Probation Day Activity Calendar
All are welcome to join local activities. Please contact your local office if you would like to attend any activities.
Wednesday 17 August
❖ Retired colleagues meet with trainee POs and new starters for coffee and cake
❖ Team games
❖ Team Quiz
❖ Belonging – Dress Code, something beginning with ‘B’
❖ Prize for the best outfit
❖ After dark wine tasting
❖ Away day in October
❖ Bring a story about your time in probation; what led you here, what kept you here, something you have done that your proud of or made you feel a part of probation etc
❖ Create a visual on what belonging means to the team
Friday 19 August
❖ Office lunch and games will take place, with [prison] colleagues invited to join in the fun
❖ Social lunch buffet
❖ History of Probation Quiz
❖ Staff to write on petal shaped post-it notes what Probation means to them so that they can be put together to resemble a Hydrangea flower, which symbolises togetherness.
❖ Feedback from PoPs on how Probation has supported them, which will be read out to the team.
❖ Playlist of uplifting songs to generate a celebratory atmosphere.
❖ History of Probation Quiz
❖ Staff to write on petal shaped post-it notes what Probation means to them so that they can be put together to resemble a Hydrangea flower, which symbolises togetherness.
❖ Feedback from PoPs on how Probation has supported them, which will be read out to the team.
❖ Playlist of uplifting songs to generate a celebratory atmosphere.
❖ Launch Event on MS at 10am
❖ Team lunch and walk
❖ ‘Bring and share’ picnic lunch where staff are bringing dishes to share with a theme of ‘Belonging’ so childhood favourites, family recipes etc.
❖ There will be a car boot sale and cake sale in the car park with partnership staff invited and all proceeds to the local foodbank/charity.
❖ All teams will also be participating in the photography competition.
❖ Team lunch and walk
❖ ‘Bring and share’ picnic lunch where staff are bringing dishes to share with a theme of ‘Belonging’ so childhood favourites, family recipes etc.
❖ There will be a car boot sale and cake sale in the car park with partnership staff invited and all proceeds to the local foodbank/charity.
❖ All teams will also be participating in the photography competition.
❖ Purple Party – all to wear purple. Office decorations purple. Party food.
❖ Creating a yearbook of Probation 2022
❖ Bake-off competition. 1 person from UPW, Interventions, Courts, Reception, Admin etc to bake a cake
❖ Virtual Guess Who (baby picture edition) – prize for winning team
❖ Tea at 3, team photo and share positive achievements
❖ Appreciation tree to be drawn in communal area of the office. Post it notes showing appreciation for co-workers to be added as leaves of the tree. Sows the seeds on Probation day and watch how it grows over time.
❖ Creating a yearbook of Probation 2022
❖ Bake-off competition. 1 person from UPW, Interventions, Courts, Reception, Admin etc to bake a cake
❖ Virtual Guess Who (baby picture edition) – prize for winning team
❖ Tea at 3, team photo and share positive achievements
❖ Appreciation tree to be drawn in communal area of the office. Post it notes showing appreciation for co-workers to be added as leaves of the tree. Sows the seeds on Probation day and watch how it grows over time.
❖ Opening of Probation Celebration Day/Quiz
❖ Local office buffets and activities
❖ Local office buffets and activities
❖ Get to know each other session – face to face each PDU
❖ Virtual session with whole team: `Things I am proud of, things that I have accomplished’
❖ Each HOMD in the prisons will be hosting a quiz which will be open to all OMU staff (both prison and probation POMS) admin and the resettlement team. Prizes will of course be available!
❖ A Service Integration manager away day is being organised for September to support and celebrate belonging.
❖ Virtual session with whole team: `Things I am proud of, things that I have accomplished’
❖ Each HOMD in the prisons will be hosting a quiz which will be open to all OMU staff (both prison and probation POMS) admin and the resettlement team. Prizes will of course be available!
❖ A Service Integration manager away day is being organised for September to support and celebrate belonging.
❖ UPW project visits to be undertaken by senior leader teams and magistrates Saturday and Sunday
Monday 22 August
❖ Programmes Team - BBR taster session for ‘Belonging’ themed team meeting, buffet. Probation bingo and Blockbuster quiz
❖ Reflective theme team meeting and reflections over a tea/coffee
❖ RJ Team – delivering a session from the RJ Group Intervention via teams. This session is open to all.
Tuesday 23 August
❖ Programmes Team - Belonging theme team meeting/buffet/quiz
Wednesday 24 August
❖ Bring in a dish
❖ Baby photos quiz
❖ We would like you to sit in a different office (applies to all grades) to meet more of your colleagues.
❖ Bring in a dish
❖ Baby photos quiz
❖ We would like you to sit in a different office (applies to all grades) to meet more of your colleagues.
Thank God I'm on leave next week!
ReplyDeleteMe too!
DeleteRespect the workforce by honouring terms and conditions - probation was brought into the Civil Service but not allowed to have the same pension fund as prison colleagues. So “ one HMPPS” fails at the first test. So colleagues bring a dish but please when holding your “ reflective team meeting” reflect on the way you honour probation and yet your employer shows disrespect and even contempt for you where it matters, in what you are paid ( or not paid in terms of all the overtime you put in) where is your pay award? Let MoJ show you matter by reflecting the value of what you deliver ie Public Protection day in, day out to the communities we serve. Shame on our employer for the way front line staff are treated.
ReplyDelete"Belonging – Dress Code, something beginning with ‘B’ "
ReplyDeletebullshit, bollox, bullied, berated, belittled, banal, brazen, brainless, boastful, blamed, bitter, betrayal, bedlam, bemused, bombastic, brainwashing, boastful, bleak, biased, bigoted, belligerent...
They think we're rubbish, they treat us like rubbish, they talk to us like rubbish so...
...wear a BinBag & celebrate how rubbish the service is in 2022.
Is this just in one area? Or a collection of areas? All I see there are things that make me more stressed because my deadlines are not on hold. That'd be a nightmare to have to engage in
ReplyDeleteThis is one region.
Deletehttps://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/media/press-releases/2022/08/warwickshire-probation-service-has-a-good-foundation-but-requires-improvement/
ReplyDelete- the quality of work was sufficient in less than half of the cases we inspected
- Practitioners were not routinely delivering work in a way that supported the national target operating model (TOM).
- Of concern, 44 per cent of cases we reviewed were not seen sufficiently often to reduce reoffending and manage desistence; 59 per cent were not seen sufficiently often to manage the risk of harm.
- The head of PDU understands the resource issues and gaps in services, and is proactively managing this through workforce planning and engagement with stakeholders.
- Only 26 per cent of cases were assessed as having sufficient management oversight.
Same old same old
Tired of HMIP’s ‘holier than thou’ approach. The conclusion need only say that probation work is (and always will be) insufficient BECAUSE the workforce is understaffed and underpaid.
DeleteHave you seen the Birmingham HMIP inspection, even worse but yet the local teams page is full of local made up awards to staff and trying to put a spin to cover up the chaotic mess.
DeleteIt’s like The Matrix, really - blue and red pills. And these days probation only works for you if you’re taking your blue pills.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn’t recommend taking blue pills at work! Haha
DeleteA full 3 days of torture. Please say where this is so I know never to work there. #ProbationDay is a slap in the face to hardworking and badly paid probation workers.
ReplyDeleteNationwide is giving staff a £1200 bonus to help with cost of living.
ReplyDeleteProbation is giving its significantly underpaid staff a celebratory day where you bring your own cake and baby photo, dress in purple and pretend you “belong”.
It’s insulting.
#ProbationDay
https://news.sky.com/story/amp/nationwide-offers-11-000-workers-a-1-200-bonus-to-help-with-bills-12673923
We are going to have a good old rant here, and very therapeutic it is. But back in the office people are actually buying into this shit. That is the really scary thing
ReplyDeleteStockholm syndrome is a condition in which hostages develop a psychological bond with their captors during captivity.[1][2] It results from a rather specific set of circumstances, namely the power imbalances contained in hostage-taking, kidnapping, and abusive relationships.
DeleteIf you offer people crumbs or nothing, most will accept crumbs. We in probation are used to getting crumbs.
DeleteNah it's an indication of the middle classes playing a silly few days showing off up and out of touch as probation deviated from the interest of the client . It's all about silly people being posh and benevolent.
DeleteAt least 50% of staff I know in probation are working class and poor. Many entry level and unskilled jobs earn more than probation officers.
Delete@Anonymous18 August 2022 at 11:23
Delete"Many entry level and unskilled jobs earn more than probation officers."
That is simply not true
Yes it is outside probation is a real world.
Delete1123 it management led by chosen get along and Wannabees . These people are aspirational and don't look to any roots. When some of us were younger poor and very working class the only pictures for poor children were taken at school and most could not afford them. How we going to play the photo game then just exclusion for some as usual as no one will speak up. Tossers management.
DeleteI agree, simply not true and such true.
DeleteIt’s true.
DeleteTrainee Probation Officer – Professional Qualification in Probation (PQiP) Kent, Surrey and Sussex
Vacancy Id: 62606
Role Type: Trainee Probation Officer
Salary: £23,174
Location: Various
Closing Date: 29 Aug 2022 23:55 BST
Trainee Bus Driver
Apply
locations
Bromley, Kent, United Kingdom
time type
Full time
posted on
Posted Today
job requisition id
JR1612
Salary
about £28,500 with overtime available
No, not true. That comparison is disingenuous, doesn't compare like with like and doesn't address the claim that "Many entry level and unskilled jobs earn more than probation officers."
DeleteI agree, it is far from true. Many, many ‘unskilled’ jobs pay much, much less. What is true, is that probation remains highly stressful and relentless.
DeleteAnon 11:23 says "At least 50% of staff I know in probation are working class and poor. Many entry level and unskilled jobs earn more than probation officers."
DeleteA PO is a white-collar profession that nowadays requires a university degree to do, making it more middle-class.
Even if an unskilled job is better paid than a PO, it might not have the same protections as a PO (which are lacking these days), doesnt have the same status (also lacking), can include manual work, and doesnt need a degree to do. As an aside, probation staff were silent when the initial welfare reforms were introduced a few years ago, a policy that very much impacts the predominantly poor and actual working class service users, and to this day stays silent and isnt taking any steps to build class solidarity.
The enforced jollity is going to be photographed and then cited by our #excellentleaders as evidence of our sunny optimism and goodwill. With a nod to their well-being initiatives. Its absolute cobblers. They can't screen shot their enforced MST training days, given that everyone logs in, turns off camera and sound and carries on ticking meaningless performance boxes. Well-being stuff is just a strategy to push the responsibility to relieve the unrelentling overwork and stress from the leadership to the workforce. Colouring in books, for heavens sake: insulting, risible, embarassing.
ReplyDeleteIts the neoliberal way. Workers are stressed and burnt out due to low pay and bad conditions. Rather than meet this basic need, they get all this 'well-being' nonsense forced on them, or in some cases iTalk (cbt therapy). Implicit in this is that the individual is at fault, so it completely obscures the structural inequality.
DeleteSeeing utter garbage like that - makes me more joyous I took early retirement. God help those poor souls that have to take part in it.
ReplyDeleteThe activities read like an amalgamation of early years nursery and care home activities.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested in how the PoPs that are talking about their positive experiences of probation were selected?
Gift vouchers perhaps?
I know many that would like to attend that the organisers wouldn't let in the room.
I guess things do change within the service, and things move on, but even the pioneers within the non Betamax probation service must feel just a little embarrassed by this?
Just a little?
'Getafix
I sailed off into the sunset 9 years ago and my funeral song is ‘ 3 wheels on my wagon’
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone else remember the training film ‘Bandages at Hiroshima’?
Happy days
https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-62568516.amp?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_ct=1660815408873&_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16608154066436&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com
ReplyDelete"HM Inspectorate of Probation, which reviewed both probation delivery units (PDUs) in June, said it recognised the impact that the new model, whilst recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, had on services." Fed up with this. The pandemic is not the cause of the godawful mess that Probation is in. The new model is irredeemably flawed, to coin a phrase.The new model is just half of the old irredeemably flawed model. The chief inspector should keep polishing that phrase for the moment when the penny drops and he can wheel it out again. Staff know it, everyone knows it bar those in charge in MoJ who have their fingers in their ears singing celebratory songs to drown out the truth
DeleteCurrently looking forward to our day of craft and pottery class, mannequin competition, bingo and talent contest. Is the world due to end any time soon?
ReplyDeleteGreat to read this blog it's thriving again we'll done Jim.
ReplyDeleteI’ve got a game, rearrange these words into a frequently heard phrase in probation offices up and down the country....OFF ,RIGHT,FUCK
ReplyDeleteOn ‘Civil Service Jobs,’ this morning.
ReplyDeleteI don’t object to clerical and admin staff being well paid but this job bears no comparison to the demands placed on a PO, many of whom will be earning much less with far greater qualifications.
Contract Support Officer(Ref: 63454)
HM Prison & Probation Service
Location : This position is based at NPS 13-15 WELLINGTON STREET BLACKBURN, BB1 8AF, NPS 384 TALBOT ROAD BLACKPOOL, FY3 7AW, NPS 40 EUROPA BOULEVARD BIRKENHEAD, CH41 4PE, NPS CEDRIC FULLWOOD HOUSE CREWE, CW1 6YY, NPS CHEADLE AVENUE TUEBROOK LIVERPOOL, L13 3AE, NPS . . .
Salary : £31,924 to £36,715
Grade : Higher Executive Officer
Approach : External
Role Type : Administration / Corporate Support
Closes : 11:55 pm on Thursday 1st September 2022
Here’s another game spot the pay rise for other public servants , 6%. £1900 uplift, 5% . £2000 all grades ?!
ReplyDeleteWhatever region this fantasy fuckwittery applies to, I guess you must be looking forward to your Purple Pissabout today. Fridays were *never* busy or renowned for the surprises they brought. No-one was ever released on a Friday. No-one ever had a crisis on a Friday.
ReplyDeleteThere aren't words to sufficiently express my dismay at this kindergarten crap.
While inspections reveal the current probation service is performing at or below 50% in most areas of its work, they're taking a week to piss up each others' backs & 'celebrate' their 'achievements'. It is truly beyond comprehension. Its Stalinesque. Its 1984. No doubt those who fail to enthusiastically join in will be ostracised, criticised & put on a list.
The ability to spot irony is a dying art - I am in this region !
ReplyDeleteThis probation day stuff just feels like psychological coercion. We're being made to take part in pointless activities where the goal isnt better pay and conditions, but change your attitude and be happy with your lot.
ReplyDeleteTheyre mugging us off.