Well Worth Waiting For

First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford was due to deliver the Bill McWilliams Memorial lecture last year, but Covid put paid to that and it had to be delivered via zoom 12 months later for the same reason. Boy it was worth waiting for though as he made a compelling case for Wales taking devolved responsibility for a Welsh Probation Service. All in the virtual audience were left in no doubt that it would be a very different beast to that operating now. 

As a former Probation Officer, academic and author, Mark Drakeford is particularly well-qualified to speak on the subject and unlike many politicians, it's quite obvious he 'gets' what probation is about and that it needs to be locally organised and focussed on acting as advocate and champion for dealing with the causes of criminal behaviour as much as getting alongside and working with clients to improve their life chances. 

He tells an interesting story from the riots that swept many urban centres of Britain in the 1990s and a pamphlet published by a northern probation service entitled 'The Dog That Didn't Bark' essentially offering humble pie for not having spoken out more forcefully regarding what they knew only too well was the plight of many clients. Just let that sink in for one moment. That is where we've come from, an independent service that has a view, a conscience, can speak up, not a bunch of brainwashed government functionaries who toe the line. 

The video will no doubt be published in due course, but I wanted to pen something before the memory fades, but I can assure you, the whole speech is so very well worth watching. 'Good government is good for you' is just one of the memorable phrases I came away with, particularly because it's so patently obvious that its been so clearly lacking for so long. 

On such an important occasion and for all those who believe passionately in the probation ethos, for the life of me I have no idea why the organising committee wasted valuable time giving a platform to former CRC CEO and current NPS management clone Alex Osler. In 15 minutes she must have recited every bloody command and control diktat and initiative that I'm sure would have had Bill McWilliams revolving in his grave. 

It was an insult in many ways to compare her 'message' and that of the occasion and pretend they were in any way similar. This virtual question to her was a belter though. Unfortunately we didn't hear Alex's answer because of course it's the MoJ official line!

"A question then for Alex. What is the impact of the tone and language used by MoJ in their communications last week that consistently used the word offender, focused on surveillance and monitoring and attempted to present practitioners as crime fighters? How can this dissonance be countered effectively?" 

Richard Garside on the other hand from the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies was well 'on message' with the dissident probation view that all reasonable folk desperately hope can eventually re-emerge when we can break free from HMPPS control and the bloody civil service. On answering the question as to where the effective probation voice was nowadays and the demise of ACPO, he was particularly pointed in his remarks on the missing Napo voice, citing the sad passing of Harry Fletcher, 'although I'm sure good work is going on behind the scenes'. Yeah right. 

In winding things up, Professor Mike Nellis gave Mark Drakeford an exceptionally warm and heartfelt vote of thanks and in the process made an interesting observation. He said that although Bill McWilliams didn't say it, he felt he would have eventually made the point that probation that we would recognise as being true to its ethos can only function effectively in a socialist environment, or at least a functioning social democracy. Well of course we don't have that here in England do we and come to think of it, how can you be a Tory and a Probation Officer worth the name anyway?