Guest Blog 37

Bleak Futures

I am prompted to write this by Jim’s latest blog. I am a PO in the NPS side and if the past few years haven't been bad enough I dread the future! Not just for my job security and employment but for the effect it is likely to have on me, my colleagues and the client group we work with. My day to day experience is horrendous and seemingly the same for all the staff who work in my office ( around 60). 

We try to put on a brave face and shrug off the incompetence of those who are dictating our practice without providing us with the tools to do so. But it's just a falsehood and once strong individuals are regularly reduced to meltdown and tears. Most of us keep going by living for the weekends and leave. Some colleagues have succumbed to stress and long term sick leave. A good majority are seeking a way out; it seems the only ones who want a job in Probation are the trainees.

We are fortunate that our Team Managers leave us alone for the time being but this in itself adds to the stress for some. All staff are struggling and trying to support each other as all our previous support networks have gone. There is no effective TU consultation or representation any more and all previous management/staff consultative groups have gone as a result of TR.

My excessive workload as identified in a flawed WMT which does not measure a lot of what I have to do means that I spend most of my time firefighting. I struggle to get the time to undertake the effective casework which all the research confirms does reduce re-offending and no one really cares anymore. I do still focus my efforts on this part of my job and try to ignore that computer stuff and the constant emails telling me what I should do. But I know this will catch up with me eventually and Oasys, CAS, and other endless form filling will become top priority again.

I am having to work with organisations who don't seem to have a clue and I haven't the patience to enlighten them. However for the sake of my clients I have to continue to try and get them the support and services they need to bring about changes to their lives.

From what I see around me all the hard work gone into improving the quality of our work and consistency has fallen by the wayside. I see daily examples of the effects of this on our client group, an increase in unfair recalls and breaches at one end of the scale to complete absence of any work undertaken on cases. My colleague was recently allocated a case which had spent 3 post sentence months bouncing back and forth between CRCs and NPS without any contact with the client. This was a very serious domestic violence case and it transpired that the client had been living with a women and her 2 children throughout this time. I'm sure many other cases like this are coming to light.

Court reports are another casualty in our area we are so overworked that we are getting 3 days to turn around reports on serious matters without doing public protection check. This will only get worse for us shortly as many of the reports have been outsourced due to lack of resources but this is about to stop. We have already been warned that savings aka cuts need to be made. As a past staff rep I know that there is nothing left to cut except staff! I also know that we will struggle to save time on our workload through changes in practice because the client group we are working with need a lot of attention to be managed safely. 

This change in the intensity of my workload and the lack of time to consider my practice is another factor which makes me dread the future in the NPS. It has the potential to have a significant effect on my health. Too often I have to wing it and hope for the best but I am constantly aware that it could only be a matter of time before I could be facing disciplinary action for some piece of paperwork I haven't completed. I know a lot of my colleagues feel the same and those that don't take the easy punitive option to cover their backs. Again the impact of this on our client group is unfair and inconsistent treatment. It really is the luck of the draw now and clients are increasingly dis-engaging with Probation.

How on earth we are going to cope with the ORA cases fastly filtering through I don't know. We are struggling what to do with them when they breach time and again because they don't want 12 months supervision after a 2 week sentence. It seems like it's going to be a never ending cycle of court appearances and Breach paperwork for those that are hardest to work with .The financial cost of this must be enormous.

Our admin support staff have been indispensable and the thought of them being housed away from us is another future dread. They have patiently sat alongside us helping to deal with the unworkable IT systems we have been landed with. Colleagues are constantly having to redo forms that are lost and reports that disappear. Recently my close colleague reached breaking point with the computer and had to leave the office to regain her composure. When she complained to her manger, his unsupportive response prompted her to redo it . Needless to say she couldn't!

I apologise if this all seems rambling and too negative, I'm generally a positive person and willing to roll with the punches. But this time all I can see is a very beak future! I hope Jim’s blog continues because I know for some of us who feel abandoned by our managers and our unions it provides support.