Read yesterday's blog and heard your heartfelt lament that you are whistling in the wind! I know the feeling so well. Hope you took some heart from the replies to your blog. I wish to thank you for your blog, for being the only external forum that's kept me going through the Narnia winter period of TR1.
Having retired last November, I have been bingeing on the science fiction Netflix series Black Mirror. Time and time again I have been chilled by comparisons of the protagonists in an episode being out of step with the common herd and myself being out of step with the direction of the probation service during the last 5 years.
Thanks for allowing me to be a keyboard warrior in publishing two of my rants and republishing my response on OASys. However, once again, venting on social media has not done wonders for my mental health and I am now champing at the bit to return to the coalface in a Magistrates' Court which is my first love when I first started in probation over 30 years ago. Despite all the angst and the problems well documented by another one of my heroes, The Secret Barrister, I still consider the criminal courts to be our shop window. It's where we started as a profession and where we belong (this is one arena we are safe from the police taking over our role).
Having praised your blog there is one significant drawback of the blog format. The lack of an opportunity to have a continuing dialogue, a conversation, to explore the nuances of an issue which is possible only with a face to face discussion group. I think a lot of people who read your blog only feel motivated to join in if they strongly agree with you or strongly disagree with you. This is not your fault. It is just a limitation of the blog format. The result can be a tendency to be an echo chamber of like-minded folk.
One of the pleasures in working in the probation service in the early days was the diversity of the approaches that the probation staff used in working with service users. We had community probation officers who worked closely with youth workers and community groups. Neighbourhood probation officers who were mainly located in local estates; systemic probation officers who worked with whole families, group workers who worked in probation day centres. We had what would now be called a broad neurodiversity of staff methods. Officers were actually given the space and lattitude to specialise in their preferred approach. Compare that with the sterile mono-culture and group herd approach of HMPPS.
One belief keeps me going through The Matrix nightmare scenario probation is going through where you and I and Getafix and others seemingly keep knocking our heads against a brick wall - namely authenticity. Eventually the common herd will be able to see that the doubletalk they have been fed by the powers-that-be is a dead end and only those who have escaped the clutches of The Matrix offers any real hope for the future.
My closest probation colleague is a PSO. He is not a good fit for the ideal probation staff as listed in the current HMPPS probation job description. His written English is only fair. His maths is poor. But if I were to end up on probation I would want him as my supervising officer because he is authentic. He may struggle to compile a written sentence plan or keep up to date log entries or be PC about various equality issues but he spares no effort to get his people housed, in jobs, getting them a bank account and listening to their concerns. He told me just after I retired that being authentic was what we probation staff should strive for and in my opinion he is right.
Jim, how many times have we seen the service being restructured from A to B to C and finally to A again? I think it will come to pass that the social work ethos will prevail (I'm getting biblical now). Why? Because it is an honest way of working with service users and thus more likely to achieve lasting outcomes, changing lives, reducing victims and all the other la de da PMI's (performance management indicators) that is foisted upon us now.
In London Sadiq Khan wants control of the probation service as well as the Met police. This is the way forward for probation to be under the control of local PCCs and removed from the dead hand of the civil service.
Our time will come again Jim, maybe just not in our lifetime (Spock to Kirk!) Keep up the faith lad.
Yours sincerely,
A footnote to my 'wobble' on Wednesday. I've been hugely touched by the responses, both publicly and privately and which serves to remind me of two things. First, 'probation' has always felt a family and never just a job. Secondly, just how many readers there are out there who quietly gain strength and feel supported knowing they are not alone in thinking and believing the way they do. There were an astonishing 3,438 'hits' yesterday, so thanks to everyone for dropping by and I hope some of you continue to feel able to share your thoughts and concerns.
ReplyDeleteI would never take anything away from this blogs phenomenal achievements. The only true history as it happens live and real. Napo reduced to their faux trite and tardy leadership are both boring unrealistic with much in common with the Trump style. They both make big claims without any evidence. Todays blog is not a good piece and reflects a really outdated employee. Criticism of a Blog format is irrelevant it is a post it page simple and what so many need and have used. Although perhaps well meant it is a reflection of the 30 year claimed history having little regard for the way things have moved. Seemingly not to obviously recognise it takes years in an organisation to learn of its whole constituencies. Favouring the fairly boring shop window of the isolated snob shop, the magistrates. Patronising, to know better of other staff members maths and literacy are awful examples of the type of old school officers perhaps BEST RETIRED EARLY and not what an inclusive culture could be developed on. The pretentious hierarchy is boring and the use the word THUS illustrates a language that should be well gone by now. Yours truly,
DeleteWell educated PSO.
How far do you dumb down probation to make it all inclusive before you start to iemploys ediots?
Deletedumbing down is far from what i'd call it. My manager who is passionate about her field expects us PSOs to be writing A* thesis type oasys and she invariably finds something that could and should have been done better. It is soul destroying and not what I joined probation for. It also concerns me that potentially i'm at constant threat of capability. I'm hoping that reunification mixes the teams up and I get someone else as the pressure is unbearable.
Delete1630 have you noticed it's been getting more intelligent over the years but probation officers remained as they were or dumbed down as you put it.
Deletedivide & rule - the most effective tool in the bully's bag.
DeleteYes patronising blog from an elitist who has your superior intellect to support exactly why probation had been stripped to the bone. Your ilk will never return it's the other bullies turn.
DeleteNot much being said regarding the central message of 'authenticity' - but on the other hand.....
DeleteMaybe AUTHENTICITY is something probation folk rarely discuss or are good at commenting about?
DeleteMy comment started by acknowledging the issue of AUTHENTICITY but quickly dyspraxically deviated from it, towards the guest blogger's second point about the supremacy of the court.
Can you help us with a lead or prompt to refocus on authenticity as I think it is an issue vastly overlooked and in my case not really understood?
Might your guest blogger be encouraged to tease it out?
Might some one/others tease out probation writings that deal with the issue?
Is there another term that better encapsulates the concept of AUTHENTICITY in probation/social work?
Has the issue been studied in the wider social work world?
After all probation is a part of social work as I was firmly reminded in the Guardian timeline I tagged yesterday.
"The Rev Harry Pearson for the police court missionaries told the inquiry that the voluntary societies attracted men and women with a sense of vocation based on religious conviction that might not be so motivated by a secular public authority. He also argued that the funds of the societies that were used represented a public spending saving.
Nevertheless, the Home Office concluded that it was time the job (of probation officer) was done by a fully trained and qualified full-time social worker and the role of the voluntary societies should be restricted to providing probation hostels and homes."
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/29/crime.penal
Coronavirus has opened up a lot of social debate this week. Not just on the NHS but employment laws, welfare and housing amongst others.
ReplyDeleteSome people are entitled to sick pay, others are not and are being directed to Universal Credit. But there's a 5 week wait for payment and a lot of commitments to be made before a claim can be opened. It's highlighting some serious issues in how our workforce has been structured in recent years.
The 5 week wait is a serious issue for all prison leavers.
So too is homelessness, and those that have to sleep rough must be at particular risk of infection. Not just through exposure to the elements, but also by the number of people they mingle amongst whiling away their day in our town and city centres.
It's a high risk group that can't self isolate, and how long before night shelters begin to refuse entry to those who present with flu like symptoms?
Courts, prisons and probation offices process many homeless and rough sleepers on a daily basis, and those that have a place to live are coming from over crowded and highly populated prisons.
What happens when the client waiting 20 minutes in the waiting room stands up and tells someone on reception that they think they might have Coronavirus?
The upshot of my thinking is that as Coronavirus has the potential to have a huge impact within the CJS, shouldn't the MoJ be providing advice and planning on how to mitigate risk to all those both living and working within the CJS?
'Getafix
Johnsons government don't care. They think they are untouchable and outbreak of virus will level the field as we are all only human. They wont learn from it however as the survivors will adopt their continued belief in their superiority. Vote tory for inequality injustice poverty division reduced national health care public service cuts and everything that's wrong with break away Tory infected Britain.
DeleteBut yes. I am hoping detailed plans are in hand but knowledge withheld for the time being for sound reasons.
DeleteKnowledge withheld?
DeleteBiy now pay later?
PRISONS
DeleteThe coronavirus outbreak could see thousands of 'low risk' prisoners released due staff shortages in jails.
A Ministry of Justice blueprint reveals proposals to relieve pressure on the system if significant members of staff become ill or are placed in isolation, according to the Sunday Times.
A senior source said: 'You can shut a school down but you can't just shut down a prison. Prisoners need to be looked after.
'They require basic food and provisions. Running the present system would become impossible if 50 per cent of the staff have fallen ill.'
Presumably, like the NHS, the MoJ will be putting out a call to entice back previously 'culled' and retired-early probation staff to supervise their licences?
DeleteYour Guest Blogger is EXACTLY right.
ReplyDeleteSo how can we talk meaningfully about authenticity?
At one time I thought I knew it when I experienced it but as I have understood more about the acting profession, I know that even when we think we experience it sometimes we are being deceived.
It is somehow a sense that develops over a period of engagement one on one because I guess very few can sustain an "act" consistently or continually.
Secondly exactly right about the courts, and predominantly the Magistrate's courts - that is exactly where probation began with that shoemaker in Boston contacting his court and beginning to work with convicts & that scheme reaching England, Frederic Rainer and the police court missionaries.
I am sure I do not have the history exactly correct - it was not something that was taught on "The Clare Morris Course" in Liverpool in the mid-1970s and I only learned it piecemeal.
From that probation officer physically in court, all sorts of things were attempted and ultimately backed up by legislation. I was flabbergasted when I got to read a Jarvis handbook and saw the massive list of possible duties of a probation officer - I think in two columns mandatory and voluntary and even that was not straight forward.
Some were voluntary for us and some not. cont....
...cont.
DeleteOne early memory of mine of the independence of magistrates and the way they used their probation officer at court - about 1978 - Liverpool Stipendiary’s Court, I was present among a gaggle of colleagues in support of our SERs (current cases & when a prison expected), with the dry witted regular Stipe's duty probation officer (4 days a fortnight - I job I did in 1979)
We had a long running terrorist case, with weekly remands - it was a fact of life in Liverpool with the ferry then to Belfast - these four or five had been arrested in summer and now it was winter and one of the hard bitten Solicitor’s Rex Makin or maybe Sidney Levy or young Tony Ostrin, tried to come up with something fresh each week to challenge the prosecution and earn the praise of their clients. Over several weeks it had been their lack of winter clothes - they chose not to wear what the Prison offered, as was their right as unconvicted remandees.
The Stipe (Leslie Pugh) had various suggestions, week by week, but still no winter clothes transpired. On the umpteenth request, he turned to Ray Murphy, "his" probation officer - MR MURPHY - please will YOU do something about this - up jumps Ray - YES SIR, I'll see what can be done- he then left the court - whispering to me - if Mr Pugh asks for me in the next case - say I have gone round to Burton's the tailor!
- I still laugh at that memory - which will probably read as trivial balderdash - I do not know whether Ray procured any clothes, I think not, but as a po in court we were tested in so many strange ways. It was out of those relationships in court that probation as a brand grew - we got to domestic courts and then higher courts, both civil (domestic) and criminal and even at The Court of Criminal appeal - does NPS still provide a probation team there I wonder?
For probation to thrive, opportunities are needed for authenticity to be experienced and tested over time, continuity of relationships and the opportunity for individuals to be innovative and that is more likely to happen when workers are “officers” answerable personally to their court than wholly under the control of a Government Minister.
============================
(I could only find details of the first edition of “Jarvis” via Amazon – who have several copies
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Probation-Officers-Manual-Frederick-Victor/dp/0406256004/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=ISBN+9780406256003&qid=1583581134&s=books&sr=1-1
- - - -
“One hundred years of non-penal servitude
Founded by 'court missionaries', the probation service celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. What does a contracted-out future hold, asks Alan Travis
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/jan/29/crime.penal ”
- - - -
“Timeline: A history of probation
100 years and counting of probation services
Preventive measure: must probation now change to survive?
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2007/may/02/crime.penal “
Rex Makin AKA sexy rexy is no longer with us Andrew.
ReplyDeleteI realised that Mr Makin died quite a while back but thought his firm lives on via a son - I recollect reading - oh what joy to tangle with Rex M - I presume Sidney Levy went even longer ago - he seemd old in the 1970s - I had a chance online contact from Tony Ostrin's office a year or several back, I doubt that such outspoken firebrands exist in courts nowadays, when we are expected to be more polite, or so it seems.
DeleteI recollect them them all trying to get their case on first, in number one court at Dale Street, sometimes pos hung about for hours - but what a chance to learn and imbibe the atmosphere (plus, invariably one got involved with clients or court users in some way or other) - I was blessed, but it was long after that I appeciated that.
have you met Julian Linskill??
DeleteYes, I forgot him, he worked for another firm and there was controversy and non cooperation from other law firms when he became a sole practitioner, if my memory is correct - I hope it was him, I am not absolutely certain - it was a very long time ago, I left Merseyside Pbn in September 1982.
DeleteAn economics professor said he had never failed a single student before but had, once, failed an entire class. The class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer. The professor then said ok, we will have an experiment in this class on socialism. All grades would be averaged and everyone would receive the same grade so no one would fail and no one would receive an A.
ReplyDeleteAfter the first test the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. But, as the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too; so they studied little …
The second Test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around the average was an F. The scores never increased as bickering, blame, name calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for anyone else. All failed to their great surprise and the professor told them that socialism would ultimately fail because the harder to succeed the greater the reward but when a government takes all the reward away; no one will try or succeed.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-51332811
DeleteIn 2015, the boss of a card payments company in Seattle introduced a $70,000 minimum salary for all of his 120 staff - and personally took a pay cut of $1m. Five years later he's still on the minimum salary, and says the gamble has paid off.
At 31, Price was a millionaire. His company, Gravity Payments, which he set up in his teens, had about 2,000 customers and an estimated worth of millions of dollars. Though he was earning $1.1m a year, Valerie brought home to him that a lot of his staff must be struggling - and he decided to change that.
Breathing in the crisp mountain air as he hiked with Valerie, Price had an idea. He had read a study by the Nobel prize-winning economists Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, looking at how much money an American needs to be happy. He immediately promised Valerie he would significantly raise the minimum salary at Gravity.
After crunching the numbers, he arrived at the figure of $70,000. He realised that he would not only have to slash his salary, but also mortgage his two houses and give up his stocks and savings. He gathered his staff together and gave them the news.
He'd expected scenes of celebration, but at first the announcement floated down upon the room in something of an anti-climax, Price says. He had to repeat himself before the enormity of what was happening landed.
Five years later, Dan laughs about the fact that he missed a key point in the Princeton professors' research. The amount they estimated people need to be happy was $75,000.
Still, a third of those working at the company would have their salaries doubled immediately.
More than 10% of the company have been able to buy their own home, in one of the US's most expensive cities for renters. Before the figure was less than 1%.
"There was a little bit of concern amongst pontificators out there that people would squander any gains that they would have. And we've really seen the opposite," Price says.
The amount of money that employees are voluntarily putting into their own pension funds has more than doubled and 70% of employees say they've paid off debt.
But Price did get a lot of flak. Along with hundreds of letters of support, and magazine covers labelling him "America's best boss", many of Gravity's own customers wrote handwritten letters objecting to what they saw as a political statement.
Two senior Gravity employees also resigned in protest. They weren't happy that the salaries of junior staff had jumped overnight, and argued that it would make them lazy, and the company uncompetitive.
DeleteThis hasn't happened.
Rosita Barlow, director of sales at Gravity, says that since salaries were raised junior colleagues have been pulling more weight.
"When money is not at the forefront of your mind when you're doing your job, it allows you to be more passionate about what motivates you," she says.
Senior staff have found their workload reduced. They're under less pressure and can do things like take all of the holiday leave to which they are entitled.
Price tells the story about one staff member who works in Gravity's call centre.
"He was commuting over an hour and a half a day," he says. "He was worried that during his commute he was going to blow out a tyre and not have enough money to fix that tyre. He was stressing about it every day."
When his salary was raised to $70,000 this man moved closer to the office, now he spends more money on his health, he exercises every day and eats more healthily.
"We had another gentleman on a similar team and he literally lost more than 50lb (22kg)," he says. Others report spending more time with their families or helping their parents pay off debt.
"We saw, every day, the effects of giving somebody freedom," Price says.
He thinks it is why Gravity is making more money than ever.
Raising salaries didn't change people's motivation - he says staff were already motivated to work hard - but it increased what he calls their capability.
"You're not thinking I have to go to work because I have to make money," Rosita Barlow agrees. "Now it's become focused on 'How do I do good work?'"
Getafix at 10:22, I have previously seen a PI on how to deal with the outbreak of an infectious virus in the prison estate.
ReplyDeleteIt makes for grim reading.
I have seen nothing. Nada. Zilch. from my employers in HMPPS to suggest they have any sort of plan in place. News channels full of both general advice and headlines, but you'd expect from a functioning government that each department would be tasked with planning for the specifics of their area of government, that resources would be diverted, priorities realigned. Not expecting detail at my lowly station, but I see absolutely nothing at all.
DeleteThe governor of HMP Liverpool credited for turning the prisons fortunes around, has quietly left her position for a new role.
ReplyDelete"The ECHO understands Ms Sinha will leave her role in mid-February.
She is due to stay within HM Prisons and Probation Service and move to a role within probation, focusing on offender management."
I wonder where?
'Getafix
On authenticity:
ReplyDelete"Probation officers must scrutinise more closely criminals’ claims to have reformed to ensure that they do not exploit loopholes to reoffend, inspectors warn today.
Staff supervising tens of thousands of serious and violent criminals in the community face a growing challenge from so-called false compliance. The Inspectorate of Probation warns that some offenders know what to say and do to convince probation officers and prison staff that they have changed."
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/probation-officers-too-easily-tricked-q7qqw6vdw
As Napo are too easily tricked by the ne'er-do-wells in MoJ/HMPPS, perhaps?
NB: Ne'er-Do-wells are not to be confused with the equally tricksy Mc-Do-wells of HMiP & Sodexo fame
Probation officers must scrutinise more closely criminals’ claims to have reformed to ensure that they do not exploit loopholes to reoffend, inspectors warn today.
DeleteStaff supervising tens of thousands of serious and violent criminals in the community face a growing challenge from so-called false compliance. The Inspectorate of Probation warns that some offenders know what to say and do to convince probation officers and prison staff that they have changed.
The problem was highlighted by the case of Joseph McCann, 34, who was given 33 life sentences last month for a series of rapes and kidnappings of women and children while under the supervision of the National Probation Service (NPS). He committed the crimes after being released from jail where he had been serving.....