Saturday 2 May 2015

Through the Gate Special

Yesterday was the day for TTG, is it actually up and running ANYWHERE??

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Not in my northern area. No clearance so sat thumb twiddling whilst colleagues trying to pick up the pieces are left pulling hair out, their own that is.

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I thought that too, TTG roll out. Not heard a peep. I guess the first thing we will hear is trying to direct a lifer or RSO to AP and finding they have a nice shining new flat or B and B with vulnerable people and children.

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It's up and running in Wales with CRC staff seconded in, including trainee TPOs, while St Giles get their act together.

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I thought Catch 22 were comissioned for TTG in the Working Links CRCS?

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In Mersyside, OMs in prisons do the BCST within 72 hours of arrival and shelter will review it by day 5 and create a Resettlement Plan comprising of either debt/accom/ete advice.I won't hold my breath, but so far no CRC PSOs directed there, which is a positive.

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St Giles will be in some of the S.Wales prisons. New staff were taken on after Easter so I guess waiting to work their notice and get prison clearance. The current CRC TTG staff do the BCST and run the in house programmes. 25 new prisoners every day into Cardiff prison with 5 TTG staff, 3 are p/t.

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Heard a lot about resettlement plans they are going to create, not entirely sure what that amounts to. How are they going to resettle Mappa 2 and 3 with 12 weeks notice?

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New CRC staff aren't trained to work with high risk offenders. Some TPSOs are doing TTG in the prison. Even worse to think about new inexperienced St Giles staff working with them.

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They are all gradually beginning to find out that what they have got is not what they thought they would be getting and that this business is a lot more complicated than they were led to believe.

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St Giles is a phoney organisation. They marketed themselves as this lovely, organic, holistic, cosy little bunch of ex offenders who knew the ropes and could show the young uns where they'd gone wrong. They went wrong by saying they could scale it up. A project like that will have so many false starts, but they portrayed it as shelling peas. Shame on them.

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I was told that TTG is not compulsory for prisoners. It is compulsory to offer it but if they prefer to go to the gym etc., they can. This was from someone who has just finished their 1 week TTG training.

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That's just a cop out. Can't deal with the numbers involved, so we'll 'select' volunteers.

27 comments:

  1. Surely TTG in concept should be about providing support for those leaving custody that only have £46 in their pocket (and a £1000 debt), and in most need?
    That would be those that need help with accommodation, employment etc that don't already have any support networks to turn to?
    These however, are the most time consuming and expensive people to extend the service to.
    Making it voluntary is just a sneaky way of cherry picking those that will need the least assistance and therefore cheaper and easier to aquire the 'outcome' required for payment.
    Something that hasn't been mentioned of late is that TTG is to work in association with the creation of 'ressettlement' prisons, where prisoners are released from their local prisons after being transfered there a month or so prior.
    I'm a little perplexed as to how TTG can actually start running until the ressettlement infastructure has been put in place.
    To my knowledge, no prisoners are yet being transfered for local discharge, and people living in London are still being released from areas such as Durham or Liverpool. How can TTG work whilst thats happening?
    TTG is a concept that sounds good to politicians and the public that have no real knowledge of the issues that exist within the CJS, and a half baked notion from a SoS that has even less of an idea.

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    1. Wrong on a number of counts. Of course, prisoners can decline to engage with the TTG service, but CRCs are contractually obliged to deliver it to all prisoners, so the commercial imperative is for them to encourage prisoners to engage, not connive in them not doing so.

      On the transfer of prisoners, the truth is the absolute opposite of your understanding. The Prison Service has been reasonably successful in moving prisoners to designate resettlement prisons over the last few months - 85%+ prisoners in resettlement prisons from the home CRC

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  2. on 1st may we just got an A4 notification to say Shelter were doing the TTG. it also says 'the other TTG servies, emergency 48hr post release accommodation and support to prisoners who've been subject to domestic or sexual abuse and those who may have ben sex workers will be introduced later in the year and will be delivered by OTHER commissioned providers'. It further says 'NOMS have created a number of resettlement prisons & it's ANTICIPATED prisoners will be transferred to these - if they're not the prison will liaise with the Responsible Officer to agree support (im guessing this will happen a lot - cant see resettlement prisons taking off tbh).

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  3. http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/new-trust-chosen-provide-health-9166935

    Liverpool Community Health Trust decided not to bid for a further tenure stating prison health is increasingly specialist. There's probably more to this than meets the eye.

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    1. A new health trust has been chosen to care for inmates at two Merseyside jails after the previous provider pulled out.

      Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust decided late last year to stop providing medical services for prisoners at Walton and Kennet prisons.

      The move came shortly before the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the health watchdog, issued a damning report into healthcare standards at Walton prison, claiming there were “not enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff”.

      Now Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust will take over running medical services at the two prisons, NHS England announced, having done so on an interim basis since the start of the year.

      Sue Tighe, the trust’s director of specialist services, said: “Lancashire Care is a well-established provider of health and wellbeing services, which includes high-quality health services across five prisons in Lancashire.

      “We have a strong track record of working with this population and recognise the vulnerabilities they are faced with as they enter prison.”

      Louisa Sharples, from NHS England, added: “Providing health and social care service for the prison population is a varied and challenging role which forms a crucial part of the rehabilitation of offenders.”

      The CQC report in January found patients’ safety at Walton prison was “compromised” because prescription medicine was sometimes unavailable or stored in a “chaotic” manner. It also highlighted a shortage of doctors and nurses at the jail.

      Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust said providing medical services in prisons was an “increasingly specialist” activity, so it decided late last year to hand over the job to another trust.

      A spokesman said: “Offender health services are an increasingly specialist area and the trust confirmed last year that it would not bid for the tender to run offender health services in the future.

      “This will enable Liverpool Community Health NHS Trust to continue its focus on the delivery of more NHS services closer to where people live.”

      The trust has recently focused its resources on hiring 100 extra district nurses across Liverpool. It also runs walk-in centres in the city, as well as providing services including dentistry, sexual health clinics and podiatry.

      Mersey Care NHS Trust will remain in charge of mental health services at both Walton and Kennet prisons.

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    2. N Wales man died of asthma attack in Walton last week. Investigation to take place. Was due for release next week.Family devastated .

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    3. yes, Ashley gill aged 22 - some allegations of him having had his inhalers removed from him. I cant even begin to imagine how scared he must've been.

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    4. Not surprised I was young once and many years ago medications were the province of the institutions nurse. If you needed an inhaler you had to ask the officer for permission to go to medical to get it. Smokey old work environment I saw a young lad suffer at the decision of the officer criticising his lifestyle than act properly and release the gate so he could get care. Outrage those days are still here

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  4. Two open prisons take the majority of SO's before release, don't see any indication of that changing any time soon.
    This whole resettlement prison thing is going to be a long time coming.

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  5. It never arrived before. I somehow doubt it will this time as resettlement is never a priority in prisons, despite the rhetoric.

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  6. Not on TTG but relevant to the whole probation debate is this article from the Guardian about probation's handling of a mentally ill man: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/17/man-died-death-dovegate-prison-wrongly-psychiatric-mental-health-inquest To me this is one of the reasons probation simply doesn't work and why I feel that so many probation officers simply aren't good at their jobs. Instead of considering the actual needs of the individual in question they made really bad and unnecessary decisions that cost someone his life.

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    1. This sad case was discussed some time ago on here and no doubt there will be an enquiry - however, it appears that administrative or bureaucratic error played a part:-

      "a probation officer who dealt with Groombridge’s case, told the jury she had been advised to provide a recall notice, which would see him returned to prison if he left the ward, to be left on Groombridge’s file. But Marlon Haytread, from the National Offender Management Service, told the inquest the paperwork he received marked Groombridge’s case as an emergency, and the police were informed."

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    2. @Anon 16:05 so you draw your sweeping conclusions about the efficacy of probation in general, and the competence of "so many probation officers", from one, very sad, case?

      Chris Grayling just called, he wants his sense of logic back.

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    3. What I don't grasp with this case is why there would be a need for a recall notice to lie on file because, according to the organisation Inquest, if he attempted to leave the ward he would have detained under the mental health act. Whatever, it's another example of the system. In this case: probation, police and health, failing a vulnerable person.

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    4. It is the classic muddle that emerges between probation and mental health. We often prepare recall docs to lie on file for out of area Approved Premises referral cases so I think this is must have happened here only someone submitted them and the recall was processed.
      I have had real issues making a regional secure unit understand that a service user sent there from prison for treatment (High risk SO) could not simply have escorted visits without reference to prison and probation.......this was an active VLO case and can you imagine how the victim would have felt seeing the prisoner on escort? Sometimes Regional Secure Hospitals try to exist in a vacuum ......

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    5. I really don't get why anyone would "prepare recall docs to lie on file". Surely a recall should only be done if the offender breaches his or her licence and the breach done based on that unique situation? Preparing breach documents in advance is just plain wrong and self defeating because if a situation arises, instead of looking at the situation for what it is and making a recall judgement based on what the situation actually is you use the generic one size fits all recall which may not be relevant to what actually did happen? Sorry but being in hospital for a genuine reason is NOT a breach of licence as it is circumstances beyond the offender/client's control. I simply do not believe that the PO's in this case are that stupid that they failed to use their brains and initiatives and look at the actual situation before deciding to breach. Or perhaps they are because they actually did. This is what I mean by failure to do the job properly. Administrative errors are inexcusable especially if as is clear in this case, this is tantamount to signing someone's death warrant.

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  7. The 4.30 at Hexham on Sunday is the Sodexo Open Maiden stakes. There goes the redundancy pot.

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  8. Totally off topic, but...

    http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/four-merseyside-gp-surgeries-hit-9167453

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    1. Four Merseyside medical centres slapped with failing tags this year are all run by the same private contractor.

      Wigan-based SSP Health, set up in 2007, is paid by the NHS to operate GP practices across the North West.

      Six of its medical centres have been inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the health watchdog – three were deemed ‘inadequate’, the worst possible ranking, while another was told it ‘requires improvement’ and two more were judged to be ‘good’.

      Today a Merseyside politician and public health expert criticise SSP’s management of these surgeries.

      But SSP has questioned the CQC’s findings and asked for fresh inspections.

      Dr Alex Scott-Samuel, a Liverpool-based public health researcher who is involved in the Keep Our NHS Public movement, said: “I’m appalled at the enormous increase in privatisation in the NHS in primary and secondary care. SSP’s takeover of surgeries in Merseyside is one of many examples of this.

      “The system now allows GP businessmen and corporate agencies to take over chunks of the NHS. They turn a profit by reducing staffing levels to the absolute minimum and this is dangerous.

      “The whole SSP estate should be placed in special measures and run by the state.”

      The SSP-run Seaforth Village Surgery, Hightown Surgery and Kensington Park Surgery, on Edge Lane, were all labelled ‘inadequate’ after CQC inspections in March and April.

      The Maghull Practice, meanwhile, was given a ‘requires improvement’ rating in March, while Everton Road Surgery, in Everton, and the Thornton Practice were both found to be ‘good’ in January and February respectively.

      Bill Esterson, who is campaigning for re-election as Labour MP for Sefton Central, said: “The problems at SSP surgeries in my constituency highlight the desperate need for an improvement in GP services. People need to be able to get an appointment with a family doctor when they want one.

      “These problems are a symptom of wider problems we are seeing right across the country, caused by staff shortages.”

      Sue McMillan, the CQC’s deputy chief inspector of primary medical care in the north of England, said: “The CQC has inspected a number of SSP Health practices and as a result we have found improvements are needed at some.

      “We are working directly with the provider, NHS England and local clinical commissioning groups regarding these issues to ensure that the practices are supported while they seek address the areas of concern identified.”

      SSP said in a statement: “We have written to the CQC to ask for the reports to be reviewed as we are concerned that the CQC has failed to follow its own processes in reaching these conclusions.

      “We apologise for any worry or distress this news may cause patients and confirm that we have always been and remain committed to providing GP services which are of the highest possible standards for patients.

      “It is important to note that there are no risks for patient safety. We will work with NHS England to identify any weaknesses in the system and demonstrate compliance over the coming weeks.”

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  9. There's a nice chap living in Ashstead in Surrey with some flats in London to let which he had done up with the help of the state, using his ministerial position who might like to house ex-inmates... Goes by the name of Grayling I think! After all, it's a kind of payment by results isn't it?

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    1. didn't Mr Grayling sell that flat and give the profit to the public purse? Sure I heard him say he would.....

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  10. I said this wasn't going to work when we first heard of it inside. How are they going to get people into their local resettlement prison when the prisons are so full, there's nowhere to transfer the current occupants to in order to make room for the new influx? There's 2 people in Leicester as far as I know. They won't have a chance of getting everybody. TTG and the new RAR system need a huge investment of money and people and all we get are cuts. How can it be said that people will be provided with accommodation when local councils are making it harder by the day to apply and hostel places are disappearing overnight?

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    1. It will be a miracle if TTG works as prison-probation arrangements normally fail. Usually because new initiatives are poorly resourced or prisons struggle, assuming they really try, to change institutional behaviour. From SWIP (social work in prisons) through sentence planning/management to end-to-end management – all these great hopes floundered.

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    2. That facts are, though, that the Prison Service has moved a lot of prisoners to be in resettlement prisons. Almost all of the designated resettlement prisons have 85%+ prisoners from the home CRC and most CRCs have very small numbers of prisoners with 12 weeks or less to serve who are not in resettlement prisons

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    3. @10:07

      Bet you cannot wait until Tuesday and you can get back to Petty France.

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    4. @12:01

      Facts are facts, however inconvenient they might be. There's lots wrong with TR, but pretending that things aren't happening when they are doesn't help anyone

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  11. Meanwhile Grayling will move on while we are left with the aftermath

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