tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post4324974365366937965..comments2024-03-29T06:40:58.606+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: Guest Blog 41Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-45079040387314961152015-07-01T05:59:04.694+01:002015-07-01T05:59:04.694+01:00To be fair, that is not my experience, we have 2 T...To be fair, that is not my experience, we have 2 TPOs and they are great enthusiastic people eager to learn. That sound a pretty good basis to start to me. Good guest blog and the best of luck to you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-81948517594837860162015-06-30T21:51:26.589+01:002015-06-30T21:51:26.589+01:00" They want the cheapest not the best." ..." They want the cheapest not the best." - that's exactly what this is about. The quality of TPO's that I have come across lack personal intuition, understanding, experience, insight and most of all values. They are there designed to model the new world of corporate image. No concept of reality and never ever visited areas outside of their own nice cushy middle class bedrooms. If this is the next generation of offender managers i hate to think what the experience of offenders would be like.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-55919317204778726322015-06-30T20:10:46.124+01:002015-06-30T20:10:46.124+01:00I qualified in 1994 and there were no jobs availab...I qualified in 1994 and there were no jobs available then (2 in all of South Wales and 10 newly qualified POs on my course alone - and I walked out of my interview to see one of my TUTORS going in after me). I had to relocate from Wales to Surrey to get work. It got better then it got worse again. Planning a 'career' in the world we now live in is all but impossible. No employers respect your skills and experience any more. They want the cheapest not the best.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-33009281996545195672015-06-30T19:53:15.292+01:002015-06-30T19:53:15.292+01:00The simple truth is:
1.this training has been rush...The simple truth is:<br />1.this training has been rushed through as contingency planning under the Business Risk Register (remember that?) to ensure service delivery in any eventuality.<br />2. this will provide a pool of staff able to be employed on different contracts meaning staff costs will be driven down ie expensive/experienced POs out cheaper new starters in.<br />3. this will provide a mobile staff group given the number of young graduates employed who as young people are today, will become increasingly desperate for work.<br />4.the shortfall in training will be met by existing practitioners helping colleagues out as we always have done.<br />5. this was the cheapest possible training to plug potential gaps, not actual.<br />6. (re) employing POs from CRCs would be more expensive.<br />That is just my view and I realise how this may look to TPOs but I do think you will have jobs. The world is moving on and new recruits meet the business model. I wish you all well but most of all I wish you could have trained at a time of integrity.<br />A POAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-18141623018781340132015-06-30T19:19:42.174+01:002015-06-30T19:19:42.174+01:00Excellent blog, thank you for taking the time to w...Excellent blog, thank you for taking the time to write it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-67769746828440966782015-06-30T19:00:13.999+01:002015-06-30T19:00:13.999+01:00I am mentoring a TPO and their experiences reflect...I am mentoring a TPO and their experiences reflect yours. From my point of view the lack of PDAs add mounting pressure on me to cover the basics of the job, which I am acutely aware I have not got the time to give. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-57706784386753919112015-06-30T18:58:24.669+01:002015-06-30T18:58:24.669+01:00Remember that it's just a job. Get through the...Remember that it's just a job. Get through the course and then worry about what comes next. The reality is that CRC's will soon be shedding PO staff and the NPS will be finding ways to not employ new PO staff. By the time you quality it'll probably be all target driven business models no matter what side of the fence you're on. Probation Officernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-11327352401044263512015-06-30T17:17:03.213+01:002015-06-30T17:17:03.213+01:00It's a depressing time to be a PO at the momen...It's a depressing time to be a PO at the moment and it seems that only the trainees want the job any more! But it must be a very poor experience for trainees in the current climate where PIs change daily and no one knows what they are doing any more! The 2 young graduates in my office don't seem to have a clue or little interest in finding out . But in their defence they have been treated badly snd just left to muddle through .Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-64432055655160139752015-06-30T08:49:38.328+01:002015-06-30T08:49:38.328+01:00Interesting blog. Thanks. As a past Practice Devel...Interesting blog. Thanks. As a past Practice Development Assessor I would concur with your observations about the eagerness, bravado or even arrogance of trainee staff. Enthusiasm is positive, ambition is an energy, but over-confidence is dangerous. The culture of the workplace has changed beyond recognition from my days as an apprentice PO. Humility, deference & ever-open ears were the watchwords for new & trainee staff back then - "if you're talking, you're not listening". I currently find the raw aggression & petulant attitudes that come with some new staff, PSO or Trainee, quite disturbing. Even more disturbing is the fact that most of our management groom them, protect them & will not challenge them. Fear? I'm more inclined to think its because they recognise them as kindred spirits.<br /><br />Advice? Do what's comfortable for you. Life's too short & unpredictable. Don't get stuck, bitter & sour like me - enjoy everything, including your young family. In doing what I believed to be "the right thing" - abandon the greedy deceitful world of commerce & develop a professional career with meaning & honour - I find I've sacrificed:<br />1. my time with my children as they were growing up, (impossible to recover), <br />2. a marriage (irrepairably damaged), <br />3. my health (work related stress) -<br /><br />- and now Grayling, Spurr, et al have taken away my professional career & status, and sold me into commercial slavery.<br /><br />But they haven't taken my life, my spirit or my EVR just yet...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-29890199925455322322015-06-30T07:28:29.434+01:002015-06-30T07:28:29.434+01:00I read your post with mounting dismay at your expe...I read your post with mounting dismay at your experience and your grasp of reality of the situation. I qualified in 2002 and my experience was of course totally different. I had four years out of the service from 2011 and live abroad returning to work in a crc ...an alien concept to me if ever there was one ...earlier this year. I hit the ground running with a full caseload and after a few weeks was asked to mentor an nps trainee. I personally felt it was an honour and a privilege to be asked to do so and was aware that other crc colleagues looked at me with a jaundiced eye for doing it - data protection and all that was part of it but i suspect that it was also because of tensions between nps and crc . My advice to you is the same as it was to my mentoree - to hold on to the job for all the reasons you say. They are the right ones. When I was a trainee, an old salt of a probation officer gave me the best advice i had ever heard and it has served me well. 'Always tell it like it is' (for an occasion when i was stuck with what to say in a psr and 'never get out of the lifeboat'. Sometimes you might have to but stick with this job, the dust has not yet settled from all this dreadful upheaval and good probation officers are born not made and the love of the job goes with the territory. Others may dismiss my views but that is their indaba. I am about to start a contract with an nps office and if i am asked to mentor a trainee agavin i will be pleased to do so. So head up, give it your best and every success to you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com