A freelance journalist is working on a story about the MoJ's plans to disband SPOs working in specialist sex offender units, and replace Horizon and iHorizon with the one-size-fits-all Next Generation Accredited Programmes. She has assurance from experts outside the MoJ that the plans are definitely going ahead, but the official MoJ line is that there are no definite plans in the immediate future. If anyone can come forward to help, with the assurance of full anonymity if needed, you can reach her at hijessicaebradley@gmail.com
Addendum
Also - if anyone has any documentation showing that HMPPS forbids contracted researchers from talking to the media or being critical of HMPPS - she'd be very keen to hear from you.--oo00oo--
Postscript
BBC 1 Panorama May 23rd 9.00pm
When dangerous criminals leave prison, the Probation Service should monitor them and keep the public safe. But is it up to the job? As convicted criminals across England and Wales are released from prison early to tackle chronic overcrowding, Panorama investigates the Probation Service and asks if it's doing enough to manage high-risk prisoners. Serving probation officers warn that their caseloads are putting public safety at risk, and families whose loved ones have been murdered by convicted criminals on probation ask why the system failed them.
SPO as in Senior Probation Officer with a recognised Probation officer qualification? There are already managers in programmes that do not hold a recognised Probation officer qualification so what’s new?
ReplyDeleteWell interventions in custody have already been told HORIZON on the way out
ReplyDeleteHi - have they been told this in writing?
DeleteI think that's either a typo or the investigators need some advice: as I understand it, the plan is to remove qualified POs from the specialist Sex Offender Units. Either way, if you have things to say and stuff you know about this, Id suggest contacting them. The sheer doublespeak about sex offender work, correction work with people convicted of sex offences, is typical MoJ. On the one hand, they are busy chucking people out of prison with no release plans, but reassuring the public that "dangerous offenders including all those convicted of sex offences" will not fall within the scheme, on the other, having handily labelled a group as hideously dangerous (and we know many of them are not, and can be effectively supported and risk managed in the community) they plan to remove all the specialists in place to work with them. Its all political and basically designed by the Daily Mail, seems to me.
ReplyDeleteBring on a General Election. Its not that Labour or others have clean hands on the justice front, but while we are in constant GE campaign mode, with an incumbent government set on pushing everything into the long grass, and leaving the incoming government with a mess they will then blame them for, it would be a relief to not have the Law And Order bollocksy rhetoric dominating any potentially sensible discussion about all of this
It seems odd to me when being a po of any qualification the emphasis on training of a time not of the same values. It makes it clear that being a po is a hybrid of something administrative and a lot more directive. No officer group is similar in culture training. So why is contributors do not seem to understand the generic terms is a nonsense as anyone can deliver sotp. Being a po don't make the work different or the delivery better in some way. Non po managers manage better in many places not held up by an insincere. and absent value base. Po bring nothing to management nor the vlo duties. Po means little and delivers nothing of new value these days and some of you ought to start to appreciate jobs are for any appointed person not some piece of dissimilar paper qualification.
DeletePO = the recognised professional qualification for err, Probation…….sorry but undermining colleagues who have attained this is just wrong and frankly, shocking.
Delete“Non po managers manage better”
DeleteNo they don’t. One of the big problems in probation is the handing of roles and responsibilities to people without probation qualifications and experience.
Agreed, in addition to former CRC ‘leaders’ now in senior NPS positions who haven’t a clue.
DeleteOf all the things to investigate. This is what is being investigated. Give over man! Go investigate the early releases pushed to 70 days with no challenge. Be 6 months next.
ReplyDeleteI second that. Investigate released prisoners 70 days early, recalled prisoners all released after 14 days, probation supervision cancelled with a third of sentences remaining, post sentence supervision just terminated. Who cares about horizon and SPOs!!
DeleteGrow up 19.14 . This is important. A journalist is doing detailed digging into work with RSOs - this does not happen a lot and is definitely in the interests of good probation work. Are there other things going on? Yes of course. But she thinks there's a story here too - and she's right
DeleteBut there are bigger issues right now such as ecsl, reset, staffing crisis. Nobody cares who delivers a programme.
DeleteI do and so should you. It’s all part of the decline of the service. We have to hold them accountable for it all
Deletehttps://www.civilserviceworld.com/professions/article/milestone-based-reward-senior-civil-servants-performance-management-pilot-summer
ReplyDeleteCome get some more cash greedy pigs .com
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13402357/Freed-prisoners-no-longer-supervised-probation-officers-experts-claim-major-Government-changes-lives-risk.html
ReplyDeleteThe shite has hit the fan.
Delete“The change, which has already come into effect, was not formally announced by the Ministry of Justice.”
All a bit late for this since grayling did it with CRC. The system has not been been fixed and probation is not whole so any professionalism cut away is in their power.
Delete