A Perfect Storm

Regular readers of this blog will no doubt appreciate that it's been a very long time indeed since the level and nature of contributions warranted my posting an 'omnibus' edition. But it's clear the fallout from recent SFOs and continuing negative HMI reports has triggered a veritable tsunami of anger and served as a catalyst for an unprecedented willingness to whistle blow. 

Over the years I've been contacted many times by the media and have always tried to assist, but this is different both in terms of breadth of interest and what I perceive as a genuine desire to really understand what probation is about; it's significance as a concept and it's many and varied problems brought about by successive politically-motivated upheavals.   

It's clear the service is broken and the media is keen to expose what has been discussed anonymously on here many, many times over the years, but also take the time and effort to put it into a wider context. But they need help and anyone who can give 'chapter and verse' is particularly asked to consider getting in touch and contact details are on the profile page.     

Of course what has now been set in train has both potential benefits and serious risks attached, but it's widely understood that the service was effectively destined for oblivion under HMPPS/MoJ command and control anyway. I sense there's a growing mood to just 'go for broke', get the whole sorry story out there, but at the same time make the case for a reconfigured and independent service. We can do this, but it requires the help of all those who can speak authoritatively on our behalf, academics, politicians, CJS charities, former Chiefs and HMI's. 

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It's a bit of a perfect storm isn't it? We are in the wake of appalling and inevitable failures of our Probation public protection brief. Redefined in current media and by this awful government, and the equally awful MoJ command, as the agency with responsibility no not so much as manage risk, but to eliminate it, the flickering flame of Probation Identity as an agency of social justice, critical of the state, and alive to the social context of crime, working in therapeutic and humane ways with our clientele, may be extinguished, if it isn't already.

Exhausted and betrayed staff are now queuing up to blow the whistle and Pandora's box is now opened. Probation people are in my experience, a very diffident, moderate, corporate and discreet bunch but they have been tested to destruction. The alacrity with which they are now giving vent in public is tantamount to civil unrest. It's a development fraught with risks, given the relish with which the party in government is now debating the benefits of capital punishment within its ranks. 

No response from within HMPPS will be anywhere near the mark of what is needed and wanted. Government-in-waiting is not inspiring - to be kind - on this front. The scope to build something meaningful and progressive from within looks pretty minimal, so maybe destruction of the status quo is the only and inevitable way. 

There are allies and practitioners at all levels working to forge progress within the current structures, and power to their elbows, but it's too urgent and the organisation has no capacity or will to listen. The alternative is however to start from scratch: a small movement of missionaries - lets say people with social consciences and humanity - to start from scratch. The quandary for all of us, not least our Union, is that with wilful hastening of the destruction of what remains of the profession, there will be a real and painful impact on the lives and living of employees.

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It is happening already; Downgrading eligibility criteria and lengths of Probation Officer training. Red site status stacking cases, conducting reporting centres and suspending core work. Focus on recruiting PSOs over POs. Removal of release recommendations in Parole reports.

They could pay POs better wages and pull POs out of prisons into probation offices. Instead the HMPPS sticking plasters while it’s prison driven steam train drags Probation further towards the scrapyard.

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The probation service isn't being directed by the prison service, it's actually become an extension of the prison service. What's more I believe it's now being seen as the failing part of the prison service.

I was struck by a comment on yesterday's blog post that pointed out that whilst the recent publicity and whistleblowing probation is experiencing might do a lot in exposing the problems and pressures that probation services are faced with, that exposure might come with a significant cost to the service. Might the solutions that must come not further imbed probation within the prison service? Might the service not become more like 'prison officers working in the community' rather then 'probation officers working in prisons'?

Channel 4 reported on the whistleblowing story yesterday, and although the news was specifically about probation, the video that accompanied the story contained nothing but locks, bolts and bars, and prison gates and landings. Surely that imagery can do little else but imbued in the public's mind that probation is indeed part of the prison service?

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I sincerely hope that it does galvanise some serious debate Jim, not least because probation supervise a population that's roughly equivalent to the population of Milton Keynes.

They've somewhere along the line stopped being people and become caseloads. They've become the problematic tenant in the probation household, and just like people in prison are processed until they reach the end of their sentence, people on probation are processed until they reach the conclusion of their supervision period. That approach serves no one, and it's a very expensive investment with little reward for anyone involved.

As for suitable imagery? I really don't know. Maybe probation helping someone fill in a housing application would be better then prison landings, gates and keys? I think the right imagery may become clear once probation can define it's role in the CJS in it's own right, and maybe that's the fundamental question probation needs to answer. Who are we? Why do we exist?

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"They've somewhere along the line stopped being people and become caseloads." Thank you. In a nutshell. Regarding imagery, if I wanted to encapsulate an image of the wasted time and resource, it would be rows of probation staff sitting in rows, typing. If I wanted an image of the potential and the joy, it would be encounters with befriended people on the park benches, the doorsteps, the car parks, the CAB offices. Sometimes but not often in the office.

I cuddled a baby last week, with her dad, who a year ago was in trouble and despair. Proud dad, proud probation officer. The room was full of love and optimism. He was never a threat to public safety, just to himself, and to others in being inconvenient, antisocial and using up a lot of court time. The "solution" was never ever punishment or incarceration. It was housing purpose and hope.

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With local line managers, local senior managers and alike unable to influence how current policy hampers officers doing their job, and who are notably responsible for creating and maintaining the oftentimes, toxic and bullying environment we have to work in, one must question what can be done to bring about meaningful change.

The Probation Service used to have fantastic training staff, long serving officers had time to nurture the new recruits coming into the service. Staff of all grades stayed, believing the PS to be a good employer. As officers, we could frequently see positive outcomes for those we support.

All of this has been replaced by counting by numbers training that does little to educate and does nothing to help staff retain learning. Staff of all grades are expressing continued discontent or leaving, and those in charge do little to evidence they are listening or even barely interested in the thought of frontline practitioners.

Inspections report failings but influence very little and the unions are of little effectiveness. The question is, can staff collectively come together to bring about meaningful change and if so, who will lead us in doing so?

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The sad reality of the service is finally revealed, although not to it’s full extent. Staff have been struggling for long enough and even when you go off sick, there is a short period of ‘grace’ if we can even call it that, and then it’s back to the old same issues.

Staff retention is a huge problem. Throwing money at recruiting so many PQiPs is not the answer. I know of many reputable, well experienced officers who have left because there is no other choice. We are told there is no fix and when we say we are struggling, we are compared to others who are seemingly ‘coping’. Truth of the matter is they are not. The environment is mundane and seeing so many colleagues burn out is soul destroying.

The Senior management team have their own cliques and if you are not part of it then you may as well talk to a brick wall. Being asked for ideas on how to help is not enough, as often it’s not followed through. Management make changes to tick their boxes and not for the benefit of frontline staff or PoPs.

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The issue that many readers will know is not necessarily how they stand on WLMT, but that this tool does not accurately allocate the true amount of time that tasks actually take. OASys as one example. OMs are allocated something along the lines of just 2 hours for an ISP, when it can take even the most experienced staff member close to 10 hours if not longer. The same can be said for reviews. If the WLMT provided an accurate allocation of time for tasks, then I’m pretty sure staff would be in excess of 200% or even 300%. Why NAPO and other unions allow this injustice to skew the true workload OMs are having to cope with is beyond me. The risks to the public are evident.

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"We do not want more training and silly support scheme, we want to be paid better which will in turn attract and retain staff." Pay & Ts+Cs have been happily surrendered by the unions over the last decade or so. As a consequence of that capitulation, regaining that ground will be very difficult.

Training is a critical issue, front-end & ongoing; learning should never stop. CPD has never been formally established within probation work. It does not work well when linked to pay progression; natural curiosity & a desire to improve used to be enough.

Simply demanding more money will attract some staff, but not neccessarily those who have the 'probation ethos' in their hearts. It has been the myth of "more money" that has contributed to the current catastrophe, e.g. new staff only applying to get a degree without paying for it & then clearing off, eager applicants for managerial jobs with a handful of months' experience, secondments to 'the centre' & ultimately never returning.

The service needs to decouple from HMPPS, to redefine itself along the lines of 'advise, assist, befriend' and hold firm. Labour's tough on crime & the Tories' new death squads headed by Lee Anderson do not represent probation work, however well paid they might be.

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“Training is a critical issue, front-end & ongoing; learning should never stop.” Again mistaken. The response from London Probation to the abysmal HMIP inspections and SFOs has been to send probation officers on more training. The failing is not because of lack of training it is because of lack of staff. We could have the best trained staff in the world, and once did, if they are not paid and treated well they will leave and never return.

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Here's another angle you might consider in lieu of you actually speaking to any of the whistle-blowers bravely breaking cover trying to make someone take notice and help us so we and the public don't come to serious harm. Perhaps ideas regarding solutions were provided but they're not deemed attractive reporting. Perhaps they said that individuals had been trying to sound the alarm via appropriate channels but were ignored or told that they couldn't possibly know what they were on about.

Perhaps the pathetic excuse the Probation Service calls training was brought up, the continual abuse of staff with any whiff of a protected characteristic, the increased numbers of suicidal staff, the staff charging electronics in the office because they can't afford to do so at home. Maybe even simple solutions for those were proffered. Perhaps the need for better pay, gross overhaul of management, mental health provision, the need to overhaul the criminal justice system and the need to focus on the social work aspect (rather than prison command/control rhetoric) were discussed.

Perhaps it was mentioned that the probation service is reflecting just how sick public services are - even if we had the most incredible and supportive probation service ever, how would it ever function well when the NHS, social services, housing, education, the police, the DWP etc aren't fit for purpose either. It's not like probation works in isolation. That's far too political and talking about reality just means people can't play ignorant and bury their heads in the sand.

Perhaps those things were even acknowledged but they couldn't be reported on because hard evidence is needed and evidence in the MoJ and HMPPS is slippery. But heck, what do I know? I'd be lying if I said I understood what goes through the minds of journalists or editors in determining what Joe Public wants to read or needs to know.

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Two observations. The disaster of TR was NOT "reversed". This keeps being reported and it's not true. With taking the credit it just removed half of the problem and relocated it into the other half of the problem. Neither existed pre TR. The exposing of the scandal that is the wrecking of Probation is needed, and on balance probably good and I hope more staff roll up. But: the risk is that all remedial action will be in the form of strengthening risk management. AKA policing. Any narrative about redemption, forgiveness, healing, reparation, is being blown away like sand in a gale.

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The regional WLMT shown today is scary showing 8/12 regions in the red. Drill down to PDU level and the picture is dire… its about parity of pain, city v rural it hides the reality at regional level. Long term more POs/PSOs with better pay will obviously be a good thing, but it is broken today and will be tomorrow. 

Senior management such as heads of operations and above need to tell MoJ/HMPPS to park/suspend the service levels. Above all, shut down the algorithmic monster known to all as OPen it is a live beast that needs feeding daily and it’s always hungry. If not, try as I might, please accept that I cannot deliver a good service to all of my people when I am constantly hovering around 147%. WLMT is not my invention, it’s a service designed system to show managers that staff will burn out if you leave them at 110% for too long. When at that magic figure, managers should intervene and take supportive action. Unfortunately their managers tool box is empty.

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As a PO of 20 years having moved through 4 specialist areas of work plus one secondment to YOS, my view is the vast majority of what I read (and 100%) of what I contribute on this blog is true. RoSH is being manipulated to allow allocation of more cases to officers, the WMT does NOT reflect the actual time taken by a competent officer to do the tasks measured and indeed, the WMT is changed at times and not all work we do is measured anyway. 

Finally SFOs are not an accurate measure of serious offending by those we supervise and in the months after TR, offences were actually removed from SFO reporting. The truth is important but front line practitioners are labelled negatively by management if they speak up within the organisation it is a “put up or shut up” culture in probation now. Management has lost the confidence and trust of the majority of the front line. We are exhausted trying so hard to do our jobs properly and the culture we work in is now toxic. This blog is a place of testament.

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WLMT isn’t fit for purpose, we all know that and nothing happens when in the red! Prison based POs have no WLMT and in my recent experience we have lost 3 POs leaving 2 POs to manage 84 high ROSH cases each . Before backlash starts, I fully acknowledge the role is different to the community, however still target driven under OMIC which should be called COMIC, still unmanageable to undertake work with prisoners. Swallowed by HMPPS.

Number of issues highlighted with NPS, lack of experience of SPOs, many cushy jobs created to quickly get off the frontline. Unrealistic expectations, target driven service, poor pay and conditions the list is endless. In over 20 years I have never seen the service so utterly broken, if it was a horse it would be in the glue factory. 

There are many great people of all grades in the service pushed to the edge and with the move to laptops it appears unwritten rule that people work over the paid hours of 37 hours and somehow those who try and stick to those 37 hours are frowned upon for not meeting unrealistic targets given the caseloads. As a service we have never really celebrated our achievements, the thousands who don’t commit SFO for a start! Rightly so the spotlight should be shone on failings, but let’s not forget the failings are top down not bottom up.

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As the next general election approaches, with the state the country is in, the Tories have precious little to sell the public in order to garner votes. A poll this week even suggested that if a snap election were called now they might even find themselves as the third party in parliament instead of in opposition. Enter the CJS. I think there's going to be a lot of dissembling and scaremongering going on, and I think the CJS is going to be in for a rough ride over the next 18mts.

This week alone with the media full of SFOs the Tories have appointed a chairman openly in favour of the death penalty. They've rejected the notion of resentencing IPP prisoners. They've given police forces quotas to take in the prison over spill. Rabb has announced prison abstinence wings to reduce 'state sponsored drug dealing' reducing the amount of methadone and subutex given in prison to addicts. They've changed the criteria for releasing prisoners serving under 4 years early on tag. They've excluded people serving sentences for domestic violence, stalking and harassment etc from being able to be released early on tag, whilst in an attempt to balance the impact this will have on prison population, they've increased the period for those who are eligible from 4 and a half months prior to release to 6 months prior to release.

I have no idea how this will impact on the courts or probation services. The CJS is always used as a political football as elections approach, but more then ever I fear we are going to see big changes, bigger lies, more spin then ever before. The Tories are going to be the new vaccine for crime. And as usual, very little good will come of it.