I have commented on this before but it’s worth restating. The Civil Service has a track record of failure when it comes to operational activities. Border Force has long been a shambles, the Courts are a mess, and prison and probation have been eviscerated. I have pondered what causes this level of failure and have come up with a list of observations:
A) Top down management fails to listen to operational expertise.
B) Senior managers are guilty of group think. Criticism is seen as negative and isn’t encouraged. This is a significant issue.
C) Senior managers are fearful of rocking the boat in case they are perceived as disloyal.
D) The organisation is unwilling to accept mistakes have been made so instead of learning from these errors they plow on regardless in the hope that something might work.
E) There is a major gap in the organisation between policy and practice. To the extent that new initiatives are rolled out without any ownership at a local level. Or ownership is located in the wrong roles.
F) Constant change leaves workers confused and demoralised. Insufficient time is spent bedding in change and evaluating success. Change is inevitable but all too often it is chaotic and unnecessary.
G) Senior leaders don’t take responsibility for the failures. This is a constant theme in the HMIP reports. At some stage an inspection has to look closely at how senior leaders are functioning and how it’s possible to have such poor inspections without holding them to account. Ultimately they are responsible for the failures and until this is addressed they will continue in the same vein. In other fields this level of failure would have warranted the dismissal of senior leaders.
H) All too often decision making is political and not evidenced based. All too often decision making is expedient and not conducive to effective practice.
I) OMiC is a classic example of the above. It’s poorly conceived, rigged for operational necessity, chaotic, poorly planned and failing.
J) Evidence is ignored because it’s inconvenient.
The list is not exhaustive but I will reiterate that the Ministry of Justice is a failing organisation. It is a dishonest organisation that fails to learn and ultimately its dishonesty permeates all levels of management. It is cancerous and damages anything that it touches for all the reasons outlined above.
Very wise. Agree totally. I don’t actually blame the ACO grade, it’s the senior civil servants I blame
ReplyDeleteMy ACO is top draw. It’s Above that I blame.
ReplyDeleteWell I absolutely do believe the Region and PDU Heads should be held accountable because they are the very people who could explicitly advocate for and publicly defend the Probation Service and fail to do so. They could say “we cannot deliver a service due to lack of resources, poor modelling and strategies which simply don’t work”. They could put an exceptional delivery model in place to allow us front line staff to deliver ( funny how it could be done for Covid) and dare the MOJ to refute it. Clearly though their first duty is to the Minister or their own careers, I see no care for frontline staff at all other than JFDI. On another point it appears the looming prison capacity crisis has resulted in HMPPS managers in the Ministry being told by Amy Rees to release 5% of staff to shore up the prisons. Yet Probation is in total crisis and it’s only when Prisons face pressure such responses are made. It is just so wrong.
ReplyDeleteThis applies to SPOs and middle managers too. They are tools for senior managers, some already on their way to the ivory tower. Very few managers are the exception nowadays.
ReplyDelete07:30. No ACO is “top draw”.
or even "top drawer"
DeleteAs an SPO I complete 10 hours of overtime each weekend to support my team by completing ISPs, parole reports and PSRs. Always vowed I wouldn’t ask an officer to do what I won’t do myself! SPOs could do more if we weren’t inundated with HR tasks, recruitment and a hunch of other stuff that used to be managed by people trained in and paid for those jobs.
DeleteShocking. The probation service has been suffering a staffing crisis for the last two years and yet staff are being directed into prisons!!
ReplyDeleteThanks Amy Rees. And since when dis prisons become the “frontline” for probation?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11860557/amp/Probation-workers-redeployed-Whitehall-prisons-staffing-crisis.html
Civil servants at the probation service's HQ are being redeployed to work in prisons because of a staffing crisis.
The department's chief has written to senior managers saying they must hand over 5 per cent of their Whitehall workers from today.
An email from Amy Rees, director general of HM Prisons and Probation Service, said: 'Given the continued capacity issues across the prison estate and associated staffing pressures, I am writing to request your support in releasing HQ staff to the front line to help with the mitigating actions to address this ongoing issue.'
'omic'? - as a community team PO between 1992 & 2013 I visited as many custody cases on my books as I realistically & justifiably could. Some visits had a clearly defined purpose like telling them their dog had died, that their child had been adopted, that their mum had been detained under the mental health act, that their sister had been killed. Some visits were as a result of prison staff asking me to "come & have a word" due to specific events. Some visits were simply just because I could go & keep in touch. In the last few years of that timescale (mostly post-Trust status in 2008/9) it became increasingly difficult to book a prison visit. Managers would demand to know why, would refuse to approve a hire car or rail ticket, would refuse to approve expenses. So there were occasions when I made prison visits at my own expense, including Friday visits for long distance trips which involved absorbing the cost of an overnight stay & getting home on a Saturday afternoon. I did this because I saw it as an important, nay essential, aspect of working with people deprived of their liberty but hoping to return to & become accepted back into 'normal' communities. Eventually I was very effectively 'grounded' by one particular manager simply refusing to allow me to undertake visits because they were "uneconomical & pointless; what's wrong with a telephone conference or video link?"
ReplyDeleteI also actively promoted the value of prison visits to family members. When we had exhausted all avenues & there were no statutory or charitable resources available I would occasionally cover the cost of return train journeys for mums &/or dads, partners, children... sometimes including overnight stays.
No doubt this will attract much mirth & derision from those who inhabit the new probation world. I believe it probably saved a few lives - inside or out - & allowed many to manage some grim times.
I'm grateful not to be part of the modern service, & nothing Jeremy *unt offered in today's budget will encourage me to pick up my skirts & rush back to ask for a new contract.