Hard on the heels of yesterday's moving guest blog by a thorougly disillusioned new recruit to the profession, Napo HQ broke the news from the other end of the country concerning the first CRC to be placed in 'special measures'. This from General Secretary Ian Lawrence:-
SPOTLIGHT BACK ON SODEXO AS SOUTH YORKSHIRE CRC PLACED ON REMEDIAL MEASURES
News reaches Napo from a helpful MoJ source that one of Sodexo's Community Rehabilitation Companies has been placed on a Formal Remedial Plan under the contract with the Department.
We will of course make enquiries about what this actually means for our already hard pressed members, but information so far suggests that the CRC has been charged with developing an appropriate Remedial Action Plan. This will have to be agreed and signed off by the MoJ, and that a greater scrutiny and oversight by the Authority will take place with a fresh audit in February 2016.
The information also suggests that a failure to achieve the Remedial Action Plan targets within the agreed timescale may mean contract termination.
Napo predictions starting to unfold?
I would rather wait until we see more detail of what this dramatic development means, and the reasons as to why it has come about before offering an analysis, but I can reasonably surmise that it will include concerns around Risk management, Safeguarding and Domestic Abuse checks and the recording of information.
These and a number of other areas have already been highlighted by HM Inspectorate Probation on their fieldwork across the CRC estate so they ought not to come as a great surprise; but the fact that special measures have been
implemented in one of the Sodexo owned CRC's is a pretty strong shot across their bows. It may also speak volumes in terms of how the TR debacle is starting to unravel, just as we said it would.
We will obviously get more news out on this as soon as we can, but meanwhile I am sure that Napo members everywhere will empathise with the situation being faced by our members in the South Yorkshire CRC.
--oo00oo--
I'm led to believe that the following is the content of a letter sent recently by the relevant South Yorkshire trade unions to the CRC CEO, pretty much confirming what has been openly discussed on this blog for months:-
Re Sodexo Open Plan Offices
Further to our letter dated 8th October 2015, and the more recent health and safety inspections, and the opening of Hawke St on 24th November 2015, we wish to place on record again a summary of our serious concerns about health and safety and the new Sodexo IT systems. We would also wish to place on record our concerns about how the audit results have been understood by members, and to re-record our on-going concerns about confidentiality and workload issues.
Health and Safety
Electronic Door Security - promised but delivered after 3 weeks.
Staff only areas and office access insecure - promised but not delivered after 3 weeks.
Signing in - present but inconsistent - also highlighted in the fire evacuation drill - promised but not delivered after 3 weeks.
Security cover - typically not before 9.00am and not after 8.00pm. Absent on some days - promised but not delivered.
Lack of street/building lighting in Hawke St and building surround - reported. We await CRC mitigation.
No panic alarms - Promised but not delivered after 3 weeks.
Solo Protect - promised but not delivered.
Open plan noise levels are distracting at times. Including an array of ring tones etc. Members are also concerned there are no waste bins at desks. This means staff either are surrounded by their own rubbish or are making regular trips to the bin. Members are also concerned that property is being disposed of if left on a desk by mistake.
To conclude on health and safety issues we wish to remind the CRC of their legal obligations under legislation to ensure the health and safety of staff at work. It is clear there are regular and recurrent breaches of the legislation that need urgent remedies.
IT Systems
Regular and unacceptable system failures. Growing lack of confidence. Breaches delayed and withdrawn.
Recalls although prioritised are a significant source of anxiety and stress for staff due to complexity in using the new IT systems.
Remote log on problems
Old and new system communication failures. Timing out.
No DSE assessments promised but not undertaken in working with the new IT equipment.
No printing or scanning facilities for remote LMC's, IOM's and intermittent failures in Hawke St, still unavailable to some.
OASys and Delius locking out, password needing regular resets
Solution Line - time wasted - then for CRC IT staff to deal with the issues.
Some laptops still unusable
Hot desking to desktops leads to slower log in times, so people are not hotdesking in admin. Set up and set down times can take time and can be frustrating
New systems are not AT compliant and are a breach of the 2010 Equalities Act
To conclude the IT issues at this stage in the 3rd week after the move we are very concerned that the Sodexo IT systems may well prove to be simply not robust enough to deliver the work of the CRC and are basically never going to be fit for purpose. We hope you can reassure us that will not be the case?
Audit Findings
As much as we appreciate the CRC's statements about not blaming individuals, the language of accountability is being interpreted by members as threatening. It was the CRC's directives as a direct consequence of the TR split, the later NPS recruitment, as well as the accepted poor and contradictory communications, and the mass transfer of cases, and the lack of partnerships and systems being in place, that is to blame for the grave breakdown in the quality of work being delivered - including risk management. The audit findings are a reflection of system failures not individual failures.
We are also concerned that staff are now being required to work in excess of already impossible expectations to pass a re-audit. Although management asked that diaries are and were to be cleared in reality that has been impossible with so little notice. The initial self audit findings suggest that there will be very significant amounts of work that now needs doing. We would therefore urgently request that the CRC prioritises and facilitates this extra work - and we would remind you that we are already in dispute over workloads.
We appreciate that staff, our members, will be the solution to the issues faced by the CRC, but they need to be enabled and feel supported at the present time, and not feel they are to blame.
Confidentiality
Members report real issues with the booths. Some service users have said that they are not prepared to discuss personal issues/address offence related issues in a public place especially when busy. Members also report it's impossible to complete focused and sensitive work.
We are also aware that service users can hear professional discussions around casework whilst waiting or sitting in some booths.
Workload
Members report being overloaded with competing demands, and work is backing up due to the system failures noted above. Regardless of grade the majority of staff are reporting we are in crisis. People simply do not know what is expected of them. Many feel they are a burden on other colleagues and have significant training deficits in new and unfamiliar roles. Staff do not have time to train and support their inexperienced colleagues and many are left floundering despite reporting matters to managers.
Members have even said that had they known what was to come that they would have taken severance. We are very concerned that as a result staff are likely to go off sick and or seek employment elsewhere - perpetuating the instability that has been caused by Sodexo not offering EVR and opening things out to allow essential staff to leave.
To conclude staff tell us that the CRC is spiralling out of control. That seems to be supported by the audit findings and our daily experiences. Regardless of any remedial plans we remain of the view that the target operating model and the "Sodexo model" simply will not deliver.
Yours sincerely,
--oo00oo--
Remember missed targets means financial penalties - a dickie bird tells me that just one target missed has cost one CRC £70,000. And why aren't any CRC's getting their expensive lawyers to sue the MoJ for selling them a pup in the first place based on dodgy figures with little hope of making any money?
Finally, as things really start unravelling, lets remind ourselves of these contributions from December 5th:-
The only way it will happen is if (when?) break clauses in the contracts are activated because of the CRC failures to meet their targets. With 40% cuts in some areas, that may be sooner than we think. However, this government believes private is always better than public, so a failing CRC will more likely find itself taken over by another company than the public sector.
******
Given Gove's inability to do anything about it due to the expense of the poison pill the only hope now is that the owners will simply hand the contracts back as they realise they can't make money. It's happened before. Watch out for the enormous fuck up on the horizon due at the end of the financial year when the difference between what the CRC think they've sold and the NPS think they've bought becomes apparent. The NPS won't have the money to pay them and not even the ghost army of accountants will be able to sort it out. What a fucking mess where the plight of victims of crime, help to change for offenders and the careers of dedicated professionals are all at stake but often forgotten.
*******
There will always be conspiracy theorists, however the conspiracy theorists are those who say they've seen no evidence of any of the concerns raised elsewhere.....the practitioners know what's really going on and the managers are paid to not only look the other way but to actively promote the phantom values of big business which is say one thing and do another.....still we must encourage the SOS to apportion blame correctly and at the moment he has the power to distance himself from the omnishambles created by Grayling.........now the man in the pub tells me that NOMS may have a plan to lay all the blame at his feet and be planning a significant announcement about the way business is done as soon as one of the new CRCs fails, which, he intimates is a lot closer than we think.......
Re Sodexo Open Plan Offices
Further to our letter dated 8th October 2015, and the more recent health and safety inspections, and the opening of Hawke St on 24th November 2015, we wish to place on record again a summary of our serious concerns about health and safety and the new Sodexo IT systems. We would also wish to place on record our concerns about how the audit results have been understood by members, and to re-record our on-going concerns about confidentiality and workload issues.
Health and Safety
Electronic Door Security - promised but delivered after 3 weeks.
Staff only areas and office access insecure - promised but not delivered after 3 weeks.
Signing in - present but inconsistent - also highlighted in the fire evacuation drill - promised but not delivered after 3 weeks.
Security cover - typically not before 9.00am and not after 8.00pm. Absent on some days - promised but not delivered.
Lack of street/building lighting in Hawke St and building surround - reported. We await CRC mitigation.
No panic alarms - Promised but not delivered after 3 weeks.
Solo Protect - promised but not delivered.
Open plan noise levels are distracting at times. Including an array of ring tones etc. Members are also concerned there are no waste bins at desks. This means staff either are surrounded by their own rubbish or are making regular trips to the bin. Members are also concerned that property is being disposed of if left on a desk by mistake.
To conclude on health and safety issues we wish to remind the CRC of their legal obligations under legislation to ensure the health and safety of staff at work. It is clear there are regular and recurrent breaches of the legislation that need urgent remedies.
IT Systems
Regular and unacceptable system failures. Growing lack of confidence. Breaches delayed and withdrawn.
Recalls although prioritised are a significant source of anxiety and stress for staff due to complexity in using the new IT systems.
Remote log on problems
Old and new system communication failures. Timing out.
No DSE assessments promised but not undertaken in working with the new IT equipment.
No printing or scanning facilities for remote LMC's, IOM's and intermittent failures in Hawke St, still unavailable to some.
OASys and Delius locking out, password needing regular resets
Solution Line - time wasted - then for CRC IT staff to deal with the issues.
Some laptops still unusable
Hot desking to desktops leads to slower log in times, so people are not hotdesking in admin. Set up and set down times can take time and can be frustrating
New systems are not AT compliant and are a breach of the 2010 Equalities Act
To conclude the IT issues at this stage in the 3rd week after the move we are very concerned that the Sodexo IT systems may well prove to be simply not robust enough to deliver the work of the CRC and are basically never going to be fit for purpose. We hope you can reassure us that will not be the case?
Audit Findings
As much as we appreciate the CRC's statements about not blaming individuals, the language of accountability is being interpreted by members as threatening. It was the CRC's directives as a direct consequence of the TR split, the later NPS recruitment, as well as the accepted poor and contradictory communications, and the mass transfer of cases, and the lack of partnerships and systems being in place, that is to blame for the grave breakdown in the quality of work being delivered - including risk management. The audit findings are a reflection of system failures not individual failures.
We are also concerned that staff are now being required to work in excess of already impossible expectations to pass a re-audit. Although management asked that diaries are and were to be cleared in reality that has been impossible with so little notice. The initial self audit findings suggest that there will be very significant amounts of work that now needs doing. We would therefore urgently request that the CRC prioritises and facilitates this extra work - and we would remind you that we are already in dispute over workloads.
We appreciate that staff, our members, will be the solution to the issues faced by the CRC, but they need to be enabled and feel supported at the present time, and not feel they are to blame.
Confidentiality
Members report real issues with the booths. Some service users have said that they are not prepared to discuss personal issues/address offence related issues in a public place especially when busy. Members also report it's impossible to complete focused and sensitive work.
We are also aware that service users can hear professional discussions around casework whilst waiting or sitting in some booths.
Workload
Members report being overloaded with competing demands, and work is backing up due to the system failures noted above. Regardless of grade the majority of staff are reporting we are in crisis. People simply do not know what is expected of them. Many feel they are a burden on other colleagues and have significant training deficits in new and unfamiliar roles. Staff do not have time to train and support their inexperienced colleagues and many are left floundering despite reporting matters to managers.
Members have even said that had they known what was to come that they would have taken severance. We are very concerned that as a result staff are likely to go off sick and or seek employment elsewhere - perpetuating the instability that has been caused by Sodexo not offering EVR and opening things out to allow essential staff to leave.
To conclude staff tell us that the CRC is spiralling out of control. That seems to be supported by the audit findings and our daily experiences. Regardless of any remedial plans we remain of the view that the target operating model and the "Sodexo model" simply will not deliver.
Yours sincerely,
--oo00oo--
Remember missed targets means financial penalties - a dickie bird tells me that just one target missed has cost one CRC £70,000. And why aren't any CRC's getting their expensive lawyers to sue the MoJ for selling them a pup in the first place based on dodgy figures with little hope of making any money?
Finally, as things really start unravelling, lets remind ourselves of these contributions from December 5th:-
The only way it will happen is if (when?) break clauses in the contracts are activated because of the CRC failures to meet their targets. With 40% cuts in some areas, that may be sooner than we think. However, this government believes private is always better than public, so a failing CRC will more likely find itself taken over by another company than the public sector.
******
Given Gove's inability to do anything about it due to the expense of the poison pill the only hope now is that the owners will simply hand the contracts back as they realise they can't make money. It's happened before. Watch out for the enormous fuck up on the horizon due at the end of the financial year when the difference between what the CRC think they've sold and the NPS think they've bought becomes apparent. The NPS won't have the money to pay them and not even the ghost army of accountants will be able to sort it out. What a fucking mess where the plight of victims of crime, help to change for offenders and the careers of dedicated professionals are all at stake but often forgotten.
*******
There will always be conspiracy theorists, however the conspiracy theorists are those who say they've seen no evidence of any of the concerns raised elsewhere.....the practitioners know what's really going on and the managers are paid to not only look the other way but to actively promote the phantom values of big business which is say one thing and do another.....still we must encourage the SOS to apportion blame correctly and at the moment he has the power to distance himself from the omnishambles created by Grayling.........now the man in the pub tells me that NOMS may have a plan to lay all the blame at his feet and be planning a significant announcement about the way business is done as soon as one of the new CRCs fails, which, he intimates is a lot closer than we think.......
Hopefully members of parliament and the media are reading this blog and will at last have the issues properly exposed and consequentially examined in both Houses of Parliament before the Christmas recess.
ReplyDeleteSo far parliament seems to have failed probation workers and the wider public since the probation reforms and split were announced in January 2013 by neither properly holding the government to account for the dangers to staff and the wider public still being caused or legislating effectively to put in place a workable probation system throughout England and Wales.
The CRC's are already gone. The detail of the contracts mean Sodexo et al can run them into the ground before the government steps in. This is Chris Grayling's legacy.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime why is there no focus on the NPS plans to do the exact same thing to what's left of "probation"? Is Napo that scared of the National Probation Service NPS now it's part of the civil service that it won't stand up and push for E3 to be abandoned? For any unaware of what E3 is, it's the E3 new model/strategy by the NPS to downgrade Pre Sentence Reports, employ unqualified staff to do the work currently done by qualified probation officers, and to end the End to End offender management model by moving probation officers and responsibility for offenders in prison to the failing prisons. As with the CRC's this means cuts, redundancy, no jobs for newly qualified probation officers and the abandonment of the already watered-down probation officer training and development are all on the horizon.
And STILL the so-called Probation Institute is silent!!
History and experience tells us that rehabilitation, resettlement and re-entry work/support is not effectively done by probation/prison officers based in prison. It is silly to think that transferring a prisoner's case to an outside probation officer a few months before release is an effective strategy. Firstly there will be no supervisory relationship. Secondly time will be very limited to prepare the prisoner for release, particularly those that have been stagnating for past months and years. Thirdly the prison governors and prison budgets will ultimately dictate how probation officers in prisons work, and we know what that will mean. Lastly (and there's many more issues as the list is endless) the probation "officers" in the community will mostly be untrained and unqualified staff. Beggars belief that this is a strategy designed and proposed by probation directors, when what they should have been doing is protecting the evidence based practice we're currently providing and arguing the case for probation qualifications to be reattached to social work.
DeleteHistory and experience does give us the knowledge to know that the destructive measures being currently undertaken are harmful to delivering quality probation services in the interests of the public good. After all these years of cuts they still bang on about 'efficiency savings' which is really on a par with the ancient belief that bloodletting makes the patient better - even those with nosebleeds were treated thus.
DeleteThese efficiency savings are not about better processes and services, they mean unemployment and closures and impoverishing those workers left behind, expecting them work harder to maintain performance, like cutting off someone's legs and telling them to run faster. The situation is absolutely perverse.
I joked the other day about probation heading towards the Sports Direct model of management. It's nauseating to hear politicians and others complaining about Sports Direct as though they were the worst of the worst, somehow beyond the pale. They have an aggressive management style, many of their workers feel alienated and exploited and scared of losing their jobs if they speak out. This rings bells in so many workplaces. And yet all Sports Direct is doing is maximising its efficiency and profits. In another way Nurofen does it by lying to its customers with false claims about the efficacy of their painkillers and doubling the prices. And closer to home we had the tagging companies – Serco and G4S - claiming payments for monitoring those still in prison, those who had left the UK and those who had actually shed their mortal chains! It used to be called the ugly face of capitalism, now its commonplace business practice in the dog eat dog marketplace. It's not about rotten branches, it's a rotten economic model.
They talk about a "need for efficiency savings" because it's more palatable than saying a "desire for profit". It's exactly the same sleight of hand that this Government uses when it talks about the "need" for continued austerity policies (though it can easily find the money to drop bombs on foreign people).
DeleteI cannot see how 40%+ cuts can be achieved whilst maintaining any kind of level of decent service to the public. Quite frankly, if there was any genuinely innovative way of running probation services (and not just "innovative" low salaries and high caseloads) it would already have been found.
The only reason these cuts are "necessary" is because the damn fool companies bid low to get the work in the first place, and have to find money to pay the bonuses to the damn fool executives who put the bids together, and for profits to please the shareholders. 40% cuts in CRCs does not mean savings for the taxpayer, it means more tax receipts going to private companies and away from services that benefit the public.
I can't see that the shareholders of these CRCs being happy with negative publicity and that's before the serious harm cases come to light ! It's the season for risky domestic situations !
ReplyDeleteSodexo are removing water coolers in offices in Northumbria. I don't if this is happening elsewhere. I've got a full bottle that I managed to fill up before the cooler was removed. I'm open to offers.
ReplyDeleteyes it is in sodexo model that they are not supplying water coolers in offices. a very backward step if evere there has been one. being hydrated at work as never been so highlighted as not only being good for you but you will work more effective if properly hydrated......this alone tells me they are simply not interested in probation staff...one wonders if there are water coolers in sodexo offices...salford for example? anyone?
ReplyDeleteTo be fair there's always tap water.
DeleteFrom my perspective (I'm not employed by a Sodexo CRC) this is less about the water itself (I prefer tap water personally) and more about the message this sends about their view of their staff - you konw, the people who actually do the work: is it one finger up or two?
DeleteThe domino effect.......if one goes others will follow.....staff and colleagues in CRC across the country are experiencing similar disasters with IT, H and S and work practices that are downright dangerous yet to rectify it takes money which will not be forthcoming....remedial actions may not be sufficient to try and pull things back and even then the feeling is that it will be like putting a sticking plaster on a broken leg........
ReplyDeletehttp://youtu.be/-EyG_CYf-S0 Future of open plan CRC offices
ReplyDelete404 not found.
DeleteSouth Yorkshire CRC senior managers are opting to work from home because they are finding Sodexo's new open plan office to be too noisy.
ReplyDeleteBless them. They have been working sooooo hard destroying the probation....
DeleteDo frontline staff have the option to work from home?
DeleteWill that be the noise of constantly ringing telephones, tapping on keyboards to churn out pointless assessment or totally distressed staff as they breakdown from the relentless workload and unrealistic expectations? If they hide away in offices or at home then they can ignore what is going on for frontline staff.
Deleteback to the water coolers.....of course they are only required to provide running water but its conveinient and healthy and the option for a member of staff with perhaps a mobility issue is now a trip to the kitchen. not a requirement more a giant leap backwards.
ReplyDeleteTypical of management in avoiding critical issues, what do they do, duck and hide. As for the Probation Institute and those academic who are the so called 'experts' such as Paul Senior (never having done a days work in probation and wouldn't even know what a client would like even if one was standing right in front of him) has avoided speaking up on behalf of probation staff and then he says that he is an advocate for probation. Does he think probation staff are clowns or something. Tosser
ReplyDeleteHear, Hear, although I think that is probably being unkind to tossers.
DeletePaul Senior did a Home Office sponsored CQSW at Hull University qualifying in 1976 or 77 and worked for quite a few years as an officer somewhere in Yorkshire, and was active in Napo before moving into academia.
DeleteSo he's got no excuse for failing to speak up for probation as chair of the probation institute. Or you could see it as he's got diminishing credibility being chair of an institute that fails to speak up for the profession it claims to represent. Maybe Paul will do another blog post and tell us which it is?
DeleteAnyone who knows Paul knows what you have written is vile and completely untruthful. He knows more about practice than I ever will.
DeleteProbation Officer - qualified 15 years and trained by the excellent man himself
Heading any professional association comes with responsibility. In this case it claims to speak for probation practice when in fact it does not. Expert or not, I expect Paul Senior and those heading the PI to do much better. It is concerning they are in the position to do so and choose not to.
DeleteThat is true Anon at 00:22, yet similar was said of those leading the Probation Trusts into the literally dangerous split, and if one reflects back there have always been senior probation managers who are experienced frontline practitioners prepared to put political expediency above care for the professional wellbeing of probation practice.
Delete15 years even 15 years plus jackshit in many cases when came to the so called transparent and fair shafting process. But in Paul's case supposed to be of major significance. Well that makes us all think its really worth it - NOT.
DeleteSodexo has seen a high number of staff leave the CRC in South Yorks. Now Sodexo have been placed in special measures. Hardly TR progress! Other CRC's are making plans to lose huge numbers of staff! It's been a nonsense to destroy a service of excellence, and replace it with under-staffed, failing CRC's, which are run by profit seeking fat cats. I wonder, if South Yorks are on their own in regards to not being fit for purpose?
ReplyDelete"A leech attaches itself when it bites, and it will stay attached until it becomes full, at which point it falls off to digest."
DeleteThis is exactly what the privateer directors of Sodexo et al, are doing to the CRC's. They've taken what they can and now it's time to move on. What's left of the CRC's will be left to rot in the hands of the next bunch of parasites that are attracted.
I would guess that by simply & cynically pocketing 60% of all voluntary leavers' allocated EVR will have proved profitable for the Sodeco parasites.
DeleteThe reality is that these companies thought that Probation contracts would be easy, like the Work Programme. To their very great cost they completely underestimated the complexity of the work, as made obvious by the naivity of their operating models. They will have to give up the contracts. I think that is now inevitable. What a train crash.
ReplyDeleteIf there's one good thing about big business it knows when to unload in order to avoid dangerous losses, reputational damage and damage to premiums.....that day is closer than any of us realise and watercooler talks are being held at NOMS about what happens next to try and claw some sense of order back....talk is that they're currently looking for a CRC that works and will push this as the ideal...so if you find yourself working for this shining example take every opportunity to tell the truth (Memo to big business-look that last word up please)for I've heard from somewhere that the truth will set us free....
ReplyDeleteWhere is the humanity in all of this? Every step is towards merely a monitor and control approach (apart from breaching of course, because that would lose money). Am seeing very innovative attempts from CRCs to achieve a "successful" order & therefore payment. In NPS, E3 an abusive,psychopathic and oppressive move to get more for less by forcing those staff to deal with domestic violence & sex cases where for many valid reasons they should not be compelled to do so . There is no concern for legalities or ethics, and where once there were clear professional boundaries put in place, those very same people are smiling and saying what a wonderful opportunity for staff. Please help.
ReplyDeleteSodexo it would seem are on a slippery slope in South Yorks, and it will be interesting if the catering company puts any resources and effort into getting a firm footing. It might be that they just go with the flow until the crash takes things from them. But if Sodexo's senior managers are working away from the hustle and bustle of a failing office, things do not bode well.
ReplyDeleteNo doubt additional resources and effort will be sought from NOMS rather than Sodexo coffers, given the MoJ's vested interest in avoiding any very public failures at such an early stage.
DeleteI work for SYCRC in a junior admin position and this week I've seen more of our Senior Managers in our LDU then I ever have in the past. So I would disagree with that statement, our senior managers are not all working from home, they are sat in amongst their overworked, stressed colleagues all looking like crap themselves.
ReplyDeleteI agree with my colleague, our managers have worked hard. I don't know who works where in South Yorks, but I have known our CEO for 16 years. She was an excellent SPO for me, and I have only known her as quality person and worker. I would respect the likes of her any day, over the so called ministry of justice!
DeleteSorry to disagree David Hurst at 09:02 but any senior manager who participated in enabling the split & especially those who sought a senior job in NPS, NOMS or a CRC put political expediency above safe frontline probation practice or was a greedy dupe.
DeleteHappy to disagree Andrew Hatton at 09.46. It could be argued that Probation as a whole enabled the split, and sought to pay the bills and keep our employment in the NPS, CRC over safe practice. I dont think any grade should be beating themselves up about TR - in my book, it's not what probation has done, or what managers have done, or have not done, but what we have had done to us.
DeleteI have to agree David. There are some excellent SPOs and Senior Managers in CRCs. As a PO I was sifted into a Sodexo/NACRO CRC, then made the move to NPS. Not only are they good managers, they are good people. This mess is not of their making.
Delete-PS Can we remember NACRO in all of this? They do seem to be getting off lightly!
We are all responsible for the current shitstorm because we didn't stop it. Managers at all levels who were complicit helped it along, but any & all staff who didn't fight also aided & abetted. Nacro jumped into bed with Sodexo (literally & figuratively) but are now just passengers on the express to hell, as are we all. I wonder what Nacro's former chief exec is doing now?
DeleteIf you didn't actually leave probation, you were a part of TR - a fact that sticks in some folk's craw!
DeleteCould it be that South Yorks are being scapegoated by the powers behind the scenes?
ReplyDeleteQUESTION:What would the process be for one company to be allowed to own more than the current maximum permitted number of CRCs?
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure whether that was just part of the original bid arrangements, or whether the rules might be 'adjusted' to allow takeover by another CRC. I would suspect that there would be few takers from outside the current owners - except perhaps G4S and Serco...
DeleteAs with recent moves around failing children's services, we now sit & wait for HMGovt to hand the failing CRCs to "champions" in order to save them whilst injecting "new" public money into the void left by the global asset-strippers. The game of corporate musical chairs will resume & the CEOs of the CRCs will fight for the empty chairs yet again, with the bullies & bullshitters grabbing as many chairs as are available while we are distracted.
ReplyDeleteAnd so it goes, ad nauseum. Same names, same bullies, same mistakes.
These are not 'mistakes'; they are decisions based on the idea that poor practice, poor training and poor resourcing is 'good enough'. The only 'mistakes' are the decisions by the MoJ to let these shysters in.
ReplyDeleteProbation Institute are getting on with their Public Relations campaigning -
ReplyDeleteFROM TWITTER: -
" Probation Institute @ProbInstitute 5h5 hours ago
"In new world of probation, practitioners need to be encouraged and supported to reach the highest levels of qualification and practice." "
https://twitter.com/ProbInstitute/status/677456145976582144
What can that mean - are the CRCs to introduce a comprehensive training scheme independently assessed for all staff who deal with supervisees - perhaps?
Sounds expensive and unlikely, Andrew!
DeleteFrom a CRC in the north.....we have no printers, we have no photocopier....we do not have the facility to produce warning letters, we are not breaching anyone.....our new offices have sockets that are not live, offenders don't like the Macdonalds style interview booths so are not turning up but it doesn't matter because they won't be breached, telephone lines to organisational hub not working, laptops not connecting to phones and phones sometimes losing signal......yes things are going as predicted
ReplyDeleteYou CRC Northerners should count yourself lucky. For us in the South, we are now faced with CRC redundancy on a massive scale. You will have a dysfunctional office, but we will have a staff-less, and of course a paperless office. Priceless (ie cheap as chips)!
ReplyDeleteUs Northerners have already had mass redundancies....Ermm I mean severance!
DeleteIt seems to me that the CRC north/south divide is united in its assessment of TR - ruthless, paperless, staff-less, function-less and PRICELESS (ie as cheap as chips)
DeleteThere is nothing wrong down south. The CRC and NPS are going great things down here.
DeleteNo security in the building, female PO intimidated and verbally abused by a manipulating offender who made a cut throat gesture. He was given a warning by a manager. Accom officer working with CRC offender who moved to NPS so the accom couldn't be completed. 40% staff cuts. The service is falling apart!
DeleteI work in a CRC in the south - in fact I am so far south I can wade into the Solent about 3 miles from my house and I can assure you that we are not doing 'great things down here'. However I am sure (Anon 21:45) that which ever camp you work in would be only too pleased for you to name the area and describe in detail all the successes you are having in the name of TR. This would a) silence the naysayers that inhabit this blog and b) convince me that you aren't just some mad trouble maker intent on winding us all up with your blatant porkies.
DeleteNorth West CRCs to hear of staffing quotas in early January. Admin will have heavy casualties as 3 areas move into one centralised hub - will it be warrington, Liverpool or Manchester? Wherever it's based will mean staff will be in an impossible position due to the large commuting geographical area.
ReplyDeleteHaving left Probation after TR and become a Social worker in Child Protection, I find out yesterday that my new profession is on the slippery slope to privatisation and Sodexo style greed and inefficiency. I'm so sorry about Probation and now am so sorry about Child Protection, but as hardly any of my colleagues are in a union or have the remotest interest in the political situation, it does not bode well. All I can hope for is that they look at what has happened to Probation and go out on strike and fight and my union, BASW, has more guts in the final stretch than Napo did. Sorry to sound depressed but the disaster unfolding before our eyes in Probation was so predictable and the disaster in CP is so predictable but we live in a world where sensible people let idiots get away with crap and I just don't think I can fight this fight again.
ReplyDeleteJH - what happened with probation? TR is a runaway success for most of us! Everyone acts like everything was okay pre TR. Makes my blood boil.
DeleteWhat happened with probation? As has been said many times already (1) the 1991 CJAct, (2) opportunist politicians & (3) grandstanding civil servants, i.e. Noms.
DeleteTR is the bastard child of evangelical capitalism & unfettered ambition, aka 25 years of aimless fucking around. The resulting spoilt brat - to which Grayling gifted a dream trust fund worth £hundreds of millions - is now proving itself to be beyond control, attracting similarly self-obsessed friends who are feeding it's monstrous ego & talent for making existing resources disappear before our very eyes.
12 appointments from 1989 to present day & not a single one has done jack-shit for the probation profession.
Deletewaddington: baker: clarke k: howard: straw: blunkett: clarke c: reid: straw (again): clarke k (again): grayling: gove
Most trusts were gold standard award winning pre TR 21:47 bet they're not now
DeleteNo supporter of TR but trusts award winning gold standard investors in people. Bullshit in my view. Total pretence and part of the unconvincing facade that was promoted. Just look at corporate service full of meaningless jobs on inflated salaries for people who were full of their own importance. Things may be worse now with complete meltdown looking inevitable but the trusts laid the foundations for the crap pile to get higher.
DeleteI have family members in child protection and warned them what would happen to them, complacency is rife and they really do need to wake up to what has happened in probation and start fighting back now
ReplyDeleteI constantly warn the social workers that I meet about this, but I think the feeling "oh, they can't possibly privatise child protection" runs quite strongly.
DeleteMany of them seem unaware of the political dimensions. Now perhaps social work training should be more closely aligned with probation training... ;-)
I dont think child protection services will be privatised but they face being streamlined into multi agency teams and likely police will become primary agency. As for fostering, adoption, support service. Bye bye. They are up for privatisation.
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