I deliver the training in a university and used to be a practice tutor assessor. I was surprised to be appointed as a Senior Lecturer causing resentment in the university amongst those who were jumping through hoops but money talks in privatised HE. I was glad to get out of probation as they are not good employers.
None of the comments on here surprise me. Some of the students are very young and not life experienced at all. They are still at the living at home/partying and personal experimentation stage. They are good at doing online learning when they are up in time but find face to face interaction with colleagues and service users challenging and less fun than debating gender issues and dyeing their hair green.
We hear many stories of unprofessional behaviour towards them but much is as a result of a lack of people skills or respect for expertise. They are often very young people who have led sheltered middle class lives. They feel very hurt when they are criticised for knowing little and lacking experience. Most are terrified of service users who they simply cannot relate to and appear to them gross.
They were attracted to probation because of watching true crime tv. The dirty messy reality of frontline work is for many simply overwhelming and they retreat into their computers for safety and try to shut out the realities of the real world. Perhaps they will come up to speed eventually if their weaknesses go unnoticed but as the staff to case ratio slowly decreases they will have nowhere to hide.
The news today about a new probation officer messing up will be seen as devastating as it throws an unwelcome spotlight on a serious problem well illustrated by other contributors. Most new qualified officers will be entirely out of depth with a case like that and not personally equipped to deal with the fall out.
I know a lot of PTOs both young and older. All of them have been doing the best with what they’ve got. The PQiP isn’t easy but i’m sure the last thing new entrants need is to be belittled by the lecturers on an anonymous post when their job is to educate and support them with the academic side of the qualification.
ReplyDeleteAs a Senior Lecturer who teaches PQiP I am constantly in awe of the learners I support. The current qualification bears no resemblance to how I trained and it is incredibly tough. I have the pleasure of teaching and supporting learners who have transitioned from previous careers as well as those fresh from university. Do all of them express the same values that drove my decision to join the service? Maybe not. But let’s please respect all that continue to work in the service given the state it is in.
DeleteI’m a po and in awe of learners too. Many are really motivated and want to help people to change. From what I see of the training it is not tough. It’s quite easy in fact. It always was.
Delete… And then they qualify and realise The 'horrendous' reality of being a probation officer.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/horrendous-reality-being-probation-officer-28810294.amp
I do not believe all new probation trainees are middle class introvert's as suggested by the blog post today. Many come with significant work and life experience, or just bags of motivation and common sense. I know some amazing trainees and newly qualified officers. The problem is the circumstances they face when they get to probation. Rather than improvements in the training and retention of staff, we now have further political meddling releasing sentenced and recalled prisoners at short notice and ending community sentences prematurely.
‘less fun than debating gender issues and dyeing their hair green’? Who wrote this? Lee Anderson?
ReplyDeleteWow what a condemnation of our youth. All of us were young once, setting out on life's journey. As a the parent of committed 20 something's I find this highly offensive and not a characterisation that I recognise. Shameful for an educator. Symptomatic of the I qualified when dinosaurs roamed the earth type !
ReplyDeletethey do say those that cant...teach
ReplyDeleteAnd those that can’t teach…….lecture
DeleteI thought it was a good honest post. Some people are missing the point. Running to the defence of ‘the youth’. The point is it’s only ‘the youth’ who are doing it!
ReplyDeleteProbation training used to be for people from all walks of life, some close to retirement, others might have been ex users of a service of some kind. All had a particular motivation for wanting to do the job which was (mostly) sound. Our cohort was a really good mix of people. It seems to just be younger people trying to get a career going who do it now as opposed to someone who is genuinely wanting to do it. That’s what I took from the post anyway. The characterisation I felt was to prove this point and actually is reflective of a lot of other posts on here but comes at it from the other side. Interesting how when it’s one of our own it’s accepted but when someone on the outside makes the point it is met with outrage.
The honesty was the lecturers on views but god help those he lectures. Imagine teaching people to embark on a career when your own rigid beliefs mean you have absolutely zero confidence they can do it.
DeleteI am an SPO in a busy PDU. The main post is quite disrespectful of some incredibly hard working and diligent PQIPs who want to do their best. Yes lots of them are young but all in our recent cohort come of diverse and predominantly working class backgrounds. Let’s not throw the next generation under the bus!
DeleteHow inspiring for the trainees reading this..
ReplyDeleteWell, who IS inspiring the trainees? This was certainly an eviscerating critique, but the reaction, one suspects, due to its hitting home. What vision and mission is being communicated? If its not about being actually onside with your clients (I really did hesitate about the terminology ) and being thoroughly conflicted about the role, then your not being "trained"
DeleteThey’re being inspired by the glossy ads.
DeleteHi everyone, i recently withdrew myself from the pqip and resigned. I was simply aware that i did not have the confidence or developed skills to manage the complex cases towards the end of my training. It was not an easy decision however it was what was right for me and my wellbeing. I was wondering if anyone here has knowledge on whether i could return to the programme in the future and resume from where i left off?
ReplyDeleteYes you certainly can. My advice would be to come back as a PSO first and get that valuable experience in case management. I’m a current SPO and in my experience the trainees that cope the best are the ones through the PSO route.
DeleteMy advice is contact the uni and the employer training department. Ask if you can restart and carry over credits.
DeleteI wouldn’t follow anon 10:00. Depending on staffing levels and chaos in any office you join there could be no experience to be gained. It’s wrong to say pso’s with experience cope the best as a trainee. The best I’ve seen had no experience of probation so we’re not tarred by horrible experiences.
I believe some self doubt as a PO is perfectly healthy. Beware the PO certain of their ability and omnipotence.
Delete“A very awful sort of job nowadays but someone has to do it. I wonder if it is not time for root and branch change?”
ReplyDeleteNever has a truer statement been made about today’s probation service.
Will it change (in a significant and meaningful way?) - no, I believe not, no matter the party in power.
I think we need to be clear here about the difference between education i.e the academic component of the qualification and 'training' - courses / events facilitated by the employer. They are not the same thing.
ReplyDeleteBut both are awful. The academic element is now heavily reduced from what it once was and almost exclusively online. The in-house training to complete the VQ element is rubbish. So is the mandatory training and e-learning. I don’t think they even get a degree at the end of it anymore.
DeleteI am more than qualified for PQiP - at level 7 already - but I won't make that transition from PSO because of what I read about from current NQO's and RQO's, who criticise the excessive caseload, stress that creates due to the extra free time put in to meet deadlines - and there is the fear of SFO's which is more likely to come from a PO caseload than a PSO's. What is the point of working hours free of charge only to paid per hour the equivalent of a much less stressed specialist PSO?
ReplyDeleteThe academic side of the PQIP is somewhat easier now the 8,000 word dissertation requirement has been removed. Caseloads are not in the mid-20s/30s before qualifying because of the high profile tragic and horrific cases that have caused Probation to reflect rather than the daft conceit of piling work on as a trainee in preparation for the high caseload to come. This never tackles the caseload, but further puts the emphasis on the NQO/PQIP- this is a 'get out of jail free' card for Probation to continue to culturally emphasise that it's the NQO's fault of how they manage cases not the caseload itself. PQIPs don't have to do duty if they're doing a PAROM- when the kitchen sink was thrown at me when I did my training. But will they be prepared to undertake high risk on their own without co-working? Cases all start with proper work made in the courts or prisons with meaningful work to prepare them for community testing- not the attitude that most offenders have when they believe that when they leave prison that's the 'end of their sentence' Much more has to be done at the Court or prison end of the system so as to make the COM's job just slightly less arduous. In addition, cases are often more or not a success if the allocation is made as well as it can be. This comes from risk literacy and making sure that an NQO doesn't have a case of abiding magnitude that they feel overwhelmed and this may turn into an SFO.
ReplyDeleteThere’s a reason you only need a single NVQ level 3 or foundation degree to get onto probation officer training (Pqip). Then you’re cannon fodder to take on all the low risk cases and menial tasks. SPOs are no help at all and Co-working means being a lackey for qualified POs. That’s why we get the qualification and leave for better jobs elsewhere.
DeleteIt’s a Mickey Mouse course compare it to social work training a comparable career and you will see the difference that’s why social workers have earning power
ReplyDeleteThe ads for the job are basically lies. A lot of the trainees that join would make brilliant probation officers. But they’ve been lied to, they’re disillusioned, and they want a better working life. Nobody can blame them for that. They may lack life experience, but they don’t lack intelligence. They value themselves. The younger generation would rather walk out of a job that makes them unhappy, and find jobs that pay less, if it means they’re happy, and not burned out every moment of every day. I respect them for that. They’re being honest with themselves. They’re valuing their worth and their mental health.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it’s not the trainees that should be criticised, but the recruiters. Recruiters know how pressurised the job is. The high staff turnover is a clear indication of that. Recruiting for numbers doesn’t work. There needs to be a re-examination of the recruitment process. Having hundreds of people join only to have hundreds of people leave again is a waste of time and resources. All it does is add to the pressure the existing staff are already under. It’s an optical illusion so the powers-that-be can say they’re recruiting X number of people to help ease the pressure, when in reality they’re just making it worse, through being dishonest about the leave-rate. Criticise the right people, and not those who try.