Justice Committee seeks Napo's views
Yet another sign that Parliament is showing serious interest in the shambolic state of the probation landscape arrived yesterday. The Justice Select Committee (JSC) have sent me a personal invitation to speak to them on November 1st on the implementation of reforms to the delivery of probation services under the Transforming Rehabilitation programme.
My experience of appearing before various parliamentary committees over the years leads me to believe that the JSC have decided that the recent reports on the implementation of the programme, including those from the Public Accounts Committee, HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons, and the range of challenges that have been identified require their attention.
In the invitation the Committee say: "That having been advised by the Secretary of State for Justice, Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP, at her inaugural session with us in September that the Ministry of Justice is reviewing how the reforms are operating, the purpose of this seminar is to consider the key issues and opportunities surrounding arrangements for the provision of probation services. This will help the Committee to ensure it is sufficiently well informed on these matters when the Ministry reports on its review."
It's a great opporunity for us to publically highlight the key issues being faced by our members and turn the spotlight on the failure that TR was bound to be and the chaos that is out there.
Probation System Review
We continue to track the progress of the review and understand that a report to Ministers is due very soon. We hope that the evidence we have submitted and our representations to the Project lead at the Probation Consultative Forum will be factored into the final report. Our hope is that it may suggest some changes which are designed to bring clarity and or confirmation about how and what the 21 CRC providers are actualy supposed to be doing, and how steps might be taken to help them do it.
Ultimately, we will want to see things which will bring some relief for our hard pressed members and hopefully some outcomes which might allow some CRCs to step back from their plans to press on with staff reductions.
Early Day Motion tabled on Through the Gate shambles
As I indicated during my speech to the AGM, we are in regular touch with the Labour Shadow Justice Team who are submitting a range of parliamentary questions on the state of probation.
We have also been notified of the following Early Day Motion (EDM) which, if it secures enough signatories, will force a full Parliamentary debate. This means that some pressure on your constituency MP to support the EDM would be very timely.
Here is what it says:
"That this House notes with concern the recently published inspection report, Through the Gate Resettlement Services for Short-Term Prisoners by HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons; further notes that Through the Gate is a flagship rehabilitation policy of Government which aims to reduce reoffending rates of those serving under 12 months; is aware that Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) are responsible for this provision yet due to lack of incentive from Government contract arrangements, are failing to give priority to this work; is concerned that the report highlights that of the 86 cases inspected, not one client was helped into work, a third were released with nowhere to live and limited provision was given to those in debt; notes that in 61 per cent of cases inspected, the CRC had taken insufficient account of public protection, most notably in cases of domestic violence; is aware that, since the introduction of the Transforming Rehabilitation programme, probation services across the UK have seen a reduction in service quality and low morale within both CRCs and the NPS; and urgently calls on the Government to rescind the CRC contracts immediately and launch a review into the Transforming Rehabilitation Agenda and its impact on offenders, victims, the public and staff."
Donna Charles Vincent, Deputy Director of Operations
I wanted to let you know personally that Donna Charles Vincent – Deputy Director of Operations – has decided to leave London CRC and her last day will be Wednesday 19 October. I’ll be really sad to see Donna go and have tried to persuade her to stay. But she’s decided, after 28 years in Probation, and lots of early starts and long hours, to spend some quality time with her family while she explores new opportunities.
Donna has been an invaluable member of my senior management team and her leaving will be a huge loss to our business. She’s done some tremendous work to keep Operations at the centre of what we do despite the significant challenges we faced as part of our transformation and introduction of our Cohort Model. In recent months, she’s been instrumental in helping us focus on improving the quality of our probation practices by introducing and embedding ‘Building for best’. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but this has given us a firm foundation to build on in our aim to meet our Ambition 2020 vision of being the best at reducing reoffending.
From Tuesday, 18 October, Paul McDowell, London CRC’s Transformation Director, will be taking on the role of Interim Deputy Director of Operations for four days a week. The ACOs will report into Paul on an interim basis while my senior management team and I consider how best to meet the needs of our business in light of Donna’s departure.
I’d like to say a personal thank you to Donna for all her hard work, commitment, contribution to London probation over the years, and the support she’s given me in the time I’ve worked with her. Please join me in wishing her all the very best for the future.
Yet another sign that Parliament is showing serious interest in the shambolic state of the probation landscape arrived yesterday. The Justice Select Committee (JSC) have sent me a personal invitation to speak to them on November 1st on the implementation of reforms to the delivery of probation services under the Transforming Rehabilitation programme.
My experience of appearing before various parliamentary committees over the years leads me to believe that the JSC have decided that the recent reports on the implementation of the programme, including those from the Public Accounts Committee, HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons, and the range of challenges that have been identified require their attention.
In the invitation the Committee say: "That having been advised by the Secretary of State for Justice, Rt Hon Elizabeth Truss MP, at her inaugural session with us in September that the Ministry of Justice is reviewing how the reforms are operating, the purpose of this seminar is to consider the key issues and opportunities surrounding arrangements for the provision of probation services. This will help the Committee to ensure it is sufficiently well informed on these matters when the Ministry reports on its review."
It's a great opporunity for us to publically highlight the key issues being faced by our members and turn the spotlight on the failure that TR was bound to be and the chaos that is out there.
Probation System Review
We continue to track the progress of the review and understand that a report to Ministers is due very soon. We hope that the evidence we have submitted and our representations to the Project lead at the Probation Consultative Forum will be factored into the final report. Our hope is that it may suggest some changes which are designed to bring clarity and or confirmation about how and what the 21 CRC providers are actualy supposed to be doing, and how steps might be taken to help them do it.
Ultimately, we will want to see things which will bring some relief for our hard pressed members and hopefully some outcomes which might allow some CRCs to step back from their plans to press on with staff reductions.
Early Day Motion tabled on Through the Gate shambles
As I indicated during my speech to the AGM, we are in regular touch with the Labour Shadow Justice Team who are submitting a range of parliamentary questions on the state of probation.
We have also been notified of the following Early Day Motion (EDM) which, if it secures enough signatories, will force a full Parliamentary debate. This means that some pressure on your constituency MP to support the EDM would be very timely.
Here is what it says:
"That this House notes with concern the recently published inspection report, Through the Gate Resettlement Services for Short-Term Prisoners by HM Inspectorate of Probation and HM Inspectorate of Prisons; further notes that Through the Gate is a flagship rehabilitation policy of Government which aims to reduce reoffending rates of those serving under 12 months; is aware that Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) are responsible for this provision yet due to lack of incentive from Government contract arrangements, are failing to give priority to this work; is concerned that the report highlights that of the 86 cases inspected, not one client was helped into work, a third were released with nowhere to live and limited provision was given to those in debt; notes that in 61 per cent of cases inspected, the CRC had taken insufficient account of public protection, most notably in cases of domestic violence; is aware that, since the introduction of the Transforming Rehabilitation programme, probation services across the UK have seen a reduction in service quality and low morale within both CRCs and the NPS; and urgently calls on the Government to rescind the CRC contracts immediately and launch a review into the Transforming Rehabilitation Agenda and its impact on offenders, victims, the public and staff."
--oo00oo--
Stop Press News just out from London CRC:-
Donna Charles Vincent, Deputy Director of Operations
I wanted to let you know personally that Donna Charles Vincent – Deputy Director of Operations – has decided to leave London CRC and her last day will be Wednesday 19 October. I’ll be really sad to see Donna go and have tried to persuade her to stay. But she’s decided, after 28 years in Probation, and lots of early starts and long hours, to spend some quality time with her family while she explores new opportunities.
Donna has been an invaluable member of my senior management team and her leaving will be a huge loss to our business. She’s done some tremendous work to keep Operations at the centre of what we do despite the significant challenges we faced as part of our transformation and introduction of our Cohort Model. In recent months, she’s been instrumental in helping us focus on improving the quality of our probation practices by introducing and embedding ‘Building for best’. We’ve still got a lot of work to do, but this has given us a firm foundation to build on in our aim to meet our Ambition 2020 vision of being the best at reducing reoffending.
From Tuesday, 18 October, Paul McDowell, London CRC’s Transformation Director, will be taking on the role of Interim Deputy Director of Operations for four days a week. The ACOs will report into Paul on an interim basis while my senior management team and I consider how best to meet the needs of our business in light of Donna’s departure.
I’d like to say a personal thank you to Donna for all her hard work, commitment, contribution to London probation over the years, and the support she’s given me in the time I’ve worked with her. Please join me in wishing her all the very best for the future.
Helga Swidenbank
Director of Probation
CRCs have been handed £Millions of public money by Grayling's hand but won't share information with the public on the basis of a tenuous & fatuous "commercial sensitivity" argument. They will no doubt share information between themselves over a glass or two of expensive wine, a Michelin starred meal & a bowl of muesli, e.g. MTCNovo & Sodexo, perhaps?
ReplyDeleteHmmm, why the muesli? I don't get it, eggs benedict surely?
DeleteA fair point well made, Tonto.
DeleteAnyone who thinks there is money in this for CRCs is mistaken. The NPS have no budget to purchase rateable services and as for the Fee for Service, the volumes of work predicted are way below that expected, hence why virtually every provider has opted to restructure and re-scale the operational model to fit the size of the business. Its damage limitation for the CRC owners but such is the loss of knowledge and experience of those staff who are redundant or have left, we may never recover.
DeleteThe last 3 weeks have been hell for managers since the inspection and a crazy timetable to check every single case by today! No surprise the pressure was too much for Donna- lucky her leaving the omnishambles behind!
ReplyDeleteI would not be a middle manager in London CRC for all the tea in China. BUT it would help them to protect themselves and their staff if together they were to find the courage to stand up and say NO to unrealistic deadlines springing from a knee jerk reaction to an entirely predictable bad inspection report. And it would help them and the rest of us were they to refuse unlimited amounts of case allocations to their staff no matter how many cases we have on our list already. People may wonder why DRR reports don't get done, why lots of our cases are not enforced properly, why phones are not answered, and the answer is that we all have too much to do, too many cases. The WMT which was rendered increasingly useless has now been abandoned all together. There are only so many hours in the day. If you have no hope of gaining any control over your work no matter how many hours you put in then you may as well do your 9-5.30 and do what you can during that time. It is impossible to prioritise your work when all tasks are equally critical and crucial. If we all refuse to play ball with this nonsense then what can they do to us? Sack us all? Or employ a few more people on the ground ?
DeleteIn in NPS and constantly astonished by the way in which my Management team espouse the JFDI line telling the one at the top that all is well and there are just a few teething problems to iron out....Im beginning to believe my sex offenders more often than my managers
ReplyDeleteI too have had enough and have decided it is time to go. Bet I don't get any thanks for 32 years of commitment to the Probation Service.
ReplyDeleteGood luck & hold on to the knowledge you did a good job. Snior fuckwits in our Sodexo area (who were known bullies & actively collaborated in installing TR) were given fanfares & parties whilst the loss of experienced frontline staff with over 200 years' combined service (incl admin & other crucial actors) were simply ignored by the incoming organisation. I just snuck out the fire door on my last day & have never looked back. I confess to reading JB's blog out of morbid interest.
DeleteWe pay you and now you expect leaving parties. Disgraceful
DeleteDonna Charles Vincent was effectively the Deputy Chief of London CRC and was the only qualified probation officer left on the senior management team following the 'retirement' of her colleague Ian Anderson also a trained probation officer a couple of months ago.
ReplyDeleteDonna worked her way up the greasy pole the hard way during her 28 year career and knew what probation was about unlike Helga Swidenbank and her long time friend Paul McDowell. It is with regret that someone as talented and dedicated as Donna walked no doubt having to sign the now obligatory non-disclosure agreements etc.
Staff may not feel confident in a senior management team dominated by ex prison governors. The NPS in London has also been shocked recently by the announcement from their leader Sara Robinson that she is also resigning. Rumours are circulating that another ex-governor is being dusted off and brought out of retirement for this job.
More qualified probation staff have left London probation in the last year than at any time in its entire history in all its formations.
The ship is sinking and the smart people are getting into the lifeboats or being forced to walk the plank. More bad news expected next month. Many more people expected to be spending more time with their families to consider their future options.
The ship has already sunk!
DeleteI've got to say my experience of London crc is shocking. It was shit ore TR but now it's just a joke. They don't even answer the phone let alone anything else
DeleteOf course it's a joke, it's run by MTC Novo!!!
DeleteProbation in London has always been particular challenge to run even when it was being done by people who more or less knew what they were doing. It continues to have a transient offender population, higher risk offenders, lot's of prisons, and suffers staff retention problems that require you to constantly recruit. It's a special case just as policing is a special case in the capital and needs careful handling. LondonCRC is now a very unattractive and hazardous place to work with no light at the end of the tunnel and incentives to go the extra mile. I have not met one member of staff who can honestly say they wouldn't jump ship if they could get the same money elsewhere. MTCnovo and those they have appointed to run LCRC are a bad joke. The former senior managers all got their enhanced voluntary redundancies and some of them are now showing up cashing in on bits of work and clearing off again. But the rest of us are saddled with a ridiculous bunch of probation amateurs consisting of prison service senior job hoppers and assorted opportunists who seem to pop up when there's a job going and jump off the moving train shortly before it crashes. We didn't choose to work for who now blame us for the failure of their ridiculous untested operating model that we all told them wouldn't work. Unfortunately no one imagined it could get this bad.
DeleteSenior management already bragging that the contracts bids included large scale dismissals 1810 and that the numbers have to be kept secret behind the confidential commercial mask of secrecy. It was a government scam and they will be exposed.
ReplyDeleteThe foundation for the current dire state of London CRC began with Heather Munro who is also a fellow of the Probation Institute!!
ReplyDeletehttp://probation-institute.org/about/fellows/
I have to say - as a manager - I do not take napo seriously anymore. The once feared union is feared no more!
ReplyDeleteWho mentioned Napo in this thread? Napo is not just a union but a professional association and managers that do not take organisations that represent staff interests seriously cannot claim to be good managers or very professional but are rather more likely to be failed practitioners who sought promotion to get away from the real job and are happy to hide behind a title that they clearly do not deserve.
DeleteAnother CRC Boss left according to her Tweet
ReplyDelete"Mary D'Arcy @Mary_hiowcrc 10h10 hours ago
My last Friday as CEO of @IsleofWightCRC @HampshireCRC on a boat crossing the Solent in the Sun. Happy Friday and thanks to all"
https://twitter.com/Mary_hiowcrc/status/786929308740771841
The senior managers are taking their retirement packages and getting out on their terms. I suspect the CRC owners across the CRC's are readying to to cut their losses. I suppose the likely action will be to squeeze all available revenue (staff, premises) before selling the contracts on or handing them back.
ReplyDeleteNo one will want them by 'end state' they will be handed back in a sorry state. We have lost so many good staff, so much pooled knowledge, the culture and heart beat of an organisation. This will take years to renew if we ever get the chance but then again perhaps some staff would return under different circumstances!
ReplyDeleteAnd at a vastly reduced salary
ReplyDelete