Ideological Constipation

We seem to have fallen into a new regular pattern of activity with 3,314 visits yesterday and basically opinion divided over the issue of face to face office contact with clients or not and especially in the absence of any PPE. The exchanges were tetchy at times, understandable given the possible consequences of our actions and high levels of anxiety. Lets try and not just rehash everything that was said yesterday, but possibly broaden the discussion? 

The issue of how the MoJ intend to deal with the prison situation remains disgracefully unresolved. During a time of unprecedented national edeavour, it seems remarkable to me that it appears beyond the wit of anyone to sort a release programme that could intelligently make use of information, assessment, testing, tagging, mobile phone issuing and remote supervision. With so much of the COVIS-19 response, it just seems to boil down to political judgement and willingness.

Today I want to publish two contributions that arrived by email yesterday:-

After a week of such unprecedented change in delivering case management in the NPS it is interesting to reflect on how remarkable it is. Command and control demands that cases are seen, OASYS is completed, forms are filled in again and again and if you want to book an AP bed for a potential release you follow an over complex maze of screens and forms at least 12 months in advance.....and of course there are no vacancies. 

The job of case managers is relentlessly demanding and unnecessarily complex. The purpose and drivers of our work with our cases and other agencies is to try to assist them to move away from offending and if they cannot, to protect the public and not spend so much time on the computer.

So now we are NOT 'seeing' all but a critical few & working at home in isolation and relying on phones and laptops. Of course a year or so ago we did not have laptops, so it would be interesting to reflect on how the situation would have been managed then! Naturally our leaders still want us to record changes to the type of reporting in duplicate, in both Ndelius and OASYS.

These are difficult times for staff but even more so for our cases and especially those in prison. Of course the worst is yet to come with prisons and APs likely to be overrun by the virus and more staff to become ill. What will happen if Ndelius and the IT goes down as it has in the past and what becomes of the emotional health of staff who are self isolating for 12 weeks because of SUMC or stuck working remotely for days and weeks? Probation will never be the same again but we must support one another and find ways to support colleagues at home.

Finally, a week ago civil servants could not be seen to have any 'perks'. £4.20 lunch allowance even if you are out most of the day and have to buy a coffee at a motorway services. This week LDU heads (who you feel are just following orders anyway) are to receive a £1500 monthly bung. For many colleagues this seems obscene when many of our cases as well as many of the public are desperately trying to survive, especially those trying to claim Universal Credit.

Hopefully, many colleagues will consider whether the bonuses they might receive could be donated, at least in part, to a charity or organisation helping out those who are struggling to survive out there in this crazy new order.

--oo00oo--

In The Name of Humanity

Whilst probation staff are categorised by the government as keyworkers. Clearly some keyworkers are regarded as more essential than others. I too stood on my door step on Thursday clapping for the "carers", but unlike most of the public I was also banging my pot lids for probation staff as well as other frontline staff.

There has always been public wariness of us probation staff as being "do-gooders" for working with people who have transgressed the criminal code. As a profession we have always been treated with suspicion even by other similar professions such as medical staff and social workers simply because of the people with whom we have chosen to engage with on our caseloads. Last year before I retired, our dedicated local authority housing officer explained that her colleagues were frankly apprehensive when recently released prisoners turned up at the homeless persons unit. Even these allied professionals harboured negative stereotypes common in the press and in their canteen culture due to a lack of familiarity and knowledge.

Therefore please do not judge that private landlord too harshly in the above article. I have encountered this attitude when I have been advocating for over 30 years on people on my caseload when trying to support them accessing mental health treatment and local authority housing.

One of my abiding principles is that to assess how humane any society is we need look no further than how the modern day social lepers are treated. This includes people with experience of institutions such as mental health hospitals and prisons. It is all too easy to categorise people into us and them. It is a natural instinct but one we constantly need to guard against to reduce the barriers between us all.

To give a personal example, I was working at the Stockwell Road probation office in South London on July 7th 2005, the day of the London bus bombings. I vividly remember a phone call one of my service users made to me explaining he was in East London and would try to make his way to his office appointment that day. When I told him on no account should he be attending the appointment and definitely not put himself in danger by using public transport, he was shocked. He asked me outright, "you're not going to recall me?". I said "we are are all Londoners aren't we?"

This is a plea to all the probation policy makers and senior managers and trade union officals to remember they have a duty of care to frontline staff and the people whom we work with. In the name of humanity, everyone, including their families, take care.