Thursday, 18 August 2022

Bread and Circuses 2

And lo, the diversionary nonsense starts! (Edited to disguise region)

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.
❖ 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.
❖ 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.
❖ Opening of Probation Celebration Day/Quiz
❖ 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.
❖ 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.

41 comments:

  1. Thank God I'm on leave next week!

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  2. Respect 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.

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  3. "Belonging – Dress Code, something beginning with ‘B’ "

    bullshit, 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.

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  4. 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

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  5. https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/media/press-releases/2022/08/warwickshire-probation-service-has-a-good-foundation-but-requires-improvement/

    - 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

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    Replies
    1. 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.

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    2. Have 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.

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  6. It’s like The Matrix, really - blue and red pills. And these days probation only works for you if you’re taking your blue pills.

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    Replies
    1. I wouldn’t recommend taking blue pills at work! Haha

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  7. A 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.

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  8. Nationwide is giving staff a £1200 bonus to help with cost of living.

    Probation 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

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  9. 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

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    Replies
    1. Stockholm 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.

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    2. If you offer people crumbs or nothing, most will accept crumbs. We in probation are used to getting crumbs.

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    3. Nah 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.

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    4. 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.

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    5. @Anonymous18 August 2022 at 11:23

      "Many entry level and unskilled jobs earn more than probation officers."

      That is simply not true

      Delete
    6. Yes it is outside probation is a real world.

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    7. 1123 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.

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    8. I agree, simply not true and such true.

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    9. It’s true.

      Trainee 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



      Delete
    10. 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."

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    11. I 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.

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    12. Anon 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."

      A 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.



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  10. 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.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Its 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.

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  11. Seeing utter garbage like that - makes me more joyous I took early retirement. God help those poor souls that have to take part in it.

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  12. The activities read like an amalgamation of early years nursery and care home activities.
    I'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

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  13. I sailed off into the sunset 9 years ago and my funeral song is ‘ 3 wheels on my wagon’
    Does anyone else remember the training film ‘Bandages at Hiroshima’?

    Happy days

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  14. https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-62568516.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_ct=1660815408873&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16608154066436&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com

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    Replies
    1. "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

      Delete
  15. Currently 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?

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  16. Great to read this blog it's thriving again we'll done Jim.

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  17. I’ve got a game, rearrange these words into a frequently heard phrase in probation offices up and down the country....OFF ,RIGHT,FUCK

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  18. On ‘Civil Service Jobs,’ this morning.
    I 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

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  19. Here’s another game spot the pay rise for other public servants , 6%. £1900 uplift, 5% . £2000 all grades ?!

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  20. Whatever 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.

    There 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.

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  21. The ability to spot irony is a dying art - I am in this region !

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  22. This 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.
    Theyre mugging us off.

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