Just in from a contributor:-
The unions should be challenging the government asking for more money for the hard working operational PO’s. Should be having a ballot, taking strike action and let all the NPS lackeys manage the cases. Hmmm the majority couldn’t do an RMP let alone interview an offender, that is why they are up the greasy pole! Yet again we are playing probation Hokey Cokey, you put the training on, take the training off, on, off, on, off, you do the Hokey Cokey and turn around here’s an SFO!
There are limited AP places, AP’s are closing, there is no housing, you can have a tent, you cannot have UC unless you fill the application on line and it’s the summer holidays and half the probation workforce are on late starts and early finishes to pick the kids up from summer activities! Is that supervisor in possession of an up to date DBS? Successive governments have not built enough prison places, so when a police officer is killed there is not enough room at the inn because you are on EDS and not mandatory life because again the woke CJS does not want bad press.
I know what, if we knock all the very high and high riskers down to medium we can pass the case on to unqualified staff and they can take the SFO hit. Never I hear you cry, oh yes is my response you must tick the box or the SPO will throw their toys out of the pram because the PDU lead has blamed them and so it goes, sh*t only runs one way and who catches the lot?
It was a bad news day today so they announced a review of work descriptions, there will be no more money because the unions are involved bowing serf like to the bosses selling the membership out.
Roll on Friday, laptop off until Monday, whatever happens over the weekend you don’t pay me enough to give a damn. In fact as a seasoned and experienced PO I miss the meeting the punter in the cafe for breakfast, popping to the building site for a brew, a leisurely home visit on a sunny day, that was when we had a professional, advise, assist and befriend, now its let’s do 15 months, get my degree and a DBS and off I go.
There is no loyalty as loyalty works two ways and there is no respect, you have to earn respect and frankly I don’t respect those above me all they want is the targets met no matter how and no matter what the cost whether that be a mental breakdown or resignation.
Happy Tuesday.
Anon
Napo today:-
ReplyDeleteNapo have said since the early releases were first announced that there should be more exemptions to ensure public protection is achievable. As such the new exemptions are welcome but do not address the real issues of public protection and safe releases.
The Prime Minister and the Justice Secretary have failed to acknowledge the probation workloads crisis that has afflicted the service for over 2 years now. It is not clear if the prime minister or the Lord Chancellor have a clue about how ill-equipped the probation service is take on this additional work. For example, there are huge numbers of vacancies in Victim Liaison Roles, so we are not sure how the extra Victim Contact Scheme work will be done.
Plans to release thousands of domestic abuse perpetrators and stalkers early from prison does not boost victim protection. It means that more people, largely women, will be killed or harmed.
There’s no additional funding to retain probation staff, especially experienced ones, despite endemic staffing problems in many key roles across England and Wales.
Whilst it is welcome that the prime minister has intervened to review the policy, more now needs to be done to ensure the probation service can safely manage people in the community. This means addressing the workloads and staffing crisis, investing significant amounts of money to retain staff and improve working conditions for those that will be tasked to do this important additional work.
Ian Lawrence General Secretary said: “Everyone is talking about prisons, and yes it is bad, but the crisis in probation is far worse. But yet again, our members are being overlooked while all the attention is on prison. Without probation none of this can happen, so the service needs to be front and centre to this discussion”.
Napo is currently in a formal trade dispute with HMPPS over workloads and we are currently in an indicative ballot of our members due to close on Monday. We expect a strong response from our members indicating a wish to ballot for industrial action.
We urge the Prime Minister to look closely at the issues that our members are struggling with. There is such strength of feeling that Napo members passed a motion of no confidence in HMPPS to fix the crisis in June. We now need to see action on the probation crisis and not just knee jerk reaction to the ever-growing prison population.