In less than a week citizens of the United Kingdom go to the polls and and have an opportunity to change the course of the way in which much of our society functions. We can all point to many aspects that appear hopelessly broken and there appears to be a widespread and growing belief that different approaches are needed and urgently. As we are all acutely aware, the probation and prison service are in crisis, things are getting worse not better and like it or not, the bullet must be bitten and so called reunification under HMPPS has had its day.
It should be noted that the Labour Party manifesto promises a Review and many stakeholders who passionately believe in the distinctive probation ethos believe that this opportunity could provide a route to saving a vital public service from being increasingly part of the problem and return it to being part of a sustainable solution.
With impeccable timing, here we have a film prepared by the Probation Board for Northern Ireland that serves to remind us that England and Wales are now outliers in how probation is delivered. Of course there is the strong likelihood that the service in Wales will be devolved leaving England unique and alone in progressing down a completely unsustainable path linked disastrously as it is to HM Prison Service and the command and control requirements of the civil service. Things could be very different and they could change for the better.
Changing Lives: The Inside Story of the Probation Service
Yes things SHOULD be better, how on earth is HMPpS recruiting people? Surely checks and good interview should have shown something wrong in this case? I’m sick and tired of reading about illicit relationships with prisoners ( yes this in the daily fail but every local newspaper, many nationals and non print media accounts exist) surely senior management who are selecting these people must be held accountable? I’m ashamed as well as overworked and taken for granted. PO https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13581551/female-prison-officer-sex-inmate-wandsworth-prison-swinger-channel-four.html
ReplyDeleteEven Johnson wasn't vetted as PM, because if he was, he would have been rejected given his poor character and proven history of lying and having low morals, also asking someone to beat someone up on his behalf. The Daily Mail called HMP Wandsworth a Cat A- great research! It shows that when staff shortages are so great, processes are reduced. Police BIU checks are similar: probation needs them, but they rarely deal with Low and Med Risk cases. Either it needs to be done or it doesn't. There should be no half measures when it comes to checks. Mind you, ECSL cases seem to be let out on a whim which feels like the probability of a toss of a coin as to whomever gets a lucky early release. It's no wonder the inmates think they're running the asylum. As for the prison officer at Wandsworth. 5 years possibly in custody for 4 minutes of rough and tumble for alleged corruption. Husband also aware, he must beside himself. A moment of madness with long-term consequences. Also, that video reiterates again that nice guys finish last. As it has always been. But like most prison officers, most probation officers uphold being in public office and don't abuse it. We're rarely acknowledged for the great work we try to do, whilst this grabs the headlines. If it bleeds, it leads, as the old newspaper saying goes. There's no increase in sales of newspapers for the positive stories. We're fascinated by scandal and the flawed make-up of the human condition. It's why True Crime sells so much. But most of us in Probation work our backsides off to do the best we can.
ReplyDeleteFrom Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"Our most experienced PO has been qualified for 2 years, then the next is 18 months and then a year. We did have a colleague who'd done circa 20 years but he left."
exactly what romeo, hmpps & whatshername (the putative probation boss) wanted. Eliminate the obstacles to dumbing down, i.e. pre-existing knowledge, longstanding experience & established skills, & replace them with staff trained in the ways of their "new" probation vision.
DeleteIts a well known means of imposing fast-track organisational change. See also P&O Ferries, Thatcher & the UDM, Fire & Rehire...
Also of note are the shit conditions hmpps impose upon staff:
https://www.russellwebster.com/prison-and-probation-officers-leaving-in-droves/
"Yesterday (18 August 2022), Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) published its latest quarterly workforce statistics, showing staffing levels at the end of June this year. They make for pretty grim reading. The main concern is a big jump in the number of staff leaving both services. "
You know it’s a simple truth but every time we think it can’t possibly get any worse, it somehow does. It feels like we are in a race to the bottom of any ethical and moral purpose to our work. Our T and Cs are awful, working conditions are awful ( poorly maintained and often not fit for purpose probation offices) and management just awful.
ReplyDeletehttps://magazine.unison.org.uk/2024/06/28/14-years-of-the-tories-police-and-probation/
ReplyDelete'Getafix
The 14 years since 2010 have seen catastrophic cuts to the police service, a rise in recorded crime, unmanageable police force budget deficits, the demise of neighbourhood policing and the near destruction of the probation service. No part of the criminal justice system has been spared from mismanagement. As a result, justice is not being served, nor seen to be delivered.
DeleteIn September 2010, the police workforce in England and Wales had 243,143 officers and staff. After four years of austerity, in September 2016, this number had shrunk by nearly 45,000. Over the same period, police community officer (PCSO) numbers were cut from 16,376 to 10,551 – a decline of 36%. The government claimed that there was no link between cutting police numbers and rising crime, but they were wrong.
In the year ending June 2016, the Office for National Statistics figures for police-recorded crime in England and Wales over the previous 12 months showed public order offences up 28%, violence against the person offences up 24%, sexual offences up 14%, knife crime up 9% and firearms offences up by 7%.
Police cuts had consequences and they were being felt in communities across the UK.
By 2019, rising crime had left the Conservative Party’s reputation as ‘the party of law and order’ in tatters. It promised to recruit an additional 20,000 police officers in England and Wales when everyone knew it was really just replacing those it had cut over the previous nine years. Nothing was done to stem the cuts to PCSO numbers which continued to fall to 7,651 in September 2023 – an overall reduction of 53% since 2010. Police staff numbers remain 2,000 below their 2010 levels with police officers regularly having to backfill police staff roles.
An analysis of police financial forecasts by UNISON in 2023 revealed forces in England and Wales could face a combined budget shortfall of £720m by 2026, putting public safety at risk as forces cut back on some services.
The Scottish Government is cutting £1.1 billion from police budgets by 2026 – and the protection of police officer numbers means that police staff like control room operators, crime analysts, and criminal justice staff are losing their jobs.
UNISON believes we need a modern, balanced police team – with the right people doing the right jobs – not only for a better, safer Scotland, but for England and Wales too.
Prior to 2014, the probation service was a high performing, award-winning service rooted in local communities. The service was run by 35 independent probation trusts, each with its own chief probation officer.
But in 2014, the Conservative government pushed through Chris Grayling’s disastrous ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ reforms, which split probation in two and centralised high-risk work in the ministry of justice and privatised the rest. Despite being told that the reforms were unworkable, the government forced the changes through.
The reforms were a complete disaster and resulted in the government having to bail out the failing private companies, one of which ended up going bust, to the tune of £500m. Although the service was re-unified in 2021, it remains centralised in the civil service. This continues to damage the ability of probation to work with local partners, and probation staff suffer unmanageable workloads as a result of staffing cuts made previously by the private companies.
Between 2010 and 2020, probation staff salaries rose by only 1% as a result of pay freezes and austerity. Wages are no longer competitive, which compounds the workloads crisis.
This is why UNISON is campaigning for probation to be removed from civil service control and re-localised – run by chief probation officers again and democratically overseen by police and crime commissioners and elected mayors.
Despite all of the positive rhetoric, despite all of the calls for ‘change’, very little will……..for us……..them however will, as usual line their pockets, make sure their children, their spouses will get the jobs that the rest of us never see advertised and generally do very well out of a change of government the older I get the more I see what Mr Longhorn- Clemons was referring too…….
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