Pick of the Week 48

I'd also like to ask a question, and I'm thinking the answer would be one of a very individual nature, but... Would probation staff welcome, or even feel comfortable with being involved in the planning or development of a clients drug addiction strategy and management if it wasn't one of total abstinence if government reforms allowed?

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No problem at all, used to do exactly that with alcohol dependent cases, and also with those dependent on benzo's (reduction programme) if GP would play ball. If not, we (me, subs misuse worker & benzo dependent client) would 'get creative'. Courtesy of Grayling's TR I just create & serve hot beverages now, helping customers to manage their caffeine dependency - "one shot or two?"

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So at least 967 jobs explicitly identified as lost by design due to TR. HM Tory Gov encouraged, agreed to & paid for these job losses, which were covertly written into the bids for the CRC contracts & subsequently covered by an additional handout of taxpayer money via the Modernisation Fund. About £16m was used for redundancies; the bulk of this money, estimated at £64m, was pocketed by the CRC owners and NOT passed on to staff, nor was it recovered by HMGov, with Andrew Selous confirming in Hansard the CRCs were permitted to keep the cash for themselves. JSC - please can you ask how & why this was regarded as acceptable & approved by parliament?

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Yes probation has been forgotten. We did not have the leaders worthy of probation. And we ourselves have been too cowardly to speak/act up for ourselves. Now probation in its old guise would fit in nowhere. The whole criminal justice system is broken, as we have seen and a new one needs to be established as a whole, with all parts working well together. It must be just. Rehabilitation must be built into every aspect of it and linked to social inclusion, effective healthcare, a living wage and affordable accommodation. Simples.

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Oh man, they're good aren't they? They shed 1,000 staff, they cut overheads, abandon offices, cost as much (at best) but probably MORE than the previous Probation service provision, yet they whine like stuck pigs that "volumetric contract payments" aren't sufficient, that IOM & multi-agency working has suddenly increased conviction levels, that the under 12 month supervisees have had a dramatic impact upon the contract payment systems...

... for fuck's sake, they engaged with the MoJ, they bought into the whole programme, they costed & bid for their CRCs, they fucked over a whole range of long-serving & experienced staff, they've blackmailed the MoJ into additional payments already...bullshit & manipulation in technicolor!!

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"inflexibility of contracts restricts our ability to involve voluntary sector" Uh??!! Seetec - "inflexible funding formula meant we had to choose between contracting out or keeping loyal long-serving probation staff". But opening up the market & involving the vol sector was the whole basis of Grayling's reform.

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JSC so far (1 hour less 'private hearing' time): Everything's rosy in the garden, we're performing just fine, we're innovating just fine, the courts are happy with us, we love NPS & they love us, we're brilliant but...WE WANT MORE MONEY! MORE MONEY! MORE! MONEY! NOW!!! 

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Oh, and those selfish bastards that have years of specialist experience are simply exiting probation and not coming back, leaving us in the lurch!

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Sonia NPS lets slip there are ongoing "commercial in-confidence negotiations between MoJ & CRCs". So, can't wait for more public money to haemorrhage into the privateers' pockets.

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"moving toward clinical supervision" - So that's not already provided? I used to have that in 1998 via local reciprocal arrangement with Lucy Faithfull Foundation when working with sex offenders, wouldn't have been able to function without it. FFS.

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The problem with involving the voluntary sector has nothing to do with contracts. The private probation companies want services from the voluntary sector for free, and when they are prepared to pay, they want to dictate the way the organisation they're engaging with operate. It's totally all about economic considerations, and nothing about the welfare of staff, clients or the general public. It's just what they do. They're in it to make money, not to make things better.

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Hmm, amazing new idea from Sonia NPS - let's put probation officers into prisons so they can work with prisoners, undertake assessments... never heard of that before! TR has brought about life-changing innovation in the world of probation! What's not to like? Deluded Tossers.

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NPS - £26m spent on agency staff in one year.

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Well, that was very lovely all round. Crisis? What crisis? Nothing to see here. Off you go.

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The pay offer of 6% (over 3 years) brings into sharp relief the recent offer of 1% (over 2 years) for probation staff. The demand that NHS staff cede a day's annual leave as part of their offer was withdrawn by the government, whereas the probation unions have previously agreed deals which have included reductions to annual leave.

The probation unions spend a lot of time and resources addressing the shortcomings of TR – lengthy submissions to various select committees and various activities that do not directly relate to pay. In fact, what is happening to pay is usually a hand-wringing footnote. There is a broad consensus on what's wrong with TR and it can seem pumping out the arguments against TR has become a series of repeat prescriptions with nothing new being added.

The path least taken is the one on pay and terms and conditions, the protection and advance of which should be the priority of the trade unions. Perhaps the unions should narrow their agendas and agitate much more on the subject of pay. Staff have been impoverished over recent years and it's time to attack the hypocrisy of those who profess to value their hard-working staff while insulting their pay packets. We know how bad TR is - it's time to make clear how bad pay is and what the unions, instead of lowering expectations, are going to positively do about this fundamental issue.

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Joined up Govt? I think not. If JSC had had sight of PAC report then much of the bullshit from the privateers would have been called out yesterday, instead of it being a day out in Westminster. Or maybe that's WHY the PAC report wasn't released until after the JSC hearing?

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These are Graylings reforms, and he is responsible for costing the taxpayer £billions in pounds, shillings and pence. It's not just probation, it's employment tribunals, judicial reviews, legal aid, prison closures and court houses around the country sitting empty but still costing huge sums to maintain, and just the cost of agency staff because of redundancies and failure to recruit is astronomical. But the cost of Grayling's incompetence should not be calculated in pounds, shillings and pence alone because the human cost is considerably higher. Wrecked careers, destruction of support networks, the withdrawal of justice for those that can't afford it, assaults, self-harm and murders in the prison system, the squalor of conditions and the fear that prisoners live with daily are all due to Graylings 'gut' feelings. 

As one lawyer said "Grayling is a s*** that needs flushing away." It is unbelievable that one person has been allowed to create so much chaos, death, destruction and misery, and equally unbelievable is that he's unlikely to be held accountable for it. The cost of what Grayling has done should never be calculated in £s alone, he's far more culpable then just that.

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I disagree. He was the minion that was used to carry out the deed. This is the ideology of the conservatives and the reason he was given the post was due to his ambition and the fact that ‘the controlling mind’ within the party knew he would carry out the act without raising objections.

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I think those are valid points, and I certainly take on board the collective conscious of an ideologically-driven Tory party. Indeed, the privatisation of probation couldn't have happened without the backing and vote from the rest of the party. However, I take the opinion that far from being the ideological figurehead and vehicle to implement party reforms, Grayling went far beyond, and used his newly-found power as Lord Chancellor to make the criminal justice system his own personal playground. Many of his reforms were never voted on in Parliament, and those that were he bastardised to suit his personal agenda. I really do take the point about Tory ideology, but I can't accept that Grayling should not not be held culpable in a personal capacity for much of the destruction of the CJS. A lot of his reforms have actually been reversed by successive SOSs.

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By all means let us point the finger at failing Grayling, a turgid specimen of humanity, at the men and women from the Ministry who rushed through the changes for their own ends, the people at HMPPS who sought a takeover to make the prison service the top dog, but let us not forget the collaborators at the head of our own organisation in the NPS who have pocketed the money, brushed aside our objections, said nowt in our defence and simply smiled as they slid the knife in. If we had been at war, (and some days it feels like we are,) they would at least have had their heads shaved if not strung up from the lamp posts. Turncoats, traitors and accomplices the lot of them. Hang your heads in shame! (you might have to look that word up!)

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How many lives have they already ruined, how many jobs have already been lost and how many jobs will be lost in the future so they can make a buck? No, I was hoping for the CRC's to be returned back to being a public service, maybe they can use all the money they have had from the contracts 21 mil here and there, officers redundancy money which they kept and put it into their cleaning contracts and save the jobs of the people who made them and go back to doing what they know best. They clearly have no idea what Probation means.

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The doublespeak simply confounds a simpleton like me. I would have said these statements were wholly incompatible, yet they follow each other in the PAC report (Conclusion 2 above):

1. "CRCs are paid for the types of activity they undertake rather than the volumes of offenders they supervise"

2. "The Ministry failed to anticipate the potential for lower than expected volumes of work flowing to CRCs."

3. "Lower than expected volumes of work meant that CRCs faced the prospect of significantly reduced income over the life of the contracts."

And the CRCs themselves persisted in confabulating volume and reward, switching seamlessly between low volumes means reduced income, and high volumes means reduced income. In fact ANY volumes seem to mean reduced income for these parasites.

The truth? I suspect no-one actually knows what the truth is anymore. Grayling inserted the compensation clause preventing contracts from being terminated without handing over £Millions to the privateers; the Senior Responsible Officer Antonia Romeo has buggered off & Dame Ursula Brennan has retired to the bar at The National Theatre.

Meanwhile our harmless clown of a Foreign Sec is drawing direct comparisons between Hitler at the 1936 Olympics & Putin with the 2018 World Cup. A bit of an inappropriate s-t-r-e-t-c-h of the facts, I'd suggest... unless Boris "Peace For Our Time" Johnson has other as-yet-undisclosed plans for our armed forces over the next few years?

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I would like to make it clear that Probation staff STILL try to manage offenders of all categories to the best of their considerable ability, but are faced with ever-increasing caseloads, ever-increasing demands on their time actually supervising offenders correctly and effectively by the "Requirement" to input data into a proven not-fit-for-purpose IT system! 

Having worked in the service, for almost 24 years, and at many different locations, I am proud to say that I've worked with the most dedicated, concientious and hard-working people. Government cuts to ALL public protection services are having a significant impact on these services, which ultimately leads to horrendous offences occurring and people's lives being dreadfully and permanently affected. It's time to put back the resources and let staff do the job the way they know it needs to done!

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An area that absolutely sickens me is the use of agency staff. Constantly we are told workload is not high enough to warrant recruitment of a PSO/PO. Or, this cannot be achieved due to finances. Yet, there is an increasing amount of agency staff. What makes me sick is this. Agency staff who were permanent, resigning, setting up a private company in their name, then returning to the service as agency, earning more than as a full time member of staff. More money, less days. Most only work part time. I’m sick of hearing these ‘colleagues’ boast about their income. I’m sick of spending management allowing this to happen. It’s not bloody rocket science. Pay your permanent staff MORE! Retain and reward competent, permanent staff. Stop funding agency staff.

Come on Helga Swidenbank, Paul Baker - put plans in place to pay the right people. It doesn't solve the overall issue. Why is performance and quality so poor? The answers are staring you in the face!

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The use of agency staff by the ministry of justice is an issue in all of its departments, just as it is in all other offices of State. The NHS pays an enormous amount each year for agency workers. It's an issue I wish the labour party would shout about louder, not because agency staff can't do an excellent job, but soley because of the huge financial cost to public services. This snippet from the Guardian in January makes the point well:-

"The courts service spent £50m last year on agency and contract staff, a more than tenfold rise since 2010 when it spent less than £4m, while courts have been closing at an unprecedented rate. The annual cost of temporary staff has rocketed over a period when the Ministry of Justice has suffered the deepest cuts of any Whitehall department and closed more than 220 courts across England and Wales."

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The use if agency workers is essentially the introduction of zero hours contracts into service delivery. It avoids the need for sick pay and holiday pay as well as pension contributions etc. It is exploitation, whether it is in Probation, Prisons, Schools, Social Care or Hospitals.

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Forgetting - just for a moment - the disaster that has been and is TR... CRC London, MTCNovo senior management - do you want it spelled out why performance and quality is so poor? You pay for agency staff rather than rewarding the solid, capable and strong full time PSO/PO’s. There is a high turn over in many offices. Why would they care if a SL target is met? Or a quality assessment is completed? Instructions are fed down in a generally aggressive manner, striking fear into staff. Those full time staff on PiP plans are generally not supported in any meaningful way. Take some time. Look at your managers. Look at the money you are bleeding with agency staff. Get a bloody grip and actually do something positive. You, Senior managers/directors - fight for your staff and reward them. Improve the environment they work in. Stop being so lazy!

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A professional culture of supportive supervision is essential for high performance, quality services and retention of professional staff. A few other things too but that is a good place to start.

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Major incident in Interserve, OASsys is down meaning admin cannot start a new OASsys meaning staff can't do electronic risk plans and thus the 15 day target is at risk and to top it all off - we've been told to revert back to paper assessments. It's one thing after another. No news on any paydeal either.

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'... relationships are crucially influenced by staff turnover, which can lead to a lack of consistency in approach ... The issue of inconsistency in behaviour management is important as it damages the all-important element of trust in the relationship.' Quote (abridged) Peter Clarke, HM Inspector of Prisons. Good grief, this aint rocket science! My view, we're human, relationships are vitally important.

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Major IT malfunction today - not only has OASys stopped linking to C-NOMIS and N-Delius but the Prison I work in has been without C-NOMIS all day. God knows what has been missed in the prison today as all info and processes like receptions and discharges go through C-NOMIS. All we have had is a screen saying server not available. No idea if it will be back tomorrow or what the issue is - all IT is now based in ‘the cloud’.....

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I am aware through a colleague that the telephone system at Camberwell Green Magistrates Court probation has been down for 5 weeks, beyond belief.

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Probation is such a shitty organisation, yet its workers are concerned with when they receive laptops!! Forget the laptops, instead demand better pay and conditions. Most other public sectors are now getting pay increases and bonuses. Probation, “you leave with nothing” well except for a laptop so you can be forced to hotdesk and work in your home time.

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Management must love it when their workers are agitating about laptops: at least they are not becoming bolshie and seething with resentment over their deteriorating pay. Can you imagine the nurses agreeing to 0.5% in year 1 and then 0.5% in year 2? If you didn't know otherwise, you would think I was making up these percentages. But it's true and it tells you how low expectations have fallen in probation. Probation unions say it's the best deal available and that's what the NHS unions are telling their members about their 6.5% pay rise, granted a loftier figure than 1%, but even 6.5% will be swallowed up by inflation over the next three years, leaving nurses probably worse off, but far better off than probation staff – reminiscent of the man who falls off a building and as he passes each floor, he reassures himself, 'So far so good, so far so good, so far so good...'

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Laptops so you work from home using your own electricity and WiFi. That’s on the day they “allow” you to work from home if you ask nicely. They’ve already stolen a days leave, essential car user allowance, geographical supplements, 10 years of pay increments, and new staff receive London weighting even though they don’t live or work in London and existing staff get nothing!! If you’re really unlucky, for the pleasure of being employed by such a shit organisation, you’ll be vetted and blacklisted by the police as 3000 construction workers have!!

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I do wonder about the working definition of a police state. I know we don't go about 'disappearing' or poisoning people – our state has other ways of destroying its 'enemies of the state' who just happen, in the vast majority of cases, to be engaging in lawful activities. Likewise with the thousands infiltrations into political and campaigning groups – including the campaign for justice for Stephen Lawrence – our state subverts the law. The cock-up theories as to why things happen are discredited, as there is ample evidence that the state conspires to make things happen.

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Teaching union calls for 5% pay rise with possible strike backing. National Union of Teachers asks for staff pay increase after NHS announces 6.5% settlement... but probation are more interested in work laptops! Even with the best laptops in the world the IT systems will still be crap. Tell your managers, to keep the laptops and give better pay and conditions instead.

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I'm not interested in the least about the laptop fiasco our manager keeps on about it trying to enthuse us! It will just be another hindrance to my job as a proper probation Officer!

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I couldn’t give a monkeys about laptops. I live in a rural outpost and broadband is poor. Perhaps they want to pay for some sort of signal relay system and then reimburse the cost of my electricity. What happens when their laptops are used to download unauthorised material or when they are stolen? Guess who will be held to account. Stick your laptop!

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“What happens when their laptops are used to download unauthorised material or when they are stolen?” There’ll be a news report “PO from rural outpost loses thousands of offender records”. You’ll probably read it while queuing at your local job centre! And they won’t reimburse broadband or leccy, but they will monitor you remotely and pop up on your screen. This is to make sure when you’re at home you’re working on OASys and not “unauthorised material” or watching This Morning and Jeremy Kyle!! Laptops are just another bit of shite probation IT. Mine won’t leave the office, I’m happy with my 9-5.

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Long thought that IT is driven by accountants and managers, it allows for comfort information/spreadsheet fodder. I think it could more usefully be driven by practitioner and client needs and then as a secondary consideration, feed the needs of others.

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My father in law (no longer with us), when in the early stages of dementia, was persuaded by a scurrilous sales man to purchase an overpriced electronic bed with a fancy tilt action. He was very pleased with the ridiculous number of free gifts he received as well - one of which was a laptop. Rogue Companies do seem to like fobbing people off with laptops as 'gifts'- they usefully divert attention from what is really going on.

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Probation workers are treated by their employers as if they have dementia. Really I think they have Stockholm syndrome. No other workforce puts up with this level of ill-treatment and abuse from their employer. Tell them to shove their laptops bought with the stolen leave, the years of frozen pay rises and the £300 million handed to CRC’s.

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When you put it into perspective, the MoJ gave CRC Probation £300 million to line its pockets, but gave NPS Probation cheap laptops so it can reduce office space. The CRC’s already reduced its workforce and office space so we all know what’s coming next to the NPS. The current agenda is OMiC and custody probation officers holding all custody’s cases until release. The elephant in the room is what happens to all the community Probation Officers and their laptops when there aren’t enough cases in the community to supervise?

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If, as seems to be the persistent Tory claim, "reoffending rates remain stubbornly high", then how about radical non-intervention - a national service simply monitoring those who have committed the more serious offences, and leave everyone else alone. Invest the saved £bns in local authority social workers, housing & mental health services to deal with the needs-led crises of others.

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There are swathes of research about ‘what works’ and rehabilitation as an important part of the justice system. The Tories are not interested in probation and rehabilitation which is what actually reduced reoffending and prevents crime. When the Tories successfully complete their plan of removing all remaining probation/rehabilitation infrastructure, then these evil left-wing theories and approaches of state-funded justice and rehabilitation will finally be eradicated.

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Something has to happen with probation services, it just can't be allowed to continue in the state it is now in. I don't say that because of the chaos faced daily by staff and clients, but because every inspection or inquiry by a parliamentary committee points to failure, and if the contracts were allowed to run to their end the only solution would be renationalisation. That's just not acceptable to the Tories. So, re-tender and mix things up a bit? Personally I feel that would just bring more of the same, so a more radical approach has to be found. 

The Tories must now realise that extending supervision to the under 12mths has been a very expensive mistake. It's added huge expense to the probation bill, and brought no resolution to any of the issues that were preached in the rethoric used to privatise. In fact it's only speeded-up the revolving door for the under 12mths, and forced barriers with the third sector, reducing the amount of support available for those short term prisoners on release. So I'm not at all sure what the next move will be, but I don't think it will be simply re-tendering.

Someone noted on this blog the other day that Narco had been awarded a contract for accommodation for people on bail and leaving custody, and I thought that a very interesting move. Would that be the way forward? Remove some of the responsibilities and obligations that are inherently associated with probation services, and contract them out individually? That of course would further dilute the service and make probation officers really just parole officers policing licence conditions and remove the social worker ethic completely. Or perhaps private companies will be allowed to operate on a type of franchise model, selling off parts of their contract?  I think the next move will be interesting, but I doubt very much it'll be good one.

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There could quite easily be a similar book on probation, the so called ‘hidden arm of the CJS’. Probation workers are weary and the unions long dead. There are a lot of good Probation Officers and interventions and supports that do reduce offending and improves lives, but the Tories are not interested. TR has been a shambles and the Tories are not interested in Probation and rehabilitation. PCC’s for probation would be as bad as CRC’s. We’ll never be joined with YOS as this would mean admitting DipSW and CSQW should of never been replaced by DipPS, DipPP, PQF and PQiP.

Probation is a danger to the Tories because it’s the proof of Tory mismanagement of the MoJ and CJS. When you put it all into perspective, the MoJ gave CRC Probation £300 million to line it’s pockets and CRC’s are still failing. NPS Probation get cheap laptops so it can reduce office space. Before this it spent £500 million on IT under Labour rather than invest in Probation Officers and pay them properly. The CRC’s have already reduced the workforce and office space so we all know that’s coming next to the NPS.

Probation has been dying a slow death since TR. £26 million on agency staff is appalling. The ‘3 E’s’ have been disbanded and the current agenda is OMiC. Custody probation officers will soon be holding all custody’s cases until release. The elephant in the room is what happens to all the community Probation Officers and their laptops when there aren’t enough cases in the community to supervise. Maybe probation is finally about to be put down. Time to refresh the CV!

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Probation workers are weary and the unions long dead. The unions are Probation officers and sadly they don't have any clue on what their role is as a union. We are led by the inept incompetent. Makes you wonder what skill sets PO really has left in todays requirements for the role.

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The heads of Napo and Unison are not Probation Officers. The real problem with probation is its leadership and senior management who have destroyed and allowed probation to be destroyed over the past 20 years. Most PO’s nowadays are highly skilled professionals in box ticking, speed typing, repeating what the computer says, pretending to be police constables, and using phrases like “in my opinion”, “risk management”, “breach” and “recall”.

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Wouldn't re-tendering the contracts mean current providers being paid off for the remaining contract period plus possible compensation?

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Grayling inserted a clause to deter/prevent a potential Labour Govt reversing his handiwork whereby CRC owners would be compensated for the entirety of the initial contract period (7yrs), which expires in 2022. I guess it depends what the current secret negotiations are cooking up. CRC mantra is "more cash, more cash, more cash" - & they have a strong hand...

Never ceases to amaze me that in an allegedly free Western democracy there are so many secret, backdoor, confidential, sensitive issues that the nation is excluded from - even though it has a direct impact upon their employment, freedom or well-being; and the State uses our money - without scrutiny or accountability - to fund their private, pet projects. Feels very familiar, kind of like the vivid pictures the Tories paint of corrupt regimes.

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Or they could measure the contract total CRC fails and offer them a free pass to walk away. Oh so much for a wish they will be looking how to fence off more cash back-handers in a settlement to be collected by out of work ministers later on.

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Why would they want to hand contracts back when they get paid for failure? CRC have provided no interventions, have shed most of the staff, have been humiliated by inspectors and exposed by Panorama. BUT THEY STILL RECEIVE HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF POUNDS FROM THE GOVERNMENT!!!!

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Most CRC ‘rate card’ interventions are paid for starts rather than completions. It’s a licence to print money.

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Truth is private companies carrying out public service contracts are in a very comfortable position. They "carry out" work on "behalf" of the government and take all the spoils, but only doing work on "behalf" of the government means you're not the real boss and the buck stops further up the food chain. They have the government over the barrel.