tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post3949590636279566064..comments2024-03-29T11:18:07.045+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: Only Sensible Option is ReunificationJim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-63067689570492299262019-05-04T11:28:35.206+01:002019-05-04T11:28:35.206+01:00Another Private Probation Provider Under Performin...Another Private Probation Provider Under Performing. This time BeNCH CRC Sodexo. Good leaders, outstanding staff usually a recipe for success? What went wrong?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-70100999388824294462019-05-04T08:44:57.066+01:002019-05-04T08:44:57.066+01:00current Private Eye No.1495, page 37
"disclo...current Private Eye No.1495, page 37<br /><br />"disclosure of internal audits could affect the market share price of CRCs if this leads to an impression of failure... the MOJ's goal is to protect the private firms' share prices"<br /><br />And there it is. Careers, lives, the public safety - all sacrificed at the altar of stocks & shares & commercial reputation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-91978239208059392202019-05-04T01:52:24.876+01:002019-05-04T01:52:24.876+01:00We keep seeing damning reports about TR so what ar...We keep seeing damning reports about TR so what are they going to do about it. Add another bloody target no doubt.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-3473012881994031542019-05-03T22:36:20.113+01:002019-05-03T22:36:20.113+01:00PAC & JSC can puff their chests out all they w...PAC & JSC can puff their chests out all they want, but they never stood in the way of TR. At no time did either committee nail Grayling to the wall - same goes for Spurr or Heaton or Romeo or Brennan, or any other party involved in this fiscal scam. Yet now they're crying "foul!". Too little too late.<br /><br />PAC directed MoJ to complete a number of tasks/reports from the earliest days. Those tasks/reports were never completed &... nothing happened. Similarly with JSC. And also HMI Probation, who have been studiously ignored by CRCs & NPS alike in numerous cases. Have these acts of snubbery attracted penalties, sackings or withdrawal of funding/contracts? No.<br /><br />Now they can see the train has derailed & is piling into the embankment, they're all claiming they foresaw the tragedy & tried to get the engine driver to change their mindAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-51495047584700079512019-05-03T18:28:33.969+01:002019-05-03T18:28:33.969+01:00I am surprised at the lack of contribution on this...I am surprised at the lack of contribution on this blog by practitioners, one reason probably due to the new staff not knowing any different. There has been a new model thrust upon all CRCs as a result of poor performing CRCs but this has turned offices upside down and, I believe are so serious that an independent inquiry needs to be made. Most in my office on 90 cases, we are knackered and morale is rock bottom, days of mixed caseloads have long gone and half an hr per service user is expected,on top of all queries a caseload of that size generates. Somebody somewhere must know this is not ethical and who us allowing it to continue?? It is outrageous!!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-19553589299267666252019-05-03T12:37:06.629+01:002019-05-03T12:37:06.629+01:00Napo Press Release today:-
Union says time is rig...Napo Press Release today:-<br /><br />Union says time is right to reunify Probation Services<br /><br />Napo, the largest trade union representing Probation staff in England and Wales, today demanded that the Government must bring all rehabilitation services back into public ownership.<br /><br />The call follows a report by the Public Accounts Committee that makes a series of highly damning conclusions about the state of probation following the Transforming Rehabilitation restructuring implemented by former Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, in 2015.<br /><br />Napo General Secretary Ian Lawrence said: “This report provides yet more incontrovertible evidence that the Probation reforms have been an abject disaster. The breakdown of effective service provision can be directly attributed to a combination of political hubris and the involvement of private providers who had no prior experience of probation and whose incompetence has been laid bare”.<br /><br />The PAC report, alongside previous findings by the Justice Select Committee inquiry into TR and a series of reports by the Chief Inspector for Probation, is highly critical of the state of operations and the poor value for money that the reforms have provided to the taxpayer. <br /><br />Ian Lawrence added: “Only the complete return of Probation work into public ownership and control can fix this mess, and it’s now time for the Secretary of State to make the necessary decision to do just that.”Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-70143935123983045832019-05-03T12:03:50.109+01:002019-05-03T12:03:50.109+01:00The Times today:-
Grayling’s probation reform pla...The Times today:-<br /><br />Grayling’s probation reform plan was ‘a perfect train crash’<br /><br />Reducing re-offending and turning people away from a life of crime was a laudable ambition. Re-offending rates had been broadly stable for some time with around half of those released from jail committing another crime within a year. The figures were even higher for those serving sentences of 12 months or less who received no supervision by probation on release from jail.<br /><br />Governments of both colours had recognised the problem. In private, politicians had long harboured doubts about the publicly-run probation service. There was criticism that it was not rigorous enough in dealing with offenders and not open to new ideas. But Chris Grayling’s answer to the problem was in a different league to what had gone before. The partial privatisation of the probation service was a huge undertaking and is now seen as an object lesson in what can go wrong.<br /><br />“It was a perfect storm of mistakes”, according to Julian le Vay, former head of finance at the prison service. A forceful and ambitious minister pushing for change. Over optimistic assumptions about what could be achieved by the private sector. A timescale to produce the reforms before an approaching general election which meant there was no proper piloting on whether it could work. <br /><br />Contracts were drawn up with untested private sector providers based on Ministry of Justice estimates for offender caseloads that were inaccurate and as a result undermined the finances of the providers. “There were a whole series of man-made mistakes. It was like watching people trying to organise the perfect train crash,” says Mr Le Vay, a former director of finance at the prison service.<br /><br />The internal warnings were aplenty. An assessment in 2013 advised that there was a more than 80 per cent risk that the proposals would lead to an “unacceptable drop in operational performance” in probation leading to “delivery failures and reputational damage”. Another talked of a “a complex, large scale change programme to be completed within an aggressive timetable”.<br /><br />Probation leaders expressed doubts over the wisdom of splitting the service into a state run organisation supervising serious offenders, with medium and low risk criminals managed by the private sector. It was all to no avail. Despite the doubts among senior figures in the justice ministry, Mr Grayling got his reforms in place. For four years now the justice ministry has been managing the risks that many warned about.<br /><br />Perhaps the lesson to be learned from the fiasco is that reducing reoffending is more difficult and complicated than it seems, requiring specific interventions into the complicated and often troubled lives of offenders. That small impacts can be made but that these are difficult to replicate on a large scale and made not result in big falls in reoffending rates. It is a message politicians, subject to a five-year electoral cycle, may not like to hear but would do well to heed.<br /><br />Richard FordJim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-83087406765521626982019-05-03T11:06:15.277+01:002019-05-03T11:06:15.277+01:00Is there any information available about what the ...Is there any information available about what the transfer of staff from KSS to Wales NPS will look like? Will senior managers that have been brought into CRCs post-TR be transferred across to cause havoc in the NPS? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-66195416262928355382019-05-03T09:20:53.747+01:002019-05-03T09:20:53.747+01:00A probation company that did not properly investig...A probation company that did not properly investigate all domestic abuse and child safeguarding issues must do more to protect victims, a report has said.<br /><br />Inspectors visited Beds, Northants, Cambs and Herts Community Rehabilitation Company (BeNCH CRC) and rated some services as inadequate. Urgent action to improve was needed, the Inspectorate of Probation said. BeNCH CRC has a "substantial" improvement plan in place, it added.<br /><br />The service, which was given an overall rating of "requires improvement", supervises more than 7,000 low-risk and medium-risk offenders who are either in prison, or have been released or are serving community sentences.<br /><br />The chief inspector of probation, Dame Glenys Stacey, praised BeNCH's workforce, with staff "motivated to support people to turn away from crime." Case management was found to be poor, however, and a sample of cases revealed staff needed to do more to protect actual and potential victims.<br /><br />"In particular, domestic abuse and child safeguarding issues were not always investigated or recorded properly," said Dame Glenys. "Probation services should prioritise both rehabilitation and public safety, so BeNCH CRC needs to give this matter their urgent attention."<br /><br />Dame Glenys Stacey said the service's support for former prisoners needed to improve "from start to finish". Meetings with people on probation took place in open booths in the CRC's offices, despite the inspectorate's previous concerns.<br /><br />The CRC's work to support people leaving prison, known as Through the Gate, was found to be inadequate for not fully considering personal circumstances or managing potential risks to other people.<br /><br />Dame Glenys said: "The quality of Through the Gate work falls short of expectation in so many respects. It needs to improve, from start to finish."<br /><br />The inspectorate said BeNCH CRC, one of six probation services run by Sodexo, had started to put a substantial programme in place to improve the standard of its work. Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-88113711101465392762019-05-03T09:09:40.499+01:002019-05-03T09:09:40.499+01:00https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.b...https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-england-48137422?amp_js_v=a2&amp_gsa=1&usqp=mq331AQCCAE%3D#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&amp_tf=From%20%251%24sAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-71944716690632983052019-05-03T09:06:41.842+01:002019-05-03T09:06:41.842+01:00Chair's comments
Commenting on the Public Acc...Chair's comments<br /><br />Commenting on the Public Accounts Committee report, Transforming rehabilitation: progress review, Chair of the Justice Committee, Bob Neill MP, said:<br /><br />“This damning report from the Public Accounts Committee backs up the findings of our own inquiry that it is doubtful the Government’s disastrous reforms can ever deliver an effective or viable probation service.<br /> <br />As well as laying bare the eyewatering cost of terminating contracts which should never have been entered into in the first place, the report also highlights the failure to improve support or reduce reoffending.<br /><br />This has a real human impact: more victims of crime and more wasted lives as offenders ricochet in and out of custody.<br /><br />We are also seriously concerned about the decline in judge and magistrate confidence in community sentences - even though these sentences generally lead to better outcomes. <br /> <br />We said back in June last year that the Government should review into the long-term future and sustainability of delivering probation services, including how TR might compare to an alternative system.<br /><br />They didn’t start such a review and ten months later we are still waiting for a full response to our report.<br /> <br />The Ministry needs to sort this mess by setting out a new, clear strategy for the future of probation services, which is rigorously tested and not rushed through, when it announces plans for the next generation of Community Rehabilitation Companies due soon.<br /><br />We sincerely hope that the change in responsible Minister will not delay things any further.”Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com