Guest Blog 79

We Can be Heroes (Hidden ones)!

29.09.20 is Thank you #HiddenHeroesDay, celebrating and giving thanks for the outstanding service of the #HiddenHeroes working in our prisons, IRCs, probation and youth justice services, especially during the covid-19 outbreak. The Butler Trust will be hosting an event to mark the day, and prisons, probation offices and youth justice services up and down the country will be holding local events of their own. 

https://www.hiddenheroes.uk/thank-you-hiddenheroes-day/

Prompted by an advert I saw on the side of a bus I googled #HiddenHeroes and was directed to the website by The Butler Trust. The explanation jumped out and told me to “celebrate the heroes in our NHS at this time, and don’t forget the #HiddenHeroes working on in prisons, IRCs, probation and youth justice services”. Okie dokie, I took the bait and reminded myself of a brave former Chief Probation Officer (Sarah Billiald) who publicly accused Grayling of dismantling the probation service and stated “the probation service may be anonymous but we'd sure as hell notice if it wasn't there".

This will not be a popular post, but the problem is I wasn’t a fan of Clap for Carers Thursday and I’m not a fan of Hidden Heroes Day either. In my view, everyday is a day to clap and recognise carers and keyworkers. A clap and a tweet doesn’t provide resources, doesn’t improve working conditions, doesn’t provide protection from the abuse and health risks, doesn’t increase the salary and certainly doesn’t help to pay the bills. I’m not a fan of the Butler Trust or selective staff award systems, and I’m not a fan of the HRH representatives that hand out it’s certificates. Every year I hear stories of the managerially endorsed few that become ‘winners’, but not in all cases mind.

Similar to the BAFTA’s and Oscars, the Butler’s are a bit of a popularity contest and the group photos always lack colour and diversity. Even it’s website image of its “Staff & helpers at the 2016 Awards in St James’s Palace” has only one visible BAME person present. Similar to the Probation union Napo that doesn’t adequately represent probation, its Probation Journal that rarely reflects true probation practice, and the Probation Institute that isn’t a widely recognised institute for probation, it’s difficult to understand the purpose of the Butler Trust or why it’s perpetuating the view we are ‘hidden’.

The Butler Trust claims to “promote the excellence of and to pay tribute to prisons, IRCs, probation and youth justice”. Typically, “Probation” gets hidden in third place on the list. It will never be a sexy or glittering career and we do like to be anonymous, but we are far from hidden or invisible. We sit in courts, prisons and local community offices, and are not so hidden with the phones and tannoys going off. I’d be rich if I had a shilling for every time a local or statutory agency needed my help, or an offender’s legal or family representatives demanding my time. Probation only seems to be hidden when we’re either doing something good or suffering in silence, so make us 'Unhidden'!

We could of just been mainstream 'Heroes' instead of making us second-rate pretenders like DC Comics or the Justice League. Probation is not very hidden at the moment now we’re on the government’s list of essential services. It’s quite visible that most probation colleagues are currently commuting to work every day in the midst of a pandemic. This means busy journeys on public transport and traffic clogged roads. It’s quite visible that some of us arrive at dirty, disgusting and unsafe probation offices to work full days with poor resources. Probation work is quite visible to the offenders, partnership agencies and probation managers that we are working flat out. It’s quite visible to some of the local residents and businesses that do not want our probation offices and hostels in their vicinity. It’s quite visible to our families that many of us work long hours and try really hard not to bring home the stresses of the insurmountable risks and pressures we work under for peanuts.

Probation was not hidden when Chris Grayling privatised it, “an act of vandalism based on ideology”, leading to understaffing and judges and magistrates losing confidence in probation. Probation is still suffering from that loss of staff numbers, skills and experience. Much of its provision remains delivered by the private sector and its policies and procedures aggressively controlled by the prison service. The pending probation reunification will not fully put Humpty (NPS) and Dumpty (CRC) back together again into a pre-TR mould.

Probation was not hidden when HMIP graded probation areas and trusts as “unsatisfactory”. Politicians have publicly stated that too often probation appeared “stretched to breaking point and struggling to fulfil its fundamental role of keeping the public safe”.

Probation was not hidden when the HMIP graded CRCs unfit for purpose because of privatisation. Wikipedia hasn’t hidden that CRCs were “failing victims, with a significant lack of understanding about domestic abuse, and routinely underestimating the ongoing danger posed to the victim and not reassessing the level of risk”.

Probation was not hidden when a banker was killed by men on probation, when the taxi cab rapist was being paroled, when an IPP offender wasn’t recalled to prison and when all those probation officers investigated for doing their jobs were thrown under the bus by SFO investigation teams. I’ve dipped a toe in the Atlantic Ocean of complaints because we regularly hear about the “serious offences committed by people supervised by the probation service”.

Probation was not hidden when it was controlled by the folly of NOMS, when it was merged with the prison service to become HMPPS and when it was placed under the dictatorship of the Civil Service. We’ve become more controlled since 2012, and when addressing the House of Lords, Lord Ramsbotham stated, the “Probation Service has no senior probation official in the ‘ridiculous NOMS’. So an awful lot is being said and done about the Probation Service without there being any proper Probation Service advice at the heart of what is happening”. Until probation is released from the civil service and prison dominated culture it will never be more than the forgotten ‘P’ in HMPpS.

Probation was not hidden when it was included in the public sector pay freeze between 2010 and 2017. It wasn’t hidden when the NPS failed to pay the promised pay progression due in April 2020. Despite negotiations, the NPS failed to get the necessary sign-off from the Treasury to pay the increment which is still outstanding. This government cannot find a hidden penny to increase pay for already underpaid probation staff, yet ministers have given themselves a pay rise and bailed out the failing CRCs and their owners to the tune of over £342 million. This didn’t stop probation senior managers receiving £1500 monthly during the lockdown to lead from the front (room of their houses). We’re only hidden when it matters, like when Robert Buckland in 2019 announced a pay rise for prison officers, and when it was announced that public sector workers, including doctors, teachers and police officers will see above inflation pay rises this year. Probation was not on the list.

What they do keep hidden is that probation was once a gold standard service built on evidence based practice and rooted in the local community and partnering with local specialist providers. That was until Chris Grayling came along and ‘transformed rehabilitation’. On 29.09.20 my diary will not read ‘Hidden Heroes Day’ because the Butler Trust, the Ministry of Justice, HMPPS and the Probation Divisional Directors will not be speaking, writing and tweeting about the poor pay and conditions. They won’t be stating that probation doesn’t work because of austerity, the lack of resources, and the absence of wider social provision and access to services. They won’t mention the countless probation colleagues fallen by the wayside due to the stress, pressure and abuse, the blame culture, the intrusive police and security vetting, and just being fed up.

Probation Officer