tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post5517623096295878793..comments2024-03-29T06:40:58.606+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: Storm Clouds GatheringJim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-89540278230722901472013-11-12T08:22:16.438+00:002013-11-12T08:22:16.438+00:00Thanks for your work in picking out these key bits...Thanks for your work in picking out these key bits of the debate - much appreciated!<br />Jim Brownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-80152326053898629442013-11-12T08:15:20.062+00:002013-11-12T08:15:20.062+00:00I watched and listened last night too - it beggars...I watched and listened last night too - it beggars belief that all the hard work, all the insightful comments/speeches made from the opposition benches, were duly ignored, misconstrued and packaged up by the Government spokes people and that insipid Lorely Burt, for party political dogma and childish point scoring. It is truly a sad time for the country being led by such a blinkered, and uninformed Government.<br /><br />I too feel like the contributor before me, but I am also keen to stick around to do what I can to limit the damage.30 years innoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-27164201255681948322013-11-12T05:41:22.896+00:002013-11-12T05:41:22.896+00:00Risk assessment - now a paper exercise only. No op...Risk assessment - now a paper exercise only. No opportunity to review an nearly assessment following meeting with an actual individual - body language, attitudes, info disclosed etc. I can understand CG and his mates not getting it. But being let down by those who DO know better by being led willingly into the dark by this 'government' - that I do not understand at all. After 15 years enough is enough. I will leave a job I have believed in rather than witness things descend into farce first hand.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-65343844227475350732013-11-12T04:22:32.405+00:002013-11-12T04:22:32.405+00:00Perhaps the Justice Committee - apparently expecte...Perhaps the Justice Committee - apparently expected to scrutinise this Bill in less than 2 weeks - might ultimately find an undeniable flaw, buy some time and allow sanity back into the room? I hope Sir Alan is a strong Chair as some of the Con members' views expressed on 11 Nov were less than balanced - Brine & Johnson were particularly partisan.<br /><br />Rt Hon Sir Alan Beith (Chair) Liberal Democrat<br />Steve Brine Conservative<br />Jeremy Corbyn Labour<br />Rehman Chishti Conservative<br />Mr Christopher Chope Conservative<br />Nick de Bois Conservative<br />Gareth Johnson Conservative<br />Rt Hon Elfyn Llwyd Plaid Cymru<br />Seema Malhotra Labour<br />Andy McDonald Labour<br />Yasmin Qureshi Labour<br />Graham Stringer Labour<br /><br />I'll be discussing my career with our ETE advisor tomorrow & signing up for a plumbing course. Or bricklaying. Or shelf-stacking. Or forklift truck operating. Or dumper truck driving.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-6936211747372913642013-11-12T04:05:25.164+00:002013-11-12T04:05:25.164+00:00As for risk...no-one has a clue:
Jeremy Wright - ...As for risk...no-one has a clue:<br /><br />Jeremy Wright - "A probation trust, as a wholly public body, cannot compete under a payment-by-results system, because that would put public money at risk...<br /><br />When those people are released, they will be subject to a risk assessment by the national probation service, and the NPS will make a judgment as to whether they are high, medium or low-risk offenders—and they will be allocated accordingly...<br /><br />(answering a question from Kate Green about risk and resources): “On the first of the two points that she raised, in relation to what happens to the income for the provider if someone moves out of the medium and low-risk category and into the high-risk category, the answer is that that individual will stay within the cohort for payment-by-results purposes, so there is no financial incentive—that is the purpose of this—for the provider to move someone on to the public sector. On the second issue that she raised—how the public sector attracts the money to do the extra work with the extra people—the money should follow the individual."<br /><br />Kate Green - Concerns have been expressed about the way in which prisoner risk categorisation will be undertaken. We have quite a long established system—OASys—for determining levels of risk. It is being suggested that one of the things that the Ministry of Justice may wish to do is to revisit that risk assessment system to try to change the profile of the offender base so that more offenders can be deemed to be low or medium risk and supervised in the private or non-profit sector rather than, as would be suggested on current risk assessment tools, within the public probation service."<br /><br />Jenny Chapman - My hon. Friend is right to draw the House’s attention to this issue. As I understand it, a new risk assessment tool will be introduced at the same time as these reforms take place. Is she concerned, as I am, that this would be the worst possible time to introduce that change?"<br /><br />So, still no clarity on risk issues; and now a new risk assessment system? It only took 6 years for oasys to be fully implemented. And at what cost? We haven't had time to recover from the financial, emotional & practical crises generated by the C-Nomis, crams, delius, & oasys debacles.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-63635292688416824382013-11-12T03:53:46.648+00:002013-11-12T03:53:46.648+00:00Some gems:
Lorely Burt - "It is above my pay...Some gems:<br /><br />Lorely Burt - "It is above my pay grade to comment on the Minister’s thoughts about the complex circumstances with regard to a specific contractor... I am not aware of the exact way in which the unions are feeding into Government, but I know that the Government value the unions very much and will take into account their points and their wisdom.<br />The probation officers who elect to stay will find that not all their work will involve high-risk prisoners. Forty per cent. of their work is based in the courts and in inspecting approved premises. In some models, the work of probation officers is divided, so some of them already do the vast majority of their work in supervising high-risk offenders. As long as they are not forced into such work, that seems fair enough."<br />Gareth Johnson - "It is above my pay grade to give information on why a probation trust has been refused a contract... It is highly unlikely that the Ministry of Justice would give any kind of contract to an organisation that it did not regard as fit and proper to provide those services... The probation service is good at what it does, but it does not have a monopoly on wisdom in tackling reoffending. We have heard some rash statements today to the effect that the changes will jeopardise the safety of the public and put them at risk, but it is the current system that puts the public at risk, not our reforms."<br />David Burrowes - "I declare an interest as a criminal defence solicitor. In some ways, I have a perverse interest in not voting for the Bill’s Second Reading tonight. In many ways, my trade has an interest in this reoffending cycle continuing, my filing cabinet being full, with lots of new clients coming through the system"<br />Richard Drax - "So why do we not have a third force in this country? Why do we not put the Border Force and Customs and Excise all under one cap badge, run it on a militaristic basis and into that organisation put young men and women who, on a third warning in the magistrates court—call it what you will—rather than being sent to the young offenders institution in Portland, are given a chance? They can spend two years in the third force or go to jail. If they go to the third force and make a mistake, they end up in jail. Those who are coming to the end of a sentence of, say, six or seven years, are told in year five that they have a choice: two more years in jail or two more years with the third force."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-66355549169243808842013-11-12T03:26:33.269+00:002013-11-12T03:26:33.269+00:00Some interest must remain in the words of Sir Alan...Some interest must remain in the words of Sir Alan Beith, Chairman of the Select Committee, my right hon. Friend the Member for Berwick-upon-Tweed:<br />"I heard a reference from the Labour Benches to G4S and Serco, and the contracts of both those companies, which were brought about under the previous Government, are now the subject of serious fraud inquiries. One implication of that is that a number of companies may effectively be excluded from the bidding process. We must await the outcome of the inquiries as we cannot reach conclusions at this stage, but even were the process still going on, it would exclude at least two major companies working in that field.<br />There are complex legal reasons that I will not try and go into now, but I cannot imagine that this House would want a company that is currently the subject of a serious criminal investigation to be awarded a criminal justice contract.<br />My point about the market was generally much wider because we must take proper account of whether the Department has the capacity to manage that market. Indeed, it has been said on at least one occasion that the Department wants to draw new entrants into the market and cultivate new capacity, but has it got the capacity to do that? We must consider that important question.<br />On finance and timing, the Government have not made publicly available any assessment of the financial risk of not delivering the programme to the agreed time scale, quality or cost. The risk register apparently suggests there is a 51% to 80% risk that the reforms will fail to deliver the promised scale of savings.<br />The Ministry of Justice has not provided an indication of how much it would additionally need to save to afford the cost of implementing the proposals, or said how quickly those savings would be realised. That puts my Committee in a difficult position when assessing the viability of the proposals.<br />There are also difficulties of risk management. The public probation service will have to assure itself about the risk management of up to 200,000 offenders for whom it has no direct responsibility, and we will need to ask many questions about how information will be passed between the public probation service, the police, and private sector providers. At the moment, transfer of information is relatively easy, but under the proposed arrangements it will become more complex and difficult. I hope the Minister will say something about that. That also affects other areas. I had a discussion with a victim liaison officer who is concerned about how far information of the kind she is able to get now will flow when reassuring victims about restrictions being placed on an offender, and whether that information will come so readily through the system the Government propose.<br />There are key confidence issues about how the proposals can be made to work. There is a confidence issue for the police on sharing intelligence. If police officers feel inhibited about sharing intelligence with the provider of these vital services, the effectiveness of the whole process will be impaired. There is a confidence issue for magistrates when considering how they can rely on a community sentence—a significant part of the Bill is on community sentences. We want magistrates to be able to pass community sentences confident in the knowledge that they will be carried out effectively. There is a confidence issue for those who deal with victims and, currently, for probation office staff, who are uncertain as to where they will end up. If they take no definite action to locate themselves in the new system, will they finish up in the public probation service or the private sector? Which way should they go if they want the opportunity to exercise their skills?”<br />Sir Alan also offered a hearty “Hear, hear” to this commnt from an otherwise uninspiring Lorly Burt:<br />“Let me say that now I would be dismayed if my Government contemplated considering a bid from any organisation that was under investigation for defrauding the taxpayer on other outsourced services.”<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-65481332010550616182013-11-12T03:08:58.027+00:002013-11-12T03:08:58.027+00:00I don't want to make anyone unwell but its imp...I don't want to make anyone unwell but its important that we scrutinise a selection of phrases & claims from Grayling on 11 Nov 2013 before he slunk off to party at the Lord Mayor's Banquet:<br /><br />"The Bill will not make any changes to the probation service.<br /><br />...the Bill will do nothing to reorganise or restructure our probation services. It is not about probation. The changes that we debated two weeks ago are not part of the Bill. They are about our decision to put into action the reforms set out by the Labour Government in their Offender Management Act 2007, which provides us with the legal basis for our probation reforms. This Bill is not about those reforms.<br /><br />The proposals contained in this Bill will be delivered within the existing budget for our probation services.<br /><br />Secondly, the precautionary provision would prevent any change whatever to the entire probation service from being made. The clause is completely flawed. It would prevent any kind of restructuring or reorganisation within an individual trust, let alone any other part of what is proposed. I am afraid that we will therefore seek to overturn that amendment in Committee because, as I say, it would make it impossible to run the probation service, even in its current form.<br /><br />I refer to what Labour said in 2010—that it could not do that. The hon. Lady and her colleagues said very clearly that they could not afford to proceed with custody plus—the scheme that they brought forward that would enable the probation service to provide supervision for these offenders. We have come up with a way of doing that.<br /><br />We are seeking to create a simpler system in which we give much more professional freedom to those on the front line.<br /><br />The probation trusts are currently hitting many targets, but there is one simple reality at the heart of all this: reoffending is currently increasing, and I do not think that that is good enough.<br /><br />We are focusing particularly on drug use, which is common among offenders who are serving custodial sentences.<br /><br />As the right hon. Gentleman will know, something like 3,000 serious, violent, sexual and similar crimes were committed by people who received sentences of less than 12 months and were released unsupervised last year.<br /><br />The right hon. Gentleman’s policy appears to be to ask the probation trusts whether they would consider supervising people sentenced to less than 12 months."<br /><br />I suspect there are lies and misdirections throughout.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-68050098631884126592013-11-11T23:09:08.488+00:002013-11-11T23:09:08.488+00:00Take the CRC job, everytime that Joe or Jane Blogg...Take the CRC job, everytime that Joe or Jane Bloggs has a change of circumstances, refer it to the NPS for 're-assessment'. <br /><br />Far better safe than sorry!<br /><br />You just know that Serco/g4s etc will have this as a standard procedure. And why not, they still get paid if their caseload ends up with the NPS.<br /><br />Win/win for them, the contrary our punters and the NPS.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-77923029213058098032013-11-11T23:06:27.822+00:002013-11-11T23:06:27.822+00:00democracy is truly dead, long live the corporation...democracy is truly dead, long live the corporationsAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-32944523312752894362013-11-11T23:01:28.328+00:002013-11-11T23:01:28.328+00:00I am so saddened that probation will now be all ab...I am so saddened that probation will now be all about profit. It can't be happening, except it now really is. It's just time now. Big corporations have won the day and the public, of which we ourselves are members, have lost. As a mum, I am terrified of the future. As a PSO I now have to leave my job which I care deeply about or work for a CRC. Very sad day.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-35206043664255510592013-11-11T22:43:06.552+00:002013-11-11T22:43:06.552+00:00I've been a PO for around 12 years, and I real...I've been a PO for around 12 years, and I really have gave it 100% the majority of the time, always trying to do what is best, not just for my clients, but also for the wider community and victims. Like many others I neither wish to work for the NPS nor CRC's, both having major drawbacks and very little (if any) positives. Having just watched the debate, the defeat and understanding of what is most likely going to happen to our profession, of which many of us have gave so much, I've come to the conclusion that the best way to approach any future work I by simply following this mantra; fuck it, that will do.<br /><br />Who cares when no one cares? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-54608964244630050452013-11-11T21:05:02.022+00:002013-11-11T21:05:02.022+00:00Well done Elfyn LlwydWell done Elfyn LlwydAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-71567697379248590322013-11-11T21:03:28.668+00:002013-11-11T21:03:28.668+00:00let the nightmare begin let the nightmare begin Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-64052653642704385492013-11-11T21:02:59.098+00:002013-11-11T21:02:59.098+00:00With 30% of whats there now spread accross England...With 30% of whats there now spread accross England and Wales, carrying out ALL offender risk assessments (which will always be wrong when a private sector punter messes up),<br />"I only work with him, and his risk must have been a lot higher then the NPS led me to believe", supervising the most high risk offenders etc etc......<br />The NPS (or rather those who work within it), are going to become the real whipping boys in this tragic fiasco.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-25786349405595152882013-11-11T20:30:55.913+00:002013-11-11T20:30:55.913+00:00Mike Wood and Kate Green excellent great points ri...Mike Wood and Kate Green excellent great points right on the nail !<br />David Burrowes as above complete drivel<br />Such a disappointment of so few MPs no chance of winning the vote.<br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-23698193556638874302013-11-11T20:16:32.071+00:002013-11-11T20:16:32.071+00:00I'm thinking along similar lines. I think the ...I'm thinking along similar lines. I think the new NPS looks appalling - constant work with high risk leading to burn out, conveyor belt of PSRs and risk assessments on people you'll see once if you're lucky, and enforcement on cases you've never worked with.<br /><br />I've been a PO nearly 10 years, and for over half that time was in a PPU. I changed to do programmes, and so in the 'qualifying period' for the NPS I've had little MAPPA 2 experience. So I can see myself sifted into a CRC. In a way I think that might be a lucky escape. But as soon as it becomes financially viable I'll be jumping ship into something else.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-17349043463319457782013-11-11T20:14:44.446+00:002013-11-11T20:14:44.446+00:00Loving Mike Wood! Hoping Grayling is enjoying his ...Loving Mike Wood! Hoping Grayling is enjoying his banquet...<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-86335862752410193942013-11-11T19:46:31.150+00:002013-11-11T19:46:31.150+00:00I know it really is unbelievable and once again ch...I know it really is unbelievable and once again chris grinch grayling ram away before the debate for properly going. Shame on him. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-52729730202690021292013-11-11T19:23:30.418+00:002013-11-11T19:23:30.418+00:00I love being a probation officer and am really pro...I love being a probation officer and am really proud to tell people that's what I do. Now? I too just want to get out before, God forbid, the SFO's start reigning down.<br />I am watching BBC Parliament and can not believe the drivel "centre piece rehabilitation" yup that's what David Burrowes just described PbR as......Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-85615752922458551512013-11-11T14:23:20.106+00:002013-11-11T14:23:20.106+00:00http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2013/11/outsour...http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2013/11/outsourcing-the-bigger-issues/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-62744809418936445492013-11-11T13:00:21.261+00:002013-11-11T13:00:21.261+00:00I have to say that my intention is to walk away if...I have to say that my intention is to walk away if this omnishbles goes ahead. I will not work for either a CRC or the new NPS. I think they are a disaster waiting to happen and frankly I would rather be unemployed.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-35051106608480833762013-11-11T09:32:11.508+00:002013-11-11T09:32:11.508+00:00http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/labou...http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/labour-plaid-cymru-plan-derail-6289392Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com