I thought this was worth a post to itself:-
An Inspector writes:
To: Steve Johnson Proctor, Regional Probation Director. Sadly its more of the same "excellent leaders" bollox.
So, riddle me this, Equivocation Man:
Oh, hang on... here it comes:
Those bloody useless 'staff' again; if it wasn't for them screwing things up the excellent leaders would have gold stars on their lapels & bigger bonuses. But at least the useless staff will now receive a humane end to their career:
The solution is bleedin' obvious, innit? It's been front & centre of almost every HMI Probation report...
... Get rid of all the staff & leave it to the strong & committed senior management who have got it right every time with their clear strategic plans & messages of prioritising quality.
Memo to Romeo, Farrar, Rees, Raab, etc:
This complex piece of investigative work took me about half an hour - including typing my own report - which is to be reflected in my very modest consultancy fee @ £30,000 + VAT. I can also source PPE, supply alcohol by the suitcase & fabricate distraction pieces for the media.
To: Steve Johnson Proctor, Regional Probation Director. Sadly its more of the same "excellent leaders" bollox.
So, riddle me this, Equivocation Man:
"The senior leadership team is strong and committed"Obvious question: how the sweet-jesus-on-a-donkey can the senior leadership be strong & committed if the organisation is inadequate or requires improvement?
v.
"Overall ratings from inspected PDUs:
Essex North: ‘Inadequate’
Northamptonshire: ‘Requires improvement’"
Oh, hang on... here it comes:
"The standard of case management requires attention"Ah, so its lower down the ranks where no-one gives a toss because "Strategic plans are clear and reviewed regularly to take the organisation forward" [Huzzah!] and "Messages around the prioritisation of quality are understood by staff, although this is not translating into frontline practice".
"Learning and development for case administrators, SPOs and established practitioners requires more attention."
"Insufficient quality and frequency of management oversight was identified as a common theme for practice improvement"
Those bloody useless 'staff' again; if it wasn't for them screwing things up the excellent leaders would have gold stars on their lapels & bigger bonuses. But at least the useless staff will now receive a humane end to their career:
"The East of England region is a pilot area for the human factors approach to SFO reviews... Action plans are discussed at accountability and learning panels, attended by senior regional leaders, and learning is shared with middle managers, to cascade to practitioners. Reviewing managers attend team meetings, are visible in offices and have each been assigned a PDU and function to bring SFO learning routinely into teams and dispel myths and fears around the SFO review process."How do we solve a problem like Probation?
The solution is bleedin' obvious, innit? It's been front & centre of almost every HMI Probation report...
... Get rid of all the staff & leave it to the strong & committed senior management who have got it right every time with their clear strategic plans & messages of prioritising quality.
Memo to Romeo, Farrar, Rees, Raab, etc:
This complex piece of investigative work took me about half an hour - including typing my own report - which is to be reflected in my very modest consultancy fee @ £30,000 + VAT. I can also source PPE, supply alcohol by the suitcase & fabricate distraction pieces for the media.
Love it!
ReplyDeleteProbation for the end user and staff is shite, at every level, mostly though for front line practitioners, not least because front line staff are understaffed, under resourced, under prepared, under supported, target-based abused and left, quite frankly to cope with what has to be an entirely deplorable work situation. The fault is top down but will NEVER be admitted by those in charge. Might I suggest simply giving up, it won’t get better. Leave, find a better job, learn to live and let go. The job and the organisation we once loved and respected is unfortunately no longer there. It’s unlikely to ever be again. Reality hurts!
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't matter what post you put up Jim, its all hell in a handcart stuff. Keep posting it up nonetheless, we need this space. Every day I head on into my Probation work, clinging on to a hope that something survives I can hitch my professional wagon to. Every day, every dam day, I am shocked by the shitshow. My professional wagon is laden with 30 years worth of therapeutic relational skills and a left-leaning (feminist) mission to get alongside people (women) to somehow navigate with them through the hurdles and rules and enforcement to at least the end of the sanction and at best to a better life for them and all the rest of us. Balanced with the imperative to risk manage Priceless, but ill understood and now seriously under rewarded. Some of the conversations I have heard today between managers and staff are the stuff of despair. I have begun to collude with my people : we are gaming the ticking of boxes. I tell them which boxes we have to tick, we somehow manage that, and then we can have a conversation. We are all in this together
ReplyDeleteI find the current situation sad and despondent In equal messures . This used to be career with challenges but with rewards - notably service users moving forward.. we are now tied to a mechanistic process of data analysis by managers that never meet service users - for good or bad- and sadly more middle managers cow down to this. After 15 years post qualification I am looking for an out and am likely to receive an offer of employment at a higher pay salary- although I would have accepted a lower rate. I do very feel for my colleagues who will be shafted with my cases but I can no longer accept the impact on my work life balance. My partner,who has no experience of probation beyond being my partner , spits out the name of probation and had frequently stated words to the effect if probation don’t care about their staff how can they pretend to care about clients/service users/ POPs/ numbers (she did add many expletives
ReplyDeleteWith reference to your previous blog Jim.
ReplyDeleteWho would think that directing vulnerable and damaged people to an organisation where the staff are overworked, stressed and suffering from mental health issues is a good idea?
'Getafix
Some exchanges From Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"Another 2 cases allocated today. Can anyone tell me where our caseloads should be as qualified officers? I have no healthy point of reference working in an office with staff shortages. I’m currently on 38 cases, with a WLMT % consistently over 120% for the last 10 weeks. I don’t feel like I can raise it with management, because if the cases don’t lie with me, they’ll be given to already stretched officers on caseloads of 45+"
"Newly qualified PO should only be about 25 max - no high risk or child protection for at least 6 mths to 1 yr. One yr qualified should be about 35 depending on the mix. TBH it should be about 35 for any PO - caseloads now are whack."
"They are! Colleagues hit 50 cases a few weeks ago. It is impossible to keep on top of 50 (majority) high risk cases. It’s not fair on the officer or the individual. In fact I’m not sure what’s keeping the burnout at bay for them.. maybe it all the well-being briefings."
"My understanding is the only protection given to NQOs now is a 7.4 hour reduction and that they cannot hold any MAPPA L2/3 cases. No restrictions on high risk or child protection cases."
"That is ridiculous - I am not sure who makes these decisions but they are not defensible. I retrained in Social Work a few yrs back and they are so much more careful with newly qualified staff in terms of numbers of cases and the profile of them."
"Completely agree, it’s negligent in my view- the training is rushed enough as it is without having such a high level of responsibility so early on post qualifying. It’s no wonder the service can’t retain NQOs."
"It feels like every year the probation service takes another step further away from its core values - it really upsets me as I loved the job when I was dotting about in Northumberland."
I agree, if their plan is top notch then let’s see them achieve the gold standard. I wouldn’t trash Steve Johnson Proctor though, he is one of the better Regional Probation Directors. Better by a long mile.
ReplyDeleteHMIP are disingenuous too. The single recommendation should be direct to central government to pay all probation employees the 12-20% pay rise we are due. Recruitment and retention will no longer be a problem.
Its much the same in the NHS mental health services too. Many mh service users are involved in the criminal justice system, and even the ones that arent face much of the same problems like lack of decent affordable housing, unemployment, benefit cuts, austerity, and stigma. Staff have the same high caseloads, deteriorating conditions, crap pay, and unrealistic expectations, which in these increasingly depolitisized times they get blamed for if not met, and they echo that ideology of personal responsibility/self-help to service users. Of course its done with their wellbeing in mind, not trying to restrict them from relying on the welfare state.
ReplyDelete