A Dysfunctional Service

It will be pretty obvious to regular readers that the blog has been on autopilot for many months, but just like a pesky weed, keeps popping back into life when you think you've got rid of it. Ok, I've been preoccupied with other stuff in life and was reluctantly coming to accept that the blog had run its course. All the seasoned recusants had been rounded up, they had vented their anger and frustration and were inexorably heading off for enforced fresh pastures or retirement. But no, some are still around and remain vocal, despite civil service attempts to gag them:-  

The Probation Service is now a dysfunctional organisation, with dysfunctional management, run by an out of touch, ignorant and utterly dysfunctional government. As a result, nothing that staff say nor NAPO do will make a shred of difference. With regret, the shop has well and truly sunk. Abandoning said ship is now the only option for those who value themselves and their own mental health and wellbeing. Sad, but true. Side note: who joined up to be tied to a computer for 7.5 hours a day, with only half an hour a day at best to spend helping clients? Not me!

*****

I am weary alongside you and with the majority of my colleagues in the office feeling the same. In fact, battle to find anyone who has anything much that is positive to say among those of us who can't get out of this but live to fight on bloodied, but starting to bow in what I agree is a dysfunctional organisation. The only ones who don't see all this are the PQiPs who don't know any different but some I know are finding it all very disappointing. Despite the negatives, I still find it a pleasure to share knowledge and experience with the PQiPs. I don't teach them how to tick boxes but how to deal with people and situations and all the stuff you can never find in this wretched on line learning we have to engage in these days or by endless Oasys or any other ticky box stuff. I am planning my exit strategy and am counting the days. I never took this job on to be a typist with offenders/clients (or whatever we are supposed to call people these days. I refuse to say PoPs it is ridiculous) who are nothing more than an interruption to the typing. I hold to what I achieved in an earlier time and the difference I made to people's lives. What a privilege it was. So... the life jacket is on...

*****
So true it is dysfunctional and our supposed people focused skills not allowed to be used as time spent on admin constantly. In my view they despise older staff as too expensive too assertive and are used to train up new ones. After many many years service I'm done, it takes its toll on your mental and physical health yet not sorry to see you go or anything. Cold detached attitude and the same as I've heard they have adopted to colleagues with even 30 years service. Treat staff like dirt and pile unachievable workloads on them and yet wonder why we leave.

*****
25 years service and I am appalled! The rush to lower risk to meet “operational requirements“ is disturbing at best and criminal at worst. We are supposed to be there to protect the public and despite the dynamic nature of risk we are now dictated/bullied to reduce risk based on a criteria interpreted by senior managers. What have we become? My notice is in, I am blessed with a wonderful partner who has seen the toll recent years have taken on me and who understands my commitment to clients/service users, and indeed has met several over the years who have approached when shopping or socialising to remark how their lives had changed for the better, but it really is best for me to leave before my behaviour becomes more extreme than anything I have ever experienced from clients/ service users. I never heard of one of them defecating on a managers desk but what a function that would be as my final statement.

--oo00oo--

Happily, it's not just probation staff that are vocal either:-

I find it interesting that the report focuses on those caught up in the 'revolving door' process. These will be predominantly those that will fall into the '12mth and under' cohort. Until TR this group were not subject to probation supervision after release from custody. They were considered too expensive and resource heavy. Probation absorbed 40,000 new cases at the stroke of a pen when Grayling tried to 'fill the shelves' to make probation look more attractive purchase for the private sector. What actually happened was Grayling just increased the speed that the revolving door turned at.

Adding the 12mth and under to compulsory supervision upon release provided that cohort with nothing, but provided a resource drain on an already overloaded probation service. If being subjected to probation isn't going to achieve anything for an individual, then it's pretty pointless directing them there in the first place. Why use resources without any expectation of a return?

The all inclusive, one shoe fits all model of today's probation service is good for no-one. There's nearly a quarter of a million people subjected to probation supervision. That's just far too many for probation to function in any purposeful way. People on probation today aren't really seen by individual needs, they're just part of the herd that gets perpetually processed.

'Getafix

*****
I have only recently followed this blog, and must say I follow 'Getaflix closely. I sort of wish I had met Jim but maybe I did in colleagues of his ilk. My youth and early life was characterised by trauma and I slid into a downward spiral where the base commodity I had was violence. During my last sentence in 1998 I met my probation officer who pulled no punches, he laid the law down in a very clear way. Back in my cell I despised him and ruminated for hours. This man became one the few men I knew, he spoke truth even when it angered me, he supported me when I fell and he applauded my achievements even when I thought them small. That man stuck by me for 6 years pre and post, I will never ever forget him, my children know of him through my stories. The reason I was drawn to this blog is that a cousin’s son has been caught up in what sounds like a dragnet of "probation” and I feel helpless as I don’t know if the probation officers of old still exist. I really don’t know how to advise him but solemnly wish that my old PO was still around and even steering policy.

--oo00oo--

Lets hope this observation from Twitter is not the norm:-

"New trainees have settled in now. I have never met such a bunch of entitled and arrogant young women in my career. Ones already been warned for flirting with a case & another for being aggressive with a colleague. The future of #Probation."

The blog will only continue and have a purpose if people read it, but most importantly, contribute to it. The offer to publish guest blog pieces remains open and contact details can be found on the profile page.