tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post3195732572823803458..comments2024-03-29T11:18:07.045+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: Sodexo Joins WimpyJim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-49277805377707562702016-02-07T20:13:19.237+00:002016-02-07T20:13:19.237+00:00I'm speechless anyone who has had to interview...I'm speechless anyone who has had to interview someone who has committed a dv offence knows how difficult it is to build a trusting relationship in a private space never mind in a place that resembles bleeding macdonalds! And given our predominately male judiciary allows clear section 47 injuries to be plea bargained to section 39, I would estimate 96% of dv cases are with crc http://pic-collage.com/_HyAMFzI8 read this link which proves my point<br />Butterfly999https://www.blogger.com/profile/17308299052226167492noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-90140333424331914682016-02-06T10:00:48.717+00:002016-02-06T10:00:48.717+00:00Is the Fonz staff or a client?Is the Fonz staff or a client?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-59751636536366840332016-02-05T10:10:12.835+00:002016-02-05T10:10:12.835+00:00For the glass-half-full folk, a move back to the H...For the glass-half-full folk, a move back to the Home Office would at least allow resumption of the Nightmare On Marsham Street acronym for NOMS. Always made me smile.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-36737562458521930882016-02-05T08:06:15.059+00:002016-02-05T08:06:15.059+00:00Why are these piss poor practices continuing? Whe...Why are these piss poor practices continuing? Where are the Health and Safety Reps? <br /><br />Let us remember that Sodexo may be the owners buy they are employing Senior Managers who are ex-Probation. They are well aware of the dangers that the offenders pose to staff. Why are they allowing these outrages? Too keen to continue sucking up to their paymasters and lining these own pockets, me thinks. <br /><br />Where are the unions in all this. I recommend contracting the local HSE and invite them in. That would ruffle a few feathers.<br /><br />So concerned for my CRC colleagues. Watch your backs cos it looks like no one else is going to. Such a sorry state of affairs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-70062070461806553092016-02-05T07:54:10.511+00:002016-02-05T07:54:10.511+00:00This is the first time I have posted on here, but ...This is the first time I have posted on here, but I read this blog every day. Thank you for it Jim. It keeps me informed.<br /><br />However the situation is utterly mortifying and very very scary. Anonymous at 4 February: 20:10 has, I fear realistically recounted what we have to manage every day. I live abroad but spent 4 months last year working as an agency PO in a Sodding-exo CRC. I had not worked or lived in the area before but my colleagues were wonderful. My caseload was huge and mainly DV and with some very nasty risky cases. Most of those offenders came in from Court in high dudgeon at the very suggestion that they could have beaten their partner and the temerity of the partner to have brought them to Court. You know how it goes.... The partner lied in Court of course. However they had to be seen in a secure room because they posed a risk to staff. So what do we do now?<br /><br />My next position was in an NPS office in another impoverished area run by SEETEC which again, had wonderful colleagues but they were battling very badly with huge caseloads, a few went off sick with stress and I watched helplessly while one poor soul who was a very competent officer but not that experienced buckled under the stress of it all. I had an enormous caseload of extremely difficult cases nd I found it difficult at times. I well recalled that before the Omnishambles PO's probably had a caseload with perhaps a shoplifting case or a drink driver at the lower end and maybe a lifer at the highest end. At the NPS I had a caseload of extremely serious cases some of whom were so risky I found it difficult to sleep at night wondering how I could manage them and I am a very experienced PO. We had an SPO stretched geographically across two offices and she emotionally cut herself off from her staff in order to survive herself as she needed the job. More shocking was the fact that the one trainee in the office who could see what was going on around her qualifies in 2016 and was actively looking to get out of the job before she even started it and I could not blame her! I found it utterly soul destroying and it made me very angry that we were being deskilled and hit from every side and the job we all loved decimated and people were being made ill from it all. The worst of it was that offenders, Courts and Prisons and the Parole Board had unrealistic expectations of us. Even to the basest point of expecting us to attend Oral Hearings which we no longer can. Prison visits for pre-sentence reports are discouraged and dealing with some prisons to book a videolink is a nightmare. Once this debacle starts impacting on other services I hope that they will start backing us a bit more. <br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-71544836567042281822016-02-04T23:09:24.326+00:002016-02-04T23:09:24.326+00:00Sorry PCCSorry PCCAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-22750046782730399912016-02-04T23:07:44.151+00:002016-02-04T23:07:44.151+00:00In Kent we are to pay extra council tax to support...In Kent we are to pay extra council tax to support police. Get rid of the PPC's and we wouldn't need to. If their track record is anything to go by what hope have we got. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-81139184798015280922016-02-04T21:57:28.164+00:002016-02-04T21:57:28.164+00:00I can hear this in the distance as I gaze at the p...I can hear this in the distance as I gaze at the picture above:<br /><br />"Sunday, Monday, Happy Days,<br />Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days,<br />Thursday, Friday, Happy Days,<br />Saturday, what a day,<br />Groovin' all week with you.<br /><br />These days are ours<br />Happy and free. (Oh Happy Days)<br />These days are ours<br />Share them with me.(Oh Happy Days)<br /><br />Goodbye grey sky, hello blue,<br />'cause nothing can hold me when I hold you.<br />Feels so right it can't be wrong,<br />Rockin' and rollin' all week long.<br />(Chorus)<br /><br />These Happy Days are yours and mine (oh Happy Days) etc"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-57337336189851201432016-02-04T21:51:57.368+00:002016-02-04T21:51:57.368+00:00On the American Diner theme park thread...
Homage...On the American Diner theme park thread...<br /><br />Homage to Pulp Fiction (1994)<br /><br />Honey Bunny: [with her boyfriend in the Sodexo "diner"] I love you, Pumpkin. <br />Pumpkin: I love you, Honey Bunny. <br />Pumpkin: [Standing up with a gun] All right, everybody be cool, this is a breach situation<br />Honey Bunny: (standing on the table) Any of you fucking pricks move, and I'll execute every motherfucking last one of ya!<br />Pumpkin: (pointing the gun at his Probation Officer) Now tell me again, am I going to get recalled or not?<br /><br />Other storylines are also available.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-21415304417634711872016-02-04T21:34:47.690+00:002016-02-04T21:34:47.690+00:00If my memory serves, the notion of a defendant nee...If my memory serves, the notion of a defendant needing to give consent to a sentence being imposed was eradicated some years ago.<br /><br />What I would ask the sentencers to consider was whether the information provided by a defendant was reliable, given the environs in which s/he was being interviewed; or if the defendant/client was only giving answers s/he felt able to provide knowing others would be able to hear - whether to protect themselves, talk themselves up or intimidate others within earshot.<br /><br />All those who led probation into this ludicrous cul-de-sac ought to be publicly humiliated, stripped of any responsibility and made to pay back their ill gotten gains. Its a fucking disgraceful state of affairs.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-13795540359388014112016-02-04T21:21:27.518+00:002016-02-04T21:21:27.518+00:00Well sedexo are a baguette company. What do they k...Well sedexo are a baguette company. What do they know. Oh yes plenty that is why our lives are on the line with booths.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-54319490892181353602016-02-04T21:19:42.618+00:002016-02-04T21:19:42.618+00:00I know that office. I work there. Let me tell you ...I know that office. I work there. Let me tell you that the picture looks roomy. But it is not. To the left is seats and three feet away is reception. Poor staff on reception have no where to hide if someone kicks off. Well done sedexo.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-16482341104971626322016-02-04T21:15:51.851+00:002016-02-04T21:15:51.851+00:00This kind of environment is not just being used by...This kind of environment is not just being used by Sodexo, in a certain CRC in the North East we have been seeing our clients now called 'participants' in church halls and community centres for some time, but we always had the offices for the clients who weren't suited for this setting or who needed confidentiality. Now the offices are closing, every 'participant' will be seen in a 'hub'. Some sessions take place when playgroups are in the next room, funerals are taking place in the church whilst we are in the adjoining hall. We can work from home with out laptops or in the regional centres were our less able colleagues won't have their specialist equipment, but generic furniture, one size fits all. The senior management group grows and all sit in one place, whilst our team ethos and support mechanisms becomes fragmented, some of the managers do their best, but some hide probably because they don't have any answers. Whilst I think the booths are appalling, we ask our clients to sit at tables two feet away from the next one. We give them tea and biscuits and hope we can still make a difference. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-89984656831199216782016-02-04T21:08:08.599+00:002016-02-04T21:08:08.599+00:00Somehow the fact of these booths in offices need t...Somehow the fact of these booths in offices need to be raised in court prior to a defendant consenting to any sentence which involves probation intervention being imposed. Any defence solicitor could, I believe, raise the lack of guaranteed confidentiality for their client as being a legitimate reason for the lack of consent to such orders. I cannot imagine that magistrates would consider the booths to be acceptable. Maybe there will be some case law coming out of this?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-56796840520452702702016-02-04T20:31:13.104+00:002016-02-04T20:31:13.104+00:00They'll inherit the Sec of State's Golden ...They'll inherit the Sec of State's Golden Shit (or is it 'share'?):<br /><br />"Up a bit, left a bit, down a bit, Ooops!"<br /><br />"And tonight's lucky winner is... Adam from Northamptonshire. You've managed to shoot yourself in the foot and go home with a free school, a CRC and a sackload of Serious Further Offences!"Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-6832599285857227602016-02-04T20:10:20.467+00:002016-02-04T20:10:20.467+00:00Joking aside someone is going to get hurt. Low Ri...Joking aside someone is going to get hurt. Low Risk doesn't mean NO risk. We've had to have people arrested outside the premises as they have been fighting in the reception area with old rivals, we've had chairs thrown, people stumbling in drunk as lords, mums and dads screaming at reception staff, children being brought in who are running around wild, etc. etc. We have the regulars who pop in for a Rant. We have ambulances called for them that have needed assistance, at the moment it's all self contained, and receptionists deal and take the chaos out of some situations, but I don't know how Clients and Probation Officers are going to be able to cope with an open style reception area. If an incident takes place it's going to be so hard to control and calm things down. Not trying to be negative, but I see it day in and day out working behind that security screen and the above isn't a one off, it happens too often for it not to have been considered when making these decisions.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-49285503283133668722016-02-04T19:35:24.895+00:002016-02-04T19:35:24.895+00:00Free Schools for - Troubled young people, those on...Free Schools for - Troubled young people, those on the cusp of crime or interested in joining the police! A sure fire recipe for success! Yeah, right!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-49056158522296799352016-02-04T19:24:04.531+00:002016-02-04T19:24:04.531+00:00Democracy all round, then, as probation services a...Democracy all round, then, as probation services and the modern version of borstal schools are handed on a plate to politically sponsored individuals who, at best, were shoe-horned into something like £65,000 a year PCC roles on the back of 30% of the votes from an average 15% turnout by the electorate. I'm not a statistician, but doesn't that effectively mean these quango's are being run by one person on the basis of getting the nod from just 5% of the electorate?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-89773682410079090142016-02-04T19:09:02.918+00:002016-02-04T19:09:02.918+00:00and there's more ... thanks to Andrew, who has...and there's more ... thanks to Andrew, who has tweeted 3 photos to 'PROBATION OFFICER @TWITTER' you can not only see this delightful view of the decorative and cosy probation office,you can view them from every angle, and note a row of joined up plastic seats,(to stop them being hurled at you) up against the wall, conveniently placed for the eager clients to see and hear what is going on in the booths about a yard away! Pure inspiration from the designer, of this vision of the future! <br /><br />And then I think of my own private office of the 90's and 2000's, with the walls plastered with wise words, a few relevant funnies, and big bright posters of just about everything which could be used as a starting point to grab their attention and put them at ease, or make them forget their intention to tell me exactly what they thought of Probation. And it worked, most of the time.mlnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-80590076044775095552016-02-04T18:53:54.002+00:002016-02-04T18:53:54.002+00:00“These episodes have been disappointing and there’...“These episodes have been disappointing and there’s no doubt that some of them have brought the office of PCC into disrepute,” May said, before insisting that there was now a political consensus that they were valuable and were here to stay.<br /><br />The home secretary has already announced that PCCs are to be given powers to take over fire and rescue services where a local case is made, but she told the conference she wanted to go further.<br /><br />“In the future I would like to see the PCC role expanded even further still. Together with the justice secretary, Michael Gove, I have been exploring what role PCCs could play in the wider criminal justice system,” she said.<br /><br />“So after the May elections, the government will set out further proposals for police and crime commissioners. Because, as a number of PCCs have argued, youth justice, probation and court services can have a significant impact on crime in their areas and there are real efficiencies to be had from better integration and information sharing.<br /><br />“We have yet to decide the full extent of these proposals and the form they will take but I am clear that there is significant opportunity here for PCCs to lead the same type of reform they have delivered in emergency services in the wider criminal justice system.”<br /><br />Commissioners suffered a crisis of legitimacy after the first set of elections in November 2012 attracted a turnout of only 15%. This year they will be held on the same day as local government and mayoral elections, which is expected to boost their turnout.<br /><br />May also said in her speech that the record of the PCCs had been mixed but they had proved they mattered, with the power to hire and fire chief constables and set local priorities.<br /><br />Sara Ogilvie, policy officer for human rights group Liberty, said: “If this wasn’t a speech by a senior government minister, you would think it was satire. Tasking police and crime commissioners to set up and run schools is a surefire way to estrange troubled children and fast-track them into the criminal justice system. Mixing police reform and school reform is a chilling distraction from the failure of the PCC project.”Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-51557645040735319972016-02-04T18:52:58.629+00:002016-02-04T18:52:58.629+00:00Elected police and crime commissioners should be g...Elected police and crime commissioners should be given the power to set up their own free schools to support “troubled children”, Theresa May has announced.<br /><br />The move will be part of a major expansion of the powers of police and crime commissioners into the areas of youth justice, probation and court services to be proposed after their second set of elections take place in May.<br /><br />The home secretary said that the next set of PCCs should “bring together the two great reforms of the last parliament – police reform and school reform” to set up or work with “alternative provision of free schools to support troubled children and prevent them falling into a life of crime”.<br /><br />May cited the example being pioneered by Adam Simmonds, the Northamptonshire police and crime commissioner, who is to open a 1,200-strong free school with a “crime specific curriculum” this September on the site of the county’s police headquarters at Wooton Hall.<br /><br />The Conservative politician told the Guardian that his free school was an “early intervention” initiative that would not just take “troubled children” but “young people on the cusp of crime or interested in joining the police”.<br /><br />Forensic science would be on the curriculum, which would also stress citizenship and volunteering, and have close links with the police and criminal justice system. It is already oversubscribed, with 800 applications to fill the first year group this September. The school, which is to take children aged four to 18, is part of Simmonds’ “taking a generation out of crime” initiative.<br /><br />In her speech to a London conference on Thursday, May admitted she feared she had “created a monster” by setting up the system of police and crime commissioners in 2012. She conceded there had been “incidents which had given PCCs a bad name”, including the “attack” on Monday by the Surrey PCC, Kevin Hurley, on his former chief constable and now director general of the National Crime Agency, Lynne Owens, despite his proposing pay rises for her over successive years.Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-84621594410510497452016-02-04T18:10:19.981+00:002016-02-04T18:10:19.981+00:00http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/04/may...http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/04/may-wants-elected-commissioners-to-set-up-free-schools-for-troubled-children?CMP=share_btn_fb<br /><br />Direct link for yous.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-79585490117687018922016-02-04T17:58:09.164+00:002016-02-04T17:58:09.164+00:00I wonder how she thinks the PCCs can be given powe...I wonder how she thinks the PCCs can be given powers relating to the delivery of probation services when they have been contracted out for 7-10 years by an entirely different Department of State? Or did she not get Grayling's memo in 2013?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-17809249306479538082016-02-04T17:54:08.872+00:002016-02-04T17:54:08.872+00:00AND YET MORE PROBATION NEWS -
It is back to the H...AND YET MORE PROBATION NEWS -<br /><br />It is back to the Home Office and bye bye MOJ sometime after May 2016, according to that nice Mrs May, The Police and Crime Commissioners will be in charge - so keep the Swings & Roundabouts handy, they will be used again - maybe???<br /><br /><br />Some initial thoughts plus a write up of what Mrs May actually said from The Guardian Newspaper<br /><br /><br />Are you keeping up?<br /><br /> https://www.facebook.com/AndrewSHattonPublicMiscellany/posts/835451146577400Andrew_S_Hattonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09115192522317353139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-42219621197621853602016-02-04T17:41:25.971+00:002016-02-04T17:41:25.971+00:00Don't go large - there doesn't look like t...Don't go large - there doesn't look like there's a lot of space in those booths for those of us with expanding waistlines!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com