As always I wish Napo well, but this year I will not be present at the AGM, my membership having lapsed earlier in the year. As regular readers will know, I joined the union on appointment as a newly-qualified probation officer in 1986, but for reasons probably well understood by many readers and Napo members, I've decided to call it a day, so there will be no conference report as usual, unless any of those attending feel a burning desire to share any thoughts or reflections with us. Have a good conference and AGM.
So Wiki is wrong? Oh dear, whatever next...
ReplyDelete"Spurr joined the Prison Service in 1983, the same year that borstals were abolished, initially as a prison officer in HMP Leeds. He then moved to HMP Stanford Hill to begin training as an Assistant Governor after a year. Following the completion of his training he transferred to HMP Swaleside, before becoming Deputy Governor of HMYOI Aylesbury and then Governing Governor of the same establishment in 1993."
Part of new Governor training back then - definitely in the 1970s was for quite lengthy attachments to a local SPO - I remeber my SPO having one at Old Swan - so that must have been the late 1970s.
DeleteI do not recall him holding any cases but he certainly was involved in the team - though as far as it affected me just in the tea room.
Do you recall when probation office tea rooms were a vital part of the professional training scheme back then - well definitely in Liverpool - a tradition that continued for me in Essex and then Inner London until I was seconded to a prison in 1997, my penultimate attachment.
So come on - when & where was Spurr a 'probation officer'? Someone who reads this blog must know. Or is it yet another convenient lie from a deluded, egotistical fantasist?
ReplyDeleteWonder what Napo have got to have a conference about? No 'news' posted on their website since May 2019; no 'twitter' for "1 month 4 weeks" & the last of 'Ian's Blog' entries was 12 Aug 2019.
ReplyDeleteBut Wait - "this year the fee will include a sandwich lunch on both days as well as refreshments in the formal breaks and live entertainment."
"Outgoing HM Chief Inspector of Probation Dame Glenys Stacey has agreed to be on the panel for the debate on the future direction of Probation. She will join Amy Rees, Executive Director HMPPS Wales and Strategy. We also hope to have Shadow Justice Secretary, Richard Burgon, and JSC Chair, Bob Neill."
So, Dame Glenys is gone rather than 'outgoing' & will only repeAT WHAT SHE'S ALREADY SAID; Amy Rees won't miss a chance to promote herself & the HMPPS mantra; and neither Burgon nor Neill are likely to be available - but despite being to the fore, politically speaking, neither have had any impact upon the 'direction' of probation in the last few years because 'the centre' ain't listening.
Enjoy, comrades!
Yes I must admit I've been surprised at the paucity of communication and information coming out of Napo of late, especially as 'new' media makes it so easy. As you say, the General Secretary seems to have dispensed with his regular blog and even the weekly Monday 'Blog roundup' has been a bit thin of late, indeed not even appearing this week, unless I missed it.
DeleteI really did think that under the Chairmanship of Katie Lomas and at a particularly challenging time for the profession, we'd be hearing regularly from her in the form of blogs or articles, but no. Perhaps she's been pre-occupied with her political career?
https://www-telegraph-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/09/crime-victims-put-risk-privatisation-probation-says-new-chief/amp/?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#aoh=15706963172067&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.telegraph.co.uk%2Fpolitics%2F2019%2F10%2F09%2Fcrime-victims-put-risk-privatisation-probation-says-new-chief%2F
DeletePaywall, but you get the gist:-
DeleteCrime victims have been put at risk by the privatisation of probation services, says the new chief inspector in his first report.
Justin Russell said there was a huge gap between private firms and public sector probation service in their ability to protect the public from “serious harm.”
He blamed it on the fact that staff in the privatised Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) were responsible for more than 70 offenders at any one time, compared to just 30 for many in the public National Probation Service (NPS).
Daily Telegraph
DeleteBY Charles Hymas, Home Affairs Editor
9 October 2019 • 11:57pm
Crime victims have been put at risk by the privatisation of probation services, says the new chief inspector in his first report.
Justin Russell said there was a huge gap between private firms and public sector probation service in their ability to protect the public from “serious harm.”
He blamed it on the fact that staff in the privatised Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) were responsible for more than 70 offenders at any one time, compared to just 30 for many in the public National Probation Service (NPS).
Such a workload and responsibility not only put CRC staff under serious mental stress but also left victims and the public at severe risk of reoffending or attack.
“Inspectors found a particularly large gap between the NPS and CRCs in the quality of work to protect the public from serious harm,” says his report. “Overall scores on this aspect of performance were up to 25 percentage points lower for CRCs than for the NPS.”
He said probation staff in the CRCs did not adequately assess the risks to the public or victims in nearly half (45 per cent) of inspected cases. Information was frequently not shared with police or children’s services while there were few home visits.
ontinues
Delete“Probation staff are missing out on opportunities to spot and mitigate risks, including to keep children and potential victims safe,” he added.
He revealed that during inspections, inspectors had had to raise the alarm because they felt there were “immediate” risks to the public.
Mr Russell said his report “laid bare” the consequences of former Justice Secretary Chris Grayling’s privatisation with only one of the 21 CRCs inspected rated as good, with the remainder judged to “require improvement” and one rated “inadequate.” That compared with five of the seven NPSs judged to be good.
The differences were most marked in staffing where two thirds of the CRC probation officers managed more than 50 cases, compared with just one in 20 staff in the NPS.
Almost one in five (19 per cent) of CRC staff had more than 70 offenders for which they were responsible.
One probation officer who was managing 79 cases and was due to receive a further nine in the next fortnight admitted he felt as though “he flies by the seat of his pants on a daily basis.”
He was “close to tears” in the interview, admitted “due to the levels of stress he is experiencing, he doesn’t feel totally clear in his decision making.
The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is bringing the CRCs back into the public sector. They managed low and medium risk offenders, while the NPS is responsible for more serious offenders.
ALSO from that Telegraph article an accompanying explainer
DeleteProbation system | How Chris Grayling's reforms failed
January 2013: Mandatory supervision
As newly-appointed Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling announces major reform of the probation service. For the first time all offenders, including those serving less than 12 months, will be subject to mandatory supervision and tailored rehabilitation on release from prison.
June 2014: Partial privatisation
Grayling oversees the partial privatisation of the probation service in England and Wales. Thirty-five probation trusts previously running the sector are replaced with 21 'community rehabilitation companies' contracted to supervise 200,000 low and medium-risk offenders each year. Government creates new public sector organisation, the National Probation Service, which will supervise and rehabilitate 31,000 high-risk offenders.
January 2015 to September 2018: Re-offending skyrockets
Number of offenders recalled to prison for breaching their licence condition increases by almost half, from 4,240 to 6,240. The National Audit Office says Grayling’s reforms were “rushed” and number of offenders returning to prison for breaching licence conditions had “skyrocketed”. It said the Ministry of Justice had “set itself up to fail”, the contracts with private firms were “ineffective”, and concluded there had been “little progress” in transforming the probation services. The government insisted the increasing number of prison recalls was because more offenders were being monitored.
Community rehabilitation companies faced losses of £294m over the lifetime of their contracts. They had been expecting to make profits of £269m. Government says Ministry of Justice will end their contracts in 2020, 14 months early, at a cost of at least £171m.
May 2019: Reversal
Justice Secretary David Gauke promises to reverse Grayling’s disastrous reforms by renationalising the probation service by spring 2021, bringing it back under the control of the National Probation Service.
With Michael Spurrs experience of working within in the prison estate, and the knowledge he must obviously have gained working as a "probation practitioner" in the 1980s and his subsequent position at the reigns of HMPPS in Whitehall, I wonder what his response to the concerns raised by the POA today would be?
ReplyDeletePerhaps as probation does currently sit under the banner of HMPPS, and the number of SFOs at an all time high, maybe NAPO might touch on the subject? It is after all their membership that gets hung out to dry most often when there is an SFO.
https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-lancashire-49984395?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#aoh=15706995010535&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s
'Getafix
Hundreds of inmates were wrongly sent to an open prison in Lancashire when they should have been in more secure jails, the prison officers' union says.
DeleteIt follows figures showing HMP Kirkham had the joint highest number of prisoners absconding from custody last year.
The Prison Officers Association (POA) blamed prison overcrowding and called for tougher assessments of inmates. Prisoner absconds from Kirkham had fallen, said the Ministry of Justice.
Mick Pimblett from the POA said: "There were 250 to 300 prisoners in Kirkham transferred back to closed [prisons] last year because they were inappropriately allocated there."
He said they were sent back to more secure prisons for a variety of reasons including involvement in crime, drug offences or failure to comply with the conditions of their licence.
He blamed overcrowding at other prisons for unsuitable prisoners being sent to open prisons, as well as low staffing levels at category D Kirkham for the high number of absconds, and called for tougher risk assessments of inmates when considering them for open prisons.
He said the vast majority of prisoners housed in Kirkham "present a very, very low risk" to the public but added: "There are some dangerous prisoners in there who, if they are allocated incorrectly, could cause problems". It comes as two more inmates absconded from the prison on Saturday.
The Ministry of Justice said: "The number of absconds from open prison has fallen by two-thirds in the last decade but we work closely with the police to recapture absconders and they face a return to tougher, closed conditions when caught."
A spokeswoman for the Prison Service added: "Offenders are only moved to open conditions if they have passed a thorough risk-assessment and any suggestion that the process is not being followed is wholly incorrect."
HMP Kirkham was criticised in May by inspectors who said inmates found it "easy" to smuggle drugs into the jail after work or day release.
https://www-independent-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prison-suicide-rate-rise-jail-prison-probation-ombudsman-annual-report-a9150351.html?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#aoh=15707144943460&csi=1&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.independent.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fuk%2Fhome-news%2Fprison-suicide-rate-rise-jail-prison-probation-ombudsman-annual-report-a9150351.html
DeletePrisoner suicides have surged by 23 per cent across England and Wales in the past year, official figures reveal.
DeleteIn a damning annual report, the Prison and Probation Ombudsman said self-inflicted deaths increased from 74 in 2017/18 to 91 last year, marking a stark reversal of a 37 per cent reduction in the 12 months before.
The overall number of prison deaths also increased, by 6 per cent to 334 in the same period, despite an unexplained reduction in the number of those dying from natural causes.
Sue Mcallister, the ombudsman, said that in many cases, she had been forced to make the same recommendations as in previous years because promised improvements had not been made.
Chronicling a number of disturbing incidents of inmate deaths across the prison estate, she said there had been “too many cases where there were significant failings in the emergency response” when an inmate was discovered in a state of crisis.
In one case, a 35-year-old man at HMP Coldingley who had previously self-harmed in the jail, and who had been assessed as having an increased risk of suicide and self-harm, was found hanged in his cell.
The ombudsman expressed concern about the length of time the inmate had spent in segregation prior to his death and said important safeguards for segregated prisoners had not been followed. It was also concluded that the healthcare he received for his mental health problems was not equivalent to that which he would have received in the community.
In another alarming case, a 31-year-old male prisoner who had a long history of substance misuse while in prison, died after accidentally set himself on fire while smoking a drug in his cell at Hewell Prison in Worcestershire.
The man had pressed his emergency bell – which are supposed to be responded to by a member of staff within five minutes – but was waiting for 16 minutes before an officer answered it, by which point was said to be conscious, but unable to comply with staff instructions, and had severe burns to most of his body.
Ms Mcallister said the delay in responding to the prisoner was “unacceptable”, and that it had been wrongly dismissed as “just another drugs related-incident.”
The ombudsman also said that, while it was not possible to give a precise figure on the number of drug-related deaths, "one of the most worrying aspects" of its report was "the apparent ease with which prisoners were able to access drugs".
Ms McAllister suggested that the issues were in part due to the rise in inexperienced prison staff. In May, The Independent revealed that 80,000 years of prison officer experience had been lost from the justice system since 2010.
The ombudsman said: “We know that the numbers of staff with less than two years of experience is higher than we’ve ever seen before because there is a huge recruitment drive in the prison service and the number of people leaving is higher than it has been historically.
“We see anecdotally evidence of staff who are not sure what they should be doing, for example, when they come across somebody in a cell who is in crisis or appears to have died. They are unsure of what they should do in terms of raising the alarm or whether they can or cannot go into the cell.”
In response to the findings, Deborah Coles, director of INQUEST said there was an "urgent need" for a national oversight mechanism to monitor and audit action taken following deaths to ensure changes were enacted.
"The recommendations made are ultimately only as good as their implementation. Yet there exists a shocking accountability gap that allows lifesaving recommendations to disappear into the ether," she added.
Prisons and Probation Minister, Lucy Frazer QC MP, said: “Any self-inflicted death is a tragedy, which is why we have trained more than 25,000 staff in suicide and self-harm prevention and assigned each inmate a dedicated keyworker for support.
Delete“We are also spending £100m on improved security measures to stop drugs which fuel violence and self-harm, improving support during the often difficult first few days in custody, investing £2.5bn in modern prison places which support effective rehabilitation and have recruited almost 4,400 more staff in the last three years.”
Just found this
ReplyDeletehttps://www.napo.org.uk/sites/default/files/agm19-prog-low.pdf
Seems Dame Glenys has morphed into Justin Russell (interesting if its the case viz-news reports above); no mention of Bob Neill
Napo conference what a joke . They have less members than ever overpaid leadership distasterous stumbling around crisis led activity no plans no hope. Conference is short and meaningless.
ReplyDelete