Bleak Futures Week 10

"They've stuck feathers on a turd and are now sitting round wondering why it won't fly."

As a trade union rep and JNCC member, I have seen many of the destructive elements of TR start to present themselves over the last year. Firstly, the damage done to industrial relations; the almost total destruction of equality of opportunity and transparency in terms of the allocation of posts; the routine undermining of Senior and Middle management; the deceit implicit in the repackaging of existing material to 'create' Rehabilitation Activity Requirements; the routine lying to the courts regarding content and process; fraudulent practice in order to maintain the illusion that the CRCs (and NPS) are 'functioning'; the undermining of much of the integrity of Probation at all levels; the amateurism of Fast Delivery Reports to courts (compared to the previous practice of proper, fully researched PSRs); the 'assessments' that take place without anyone seeing anybody or having any of the information required to check the veracity of an offenders submissions, even if they have; the repeated reallocation of cases time and time again at the expense of effective supervision; the fraudulent counting of supervision sessions as part of an RAR's allocation of days.... the list goes on and on.

What we have seen is NOT the privatisation of Probation but the replacement of a world class service with a shallow pretence. We are on the verge of seeing offenders reporting to computer terminals, of 'one size fits all' supervision plans and programmes of intervention that everyone does, irrespective of identified need, of creaming and parking (despite being 'assured' (I wasn't) that it wouldn't happen), the marginalisation of hundreds of years of experience at all levels and the replacement of expertise with amateurism.

The 'rehabilitation' model we are seeing developing in the community is to become the same as the one that exists in the prisons; a shallow and ineffective pretence. Remember, the CRCs are still essentially the old Trusts operating under the umbrella of the new providers. The destruction is only just beginning and the wheels are already off. If you cannot see that, you are either astonishingly naive or complicit in that destruction.

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The bleak future?

NPS: Probation Officers remain the hidden arm of the CJS and have become the poor second cousin twice removed of the Civil Service. Working out of little cramped offices attached to Courts and other CJS buildings, we supervise high caseloads; continue to record on substandard IT systems; write multiple PSR's and make recommendations in accordance with government calls for increasing punishment and imprisonment. 

The pressure is always on to downgrade risk assessments and assign cases to the CRC. This is easier for the abundance of new staff that joined with no previous experience and qualified in such a short time that the probation qualification is no longer recognised or ratified by higher education. Recruitment has become non existent because of government lies that CRC's are reducing reoffending and pressure is now on to privatise the NPS. Probation Officers can now be ranked as social work trained, probation studies trained, or post TR trained.

CRC: Offender Managers receive on the job training. Professional qualifications, relevant experience and university education are no longer required, and pay has decreased. Probation Officers trained in social work and probation studies have either retired or returned to the NPS or social work. CRC's are now detached from probation offices and heavily stripped back on management and support staff. Through the Gate never happened; supervision for under 12 month prisoners broke the system and contracts have changed hands and been subcontracted out numerous times. 

The CRC model has become as notorious as the work programme, because crime is on the increase and the tabloids report that reoffending rates are falling because the figures are manipulated by the click of a button. Offender Managers are located in small hubs in offices and call centres. Clients phone in on an agreed basis to check in for their supervision, in some CRC's the call is automated. Clients that cannot phone in or need instructions in person, contact infrequently and are seen in their homes or at agreed places. Courts no longer value probation sentences if the case is to be assigned to a CRC.

There's no Napo for NPS and CRC staff to turn to for support, it has long disappeared. The Probation Institute has increased in importance and continues to erode probation by promoting anti-rehabilitation government messages and CRC corner-cutting as best practice. The 'professional register' of the Probation Institute is not recognised by the NPS and probation officers as it recognises non qualified probation staff as qualified practitioners.

Thanks to Chris and all the probation Chief Officers!

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Where are our new masters? Purple Futures has not updated its News page since 1st Feb and the last tweet was on 16th Feb.

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The notion of continuity of working with any individual case has been eroded to the point of non-existence. Firstly, the interruption to the flow of trained staff when training was stopped. Then NOMS's interference with the imposition of inappropriate/unnecessary process & monitoring, Then the shift to Trusts. Now TR. Add to this a change in the staff profile, where the increase in mobility & ambition (allied to a younger intake) has contributed to staff being able & willing to move between areas and roles as they move up the greasy pole. Then sprinkle with the growth of agency staff.

How many areas can now say they have staff who have been in post, let alone in one locality, for five years? For ten years? For twenty years? For thirty years? In the early 1990s I joined an office in an inner city area when there were 10 POs and 3 PSAs (aka PSOs). Of those POs, 2 were recently qualified but trained locally; 1 had relocated to the area about 2 years previous; the rest had been local POs for between 5 & 25 years. The PSAs had been there for 6 & 9 years.

Where I work now (different area & CRC team) there are 3 POs and 8 PSOs. One person has been there 17 years, not one of the remaining ten has been there longer than 5 years. Most haven't been there for more than 2 years.

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Can I point out that I have been informed by management at what was Hampshire Probation Trust in response to a complaint I made, that my OM repeatedly failed to respond to any communication I sent her before I was released, that an OM is allegedly only legally obliged to communicate with an offender once a year. Management maintained that as she had written to me a two paragraph letter at the instigation of her SPO, which didn't even answer a single issue I had raised or any of the questions I had asked, that she had done her duty and need not communicate with me further until the following year.

If this is in fact true and not some attempt to wriggle out of a failure to respond to letters from me this makes a complete mockery of what has been said. How on earth can you possibly effectively manage an offender or build up a relationship with them prior to release to enable you to do an accurate risk assessment if all you are required to do is send the offender one letter in any calendar year that can say absolutely nothing at all? No wonder most risk assessments don't appear to be worth the paper they are written on and why things do go so horribly wrong.

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When a prisoner is released and probation services take up their 'supervision' they are in fact at their final stage of engagement with their journey through the CJS. It's often the case that the supervisory period and those involved in it take the flack when things go wrong and SFOs occur. But isn't what's happened to the prisoner during their detention, their development whilst in custody, an even more important issue? If the issues that led to the offence originally are not addressed whilst the person is in custody, then surely they're being released into the world of probation 'supervision' still with the original offending issues unaddressed? I note today that there are a lot of newspaper reports about the prison population being so over crowded, and as such pretty ineffective with regard to any sort of rehabilitative function.

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Wales CRC asking staff to go into prisons to run TTG for 6 months. Wonderful secondment opportunity! I guess Working Links can put in whoever they want to.

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It feels as though I have woken up in a country I do not recognise. It is not a nice place, but it must have been creeping up on us, wordlessly, sneakily, for some time. I do not like what now seems to be everywhere - people suffering and struggling, starving and killing themselves. Homelessness, rip off jobs, ridiculous rents & artificially inflated property prices, permanent food collection point in the local supermarket, benefit sanctions, unkind policies and well fed, over paid politicians who break lives and let people die.

Politicians who begin sentences with "the truth is..." I am so ashamed of this country and what it is turning into. We are being forced down a horrible road. I feel extremely fortunate that I have employment in the traditional sense - a contract, some measure of security. But for how much longer? Nothing makes any sense any more. As a "hardworking taxpayer" I actually do not give a stuff if a very small minority are not looking for work. But a million people sanctioned? What a nasty, vindictive situation. But not only does that mean people cannot eat, it means they are not contributing to their local economy. Surely that does not make economic sense, let alone moral sense? So the knock on effect must be wider than a brutal punishment of an isolated individual.

I think the wealthy elite have washed their hands of any remaining sense of 'social responsibilty' of those in power. They are gathering up their ill gotten gains as fast as they can and pulling up the draw bridge. It's planned and deliberate, with 'austerity' the smokescreen. Is not taxpayers money used to pay for TR? Do we not see day in, day out examples of increasing cost of this farce, costs written off because some people will get even more wealthy? Cheers suckers! God help us if they are re-elected.

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If you speak to senior managers and consultants involved in CRCs then it's true. Anyone who thinks there are not going to be significant changes in the pay and staff structure in CRCs is very much mistaken.

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It's going to happen, already role titles are changing, role boundaries are changing and job evaluation training is again underway within my CRC. I would bet my pension on changes to terms, conditions and salaries within the next 12 months.

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1999 - Rural area office, large patch: 12 PO staff, 3 PSOs, 6 admin
2015 - same patch BEFORE any cuts, redundancies, etc:
CRC - 4 PO staff, 8 PSOs; NPS - 8 POs, 4 PSOs
Total: 12 POs, 12 PSOs, 4 admin

Everyone is at about 110% on the old WMT, and stressed to hell. CRC have hinted at "managing cost centres" (redundancy?) and NPS are no doubt set to be slashed in the Civil Service cuts to come. In advance of the swingeing cuts to come, I predict Grayling will offer NPS staff a pay deal to further his divisive approach to TR, based on the fact they "manage higher risk" or some such guff.

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I did a home visit today - isolated individual, his hip is crumbling and mobility is limited - I can not really spare the time out of the office but as he's not too far from the office I make the effort so at least I can get him through the order. As I was leaving I sensed something seemed a bit odd. When I asked him if everything was alright he said he'd got money but been unable to get out because of his hip and could I drop him off at the Asda so he could get some food in? My pleasure - love doing this sort of stuff for those that need it. This to me is what I love most about my job - I just wish people would not be so shy to ask for a helping hand as there's no shame in it.

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CRC in Manchester would never let you do this without charge. There is now a cost to everything.

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What a total Horlicks. PO staff shafted to CRC, threatened with job loss if they challenged their shafting, resources demolished by the split, staff leaving. NPS now desperate for staff while experienced POs fester in CRCs. There are more Civil Service management roles than ever before, all speaking in tongues, pocketing fat salaries & achieving fuck all. At a meeting last week someone mentioned the "new NPS NW regional court managers" - uh? More tools, roles and models and fuck knows what else, all being created to hide the TR fuck up.

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"Following the recent recruitment to CA and PO posts across the Division the WPC agreed to extend the PO recruitment exercise to Stage 4 (open competition). The advert will appear on Civil Service Jobs shortly and all CRC employees can apply."

As someone sifted into the CRC, despite a grievance being made and subsequently dismissed, I have one reply to anyone who wishes me to now help the NPS/NOMS out. FUCK RIGHT OFF.

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Me three and I echo the sentiments. I think they'll find many PO's will feel the same. It appears that they have not found the additional 500 PO's that Grayling claimed we had!

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I too was put into our CRC and all I can say to echo the other posts is that the prats at the top ought to go back to school and learn how to do maths. It didn't take a genius to work out the numbers! For me, and 16 years in the job, I'm staying put and taking my chances within our CRC. We never asked for any of this but please think carefully before jumping from one to another.

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I was allocated to the NPS during the shafting and if I'm being honest was, at the time, quite glad. I doubt I'd switch back to CRC, even if I could. However, it just does not work. My own feelings are that additional staff are needed as frontline staff are applying for fancy new 'non-jobs' in the belief that they are climbing the management pole. I fear that what they do not realise is that once things stabilise, these jobs will be dissolved, and them with it.

We need to remember that NOMS see us as Civil Servants first, and PO's second. If you are in the NPS, and are planning on applying for fancy new jobs, with great sounding titles, you need to ask yourself what will happen when these go! There was a lot a noise about CRC staff being sacked/laid off post TR. I think we are a lot more vulnerable, more so with the continual influx of TPO's who all want our job. Thinking on, rather than trying to climb that greasy pole for NOMS, why not just ask if there is another way of earning your 30 pieces of silver?

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Absolute chaos in our CRC. We have been in chaos for so long we no longer know what normal looks like. Told to choose which area of work we want to be in but no information how we will be working. We have one week to transfer caseloads within the CRC. If the PI is unable to state the fundamental shambles of TR it does not matter how professional it may appear it has nothing to offer anyone with any integrity. How can the PI hold values suggested when the Probation Service has been decimated? It will remain in the government pocket.

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Please be aware that the private organisations will do whatever they can to sidestep the rickety 'framework'. They have access to highly paid & 'creative' employment lawyers. Do not believe that terms & conditions are safe & secure. Just look at the 'creativity' applied to the tagging contracts, or the way Sodexo behaved when taking over HMP Northumberland, or the overt & covert flouting of rules relating to Work Programme contracts, the brazen & dismissive attitude to issues around conflicts of interest, or the tardy, lacklustre approach to JR by NAPO on behalf of members.

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I understand that JCP will be going into UPW to arrange work placements for offenders instead of going out on van. Sounds like a good idea but they can't find enough placements for current jobless without adding on UPW. Where will these employers come from? Still issues with 'van driving' in Wales. PO/PSOs being seconded to TTG for 6 mths. No mention of who will take their work load. Offenders being passed around to different officers to suit the scheme.

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CRCs processing own breaches here. NPS cannot cope.

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Attended a meeting in a Government building today with someone from the MOJ. A charity who's funding from Probation ends on 31st March said they had not been offered further contracts as yet and those around the table were aghast that no interim funding had been provided. The MOJ rep looked embarrassed and said all was in the hands of the private contractors now! I so had to bite my tongue in order to not get the sack!

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Can I be bloody angry too? Off topic but the IT system is an absolute disgrace. Today...

1. had to reboot NINE times
2. was unable to run multiple systems at the same time - everything froze
3. had to write a PSR with each narrative box reducing its size as I typed so had to press enter at end of each line of text to expand the box so I could read what I was typing, honestly
4. unable to use buttons in lotus notes so for example could open 'out of office' in tools but couldn't press the button to enable, it didn't work
5. the final defining moment was trying to use the new case allocation system instructions for the first time - whoever wrote the new instructions should be shot, yes really. IT IS AN ABUSE OF EVERY SINGLE PRACTITIONER THAT WE HAVE TO USE SUCH A POOR SYSTEM and proves that the MOJ understand NOTHING about efficient business delivery.

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Same problem doing an ISP in OASyS so frustrating and time consuming.

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Yes, every time the line wraps around it goes out of view so you can't see what you're typing on the new line - annoying and it's the little things that piss you off. I've also noticed offenders with 'concurrent' orders which is wrong as they are only on one - the mysterious concurrent order I had yesterday had 942 months custody. Bizarrely the ghost concurrent order vanished by the time I decided I had built up the energy to ring our IT department over it.

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Delius was playing up yesterday with it being unavailable at certain hours of the day.

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As ex IT (before I and the rest of the unit left or took VR) can I implore you not to take it out on the people on the helpdesks, please. Crams was described in the press as 'a crime against computing'. That we began to look back on it with longing, says all you need to know about the catastrophic procurement processes that all govt departments seem to employ. Aircraft carriers that can't carry our aircraft is the forces equivalent of NDelius and Eoasys. The help desk bod isn't responsible, and hates them as much as you, honestly!

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I did not even mention 'help desk bods' because I am NPS and we have some remote contact centre (for everything actually, not just IT). I really miss the great team we had on our old trust help desk. Based on the advice of numerous colleagues I do not even bother to contact the help desk as I was told it can take days to have issues resolved. I do though sometimes wish 'help desk bods' and others could understand the utter pressure practitioners are under delivering multiple tasks and owning the dead lines for all of this, oh and protecting the public too. Practitioner work is being obstructed by the IT not facilitated and I know the 'help desk bod' hates the system too.

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Have been waiting months for an IT issue to be resolved. Our pre TR support team provided a superb service.

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Does anyone know what happened to the VR money? Rumour is the companies that took over the CRCs get to keep the cash as an "incentive".

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CRC in Manchester in total fucking meltdown.

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2 CRC admin walked out yesterday, one wrote her notice out before she left and the other just walked out. Told on Tues they were being re-deployed and their last day would be today - both offices much further away - no notice; no warning just totally out of the blue.

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To my shame, I accept I've been drawn in & am guilty of "describing the water". I don't know what to do to effect any change anymore. I try to keep working in as effective way as I've ever done, but as a PO the CRC constrains me with its cuts & administrative stranglehold & its "wait & see" uncertainty and outrageous caseload of primarily DV bullies.

Is there a VR package? No-one will say. There are hundreds of emails weekly about operational this & that's, a threatening undercurrent to many. So perhaps navel gazing & describing the water is all that's left after an exhausting day? I have no energy. I'm depressed. I drink every night. I feel like I'm drowning too!