Guest Blog 82

Joining up the dots & the future of real probation work; a personal view

As I approach the twilight of my career in probation, I feel a growing frustration that many of the mirco issues that plague our work block out fundamental and macro concerns that underpin Probation as we know it. I am relieved to be seeing an end and not starting out in probation now. I used to be proud to call myself a probation officer and say I worked in probation, but not sure I can do either now. So for what it's worth, here’s my take on recent times for probation, starting with a very concerning aspect of modern probation practice.

Joining up the dots is a useful way to look at SFO reviews and their findings. Rarely is there a clear story until after the event. Hindsight and all that! If you read his chapter in Malcolm Gladwell’s What the Dog Saw you can see that many headline tragic events (such as 9/11, aircraft disasters, bombings etc) can to some degree be predicted as you work BACK through the story, intel and timelines. But of course, in real time, what happens was not inevitable or maybe even the likely outcome.

The same is clearly true of many SFO’s. Working back, as the dots are joined up, combined with creeping determinism, the sense that grows on us in retrospect is that what has happened was actually very likely to happen that way (Risk Perception and Communication Fischoff 2015) and means conclusions are likely to be about apportioning blame because something was missed or not done. This is rarely the situation. No one sets out or wants to get anything wrong. The impact of blaming staff who are likely to feel tremendous guilt for what has occurred is cruel and nasty. That was not, until recently, in probation’s DNA.

Of course this is due to the journey that “probation“ has been driven over the past 20 years and especially since TR. So if an employer that claims it takes wellbeing seriously and does have a duty of care to its employee’s but is happy to throw front line staff under a bus if blame needs to be seen to be “passed down”, it's not one I want to work for.

It has caused me anger and frustration that decisions as well as blame travel one way, down the food chain and are laid thickly on over-burdened, dedicated staff; those “doing their very best“. Having now read Alison Moss’s book, I was not surprised about what occurred and am aware of other SFO outcomes that have followed a similar roadmap. It is not good enough and SFO’s must be investigated independently if staff confidence is to rebuilt to any degree. Many probation staff no longer trust or respect the highly paid leaders of probation and its toxic culture. Talking the talk is cheap; walking the walk is what you are expected to deliver but have failed.

From a more generic perspective I feel that front line staff are less and less “professionals” and able to make decisions or express their views or assessments (the ndelius professional judgement tag is not what it used to be!!). The ethos of the NPS at least is not a probation valued ethos. I bet current practitioners have cases on recall that are inappropriate and frankly an infringement of those people’s human rights. Disgracefully, service users rights are often secondary to a risk adverse/ineffectual organisation governed from elsewhere/up there.

In fact my position is that we are no longer what most people knew as a Probation Service. The organisation we work for is a wounded animal that services politicians, the media, civil servants and its leaders. Prison works, public protection, victims and risk management are its goals. Front line staff and service users are mere pawns in this chess game. That is not what probation in its glorious 100 year plus history is about. Proper Probation is about putting the service user centre and first. Unless probation work is taken out of the HMPPS and put back into a local multi agency/multi working setting, then it has no future; not as probation.

Some people are dangerous and should be in prison. Some sex offender/DA/violent cases may need to come under a public protection organisation when in the community which puts victims, the public etc first. BUT many of our cases can and should be supported to make new lives for themselves under an assist, advise and refer probation service, run locally, in conjunction with other resettlement agencies (drug, alcohol, accommodation, lifestyle,  employment etc). Neither can our work be detached from the injustices of society and upbringing as well as the wider political/economic and social inequalities that are neatly side-lined or ignored in the wider context of the CJS.

Until there is a fundamental rethink and restructure of what probation should be about and could deliver, then we will just carry on as being offender managers and offender supervisors. Probation colleagues from the past would be horrified about the labels we now use for service users and ourselves. Unfortunately, being a probation officer now is vastly removed from the role and job that decades of dedicated workers developed and evolved. That tradition put the client first with the aim to offer hope and a positive change to their lives. 

There is a role for Probation in the future, but unless it finds its home soon then sadly the writing is on the wall for this once valued and valuable profession. Those who believe that Probation now is a better way then that’s ok too and good luck in the future if there is one. But please think of a new name like the offender management service and leave the name of probation to be a symbol of a decent, ethical and caring profession.

Dave