Wednesday 6 July 2016

Prison News

Seen on Facebook:-

Had the NPS E3 briefing today. Really bothered by the future outlook that POs in the community won't be supervising people in custody until 6 months before release when all the research says that one of the only factors linked to reducing reoffending is the consistency of the practitioner. Unions, do we have any say on this or is it a done deal? Although it's nothing new, it still shocks me that the powers to be are still so short-sighted about cost saving... This will not save money in the long run.

Oh wow-what briefing was that? I thought E3 haven't commented on prisons yet, as they are waiting for the review to be published? But, I've had a feeling for some time that things were moving that way.

F*ck the long run. In the long run there will be a different minister. The short termism of our Governments is the best argument there is for despotism. At least they expect to be there for a long time.

The prison model isn't being published until Jan/Feb 2017.

All the E3 briefings that we have been involved with have been around Offender Management, Courts and job matching 1 to 1 interviews etc, nothing has been said regarding HMP or other parts of the NPS that are in the next phase or beyond.

Napo are certainly providing comment and seeking views from practitioners so get your feedback to them ASAP.

My understanding is that this would be proposed depending on the offender management in custody review.

The plan was posted on the NPS intranet yesterday. It does say that case management will be incorporated into the prison through prison probation officers and 'keyworkers'. They want to implement it from April 2017, altho it states NOMS "remain committed to no redundancies as a result of these changes".


--oo00oo--

This from the BBC website:-

Prison officers staged walkouts over past five months

Prison officers have withdrawn labour or staged unofficial walkouts at five prisons in England over the past five months, the BBC has learned. The Prison Officers Association, whose members are banned from going on strike, said the action was the result of staff concerns over their safety. Last year there were nearly 5,000 assaults on prison staff - the highest number for at least a decade.

The Ministry of Justice has announced almost £13m in funds to improve safety. This will be available in 69 prisons, including four of those were staff have taken action. Although two of the staff walkouts at Wetherby young offenders institution in West Yorkshire and Wormwood Scrubs in west London were known about, details of the other three have only just emerged. In May, four members of staff refused to carry out their duties at the Mount prison in Hertfordshire, while 40 prison officers at Holme House jail, in County Durham, withdrew in protest about changes to the regime.

Largely unnoticed and seldom praised, they do the work many of us would not want to do, dealing with some of the most dangerous and damaged people in society. So when prison officers in five separate jails down tools it's important we understand why. There is a rising tide of mental illness, aggression and violence in prisons - borne out by official figures published every quarter - that staff are struggling to cope with.

The extra money for safety improvements released by Justice Secretary Michael Gove will be welcomed. But it's likely to take more than that to keep the problems in check - and ensure that Mr Gove's ambitious plans for "reform" prisons remain on track.

The latest unofficial action occurred last month, when officers on two wings at Swinfen Hall in Staffordshire left prisoners locked in their cells because of safety concerns. Prison Officers Association chairman Mike Rolfe said the walkouts were because members feared a "significant and imminent threat to their health and safety".

He said there was a shortage of staff, which meant most time was taken up with formal duties such as locking and unlocking prisoners and searching for items, leaving little time for informal interactions between staff and prisoners. "There's a massive divide between prisoners and officers," he added.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said it was "wholly inaccurate" to say there have been "significant disputes" at Holme House, Swinfen Hall and the Mount prisons. He added: "The safety and welfare of our staff is a key priority and we will always ensure prisons have enough staff to run safely and securely. "Since January last year we have recruited 2,830 prison officers nationally, a net increase of 530 officers. "We have also secured £1.3bn to modernise the prison estate and are investing an additional £10m to help respond to safety issues."

27 comments:

  1. There's supposed to be consistency in supervision? I had three supervisors before I left custody. All I got was an introductory letter from No 1, No 2 turned out to be a royal pain in the butt from the moment she took over and virtually all her decisions were over turned on legal challenge as she had made them on incorrect information she had been told by my legal team was incorrect. No 3 lasted until TR came in and she left (and I breathed a huge sigh of relief when she did as she was worse than No 2). No 4 is nice enough but to be honest an ineffectual idiot with some very weird ideas of the prison system and people. Not exactly consistency and this was pretty much all before probation was privatised

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    1. Consistency hasn't been present since the fiddling around & transfer to Trust status etc began some 10 years ago. I'd suggest you set yourself a specific goal you want to achieve & work whoever is supervising your release into helping you get there. They'll be so overworked with so many other hopeless, demanding cases they'll be grateful for your initiative.

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    2. Actually I've learned the best policy regarding probation is to say as little as possible, never volunteer anything and never discuss anything personal. It makes "supervision" a lot less stressful for both of us. It also points up the fact that probation is now simply a tick box exercise with any idea of actual help long out of the door

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    3. Why are service users blogging?

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    4. ....so much recently? World class services are being delivered!

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  2. I am surprised there has been very little comment on the post E3 briefings taking place at the moment across the country as they begin to prepare staff for what is, in effect a massive sifting process to weed out colleagues who do not 'match' the current profile of the new E3 landscape. Don't be fooled, wake up, do something about it - the future of the service is at stake. What's NAPO and UNISON doing about it ? The E3 body count, for those unfortunate to end up on the redeployment register will make unpalatable reading as any assurance given that redundancies will not apply will look hallow as it dawns on those affected that its simply a fig leaf to promote greater effeciencies, and flexibility and turnover at a time of limited resources. I am resigned to think that with all its emphasis on 1:1 preferences, it is sadly, time to acknowledge that the service we once we cherished has irrevocably changed for the worse.

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  3. Is £13M new monies for prison service to cover increased security for imminent arrival in UK jails of soon-to-be convicted war criminals?

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  4. Get this into your Skulls, if you are still a Probation Officer then you are a piece of shit, many of your colleagues have seen the light and found some employment that doesn't abuse the people it intends to serve. I would advise you to do the same.

    But unfortunately there is always a group who will stick their heads in the sand.

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    1. Still getting paid so I don't mind a bit of sand in my eyes.

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    2. Exactly my point. You are happy to promote psychologically abusive practices so long as there is money at the end of it. This is the state of Probation now and has been for longer than any would care to admit.

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    3. @Anon 12:40/15:17 Have you ever considered the possibility that not everyone who is working with a probation officer thinks the same as you, and perhaps you're the only one that considers them to be "psychologically abusive practices"?

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    4. What about your victims? I guess that is probations fault as well..

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    5. Yes I am the only person ever who has been abused by probation. I don't care anymore about the victims, I used to, but you lot don't seem too concerned about what your actions do to others either, I have learnt from my supervision that so long as you are not breaking the law, you are allowed to abuse anyone to any degree. I cannot speak for anybody but myself, but the Probation Service held and still holds very psychologically damaged persons who have been successfull in finding a legal outlet to abuse others.

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    6. Ex-Napo member8 July 2016 at 17:53

      @21:46 The problem is that you *do* try to speak for everybody - you make wild generalisations from your own experience, and are completely closed off from alternative perspectives.

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  5. Psychological abuse (also referred to as psychological violence, emotional abuse or mental abuse) is a form of abuse, characterized by a person subjecting, or exposing, another person to behavior that may result in psychological trauma, including anxiety, chronic depression, or post-traumatic stress disorder.

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  6. Prisoners received minimal contact and service from community po's so change is inevitable. But progress will be dependent on prisons being able to deal with change instead of daily chaos that currently persists. End to end management was an aspiration that was never going to work and didn t

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  7. I have already received my notification of 121 via a formal letter which was e-mailed to me. There is a form to fill in which you have to put any considerations you wish to be taken into account in respect of relocation. My 121 is booked in with my manager for next week. A colleague in the prison told me they are expecting lots more OM's in April so I am expecting some relocations.

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  8. On a slightly different topic, news from SWM CRC where a third of POs in Staffordshire/Stoke are facing compulsory redundancy. The axe has been hanging over PO's heads for over 7 months with those deemed to be 'at risk', heading towards their 3rd stage interview this Friday. At 4 pm yesterday they all received an e mail stating that these interviews had been 'postponed indefinitely'. What the hell does this mean? Will there or won't there be redundancies and if not why all the shannanigans over the past 7 months with colleagues facing the prospect of the dole queue on a daily basis (Stoke is still in the depths of an economic turndown, not an easy area to find employment). Colleagues are baffled by this turn of events and from senior managers there is deafening silence. Does this mean no redundancies or is this just a temporary stay of execution? If the former, does this mean that the CRC has cocked up the figures and needs these PO posts? Or, as is suspected, has the CRC run out of money to fund redundancy payments and needs to find a cheaper means of shedding staff? POs and their colleagues need answers from these conniving and cruel senior execs. The staff in Staffs/Stoke are deserve better treatment than this.

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    1. SWM are recruiting:

      "Staffordshire and West Midlands Community Rehabilitation Company Ltd

      Vacancy REQ0405

      Job Title: Customer Support Assistant

      Location: Centre City, Hill Street, Birmingham

      Hours: Full Time

      Salary: £15,949 – £17,243 pro rata per annum

      Closing Date for receipt of completed application forms is Friday 8th July 2016 at 4.00 p.m

      Exciting career opportunities have arisen in the Customer Service Centre. This role is the entry level into the Customer Service Centre with opportunities for personal development and future career progression.

      The Customer Support Assistant will provide high-quality resolution to basic inbound queries into the Customer Services Centre via a range of channels (telephone and text) and supply information to customer groups through outbound contact. They will make outbound calls on behalf of the CRC where the information they are providing or query they are raising is of a basic nature. An example might be a reminder to provide evidence of a missed appointment.

      The role sits within the Customer Support function of Customer Services, a targeted environment where performance is measured and the customer service we provide to our service users and our internal and external customers is of the utmost importance in achieving organisational excellence.
      The Customer Support Assistant will contribute to the aims of the organisation, namely transforming lives, reducing crime and ensuring public safety. They will achieve this by:

      Resolving queries and low-risk issues to ensure Service Users are fully supported by the service
      Providing the right information at the right time to support Service Users to engage with our service and complete their sentence
      Identifying and flagging risk indicators to support the safe management of Service Users
      The Customer Service Centre is open from 8am – 8pm Monday to Thursday, 8am – 6pm Friday and Saturday morning. Successful applicants will be required to provide cover during the opening hours.
      Training in Partnership Works and Customer Service techniques will be provided in advance of the Customer Service Centre going live."

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  9. Didn't I read a NAPO briefing saying its fine to go into one to one to discuss E3 matching, its not consultation ?

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  10. Same thing happened in Working Links CRC's prior to last week's news regarding Aurelius take over. Gove apparently signed over gov't share 2 days after Referendum result.

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    1. It was the Government's third share of Working Links that was sold, not the CRCs.

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  11. On the prison walkouts - i understand the only way the prison service addresses the issue is to seek an injuction to force officers back onto the landings. The longer it takes the longer they stay out . Holme House was locked down until dinnertime , meanwhile every operational and non operational governor is redirected to help with essentials like food and meds.... The Government would rather this happen than meaningfully addressing very serious safety issues.....shame

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  12. Jeremy HUnt bossing the junior doctors. Proof unions are pointless as the employer or state can still do as they want. New contract is being imposed on them by Hunt-anitor!

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  13. Whether the unions are in dispute or not here in the SW working links/aurelius are moving fast now! Staff are already copingwith sudden moves to inferior offices and having to see service users in public spaces. IT / delius being unavailable much of the time. Now suddenly the timescale for these one to one interviews is about 7 weeks, just when many will be on holidays! Looks more like 50% cuts to band 3, 4 and 5. Senior staff have at least stopped pretending everything is 'positive change' now they are also going to be reduced by by 50%! So suddenly we have gone from 'cuts won't be as bad as expected because many have already gone to another 50%'. Never mind the unions, why are the MOJ sat on their not unsubstantial sterns and allowing this to happen? We might as well scrap the whole notion of community sentences and just ask NPS court staff to give people SSO's in all cases without supervision!

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    1. MoJ knew this was coming in all CRCs so they're not bothered. The MoJ/NOMS 'crc police' are not interested. Gove is distracted by his own vainglorious ambition. NOMS are also rudderless vis-a-vis probation with Allars' jumping ship.

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  14. This whole 1-1 charade absolutely mirrors the TR debacle ... Do you want CRC or NPS? Your decision but we aren't giving you any information to make an informed choice. This is just the same Court or stay in your role. Prisons haven't been mentioned yet but that is where a lot of POs are heading. I understand that the plan is to increase PO numbers in prison. There is absolutely no way they are gonna send me down that route until they have made prisons safer for staff. Our locals prisons, S Yorks, are losing the battle with Spice. Not enough prison officers and prisoners off their heads on drugs ... Not a good combo and certainly not an environment that I'm going to work in. Working in NPS with stupidly high caseload, crap IT system , when it's working, low morale and high levels of staff sickness is bad enough. I cannot believe that this is a career that I was once proud of. It is an utter disgrace. Shame on the government for putting us in this abysmal situation.

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