TR, that staff have been removed from any right to comment and effectively, silenced. I came from the private sector and couldn't believe the culture of dislike of management but then realised I had got this wrong. Management in probation do not like the staff and once you realise this you can spot this on a daily basis. Strange word to use 'like' but it is a simple word from which words such as respect, esteem and positivity flow. So, what you read here is those without a voice, in a culture where it is now difficult to have one, expressing their views. Managers appear to be there not to lead but to functionally impose a system which is undeveloped by research and practice and fundamentally, they do not believe in.
    I was appalled to learn that the former Chief Executive of DTV Trust, and then some of his Directors regularly spoke to the managers with "JFDI" it is an abusive term with bullying overtones and wholly unacceptable in the management of people.Yet, did any managers raise this? No. So what attitudes do you think those managers displayed to their staff? Of course, never voicing "JFDI" literally, but modelling it's sentiments, it would be impossible not to when that is the standard they were managed to. Any managers reading this ask yourself honestly, when did you last genuinely say something positive to your team or individual staff?
    The biggest overhead of the probation business is staff and they are simply, at all levels, not managed well. Look at the cost of staff sickness and how often this is due to inadequate management. The culture of policies and procedures has overridden managers developing, or God forbid using, soft skills. Indeed look at the selection of managers and how soft skills simply are not rated. Any problem? Use the policy.... is it a grievance or code of conduct.... lets hide behind the bureaucracy of what we have written down....then we don not have to get involved.....
    There is something rotten in the culture of this organisation and opinion, when from staff, is not "personal attack". It may be written in frustration and out of the need to 'get it out' but I often find what is posted here interesting and sometimes funny. Occasionally overstepping the mark yes, but then, also self policed by Jim or later contributors.

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    1. Well put Anon 06:04! Strong language sometimes indeed, but only saying it as it is - responding to rampant hypocrisy, nepotism, self-serving, bullshit and bollocks every where - that's what this blog is all about.

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    2. Loving the prose!

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