Monday 16 March 2015

Guest Blog 33

Important stuff you should know as a probation officer

I have been reading recent posts with interest especially about the lack of time to produce detailed reports, lack of information etc. I feel that I have to point out the following to all those involved in either the CRC’s or the NPS: you are obligated under the provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 to ensure that any personal data you place into a client’s file is completely accurate and any information you put into a report on a client is also required to be accurate and verified for accuracy..

This also means that you have a legal obligation to ensure that any piece of personal information you record in a client’s file is not “misleading as to fact”. If you do not do this, you are not only breaching your client’s data protection rights but you are also breaking the law. At the very least this could mean formal complaints against you or an investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office or even a law suit.

It has always surprised and appalled me in equal measure that probation officers seem to be completely oblivious in relation to their legal obligations under the Data Protection Act. You deal with personal data every day in your jobs and should therefore take steps to educate yourselves about your legal obligations in this regard yet you do not. 


Data protection isn’t some vague fuzzy concept only paid attention to by someone at head office; it is part of your job and the failures to uphold your legal obligations towards your clients in respect of data protection issues means you are breaking the law. Given that you are supposed to help clients to stay on the straight and narrow, breaking the law doesn't really set a very good example for the client.

Now this may not bother you (it apparently doesn’t bother my OM who sees no reason why she has to uphold the law in anything let alone the issue of accuracy of what she records in my file) but there are legal consequences for failing to adhere to your legal obligations in this respect. This may not bother you but it sure as hell will bother your employer when it is forced to deal with the fallout and investigations and potential fines that can be imposed let alone compensation that could be awarded.

I suppose there are some probation officers who think that most of their clients are illiterate idiots who won’t know about the Data Protection Act and their rights under that Act so breaching the client’s data protection rights won’t come back to bit them in the butt but just bear in mind that all it would take to derail an entire CRC or NPS office is for every client (or even just a few) to request a copy of their file and then to raise a formal complaint about the inaccuracies in respect of personal data in their files (because in my experience there are likely to be numerous factual inaccuracies and information in the file which is misleading as to fact) for the entire system to come crashing down. Especially because the DPA requires a data controller (e.g. CRC or NPS) to have procedures in place for ensuring accurate recording of personal data and you have legal obligations to respond to complaints and amend inaccurate personal data within specified time frames.

You are, of course, entitled to express your professional opinion about a client in a client file but each and every time you do so you need to ensure that it is recognisable as a professional opinion and is not presented as a fact”. In other words, if you are not presenting a fact e.g. John is six feet tall (you had him measured), you should preface what you are saying with the phrase “in my professional opinion . . .” to cover your butt. 

Given that apparently a lot of butt covering goes on in probation and this is likely to increase as TR progresses, I am always surprised that your average probation officer isn’t aware of this and there is a consistent failure to properly record what is a professional opinion and what is a fact. Moreover you are legally obligated to take reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of any personal data given to you about the data subject by a third party before you put it into the data subject’s file. 

This does not mean doing nothing as seems to be current and historical practice. At the very least it requires you to ask of the third party what steps they have undertaken to verify the accuracy of the data they have given to you and if they cannot provide this information then when you record the information in the client file you need to make it clear that you have not been able to verify the accuracy of the information provided by the third party. 

You cannot simply assume that if it comes from a “trusted source” e.g. police, courts etc that it is accurate and the law requires that you make your own investigations in respect of the accuracy of the data provided to you. Fail to do so and if the data turns out to be inaccurate (and let’s face it we’ve all seen instances where through human error stuff has turned out to be plain wrong) you have broken the law because you didn’t take any steps to verify it. If said inaccurate data led you to make recommendations about a client that severely impacted on sentence (say if they are IPP) or their licence conditions etc then you may well be liable for compensation and redress to the client.

You are also required under the DPA to be able to show where you got any and all information you have in a client’s file. So if you got sent a fax from social services for example which is a letter say not from social services to probation but from someone else and social services were given a copy of it and have now given it to you, you need to keep the fax cover sheet to show who the information is from and when it was received so there is a paper trail relating to the letter. You cannot ditch the fax cover sheet as current practice in at least my CRC does, because then you are unable to provide the data subject with the information as to where you obtained the letter from. The law is clear that you have to be able to provide a paper trail detailing where you received every single piece of information in a client’s file from.

If you fail to accurately record each and every piece of personal information in a client’s file or write a report about a client, put in information which is misleading as to fact or do not clearly distinguish a professional opinion from a fact or present your professional opinion as fact you are breaking the law and are thus liable under the law for those breaches.

Ignorance of the law is not a defence in English/Welsh law so claiming you didn’t know what your legal obligations were won’t wash in respect of an investigation by the ICO into breaches of data protection rights or even a court case. Assuming that data protection is up to Head Office to worry about and thus not your concern is inaccurate and could land you in a whole heap of trouble.

For those who may be interested in finding out more on this subject, the Information Commissioner’s Office publishes a lot of very helpful help sheets on their website.


Anon

43 comments:

  1. Every officer I know makes it clear in a report where information has come from and if it has been verified. Not because of data protection but because this information is important for the decision making process.

    Guest blogger: you come across as frustrated and annoyed and the guest blog itself as a (no so) veiled threat.

    Perhaps I am tired and grumpy this morning but that's how I see it anyway.

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    1. I am sorry to add I have first hand experience of knowing the data protection act 1998 has been thrown to one side in a specific case that had so many discrepancies in it it in fact holds another persons name in it too.

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  2. In my professional opinion the guest blogger tortuously labours his points; he makes sweeping assumptions about probation staff, treats these assumptions as fact and then makes generalisations about how staff actually conduct themselves. Shame really: data protection is an important subject, but in the hands of our guest blogger the perspective becomes too subjective.

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  3. Some excellent points are raised & made. I suspect Guest Blogger is closer to the truth than many feel comfortable to admit. I try to keep my records factual & try to ensure clarity if/when opinion/professional judgement is being expressed but I don't doubt any trawl through paper or electronic records would leave me wanting... IT failures, doubling or trebling of caseloads, splitting/shifting caseloads, the overwhelming avalanche of daily changes to procedure & practice, complete lack of resources, other agencies collapsing around us - e.g police, social services, health, et etc - will have simply guaranteed I don't stand a chance.

    This venal Coalition administration, its collaborators & apologists, Grayling, Trust Chiefs, heads of NPS & CRC areas and those complicit in TR have jointly & severally stripped us professionally naked, flogged us raw and left us hanging in the breeze. The DPA is simply salt for the open wounds.

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  4. every day we walk a tightrope; every day there is an axe hanging over our heads. Worst job I've ever had working for Probation and cant wait to find the exit route

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  5. anoy 10:14 You should go then, as there is plenty of staff who wish to stay and do the job that they are paid to do.

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  6. The question for me is, os the job I am paid to do a job that contributes anything to the rehabilitation of offenders or am I just propping up a pretence? I am still waiting for the full information before I make my decision and that information looks to be a long time coming.

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    1. Back tracking, that is what I like about the staff at probation. Say one thing then when confronted back track and try to justify their reasons. I don't think that the company would like anyone like yourself employed with them. You may get what you want and they will send you on your way.

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  7. with regard to today's blog, whenever I did a PSR, I would go through the police criminal convictions list to get more detail from the offender about a pattern of offending. links to his lifestyle at the time, and to check accuracy. I have come across several minor errors where the wrong person, same name, was put on the wrong list. But on one occasion, I found a serious previous conviction of GBH with a custodial sentence, on a youngish offender who otherwise only had a few relatively minor convictions, moslly when he was under 18. It had the wrong birthdate, and the sentence he allegedly got was impossible to have been served by him as he would have been inside when he was convicted of the other offences, as 2 convictions ran virtually parallel and one was custody and the other accurate one was a Probation Order (which he DID complete)! The man was adamant that he had never been in custody and did not seem bothered about it, as it was in the past and could not see how it would impact on his future life . I spoke to the relevant police dept and they were not convinced and were very blase about it, but said they would check and send me an amended copy of convictions if I was right. I never received that and the person received a CSO for the current offence, so I don't know if it ever got sorted, or is this mild mannered man going through life with a GBH conviction on his records?

    I do believe that the Probation Service tried hard to ensure that received information was accurate, but if we can't trust the police records.......

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  8. I see OASys on IPPs and "Lifers" that are full of mistakes and it takes an age for the person involved to get redress. The main cause of this is too few staff, workloads are too high. Probation like most state jobs is a bureaucratic nightmare and now with the profit motive driving the show it is becoming a bureaucratic hell and nothing will change until you decide to fight for it.

    papa

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  9. There were a few occasions during my supervision on which I could have made a legitimate complaint, once with regards to inaccuracies in my report, I didn't raise a complaint however, I am far too fair a person to abuse someone in the way that they had abused me. I just let them carry on doing what they are doing, they will make their own downfall, they do not need my assistance in that.

    Why anyone would want to work for Probation is beyond me, if it is for the right benevolent reasons, to help somebody then I'd suggest that they have their heads in the clouds, delusional, you are nothing more than an extension of punishment for the offence.

    There are many opportunities for employment where you are not directly adversely affecting others, why not try one of them? You shall all eventually get what is coming to you for your compliance in abusive practices.

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    1. All you do is recycle your bile. You claim credit for yourself in not raising a complaint but then nurse your grievances and bemoan probation. Whatever turns you on, I guess....

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    2. Yes, it's getting a tad boring as well.

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    3. I know people have never consented to jail, but release on licence, I guess you can dig in and create a situation where you serve whole sentence in jail; and no longer do people have to consent to probation, but you could refuse to leave court and tell the magistrates you'll not comply and wish to save the tax payer money, by not playing along until your breached! If you don't like probation, don't accept it! Take some responsibility for yourself! I have never really enjoyed probation, but it beats being sent 100's a miles away from my family!

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    4. Saying flatly that Probation is better than Custody is a good way of letting standards slip. It's the idea that if this is better than that then we can operate in as feeble a way as possible because whatever we do it's not ever going to be as bad as the other alternative.

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  10. A rumour is doing the rounds at the moment that the interface issue with crcs and ndelius will take 18 months to fix and cost around £20 million. How true this is anyone's guess.

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    1. sorry to sound dumb but what is a CRC interface?

      what's the implications of this besides the obvious financial one? Who is to blame and could this be a point where CRCs can hand contracts back sooner rather than keep plodding on unearthing goodness knows what other nasties that maybe lurking in the background.

      I cant help feeling that as with most government IT packages it is likely £20m is way short of the probable final figure.

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    2. I notice the MoJ Head of IT has jumped ship. That might mean something!

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    3. Hmmm sorry about the interface bit. It's the way crcs staff will access ndelius on their ipads. It would appear, as outlined over the weekend, that it doesn't work and never has. Alas no one mentioned it. Still rest assured the money will be available if only to protect Mr G.

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    4. I'm in a ICT workstream and it would appear that this is correct. It was put in layman terms so even an old bugger like me could understand 'Delius has a round hole but we have a square peg, we do not have the means to reshape either without using significant resources' which I took to mean money and time. Lets face it though, we've already got Oasys and Delius.....do we really want another computer system?

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    5. If bids were based on an interface to allow CRCs to use own IT systems, and MOJ are not able to deliver this expectation, rather than CRCs handing back contracts, I would argue its is grounds for significant compensation to ensure the are not financially penalised for MOJ incompetence

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  11. Look, all of my reports state the source of the information - this is pretty basic probation officer training to be frank. I can quote previous reports as a source without having to forensically interrogate every piece of information therein. Obviously if I am aware of any incorrect information I will correct this and be happy to do so.
    Having just had a formal complaint about the content of one of my PSRs investigated, I was exonerated, the appeal process was then exhausted. The complainant then took this to the Information Commissioner and the outcome was that I had behaved appropriately and the Court was entitled to have the information provided in my report, in the precise way it was provided and correctly sourced.
    We take our responsibilities seriously and to be honest people rarely hear about when we do it right! However, this process took it's toll upon me as it lasted nearly a year at a time when my work load reached 200% at one point - and remember, all I had done is correctly carried out my duties.
    A PO

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  12. At a time of such dissonance and rancour, perhaps we can jointly raise our hats to those who have fought against all odds and extreme distress/despair to try to ensure that the vile abusers of children will finally be exposed by the IPCC & associated investigations - which now seem very likely to be naming & shaming politicians, senior police officers and others. Thatcher's aide & confidant Peter Morrison was never prosecuted for his acts of abuse; it is without doubt that Thatcher & her government knew what was going on. Perhaps the names and facts to follow will finally blow the whole shithouse wide-open?

    I have to admit that I doubted the day would come; I thought the vile scumbags had buried everything (including the bodies of their victims) so far out of reach it would never see the light of day. Perhaps the worst excesses may remain hidden, But I hadn't reckoned on the courage and determination of victims and whistleblowers.

    Sadly there is no-one in current politics with such courage or principles. Take the split-personality that is Grant Shaps/Michael Green, who has been found wanting (hasn't he always?)... "but, oh, its okay, don't worry, it wasn't really that bad. I just had a bit of brainfade over dates and screwed up when I was so emphatic that I wasn't cheating or breaking the rules, lah lah lah..."

    At this time of policitical rhetoric, of point-scoring, of drumming up support, not a single politician of any hue has referred to the probation service split; nor has anyone recognised the wanton damage done to the morale of so many dedicated staff - at the expense of public safety.

    Finally, if I may - to Grumpy Anon - you might have a legitimate cause to grumble, you've aired it many times, I think the replies have generally been to the effect that you've been heard, and the impression I get is that most people acknowledge you're angry about your situation and have offered support, advice as well as a few sharper observations. But if you've been reading the wider comments and blogs you will surely understand that in the current climate people's patience is wearing thin with one person's crusade. Sadly your initial valid argument has now become lost in the realms of bitterness, self-pity and the abusive tone you adopt when you can't get your own way.

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  13. Interesting responses to today's blog. I appreciate that a lot of PO's do try to ensure the accuracy of the data they put into the client's files but a lot don't. I've had 6 OS's and 4 OM's and the current OM is still regurgitating inaccurate things in every report/OASYs she writes on me that went into my file by the first OS back in 2010. At no time has she made any attempt to verify a single piece of personal data for accuracy and when she'd been told something is inaccurate and provided with evidence that it is inaccurate claims it is "not her job" to amend the inaccuracies and they remain in my file. These inaccuracies have resulted in unnecessary bespoke licence conditions being imposed on me which would not have been had the inaccurate information not ever been put in my file. Therefore the guest blogger's points mirror my experience completely. It is apparently commonplace for reams of inaccuracies to find their way into client's files.

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  14. No, enough! There is an agenda that needs challenging here. OK, you have some dispute with your OM, well do as you say in your guest blog and take it through proper channels to challenge data sources and recording. I get the impression that you resent the power imbalance in your professional relationship with your OM and you are using this blog to redress this. Without a serious conviction you would not have bespoke licence conditions. So I suggest you exercise the rights you have under Data Protection legislation or perhaps you already have and that didn't go your way either?

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    1. There seems to be a lot of people getting very hot under the collar about this guest blog. It seems as if a lot of probation officers simply don't like being challenged or having it pointed out to them that they need to be aware of the law when dealing with personal data of clients. This essential part of the job simply doesn't seem to be seen as such by a lot of OM's and OS's and I have to wonder why and whether it is simply a knee jerk reaction to being challenged by someone who is clearly a client.

      I have noticed that a lot of recent posts on this blog have been made by probation officers complaining about how there isn't enough information and time to do reports properly which raises the spectre of all sorts of horrible scenarios occurring due to inaccurate and incorrect data being placed in client files. Clients suffer hugely when probation officers get things wrong because they haven't bothered to verify information and have simply assumed that information in the file must be correct even if it isn't as ML at 12:10 above noted.

      A lot of clients won't know that there is anything wrong in their files because they are usually not told that they have the legal right to see the information in the file and to get it corrected let alone the full extent of their legal rights under the DPA at any point before during or after a sentence because the DPA is not a widely known piece of legislation even though everyone has rights under it and a lot opf people are subject to its provisions in respect of processing any personal data of any kind for any reason.

      Incorrect information can affect progression through the prison system, parole chances, ROTL, licence conditions and a whole lot more so a laissez faire approach to ensuring that information is correctly recorded and not misrepresented is simply unacceptable. No probation officer would like inaccurate personal data in their file which could potentially affect their employment, promotion etc so they should be as careful with what they write in a client's file as they would want their managers to write in their personnel files.

      I have represented so many clients over the years who have suffered hugely because of probation officers simply accepting as gospel truth things that simply aren't true that have been provided to probation by social services or the police for example; I've had courts make basic transcription errors recording judicial orders or recommendations which has led to draconian licence conditions being imposed because of these errors; clients lose out on parole because inaccurate personal data has been placed in their file which affects the board's decisions; clients wrongly labelled as having mental health problems despite zero evidence which has resulted in people being returned to closed conditions from open conditions, loss of enhanced status, refusal to allow them to take necessary OB work to enable them to progress, malicious claims of family abuse despite zero evidence being provided by anyone to back up such claims and much evidence to prove these allegations were inaccurate. The list goes on and on and on.

      Unfortunately with the cuts to legal aid under Grayling many prisoners are now in the position of having to try to sort out such errors themselves because there is no legal aid available for this sort of thing any more. I can see the situation getting worse and worse with the way TR is going if the posts on this blog are true.

      A rather disgruntled legal aid solicitor

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    2. Well said. I have lost count of the times I have seen unsubstantiated remarks eventually trotted out as facts. Never to the clients as advantage. Of particular concern since the split has been the inaccuracies recorded on ndelius as a result of the migration.

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    3. migrated info stating offender had two offences of murder - totally inaccurate but to OM credit immediate request to rectify - coding clearly between old and new recording systems to blame - but how this could lead to such significant damage.

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    4. Whether disgruntled client or legal aid solicitor, there is truth and merit to the point. Yes the IT is now distorting records , erasing and duplicating others, but that cannot be held accountable for the huge amount of error, inaccuracy and unsubstantiated detail that has and does apply.

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    5. Hmmm, legal aid lawyer - "...probation officers accepting as gospel truth things that simply aren't true that have been provided to probation..."

      Why not, with your sharp legal mind, focus upon the fact that - as you suggest - social services, police, courts, prison etc get things wrong at source? Why berate one single agency?

      I would suggest that of my 60+ cases, at least 90% will have inaccurate information recorded. Some from police intel, some from cps paperwork, some from contact with social services, some from drug or mental health or primary care providers, some from DWP - most from the case themselves.

      And what about the strident "i didn't do it" for nine months, stress and anxiety for victims and witnesses, a highly distressing trial, then plea thru lawyer for leniency when facing guilty verdict, a weasly "sorry" letter blaming drugs or drink. Who's responsible for checking the accuracy of that information which often persuades a sentencing court to give another chance?

      For too many years probation staff have tolerated some of the most unbearably self-obsessed, obnoxious perpetrators in the belief change can happen, and often acted as the janitors of the CJS, i.e dealing with & mopping up everyone else's shit - wrongful convictions, the most appalling offending (perps & victims), undiagnosed mental health, "untreatable" personality disorders.

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    6. Personality disorders haven't been 'untreatable' for a while now.

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    7. Hence the parentheses - because its still an argument used when PD cases who cause disruption & chaos are discharged from "treatment".

      Nor was probation in need of being butchered into 22 separate organisations (21 crc + 1 nps). But it didn't stop Grayling et al from wielding the hatchet.

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    8. Assuming, of course, that personality disorders exist in the first place. Russian dissidents were hospitalised with PDs. Remains a very controversial area, especially if drug treatment involved. Homosexuals were considered to have deviant personalities at one time.

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    9. "Hmmm, legal aid lawyer - "...probation officers accepting as gospel truth things that simply aren't true that have been provided to probation..."

      Why not, with your sharp legal mind, focus upon the fact that - as you suggest - social services, police, courts, prison etc get things wrong at source? Why berate one single agency?"

      As my comments above noted I did note that the police and courts often get it wrong but the point was that notwithstanding mistakes etc made by other agencies, probation STILL has a legal obligation to verify for accuracy every single bit of information put into a client file. I never stated that it was solely down to probation that mistakes are made but that probation is legally obligated to ensure that whatever it as an organisation puts into a client file is verified for accuracy before it goes in the file and if not able to be verified for some reason then this should also be noted.

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  15. I've dealt with many subject access requests and there have been errors identified and corrected as well as a lot of material redacted for the safety of 3rd parties. There seems to be a lack of awareness by the guest blogger that the most contentious word in law is 'reasonable'. Fortunes have been won and lost over that one word. The DPA sets out the ideal but OMs are human and trying to document human dynamics. No one is going to get prosecuted over a missing Fax cover sheet, as is postulated - not even 'where there's blame and co' will take that one on. Everyone must have 'reasonable' expectations. Tony

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    1. That policies and procedures must make a reasonable effort to ensure accuracy is not disputed is one thing but in my experience as a solicitor trying to get redress for mistakes in made by probation officers in client files is that probation as an organisation fails to do any checks at all to ensure that data entered into a client file is accurate let alone the reasonable ones it is required to by law. The default assumption is that because information came from a "trusted source" be that police, social services, courts etc then it is simply accepted as gospel truth is not reasonable. Failure to verify any information from any source is not reasonable. Failure to record facts as facts and opinion as opinion and not fact is not reasonable. Failure to take reasonable steps not to breach a client's rights under the DPA is not reasonable. Probation has to be able to show that they took those reasonable steps to verify accuracy. Simply doing nothing is not reasonable yet this is so often what happens

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    2. They have the same unprofessional, slap dash attitude to everything they do.

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  16. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/mar/16/the-next-aa-moderation-management-abstinence-alcohol-isnt-the-answer?CMP=share_btn_fb#img-1

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  17. http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/mar/16/barristers-condemn-chris-grayling-over-steep-rise-in-employment-tribunal-fees

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  18. I trust you'll be suing your on then, look forward to hearing about the process and outcome!

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  19. not sure why you continue to waste time and space giving over yr blog to embittered in-denial clients who who are desperate to talk about anything except their responsibility for their own behaviour. the fact that this guest blog is dressed up in self consciously erudite language is neither there nor there. This cock eyed focus on a clumsy and convenient interpretation of data protection legislation is just diversionary bullshit

    Simon Garden

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    1. Probation officers need to remember that clients are human beings and Jim is obviously committed to providing a balanced view of probation from both sides. After all without clients, probation wouldn't exist! Sure clients have their views of probation officers which aren't always complimentary but then probation officers often have views of clients that aren't exactly complimentary. Both are entitled to their opinions and to express them - one of the tenets of free speech in this country. The guest blog makes some very valid points about probations regular failure to respect offender legal rights in respect of data protection. If probation doesn't like being criticised as seems to be the case judging by the way probation officers seem to attack any client who criticises them then maybe, just maybe they should look at their own behaviour. After all if they did their job properly ion the first place, they wouldn't get criticised!

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