I have absolutely no idea why, but a casual glance at the viewing figures reveals a staggering rise over recent days; over 7,000 yesterday; 2,000 before 9am today and 50,000 this month already. Maybe it's concern over race issues as I see the post and subsequent discussion on that issue has been viewed over 1,500 times. Or, being somewhat of a pessimist by nature, I'm assuming a malfunction of some sort rather than a sudden upsurge in concern for the Probation Service and its current plight. But hey ho, here's something from yesterday's Morning Star:-
The service needs proper investment to recover from years of political meddling and to halt high staff turnover, argues Tania Bassett of Napo
The probation service is in a staffing and workloads crisis which fundamentally undermines the effectiveness of the service and public protection. Napo, trade union for probation and family court staff, is seriously alarmed at the continuing lack of effective investment in the probation service since its reunification into state control in 2021.
There is increasing evidence to demonstrate the disastrous impact of this scandalous situation by way of:
- Unsustainable workloads and unfilled vacancy rates, meaning that it is not uncommon for practitioners to be holding case allocations of anywhere between 101-200 per cent against recognised capacity.
- Service delivery, as evidenced by the cancellation of specialised programmes for those convicted of sexual offences and a huge backlog of clients awaiting placement on community service projects.
- Public safety, where numerous reports from HM Inspectorate of Probation have been critical of probation senior management for not implementing past lessons and failing to develop systems that will create safe workloads and assist practitioners in protecting our communities to the standards expected.
- Staff sickness has rocketed as result of poor working conditions and burn out from relentless workloads, with the main reason for absence being mental health and work-related stress.
One HMPPS will see probation being subsumed by the Prison Service and shows a clear political agenda to prioritise the imprisonment of those who commit an offence over rehabilitation, reducing reoffending and reducing victims.
Napo general secretary Ian Lawrence said: “This threatens the integrity and professionalism of probation, before the service has been given time to recover from the egregious damage that has been visited upon it by incompetent politicians.
“It is high time that ministers stop using probation as a political football. Staff are exhausted by the working conditions and the never ending organisational change. The service needs to be left alone, allow staff time to breathe and go back to getting the basics right if we are ever going to have a world-class probation service again.”
Long-standing members of Napo, who have been in the service for up to 30 years have said workloads and working conditions are the worst they have ever known in probation.
One member said: “In 25 years I’ve never known it so bad. I’ve seen staff crying at work then having to go off sick.”
This is clearly evidence by the fact that attrition rates are at an all-time high.
Despite promises from ministers that they have engaged in a massive recruitment drive in the last years with over 1,500 staff being recruited, the figures suggest that new staff are not staying in the profession.
Lawrence said: “We are hearing from trainee probation officers that they intend to get their qualification then go on to jobs outside of the service. This just isn’t sustainable nor is it an effective use of limited resources.”
HM Inspectorate for Probation has echoed Napo’s concerns. It has cited significant staff vacancies right across England and Wales.
Chief Inspector Justin Russell has said recently that very little meaningful supervision with clients is being done due to excessive workloads.
In a piece of recently published groundbreaking research, HMIP found that high-quality probation supervision results in significantly better sentence completion rates and a reduction in reoffending. Clearly this is being hampered by the lack of time practitioners have to spend with clients.
Napo is seeking public support from the general council for Operation Protect, and for the general council to lobby the official HM opposition to clearly map out their future plans to restore probation into a gold-standard service within the wider criminal justice system.
Napo policy is also clear that the probation service should be taken out of the Civil Service, remain distinct from the Prison Service and go back to being embedded in local communities.
Tania Bassett is Napo national Parliament and campaigns officer.
Any campaign around the probation service must have a clear focus based upon strategic demands.
ReplyDeleteThe first demand has to be to identify the purpose of the service. Is it about rehabilitation, ( my preference, Advise, assist and befriend,) or is it about public protection and enforcement - (end to end sentencing - the big stick approach)
I recall some years ago writing that in order to change the ethos of the service, they should have declared all staff redundant at the point of TR and re-employed those who wanted it on very clear terms on the next working day rather than bring about the drip, drip, drip of ‘business change implemented by some of the biggest charlatans who ever claimed to be probation practitioners.
The second demand has to be about ending the bureaucratic processes, including OAsys and all the other meaningless repetitive form filling tasks to focus upon engaging with those under supervision.
Thirdly, once the identity of the service is established, we need to determine where we fit with other services. If it is rehabilitation, we should have a social work identity aligned with social services and the local authority. The alternative is to carry on being part of the policing structure and working with the prisons and the police to enforce rather than change.
I suspect we have lost too much ground and that recruitment processes have attracted a group of employees with a different ethos and who have been trained to think differently to us old codgers.
One thing is clear, the service can’t go on riding two horses and being all things to all people.
Those who claim to be ‘senior leaders,’ have little if any credibility with front line staff and given recent events in other spheres, there may be scope for the new broom. If so, does probation have any strong voice to dictate which direction it sweeps in? I have grave doubts about NAPO a under the current incumbent and have never trusted The Probation Institute so perhaps it not just those at the top who need to brace themselves for what the future holds.
Completely agree. You can't fix something if you don't know what it's supposed to look like in the first place.
DeleteI've read a lot recently about parole officer versus probation officer in the USA.
Two completely separate agencies. Probation concerned with rehabilitation and parole concerned with supervision and enforcement.
The way probation operates today, I honestly believe that's its inevitable that the same division will occur here in the UK.
'Getafix
One HMPPS with the prison service in chaos?
DeleteI think this article calls it right when it points to the exodus of experience from the prison service as an explanation for many of the prison services problems.
I believe the same to be true for probation.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prisons-hmp-jail-officers-daniel-khaliffe-b2410020.html
'Getafix
Consult the Probation Service Officers and Probation Officers instead of allowing Senior Managers ("Excellent Leaders") to continue their disastrous mismanagement???
ReplyDeleteGreat news on readership Jim congratulations mate it illustrates your attempts to enlighten us is more relevant than ever. I agree with the above poster Napo is a shot bunch and their leader is useless. As for the piece of the morning star oh dear what can this woman get right nothing. As Napo they need a campaign register for action on known health and safety legislation on overwork but they don't. So get lost. Parliamentary role wtf the paper won't even make the toilets in cut small squares when the andrex runs out.
ReplyDeleteThe majority of staff view themselves as public protection officers and are happy to see people locked up , it is the US system already , most would like a uniform and a gun if they could
ReplyDeletehttps://insidetime.org/prisoners-released-with-sleeping-bags-and-woolly-hats/
DeleteI’ve never met a probation officer that truely wanted a uniform and a gun.
DeleteHMIP did a recent thematic inspection for the NSD and it was clear lower caseloads lead to better quality of work and more time with service users which we already know. https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/inspections/ct-joint-inspection-2023
ReplyDeleteHorrible seeing PDU's and colleagues in this position, you see a new trainee in the office then poof they have disappeared never to be seen again.
We all know this but they won’t change practices, pay and recruitment to make it happen. We’re in the weird situation where Probation officers are overwhelmed with workloads and then blamed for not doing a good job. I cannot understand why probation and HMIP continues to audit and inspect when they know the outcome will always be negative.
DeleteIt has been harrowing to see really motivated NQOs resign. Two recently that had good values and understood the job but were completely swamped. It was heartbreaking to see one in particular in real distress talking about sleep disturbance and anxiety, nothing to do with clients all to do with over allocation ( should have been on reduced protected case load but was at 140%) and an SPO who told her everyone is in the same boat and has to get on with it, she resigned to try and regain good mental health and I wish her well.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it harrowing? This nqo has achieved a qualification in probation and is probably now moving on to something better. It’s a positive.
DeleteI have 19:06 I see her most working days , she would like a uniform a gun, one of them stretching contraptions and to see a good slapping on licence conditions
ReplyDelete