A Typical Day at the Office?

I notice that the ipaper published this a few weeks ago:-

‘I’m firefighting all the time’: 24 hours as a probation officer

Sarah Edwards, 35, worked as a probation officer from 2014 to 2020. In November 2020, she left her job and set up a coaching business to help people get into the probation industry. She also works part-time writing probation reports for courts to use during sentencing.

Edwards is the author of a book, Success on Probation: A Step By Step System to Reform Your Life. These 24 hours are based on her work as a probation officer from 2014 to 2020.

7am

I wake up thinking about work. I already have a knot in my stomach and can’t stop thinking about all the things I need to do. I don’t have breakfast at home – I just go straight to the office. I’m anxious to get on with things.

7.30am

The train journey takes about an hour. My worries about my job are always in the back of my mind, but I listen to music to help me switch off until I get in.

8.30am

There aren’t many people in the office at that time, but I like to get there early. I have a cup of tea and check my emails. I heat up my porridge in the microwave.

9am

I’m a morning person – it’s when I work best, so I start the day by writing up assessments – this is where probation officers assess the risk of serious harm by an offender and risk of reoffending and help manage the risks. I usually have about 40 cases at any one time, and they’re mainly high risk, which means they’re usually violent offences or sexual offences.

If they were to harm someone, the risk would be high. These cases are complex, because the people you’re dealing with have other issues like mental health, drug and alcohol issues, and problems with housing. The assessments are time-consuming and each one has a deadline.

The deadlines vary depending on the task and the specific case – it could be 10 days for some assessments, or three weeks for a court report.

10am

I’m in the flow of writing up my assessments but I have to stop at 10am for an appointment with an offender. The people we work with might be on probation or in prison.

We chat about their current situation. In this appointment, the offender mentions that they have seen one of their co-defendants and they’re not supposed to. That means I have to check this information with other professionals involved, like the police, double-check their licence conditions, and decide what action to take, which varies depending on the situation but they might get a written warning, or put on a programme to help them change their behaviour.

10.30am

After that, I write up my case notes. I prefer to do it straight away, otherwise, you can end up with a backlog and no time to get them done. The case notes are important because people need to see what’s happening day-to-day. After I’ve written up my notes, I update my to-do list with any actions I need to take.

11am

I have another appointment with an offender, but they’re late. If someone on probation doesn’t turn up, there are consequences – if you have three absences, you’re supposed to start proceedings to send their case back to court. If someone is late, it creates another decision making process you have to go through. You think: “Is this a general pattern of theirs, or is it a one off? Have they contacted me to let me know?” Eventually, the offender turns up 30 minutes late.

12pm

I’m still writing up my case notes and I get a call from the police about a referral I asked for a week earlier. I have to stop what I’m doing and focus on that instead. Everything I’m working on has a chain reaction but you don’t know when that reaction is going to come. I don’t ever feel I have time to get organised and get on top of things. It feels like I’m just firefighting all the time.

12.30pm

I take half an hour for lunch, because I’d rather leave early than take a whole hour. There’s a kitchen where we can eat, but like most of my colleagues, I eat at my desk while I type up yet more case notes. Then I go for a 20-minute walk to get some fresh air.

1pm

I have to go to an inter-agency meeting, which is when different professionals meet to discuss a particular offender. This meeting is about someone who’s in supported housing and has been causing trouble. You have to go into these meetings really knowing your case because each professional is going to have their own agenda. For example, the housing officer’s priority is to prevent them becoming homeless and maintain housing standards, while a probation officer’s priorities are to prevent them reoffending and causing harm to anyone.

I meet with the housing officer and a police officer and we try to get to the bottom of what’s been going on. After the meeting, we each have a list of actions to take. I have to send over a risk assessment, so I add that to my to-do list.

2.30pm

One of the offenders I’m working with calls me. He’s an 18 year old who’s in prison for robbery, and it’s his first offence. I can tell he really values our conversations. He calls to tell me that he’s put on a musical performance in prison and been doing a chef’s course. While he’s been in prison, I’ve been speaking to him on the phone and writing to him. In these moments, I feel a lot of job satisfaction because I know that I’m making a difference to him.

3pm

I meet with a police officer and a staff member from the hostel where an offender is staying. He’s a 40-year-old man with autism who has committed sexual offences against young women. We’ve had reports that he’s been flashing people at bus stops and walking around his hostel and behaving inappropriately. When a person is going back to behaviours that led to the offence, you have to find out what’s going on. These are warning signs and we know that there’s a high likelihood he could be currently committing offences and not getting caught or that he’s about to.

I then go straight to meet another one of my cases, a domestic violence offender who also has alcohol issues. He works in construction and he hides behind his work a lot. He won’t really address his offending, and is quite difficult to work with.

4pm

I have another difficult appointment with an offender. A lot of times people get angry and start shouting at you. As a probation officer, you’re trying to build a relationship with the offender but you’re also trying to enforce the rules. But if they’ve seen you as quite friendly and then you enforce the rules, they think you’re turning against them. People are often derogatory.

In this meeting, the offender shouts at me, saying: “You can’t do your job properly” and “You’re just a little girl, you don’t know what you’re talking about”. You have to remain calm. I tell them that they express themselves but they can’t shout at me. This offender doesn’t listen, so I leave the room. We always sit closest to the door so we can leave in those situations. There’s an emergency buzzer if you’re ever worried for your safety.

4.30pm

I have a catch-up meeting with my manager. We mostly talk about if I’ve met my targets and my deadlines. There’s a target for every little thing, from putting equality and diversity information on the system, to making sure social services or police checks are done in a certain time frame. We spend about five minutes talking about how I am. As a probation officer, there isn’t a lot of time to carve out space to reflect on how the job is impacting you.
5pm

I leave work at about 5pm. Sometimes I have to stay for an appointment at 7pm or 8pm, if the offender is working and needs to have an appointment after work. When I finish for the day, my whole body feels drained. I’ve been on the go all day and writing assessments – it’s constant.

6pm

I get home and I feel irritable. My energy levels are depleted. The day was relentless and I wonder: When is this going to stop?

I make myself a quick dinner of chicken and rice. I don’t want to rely on ready meals or takeaways – I know that I need to eat healthily to help manage my stress.

7.30pm

Sometimes, I do taekwondo or yoga after work to help me let off steam, but tonight I just watch TV. I just want to numb out and switch off. I feel emotionally depleted and that affects my body as well.

10pm

At about 10pm, I make a conscious effort to switch off and go to bed. I’m thinking about work – I know that I’ve got a busy day again tomorrow and that I will need my energy. I have this dull feeling of dread in the background. I know that I’ve got to do it all over again tomorrow.

--oo00oo--

From Amazon:-

• Sarah Edwards has worked for Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service for 10 years. Up until November 2020 Sarah worked as a qualified Probation Officer working with offenders who have committed serious crimes.

• Sarah Edwards, Mum of 2 is the founder of Edwards Tutoring. A tutoring and coaching company for Psychology and Criminology Students. Sarah’s proven methods have helped many students not only with academic improvements but to help motivate them and find confidence in their abilities so they can excel in their academic goals and beyond.

• Being involved in projects that align with Sarah’s values and missions is central to Sarah’s ethos. Sarah is involved in the social policy-making initiative with ‘We are Telescope’ www.wearetelescope.org to contribute to work collaboratively with frontline workers and policy makers in public services. Sarah is specifically focusing her efforts on the Justice sector.

• Sarah Edwards is the author of “ Success on Probation: A Step By Step System To Reform Your Life And Release Yourself From Your Mental Jail” . Sarah has used her understanding and experience of rehabilitating offenders and translated this into how to change your own mindset, set goals and take action on your own life, particularly focused on the narrative of being a Mum to young children.