According to the billing, it looks like we finally hear from the new Chief Probation Officer in File on 4 tonight 8pm BBC Radio 4. It seems Kim Thornden-Edwards will be calling for a recruitment drive to find more men to become probation officers. Should be interesting.
Probation in perilThe Probation Service is meant to protect the public by monitoring released prisoners and offenders on community sentences - helping them to stay out of trouble and rebuild their lives. But a series of catastrophic failures have led to the murders of two women who were killed by men who should have been monitored more closely.
File on 4 analyses the case of Damien Bendall who killed his pregnant partner Terri Harris and three children in 2021 while on probation. The Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell has said Bendall’s supervision “fell far below the quality that the public has a right to expect”. The programme hears from the families of Bendall's victims and from those probation officers on the front line who say the service is at breaking point.
--oo00oo--
From BBC website:-
The new head of the probation service in England and Wales has told BBC News that more men are needed in the profession. Kim Thornden-Edwards said it would help to bring a male perspective in some cases involving violent offenders, including cases of domestic abuse. Its workforce has been "stuck" at 75% women for 30 years, she added. She also said older people with life experiences are needed, including those who have been on probation themselves.
The probation service is responsible for supervising 240,000 former prisoners and offenders serving sentences in the community. However, it is facing intense scrutiny after a series of men committed murders while under probation supervision, among them Damien Bendall. He killed his partner, Terri Harris, 35, her two children, John, 13, and Lacey, 11, along with Lacey's 11-year-old friend, Connie Gent, at Terri's house at Killamarsh, Derbyshire, in September 2021. Bendall, who raped Lacey as she lay dying, is now serving a whole-life sentence. An independent review said probation staff had underestimated the risk Bendall posed, that they failed to carry out adequate background checks and did not display enough "professional curiosity".
Masculinity issues
In her first interview since taking up the role of chief probation officer in February, Thornden-Edwards told BBC's File on 4 programme that senior staff needed more options when assigning officers to cases. "Sometimes it's really good to be able to allocate a case where they think the gender will be important," she said. "It might be really good for a woman to be leading on a domestic abuse case - but also, it might be good for a man to be challenging those kind of issues around masculinity and power from a male perspective."
Thornden-Edwards, who has spent her career in the criminal justice system after qualifying as a probation officer in 1996, said the recruitment of men was an issue the service had always been unable to crack. She said: "It's been suggested in the past that associations of the probation service with social work has leant it to be viewed by women as more of an attractive career than men."
Two reports, carried out by an external company for the Ministry of Justice, support moves to broaden the mix of gender, ethnic diversity and experience in the probation service. The findings of the unpublished research - seen by File on 4 - said the service needed to hire more "career changers" in their 30s, 40s and 50s, who could bring skills from different sectors.
Thornden-Edwards said that later this year, the probation service was opening a non-graduate route for trainee officers - with GCSEs the only qualifications needed. The probation union NAPO has highlighted staff shortages and huge caseloads as the main problems facing the service. A survey of more than 900 members, conducted by NAPO and passed to the BBC, suggested that more than a third of staff are considering quitting.
File on 4 is on BBC Radio 4 at 20:00 BST on Tuesday 4 April and afterwards on BBC Sounds.
At last a recruitment doorway open to real people non grads. Fantastic some equality for the less well off. For those who would have some council estate experience. Those with less entitlement in their attitudes. Those who bark about moody
ReplyDeleteprofessionalism. Those who aren't snubbed out with a 21 a 22 or a first rubbish. Gces is all you need current staffing need to think about this and over time ordinary people in charge .
Wow, who’d have thought! We need more older, male probation officers, including BAME non-graduates and those with criminal records. No mention of HOW, and long way to go amongst the swarm of young, female graduates POs!
ReplyDelete"swarm" - ?
DeleteWho would change career in their 40s/50s for 30 grand a year ?
ReplyDeleteI fear we will see a ‘swarm’ of male early retiree police officers and ex military - just be careful what you wish for!
DeleteI think the police and military personnel would feel right at home in the racist, misogynist, misandrist probation service where senior managers enjoy prancing around ordering others what to do.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see how those with ‘lived experience,’ fare against police vetting.
ReplyDeleteI have commented before about the gender balance in the 90s which provoked much furore amongst some because of a few percentage points of difference. (54% v 46%) if I remember correctly, however since then it has become blatantly apparent that the service has been operating a quota system in order to appear ‘representative,’ of the society we live in. Ability to do the job was a secondary consideration.
In my area, service users are about 90% white, male and declare themselves heterosexual but could not be allocated a supervising officer with shared characteristics because there were bone.
Yes and that quota system has also provided a range of completely aggressive pathetic and inadequate managers many promoted on accelerate schemes for minorities and women they are self righteous and impervious.
DeleteThey can't be said to put a foot wrong.
“the service has been operating a quota system in order to appear ‘representative,’ of the society we live in.”
DeleteSo society consists of young, white, female graduates?!?
I'm puzzled by this fabricated distraction tactic by hmpps, this faux outcry about the lack of men in positive roles holding other men to account. What are they hiding?
ReplyDeleteFemales accounted for 53.6% (33,242) of all HMPPS staff as at 31 March 2022
Females predominated in the Probation Service at all levels, comprising of 66.1% (230) of staff in senior Probation roles (NPS bands A-D), 72.9% (1,414) in NPS bands 5-6, and 76.3% (12,829) in NPS grades below management level (which includes probation officers at band 4).
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hm-prison-and-probation-service-staff-equalities-report-2021-to-2022/hm-prison-and-probation-service-annual-staff-equalities-report-2021-to-2022
Women make up 52% of lawyers in law firms, up from 51% in 2019.
In 2021, out of the 354 thousand registered doctors in the United Kingdom, 186 thousand were men and 168 thousand women (47%)
Despite women making up over three quarters of all NHS staff, they are still in the minority in senior roles; 37 per cent of all senior roles are now held by women
Women employed in probation services are on pay parity with male colleagues across the spectrum.
What's not to like about that kind of equality?
If people are so concerned about positive male role models, maybe we (as a nation) should stop electing &/or accepting bullies, liars & cheats to run our country's government?
That's what the vast majority of those directed to the doors of probation are there for - bullying, lying & cheating. And they think its ok because the great & the good do exactly the same with impunity, e.g. coercive control, deception, acquisition of funds, misuse of public money... the culture of envy & entitlement: They have it, I want it, so I'll have it (& more) regardless of the cost to others.
There's a recent video on youtube where Private Eye journalists (incl Hislop) are challenging a parliamentary committee about transparency & disclosure - second jobs, donations, gifts, etc. Hislop's question is simple: "Why do you think they give you these gifts & cash?" The defensive closedown by male MPs shows just how the culture of entitlement is embedded in our parliament.
Partygate - same culture, same mechanism, same outcome, i.e. we are entitled to do this so we will. In a parliamentary committe hearing johnson insisted Partygate leaving do's were "essential for work purposes, or at least reasonably necessary for work purposes, for the reason I have given...To this day, as I said earlier on, I struggle to see how I could have run No. 10 without having brief farewell events... What I was doing was thanking staff—or thanking one individual in particular—for their contribution... I want to dispute the idea that it was not an essential gathering... People who say that we were partying in lockdown simply do not know what they are talking about... It is customary to say farewell to people in this country with a toast."
Many thousands of people around the UK would have been wishing they could have followed the same custom to say farewell to their loved ones with a toast.
Bullying. Lying. Cheating.
Lets have some leaders - MALE & FEMALE - at every level of our organisations & parliament who do not have these traits & values embedded in their day-to-day behavious.
notable bullies, liars & cheats - MALE & FEMALE - in the most senior probation positions include grayling, spurr, truss, raab, romeo, flynn... no doubt there are many more 'excellent leaders' in various geographical areas who have shat on their staff in a variety of creative ways in order to enrich themselves, e.g. the CEOs of the Trusts who expedited TR & pocketed £hundreds-of-thousands, the hand-picked Trust HQ staff who were awarded those elusive enhanced redundancy packages then walked into plum NPS/CRC posts set aside for them (i.e. those who picked up the £16.4millions that Selous refers to in his answer in 2015 - the remaining £64millions disappeared into CRC pockets).
DeleteOn a wider scale:
* the PPE bandits who pocketed £billions were mostly - if not exclusively - tory sponsors or tory chums, e.g. Baroness Moan (forgot to use a spellchecker).
* "£10k-a-day" hancock cashing-in on his covid health secretary experiences
* truss & kwarteng crashing the UK economy with impunity - I doubt they're queueing at foodbanks
* stanley johnson's "one-off" punch to his wife's face
* boris johnson's serial infidelity & generally disrespectful attitude to women
Until all of this power-&-control, self-defined one-rule-for-us 'elitism' is disbanded & binned - traits that are not exclusively male - the cult of envy & entitlement will continue & the streams of punters sent to probation's front desk will continue because people do not want to be excluded. They want a part of what's on offer, regardless. And johnson et al have modelled that its ok to be a self-centred arsehole.
The world-leading role model of the cult of self is currently dominating the news in New York. He's turned a handful of points over Ron de Santis (in the Rep nomination race) into a 40 point lead since his indictment last week.
As far as I can ascertain the orange buffoon embodies what is wrong in the world; not the fact that there are more women than men in our probation service.
The men & women of probation just need to hold the professional line, to be given the time & space to discuss cases, to reflect on their approach & the value of their interventions.
Of the many colleagues I worked with over almost 30 years' service, the vast majority were female.
But I simply remember them as consummate professionals & valued colleagues.
I’ve come across a lot of female bullies in probation. From admin right through to POs, SPOs and Directors or whatever they’re called these days.
DeleteMy solution would be a recruitment freeze on all female applicants until the the ratios are reversed. Crime is predominately a male problem and a lot of those males were raised and educated predominately by females. They need positive male role models the PO could be the first they've ever had.
ReplyDeleteNo they just need to make better efforts to recruit men too.
DeleteI agree with the comment @12:26, this feels like the sort of approach our current government adopts to divert attention from the core problem. And as for non graduates joining after a few weeks training well that’s a recipe for a further shambles. Last week B and Q then this week a high risk offender….good luck with that. I have chatted to a few of the new recruits in the prisons. It’s painful…thick as bricks and generally well out of their comfort zones. In fact I recall the same approach was tried in the 1980s…needless to say having ex coppers and military chaps was a total disaster. Generally because they dragged along all their “say it as I see it” claptrap. But returning to the earlier point the faux concern around gender is an attempted misdirection. The real issue is the total mess and appalling waste of money created by a government and civil service who are, put simply, unfit to lead. The rest is merely magic fairy dust sprinkled out to to create a happy world…alas even fairy dust won’t change the crap pay and dreadful conditions.
ReplyDeleteI agree. It’s a big mistake to remove degree entry requirements for probation officer training. We’ve seen these problems before when too many PSO staff were recruited.
DeleteAs someone who worked in the last century (and this one) my Probation Officers colleagues (male) included ex-offender who served 4 years in prison, ex special branch, ex teacher, ex police officer, ex parachute regiment, ex factory worker. All started in their 40s or 50s none interested in promotion, all interested in the people they were working with and very community based, they were a tough crowd. :) This is written by an ex-council estate lad from Liverpool .
ReplyDeleteEx Police, prison and military officers have always made the worst probation workers. They're difficult to work alongside too.
Delete“the probation service was opening a non-graduate route for trainee officers - with GCSEs the only qualifications needed.”
DeleteGCSEs as an entry requirement, is that it? They’re setting the bar way to low. Probation will be a shambles after all these uneducated future probation officers are waived through to qualification.
"Uneducated" POs will result in probation being a shambles?
DeleteWhat a narrow minded view.
For a start, it's all ready a shambles, but that's not the fault of the practitioners.
Secondly, plenty of people who, for what ever reason, didn't go on to gain a degree or A levels, are more than capable of doing the job.
I've been here for 23 years and no complaints about my standard of written work, not, just as importantly, my work with those we supervise.
I'm sure there are others already in the service who are the same, and I'd like to think the majority of us are open minded enough to recognise the advantages of the proposed policy.
But there are also many with only GCSEs that cant cut it in professional jobs. Those with GCSEs only, limited work experience, add in unemployed and criminal records too. It’s scrapping the barrel and we’ll get more chaff than wheat. Look at prisons. There’s a reason why training teams fought hard to keep probation officer training at degree level. Yes diversify recruitment but keep the entry requirements credible. GCSEs only is a joke.
DeleteLet’s face it they are only interested in appointing non graduates because they can manage the pay grades. Do you honestly think this Government has any interest in helping the little people? The sheer incompetence, cronyism and down right corruption steaming out of Westminster should really tell you otherwise. Money is the only language that the tories listen to…that and power and influence. Cross Government waste runs into billions of pounds. Billions syphoned off to mates and ex school pals, as public services creak and groan. Want a pay rise? Sorry no money. Royal family need a multi million pound grant? Sorted. Want me to ask some questions in the House? £10,000 and sorted. Poor, no food, no heating mouldy walls, shameful lack of fire regulations, well at least the blaze will keep your heating bills down. Make no mistake this current government is brazenly corrupting public standards. And that corruption seeps down into behaviour in public office. Why do you think senior leaders are protected from criticism in every report? Because that’s how the powerful protect each other. Christ it’s not rocket science. So as you noodle along getting blamed for all the mess, and new staff burst onto the scene clutching their GCSE certificates just watch your wages stagnate even further.
DeleteIsn't the GCSE level the minimum to apply for the training course? If it is, then I can't see any issues with it. As anon at 9am 6/4 says, people may not have gone to uni for all sorts of reasons, particularly prior to New Labour's push for the increase in number of people attending university.
Delete"I think TR was interesting in probation history" - at which point I threw the wireless out of the window.
ReplyDelete'Insult to injury' doesn't touch the fucking sides!
Revisionist bollocks from ms probation two-names
ReplyDelete"we're now unified... unification was the course of action that was chosen"
What happened to the reality that was Re-Unification?
We were forcibly split by a pack of arseholes, despite the warnings of professionals, then REUNIFIED when it was proven that the split wasn't working.
Where do they find these shitweasels?
Many CRC staff regarded it as absorption by the civil service blob, not any form of unification...
DeleteHey we are not CRC staff ffs we are probation staff who got shafted to a fucking CRC. Now we get shafted again into this crap and all the time our own colleagues regard us as shite. You ought to wise up . We are all workers now same crap same pay.same organisation.
DeleteI think “legacy crc staff” is the term in use.
Delete@21:48 I used the term "CRC st
Delete@21:48 I used the term "CRC staff" because I was a member of staff in a CRC at the time, and the view I expressed about being swallowed up by the Civil Service was pretty commonly-held. Nothing that's happened since has convinced me otherwise, so I'm not sure where or how I need to "wise up" but thanks for the advice
DeleteTightropeWalker Russell: "A very large number of trainee or newly qualified officers... but they need time to get their tradescraft right... Because of the worklaod and the staff vacancies there isn't the proper management oversight or coaching or supervision..."
ReplyDeleteAh, so the 'excellent leaders' aren't so fucking excellent after all...?
Why not just say so? Why dance around the edges of the fragile egos of those who are the source of these failures - THE SHIT MANAGERS (aka excellent leaders) who are failing staff & therefore failing to provide the public with the service they deserve?
They can keep on polishing the turd that is Probaton in the clutches of the civil service and subsumed by the prison service for all they want, its not fit for purpose where it is, controlled by the centre, and at the whim of a Justice Secretary every bit as vicious as Grayling. TR was not reversed, glad that wasnt claimed.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, why aren’t the unions all over the discrepancy between what the Inspectors are saying about excellent leaders but failing probation? How are they getting away with this disgraceful failure of leadership? Why why why are staff failed so badly by the Inspectors who are in a position to TELL THE TRUTH. It’s NOT the practitioners it is the SENIOR MANAGERS that are failing by all measures yet are so safe due to the clear protection of the Inspectorate. It stinks!
ReplyDeleteBecause the napo union leader wants a place in the lords .
DeleteGCSE's? So begins the end of the Probation officer and the beginning of the generic Criminal Justice worker..
ReplyDeleteThat cannot be a bad thing after the way your lot have behaved .
DeleteFrom Sally Lewis, former CPO on Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"National Probation Officer recruitment processes clearly disfavoured male candidates from a very apparent sociolinguistic perspective. When pointed out this was denied /ignored. The gender imbalance is systemic."
It's probations ethos that needs to change.
DeleteIt doesn't really matter which demographic recruitment focuses on if the job remains a tick box culture and anything to do with rehabilitation outsourced to other agencies.
It's pointless recruiting people who may have differing backgrounds and differing skillsets if they aren't given the autonomy and opportunity to use what they bring to the table.
'Getafix
Sally Lewis is honest enough . Another well known chief officer once blarbed out many staff develop a BBC accent to get on. Impossible of course for many working class regionals . Nasty bit of work that chief. Appointed a list personal friends .
Deletehttps://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/trainee-probation-officer-recruitment-april-2022-to-march-2023
DeleteFrom Twitter:-
Delete"Is this correct? I had to go through the recruitment to get on the probation officer training and I’m a man. I’m working class and from Yorkshire. According to this I shouldn’t have been able to pass the assessment?
Unless I’m reading it incorrectly."
Sally Lewis replies:-
"I don’t think, happily, there is any part of the process disfavouring working class northerners :) As you’ll understand disfavouring is a bias against not prevention. Can you remember the first question you were asked at interview? The script remained rigid for years!"
I worked at the Ministry of Justice just before the TR split. I can assure you that I was looked down upon because of my accent. I appreciate a South Yorkshire accent may grate but hey it’s the 21st Century. On one occasion I had a serious fall in my hotel. When I returned to work, with a gash running across my forehead, a senior civil servant asked my manager if I had been out fighting. When I pointed out that this was unlikely for all sorts of reasons he then cheerily told me the he didn’t really like travelling north of Watford, and assumed it was a bit rough up there… I didn’t last beyond a couple of years by which point it was made clear that my face (with scar on forehead) didn’t fit and despite good performance reports I was dispatched back to frozen hell of northern England. Looking back I wish I had reported (sorry assaulted) him. At the time however, I did feel a bit sorry for the wee man. He wasn’t well liked and it was common knowledge that his career was permanently stalled. Much to my amusement he remains in situ. To my shame I still gain a degree of pleasure knowing that fact.
DeleteThe reality is that she wants to broaden the mix of gender, ethnic diversity and experience in the probation service. That’s a good thing and I’m glad she’s said it. I’m liking this Kim already.
ReplyDeleteRigid I read it may have been but it was always a distorted corrupted process.too many same old types and too many good candidates proven capabilities were so often rejected and we could never understand why. Their process of 250 words in sections and presentation interview was overweighted and recruited what they liked not who was capable.
ReplyDeleteMen aren’t going to work for these wages you can earn more driving a lorry , it’s a job for daft young women
ReplyDeleteAfter two decades or more its hard to know what would change things. I've been part of selection panels & watched senior staff get heads together & re-score their marks to enable those who they want through the door. I've challenged it every time & been told variously: "you'll soon learn its the best way"; "its obvious who will make a good officer"; "don't worry, its not cheating - its just ensuring the best candidates get through." And they were meant to be selection processes which were without fear or favour. Its all shyte & slavver. None of it has any real meaning.
ReplyDeleteBut it happened way back when also... one ex-colleague told me they had challenged a university decision not to accept them on the dip.sw, only to discover it was a home office manager who had taken exception to them & "instructed" the university *not to offer a place*... once this challenge had been made known to the vice-chancellor (in a letter of complaint), the decision was reversed within hours & a full home office bursary was granted as well.
I can't begin to imagine what corrupt & devious procedures take place now.
I’ve seen it too. London probation is rife for that. ACOs meet after the interview process closes and decide on scores. Led by the Heads of Operations they jiggle the scores about about so they chose who gets selected. It’s all backfired now those because the entire crony SPO and middle-management group of robots has been condemned by HMIP as inadequate.
DeleteNot long ago I read the job description for my own role - I didn't understand a word of it. How on earth can anyone understand that gibberish? No wonder good people cannot get a job in probation and NVQ speakers stroll in.
ReplyDeletePerhaps some scrutiny needs to be given to the (End of ) Probation Workforce Programme that is quietly beavering away to make sure that One HMPPS is as far along as possible before the next General Election so it cannot be reversed. They are sneaky. The current probation professional register work being undertaken by Sonia Flynn - who is a strong supporter of One HMPPS - will see POs shafted and pitched against each other clamouring for advantage. Watch and see all the awards and accolades being piled on her in the next few months. The inspectors and the audit office need to take a long hard look at them and see how many roles can actually be devolved to the probation regions. The rats are already starting to leave for plum jobs. Make no mistake that there will be no probation service if the bosses have their way. Ex prison governor Amy Rees always calls the shots in the prison service favour and sees probation as a waste of time. The pathetically weak management in the programme just roll over and do what they are told even if they know it damages probation. They do not care about experience or recruiting more men at all as that is just a smokescreen. Young women graduate recruits are cheap and expendable. Older more experienced staff tend to be less desirable as they complain about how crap the job has become and are not going to be attracted back to be worked to death. The only people they listen to are the inspectors. Kim Thornden-Edwards was a deputy director in this top heavy programme and took the salary but did nothing so do not be fooled as she will not stand up for probation as she is still colluding with the probation services demise.
ReplyDeleteI for one am open to there being an opportunity for non graduates to train as probation officers. Back when CQSW was the qualification there was also this route. Training was good back then however, and extended for non grads. It meant you had social workers who were more mature with real life experience who had generally been working in relevant careers such as residential child care, family work or youth work. They already had the skills to work with and understand the people we work with. current PQUIP training is a farce if you ask me and not fit for purpose. Half of them are unlikely to complete as they have been sold a dream and reality and poor support will hinder them.. Then and there will be high drop out amongst the remaining ones. It will be like social work where the majority move on after approximately 5 years, so need to keep replacing with more younger staff. PO's are under additional pressure as now having to do a side line in training and mentoring which is unreasonable given our workloads and responsibilities. There was mention of needing to retain older staff but i dont see much evidence of this as zero support to retain them. Have they considered asking the older staff what they may need in order to remain,? Perhaps NAPO could put out a survey for the older staff to find out and present to the wise ones on high? what their HMPPS inspections would be wise to explore this further. However given the situation coming to light with ofsted I think all inspections should be cancelled until mental health risk assessments are conducted on all staff at all levels. I fear something similar could happen given the stress we are under and the inspection process is in my view punative. When I was interviewed last it was entirely Delius focused, looking at what I could have apparently done better to supervise a so called pop. Nothing about my caseload numbers, nothing about supervision, nothing about my welfare or support. How can that even be allowed? So in my view NAPO should ballot staff on refusing to partake until we are reassured that our welfare will be considered. Let's face it, the service is a shambles, the courts are dysfunctional, some probation areas in the red and yet we have to submit to these inspections which simply blame staff for the mess the government have created! It's a complete farce.
ReplyDelete