Tuesday 11 August 2020

Relief in Nottingham

Due to the prevailing climate of secrecy and fear, not much information leaks out of HMPPS nowadays, which makes the following contribution of particular interest as an indicator of mood and morale following recent Midlands personnel changes:- 

Anonymous tales from Sherwood Forest

A new era has dawned in the Forest as the last legacy of the nasty sheriff of Nottingham who ruled over the old Trust has been cut. After the Trust CEO and many of her mischief makers left the Castle under TR, so one member of the Senior Management Team was left to captain the HMPPS ship to new and uncharted seas. It failed and most importantly there are lessons for the good and the great at HMPPS high command to learn and act on.

Six difficult years later the captain has gone and many employees, past and present have reasons to be cheerful again. The captain has certainly left a legacy but not one that many probation staff would want or should have to endure again. Clearly a good leader and captain should lead, make a difference and take the crew with her or him. Sadly, and most disappointingly, like the Costa Concordia incident, the captain of a ship in trouble should stand up for his crew and take responsibility for the shortcomings and failings under their watch. 

It seems that leadership skills were certainly not a required element for an LDU head here. To misquote a sporting phrase; this was not a manager who had lost the dressing room, this was a manager who did not know where it was and was not able to engage and listen to his team members.

Rewind to an SFO and high profile murder and not unexpectedly, the Mr Teflon coat comes out. Blame front line staff for all shortcoming and be complicit in a misleading press statement (we now have more staff - oh but don't mention we don't have any extra POs than a year ago!!). No wonder staff in the LDU who already considered themselves vulnerable to the "LDU ethos" which had already driven staff to leave, now realised they really had no one covering their back. 

In an LDU which has a history of high workloads and staff recruitment, with a difficult working environment, so additional fear was ramped on top of everything else. Thankfully, it's over now but not without a significant casualty list of employees whose lives and careers have been damaged to varying degrees because of the poor leadership and command management of the LDU. This must not be allowed to happen again.

17 comments:

  1. A sad tale of unnecessary vile behaviour by an Inadequate. But that's how bullies roll.

    The collateral damage is often spread over a wide area. The Inadequate is often vigorously protected, usually by a significant senior Inadequate who recognises the value of having a pet bully on a leash.

    Those who have been professionally or personally savaged often have no sanctuary, especially when their colleagues collude - actively or passively - out of fear & self-preservation.

    More often than not the Inadequate is rewarded & allowed to escape without facing the consequences of their abusive behaviour. Sometimes they become the more senior Inadequate.

    The life cycle of the Inadequate is one of perpetual motion. It is happening now and will continue to happen for the foreseeable future. It will take a Beirut-style clearout of the corrupt, the cruel & the Inadequates before HMPPS/NPS can function with any sense of credibility. But that won't happen unless/until such crass abusive behaviours are no longer modelled by our country's so-called 'leaders'. And the Johnson crew are here for the long run.

    My thoughts go out to those who suffered at the hands of this particular Incompetent.

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    1. Very true in most counties.

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  2. There are always so-called 'smart' people that think they're immune from any kind of sanction, behavioural change or consequences of any kind:

    "HEALTH experts are investigating an 18th birthday party which has left at least 10 people testing positive with Covid-19. Testing is still ongoing and the number of partygoers infected with coronavirus may rise, according to Colin Cox, Director of Public Health for Cumbria.

    It is believed more than 30 people attended the party at the home of a Carlisle businessman last weekend."We are aware of a gathering for an 18th birthday party and a number of people have tested positive for Covid-19. We have carried out most of the swab tests which only began on Friday, and at least 10 have so far tested positive. There were more than 30 at the party," confirmed Mr Cox."

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    1. Celtic and Aberdeen should not be playing matches this week after their players broke lockdown rules, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said.

      Celtic defender Boli Bolingoli flew to Spain without the club's knowledge, failed to quarantine, then played in Sunday's match against Kilmarnock.

      Ms Sturgeon said this was a "flagrant breach" of the guidelines.

      The previous weekend eight Aberdeen players broke lockdown regulations by visiting a bar together.

      Ms Surgeon told her daily briefing: "As a minimum, you should not be expecting to see Aberdeen or Celtic play in the coming week."

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  3. How the UK govt make data pointless:

    "Number of individuals who have had at least one lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 test result, by date reported. On 2 July, case data from pillars 1 and 2 of the testing programme were combined and de-duplicated, resulting in a step decrease in the cumulative number of cases reported."

    "Number of individuals who have had at least one lab-confirmed positive COVID-19 test result, by date reported, by nation. Initially only pillar 1 tests (NHS and, in England, PHE labs) were included but pillar 2 (commercial tests) have been included from varying dates between 15th June and 14th July for each nation, leading to step increases in the numbers of cases reported at different times."

    "Number of deaths of people who had had a positive test result for COVID-19, by date reported. The actual cause of death may not be COVID-19 in all cases. People who died from COVID-19 but had not tested positive are not included. Data from the four nations are not directly comparable as methodologies and inclusion criteria vary."

    And today the Govt take it to another level:

    https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases

    "You do not have permission to view this directory or page."

    So not sure if we can report their daily dodgy figures anymore. I'll try again later.

    Kind of makes you wonder what they're hiding; or frightened of...???

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    1. Ah, qu'elle surprise madames et messeuirs!!

      Now we have the next level of bullshit. Why? Couldn't possibly be because its such a critical time, e.g. planning for school returns.

      They surely wouldn't dream of scamming the test/case results to match the (government sponsored, paid for & owned) PHE report due out which supports the government's preferred position that children are harmless? Would they? Could they?

      https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases -

      "Owing to technical difficulties, the data will not be updated until 12 August 2020."

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    2. After some trawling around, alternative sources have revealed:

      daily UK cases reported 11/8/2020 = 1.148 (EU website)

      Daily Mirror at 20:16 posts:

      "The number of confirmed new cases of coronavirus in the UK increased by more than 1,000 in the last 24 hours.

      The latest official figures also say 102 people were recorded to have died with the virus since the same time yesterday."

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  4. Jim, your comments at 05.45 are inspired. I'm afraid the vile bullying and the collusion continues. Those inadequate managers at the NPS and the CRCs used to query when they could 'take their due' six months fully paid leave for stress. A Beirut style clear out may follow when the government does an audit to work out who these people are. This was always the plan use the inadequate to suppress those hard working people who are honest and decent. Then audit the incompetent who in many cases committed fraud and even caused deaths with covered up Serious Further Offences.

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  5. Having suffered and witnessed the suffering of others in a previous incarnation of the evil sheriff and her appointees I wish Nottingham good luck in the future.

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  6. just seen in a recent Napo Email

    "Napo AGM 2020 - Motions

    Just a reminder that the deadline for the submission of motions to this year's AGM is noon on Wednesday 12 August 2020. All the information you need and forms etc."

    That is in just over 6 hours time - so a bit late if you have not thought about it yet!

    https://www.napo.org.uk/annual-general-meeting-2020-motions-constitutional-amendments


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  7. The issues surely go higher than the Sherrif of Nottingham being the baddie.The ruling elite and their exercise of power must be part of the problem as well . If you doubt I refer you to the new disciplinary guidance it is an interesting read.

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  8. Who are you all talking about in Nottingham? What's the back story?

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  9. uk covid-19 cases reported 12/8/20 - 1,009

    uk covid-19 deaths recorded 12/8/20 - 77

    The not-at-all-independent-from-Tory-Government Public Health England has amended its scores today:

    "Public Health England has changed its definition of deaths. The new definition is now death in a person with a laboratory-confirmed positive COVID-19 test and died within (equal to or less than) 28 days of the first positive specimen date will now be reported

    The new data can be accessed here.

    What this means is that England has had 36,695 deaths using this definition as opposed to the previous reported 42,072 – a difference of 5,377."

    So it was cases in July, deaths in August, now A-levels, O-levels - is there nothing this government won't amend/adjust/tweak/fiddle/revise to avoid looking bad?

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    1. Whilst it's tempting to assume it's 'creative accounting' by the government, the reality is that PHE were correct to make this revision. The old system was clearly flawed as anyone with a positive covid test who then died of any cause was counted. The new system will be much more accurate.

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    2. Of course it will be more accurate - everything the revisionist Tories do is always more accurate, eventually; once the old data has been removed.

      https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/cases

      "Daily reported COVID deaths are now measured across the UK as deaths that occurred within 28 days of the first laboratory-confirmed positive COVID test."

      "We have not received the latest data for cases and tests in England. We will update today's records as soon as they become available."

      "The deaths page is being re–developed."


      https://www.gov.uk/government/news/roll-out-of-2-new-rapid-coronavirus-tests-ahead-of-winter


      Press release 3 Aug 2020

      Roll-out of 2 new rapid coronavirus tests ahead of winter

      Millions of new rapid coronavirus tests will be rolled out across NHS hospitals, care homes and labs from next week.

      https://www.newscientist.com/article/2251427-we-dont-know-how-accurate-the-uks-new-rapid-coronavirus-tests-are/#ixzz6V1hlCjDF

      Two 90-minute tests for the coronavirus will be rolled out by the UK government in the coming weeks – and while both are promising, neither has publicly available data to support its use. Other independently verified rapid tests have been developed, say scientists who have been assessing the field.

      Last week, the UK government announced that the two tests will, between them, provide more than 6 million coronavirus assessments to individuals at care homes and National Health Service hospitals across the UK.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/07/revealed-uk-rapid-covid-test-not-yet-approved-by-regulators

      Revealed: UK's rapid Covid test not yet approved by regulators


      And now the roll out to care homes has been shelved pending "further validation".

      I'm sure the account of the whole pandemic response will be much more accurate once its been re-written.

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    3. UK daily cases 13/8/20

      excluding Eng (data still not available) - 70

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    4. WHO has data as at 10am 13/8/20 which shows new cases as at 12/8/20, i.e. 1,009 but newly recorded deaths at 180. Its not clear if that includes the 77 already recorded on 12/8/20.

      But this is the whole point of why I spend time posting here. Nothing is clear. Nothing is easy to find. Nothing is consistent. A lot of past data has been deleted or 'disappeared'. Assuming Jim doesn't wipe the slate at least there's some remaining record of the original UK govt data *before* revision.

      maybe someone far more tech-savvy than I am can lodge the data records in the incredible virtual library that's been created in a popular online game ... https://uncensoredlibrary.com/en

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