Programmes is in a mess. Absolute turmoil, staff in meltdown, off sick or leaving in their droves nationally. Yet when we talk to our OM colleagues we are either met with a shrug, or indifference. Well, good luck, as shit rolls downwards.
Due to a job evaluation that has taken over two years the highly qualified band 4 officers who deliver sex offender programmes are being ‘re-banded’ to Band 3. Many have decades of experience with this cohort, imparting knowledge and risk assessments to OM colleagues and the courts.
Equally highly qualified Band 3 PSOs (many of whom are educated to Masters level) are taking on the sex offender group work. This is not the job they signed up for, and numerous have the attitude of ‘why should we, for ten grand less?’ Considering the Band 3 has such a low starting salary its now possible to be paid more in an admin level job in local authorities and councils. Now we value admin colleagues but lets face it the stress of dealing with DV perpetrators or those who offend sexually is markedly lower in admin than a PSO in programmes.
Recent VLO banding to Band 4 was of course welcome, but this is even more a kick in the teeth to PSO’s in Programmes who will often spend in excess of over 70 hours face to face with people on probation (BBR totals around 70 hours face to face work). The only PSOs who deal face to face with High Risk sexual and domestically violent offenders in the service are now wondering should they jump ship into Band 4 VLO positions, or head into a Domestic Abuse Safety Officer (DASO) role? But, hang on – they can’t because all band 4 roles are ringfenced for the Band 4 programmes officers being transferred in. Band 3 PSOs are facing a future as Intervention Facilitators, unable to access any other PSO roles in courts, or sentence mangers as they will be second class employees. They will be seen as external candidates for the PQiP route, closing every door internally. All TM roles are being allocated to the Band 4 probation officers being thrown out of the sex offender programmes. Therefore the TM training pathway and interview process for BBR and TSP is being watered down, resulting in the TM’s of the future never having delivered these programmes before telling those highly experienced BBR facilitators how to do their job.
The JES appeal is being appealed by NAPO as it was widely inaccurate and yet radio silence from the Unions to the wider probation service.
Many suspect the handling of this process is reminiscent of a nicely packaged up Interventions service heading for the private sector. Sold off twice – charming. Wonder how the public would react if they knew that highly specialist teams dealing with this cohort are being disbanded ready for another Grayling moment?
In the meantime in many regions of England and Wales there are no programmes being run for sex offenders, Band 3 teams cut in half, hampered in their attempts to offer domestic violence rehabilitation work, long waiting lists building up. What a shambles, again.
Anon
same old shyte from hmpps & the 'excellent' probation leaders; expediting penny pinching & de-professionalisation while pocketing bonuses for meeting targets.
ReplyDeleteThe efficacy of probation & regard for probation staff has been reduced to virtually zilch over the last two decades or so - from dancing to Eithne Wallis' "new choreography" via noms, then trusts, to TR & back again.
Its a shitshow.
I really hope Timpson reads this blog & gets a sense of (a) the damage that's been done & (b) the scale of the task required to repair that damage.
1. Get probation out of the grasp of hmpps
2. Make probation independent & local again
3. Restructure management such that it is simple. Clear out those who have overseen the disgraceful under performance of the last decade + end the culture of bullying & coercive control many staff experience.
4. Make HMI Probation fully independent so it doesn't have to continue reporting equivocal nonsense & praise for the "excellent leaders" who are evidently NOT excellent
5. Establish a multi-disciplinary panel to look at SFOs, with representatives who have working knowledge of housing, health, police, prisons & probation - & end the culture of blame.
6. Take a fair & objective look at payscales. Once you've sliced off the unnecessary, incompetent & expensive top heavy managerial layers there should be plenty of dosh to dish out.
Thank you Guest Blogger: bringing us back to focus on the grim reality of the state Probation is in, after all the hullaballoo of the Election. The work to put the brakes on the dismantling of the Service could not be more urgent.
ReplyDelete“Band 3 PSOs are facing a future as Intervention Facilitators, unable to access any other PSO roles in courts, or sentence mangers as they will be second class employees.”
ReplyDeleteHuh? Anyone can apply to band 3 pso jobs.
Yes they can and employers can ring fenced pay grade protected roles. In certain circumstances. However so or anyone cannot just leap to other roles there is a suitability interview process and no assumption you or anyone could be a bloat band 4 a properly graded skilled job. Or get all jobs evaluated and only work your job descriptions .
DeleteNow you can yes, once the new job description comes into force August this precludes intervention facilitators from heading internally into other PSO roles. The job title is changing, they will no longer be PSOs. The unions are appealing the JD currently
DeleteManagers and friends of senior managers regularly “leap” into roles without interviewing.
DeleteIs that a slur on the head of North Wests husband getting a nice little earner.?
DeleteOh similar to North East then?
Delete"Nigel Bennett has worked in criminal justice since 1987, having been first employed as a probation officer in 1989, with two years working with mentally disordered offenders before that. He was worked at every grade from probation officer to Chief Officer across England and in community, prisons and court settings. Strategic roles include posts in government offices and the Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit and on secondment to the Turkish Ministry of Justice. His current post concerns the interface between probation and family safeguarding."
DeleteSurely not?
They are screwing over AP managers too with the job evaluation
ReplyDeleteMaybe AP managers should stop screwing over their staff.
DeleteSay more
DeleteGuardian online Sunday:-
ReplyDeleteLabour is considering plans to release offenders after they serve just 40% of their sentence in a bid to tackle prison overcrowding, the Guardian has been told.
While the proposed plan – first reported by the Daily Telegraph – is just one of several options the Ministry of Justice is weighing, prison overcrowding has emerged as one of the most urgent issues facing the new government, with governors warning that the prison estate in England and Wales will be effectively full within the next week or so.
One government source told the Guardian: “No one wants to do it, but their hands have been forced by the inaction of the last lot. It’s very much an option though and not a done deal yet.”
The new proposal would release prisoners on “determinate” sentences between 40% and 43% of the way through their sentence. Offenders jailed for sex crimes, violence or terrorism would be excluded from the scheme, as would any offender subject to Parole Board decisions upon their release. The plan would replace the current 10-week early release scheme.
Another government insider added: “We haven’t made any decisions yet, we’re just kicking the tyres on all the options. But the crisis is acute and there are no easy decisions ahead of us.”
As of May, the prison population was at 87,505, with an official usable capacity at 88,895. Earlier this year, the government formally triggered a crisis measure to ease prison overcrowding by using police cells to house inmates, following a decision to consider releasing some prisoners 70 days before their sentences were due to end.
In his first press conference as prime minister on Saturday, Keir Starmer highlighted prisons as one of the biggest issues facing his government, saying it would be impossible to stop the current policy of releasing prisoners early because of the lack of capacity in jails.
“We’ve got too many prisoners, not enough prisons,” Starmer said.
His decision to appoint James Timpson, the businessman and rehabilitation campaigner, as the new prisons minister has been hailed by prison reform experts. More than 10% of Timpson’s workforce are former prisoners, and Timpson has previously argued that only a third of people in prison should really be there.
While Starmer stood by his appointment of Timpson, he steered clear of endorsing that view, though he said he wanted early intervention to stop young boys in particular from getting on the “escalator” of a life of knife crime and going to prison numerous times.
Yorkshire Bylines.
Deletehttps://yorkshirebylines.co.uk/news/home-affairs/new-government-new-approach-to-the-prison-crisis/
'Getafix
From Twitter:-
Delete"I do hope @JamesTCobbler sees and reads this thread. Or one of his spads. It encapsulates a problem. We have an overcrowding crisis but it shouldn't drown out other less palatable problems. We have a HMPPS cultural & structural crisis as well. He'll have to find this out himself."
The next year or few it will only be prison overcrowding on the agenda.
DeleteMany of us could do with a bit more humility & a reality check.
ReplyDeleteSadly far too many of us seem to be in thrall to the cult of celebrity & desire for access to privilege, as exhibited via this dire bullshit spouted by actor Kevin Bacon in Vanity Fair magazine:
"Bacon put on his normal-person camouflage and tested it at one of the most densely populated locations in Los Angeles: an outdoor shopping mall called The Grove that is perpetually full of tourists.
To his initial delight, the disguise really worked. “Nobody recognized me,” he says. But then an unfamiliar sensation washed over Bacon: the feeling of being invisible.
At the Grove, Bacon recalls, “People were kind of pushing past me, not being nice. Nobody said, ‘I love you.’ I had to wait in line to, I don’t know, buy a fucking coffee or whatever. I was like, This sucks. I want to go back to being famous.”
"normal person camouflage" - for fuck's sake!
The desire to be like Kevin fuels unhealthy behaviours in a bid to avoid having "to wait in line to buy a fucking coffee or whatever", having to deal with people not being nice, or not having anyone say "I love you".
Being invisible, queuing, dealing with unpleasantness & being without love are, to steal the words of child hating Bob Jenrick, "all perfectly normal". Its only through the arrogant contempt of the uber-privileged voice (see also johnson, sunak, et al) that such things are regarded as 'less than' normal.
Maybe the humble Lord Timpson has a view?
Just to point out DASOs are Band 3 - still waiting for their JES
ReplyDeleteMany ex Seetec DASO have been paid at band 4 for a few years, and remain on band 4 while the JES goes through
DeletePay protection ended in June.
DeleteFrom Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"Labour’s manifesto contains a commitment to review where probation sits - I hope @JamesTCobbler kicks this off straight away."
"We agree that the failed shotgun marriage of prison and probation has wrecked that service. Medium term it should be separated and returned to a local agency without the dead hand of multi-layered managerialism squashing it. We need a national agency for v high risk dangerous."
Very worrying from Labour. Sounds like a return to NPS and CRC.
DeleteWe don’t need a national agency for v high risk and dangerous. That would leave nothing left of a probation service.
Fear not - that ‘national agency’ guff is from a comment by some Tory/unionist plank on Twitter , not from anyone in charge of anything
DeleteFrom Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"The issue it will have is that, as in 1997, the available money will be focused on key departments. I doubt that the MoJ will be anywhere near the head of the queue."
Funding is important and there needs to be more.
DeleteHowever, when probation was a localised service and more involved with the community it was based in, the relationships it forged with other agencies within that community were just as invaluable.
Often good outcomes could be achieved by a bit of back scratching or trade off that required no funding at all.
It might be felt more acutely today, but probation has always been under funded.
Localised probation services can be far more fiscally responsible whilst enjoying far greater success.
'Getafix
Yes but when probation loses 18-25 year olds to Youth offending teams, those that are RSOs and IOM to the police, those that are low - medium risk to the PCCs, voluntary and community services, then it’ll soon be the end of probation as we know it.
DeleteWe may escape the HMPPS noose and Prison anchor, but if the plan is to form what’s left of probation into a national agency for v high risk and dangerous offenders then Labour and Timpson look more like devils in disguise than shining knights.
https://www.jurist.org/features/2024/07/08/a-system-on-the-precipice-of-failure-urgent-action-needed-in-uk-to-prevent-imminent-prison-overcrowding/
DeleteWhat about Courts?
ReplyDeleteWhat about a job evaluation and rebanding for probation officers we spend 18 months to 2 years in university training for the qualification. Yet those without a qualification a probation officer qualification can enter a vlo or daso role are on a band 4 it doesn't make sense. I do advocate psos programme staff need a wage rise but wouldn't it be worth considering putting psos at a band 4 and probation officers at a band 5.
ReplyDeletePOs are band 5 in the NSD!!
DeleteSome POs are Band 5 see Public Protection
Delete"In some areas of the country, we have seen Labour Mayors pioneering a more joined-up approach to reduce reoffending. In Greater Manchester, probation is linked up with housing and health services to ensure offenders leaving custody receive the support they need. Labour will conduct a strategic review of probation governance, including considering the benefits of devolved models."
ReplyDeleteIs that where "We need a national agency for v high risk dangerous" comes from?
There is NO justification for a discrete national provision. TR proved that. Independent local probation areas are the answer, but with seamless communication & co-operation across all areas.
How do we determine & define 'local' ?
"There are 41 Police and Crime Commissioners ( PCCs ) in England and Wales who are elected to make sure the police are run properly. There is no elected PCC for London."
There are 43 police forces in the UK (see map here: https://assets-hmicfrs.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/uploads/police-force-map.pdf)
"There are three definitions of county in England: the 48 ceremonial counties used for the purposes of lieutenancy; the 84 metropolitan and non-metropolitan counties for local government; and the 39 historic counties which were used for administration until 1974."
43, i.e. in alignment with police force areas, seems a sensible way forward, with robust numbers of operational staff & pared down local management teams accountable to a single national chief officer who, in turn, is directly accountable to the Justice Sec. Local heads of service must be experienced practitioners.
Local areas should be able to utilise voluntary & private sector provision, but ONLY for tasks that are (1) outwith the JD remit of employed probation staff & (2) under oversight of employed probation staff.
The project fear factor, i.e. "very high risk" or "dangerous", should be stopped. Now. There ARE those under probation supervision that do present very real risks & concerns but... there's no need for the creation of yet another Grayling-style "elite force" of favourites to further aggrandise or enhance the reputations of those supervisees. They just need to be managed professionally & appropriately - just as easily achieved locally with the skills available.
“we have seen Labour Mayors pioneering a more joined-up approach to reduce reoffending. In Greater Manchester, probation is linked up with housing and health services”
DeleteAnd what a shit show that will be for probation. Mark my words, Labour will resign the probation service to bankrupt local councils who will outsource all rehabilitation services faster than you can say “cobble my shoes”.
Probation reset has already split the caseload and primed it ready for a local and national probation service.
In Teesside and Durham we had Public Protection Units staffed by POs and police officers, jointly working in a separate unit from the other teams. Worked really well, Head of North East said they were “excellent” then disbanded them both 4 weeks after the comment!
ReplyDeletehttps://bylinetimes.com/2024/07/08/ministry-of-justice-downgrades-sex-offender-rehabilitation-leaving-will-have-catastrophic-effect-on-public-safety-union-warns/
ReplyDeleteAP managers have been waiting two years for a job evaluation to be done. But the NsD evaluation was done in no time at all and within the time AP managers have been waiting
ReplyDeleteSo proud to be on Sue Greys Shit List
ReplyDeleteIt’s not looking good. Labours plan is to release to 40,000 prisoners after serving just 40% of sentences to ease prison overcrowding. While a mass release may vent much-needed pressure in our prisons its worse than pointless if all it does is release prisoners out on the streets homeless, supervised by a probation service already on its knees, resulting in more offending, more victims, greater investigative burdens on already over-stretched police forces, causing increased backlogs in the courts and so a return of those very same prisoners, to those very same prisons they were released from, perhaps just days earlier. What’s worse is probation leaders know exactly what’s coming. While you’re all cheering for Starmer and Timpson, spend a moment to realise what’s really on the horizon.
ReplyDeleteFrom Rob Canton Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"As James Timpson takes up office, there is much talk about the value of ‘second chances’. Some reflections are decent and positive; others are ill-informed and unkind. But it is worth remembering that there are large numbers of people in prison who never had a FIRST chance."