Sign The Petition!

I don't usually post at this time of night, but there's always the exception such as a change.org petition just launched and wouldn't it be great to give it a boost asap. I'm assuming there is the option not to have personal details published:- 

The Impending Collapse Of The Probation Service - Enough Is Enough

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Probation Service is well over its maximum capacity to manage dangerous offenders. It is in absolute meltdown, at a point of total chaotic internal destruction, the likes of which have never been seen before.

Following the Damien Bendall inquest probation officers are voicing their fears that more and more serious further offences will occur, resulting in either life changing damage to the victims, or indeed death.

Officers live in constant daily fear that one or more of their cases may be the next Damien Bendall. They are dangerously overworked with most officers being well over the 110% accepted caseload of the Workload Management Tool. Many are holding caseloads close to 200% or more. This means that the offenders they supervise, both in the community and on licence from prison do not complete the rehabilitation work they need. Many complete their entire community orders and prison licences without ever receiving any rehabilitation at all.

A high level of offenders have multiple probation officers during their supervision, as officers are being signed off on long term sickness or are leaving the Probation Service in a state debilitating trauma, mental and emotional breakdown.

It is well known and accepted fact that if an offender retains the same probation officer for their entire sentence then they are more likely to build trust with their officer, leading them to being willing to complete the necessary rehabilitation work they need. With multiple probation officers coming in and out of their supervision there is no continuity. The rehabilitation simply doesn’t get done and officers miss vital risk warnings because communication between staff breaks down.

Victims and their families want justice through staff having the capacity to actually do the job. They aren’t getting justice when probation officers have high numbers of offenders coming in each day, and only have time to spend 10 minutes with each of them. The reality is officers spend more time doing administrative data input tasks than they do with the offenders.

Probation officers spend the majority of their time writing up case notes, making referrals to housing, mental health and substance misuse and other agencies, typing OASys documents that each take hours each to complete, making and taking phone calls to social services, housing agencies, courts, police etc, completing safeguarding checks, doing MAPPA and MARAC updates, breaches, parole reports and attending parole hearings, answering emails, attending teams calls and staff supervision, and much much more.

Everyone would agree this is all very important work, but there are not enough staff to do it. Somewhere in there they are also expected to complete home visits to offenders to ensure they are living where they say they are, and check for potential the risks that may be present at those accommodations. Staff use their own cars to complete home visits, which leave many feeling vulnerable, as offenders then have their personal licence plates. Staff also face daily abuse and threat of physical assault from offenders they are working with. Offenders often attend their appointments under the influence of drugs and alcohol or in a state of unmanaged, poor mental health. This serves to further erode the already very low morale of remaining staff, and heightens their fears for their own physical, mental and emotional safety.

The stark reality of all of this is that the rehabilitation work that officers trained and specialised in does not get completed. Most officers do not even have time to get away from their computers to take their lunch breaks. Most work late into the evening and on weekends without extra pay, trying to stay on top of the endless flow of work.

A high number of probation staff end up on medication for depression and anxiety, in therapy, signed off sick with stress and trauma related illness such as PTSD and in a state of utter breakdown and burnout.

The Probation Service is unable to retain staff for all of the above reasons, and experienced staff are leaving in very high numbers. A large proportion of trainees either leave before the end of their training or as soon as they qualify because of the overwhelming levels of stress.

Probation staff are professionally trained. They joined to make positive change within the wider communities of society and to protect the public from the risks of serious harm. Currently they do not even have the ability to protect their own well-being. The traumatised are supervising the traumatised. Staff are being placed on capability procedures by managers for not being able to complete impossible levels of work. There are not enough hours in the day, and so officers are having to prioritise one high risk case over another, even though both cases have the potential to commit serious further offences, creating more victims and resulting in potential death.

New cases are allocated daily to staff who have reached maximum capacity and have nothing left to give. It impacts on their own well-being and that of their families.

Why would any probation officer stay and continue working in such a toxic environment? Their pay is low, the impact on them personally is high, and their desperate cries for support are ignored.

When the Probation Service was run as local Trusts they had more control over how work was managed, and were able to give offenders the time needed to complete the vital work integral to changing their offending behaviours. The move to privatise the Probation Service marked a devastating spiral into chaos, with vast numbers of experienced staff leaving the Service and going elsewhere. The reunification did not improve the situation. The decision to make the Probation Service part of the civil service, and a part of One HMPPS has led to even more experienced staff leaving. The Probation Service is in a very real state of collapse.

The profession is no longer a vocational career. Those that remain are struggling and broken, often unfit for employment elsewhere when they leave due to the high levels of trauma they suffer. Those with offenders who do commit serious further offences are left to live with debilitating guilt for the rest of their lives, even though they were beyond capacity and suffering stress related harm themselves, and could not have done anything more to prevent the incident from occurring.

Unless something drastically changes, the Probation Service will be run by a majority number of trainees and inexperienced newly qualified officers. Public protection will become a thing of the past. Members of the public will die as a result of more serious further offences being committed because staff do not have time to complete essential work.

Staff at every level are under extreme pressure leading to long term ill health and the development of new medical conditions.

Senior Probation Officers are under obligation to continue allocating cases to probation officers who are already being harmed by their overwhelming and excessive caseloads. Probation Delivery Unit heads MUST be held to account for their failures to protect their staff from serious harm within the context of their employment, and action MUST BE TAKEN NOW.

Enough is enough. The Probation Service is in critical state of breakdown. It is understaffed, overwhelmed and in dire need of greater resources.

To protect the remaining staff, and the public alike, things needs to drastically change and IT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW.

--oo00oo--

Postscript 10/11/2023

"There is a new petition which supersedes this one. The new one, if it gains enough signatures will then be discussed by parliament. Please be patient as the new petition is currently undergoing clearance checks. As soon as it is given the all clear, it will go live and can be signed and shared far and wide. Hopefully it will have a positive impact for the well-being of everyone. The link to the new petition will be available in the same places you found this one." 

Sally Day

Update 03:55

It now reads thus "Petitions UK Government and Parliament

We’re checking this petition 19 people have already supported this petition.
We need to check it meets the petition standards before we publish it. Please try again in a few days."

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/651215/moderation-info