tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-85783431584259876322024-03-19T11:00:28.539+00:00On Probation BlogAn attempt to help explain the mysteries and magic that are part and parcel of 'probation'.Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger3512125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-29113433168634675322024-03-18T05:40:00.000+00:002024-03-18T05:40:36.225+00:00Fancy Being a Probation Officer? 4 <span style="font-family: arial;">Remember when initial allocation of a case was followed by a groan, then to be informed “they are in custody” - gave a sigh of relief and respite. However, under the ever-changing ECSL tectonic plates, release dates of prisoners now calculated in something akin to an FA Cup draw or ‘Wheel of Fortune’ format, rather than being something planned and embedded. The pressures and chaos this creates, along with an already substantial and sustained level of change, is leaving staff utterly bewildered. I am now of the opinion that if a custody case is allocated it will now be met with a groan.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;">As much as early release of prisoners will cause significant problems for probation, probation itself is part of the problem. There are many thousands in prison on recall, not because they have re-offended, but for non compliance. It's penal ping pong. Prisons release and probation recall. Prisons are full because there's too many routes into them. Is there really any need to have everyone leaving prison subjected to at least 12mths probation supervision?</span><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">With all this going on we’ve been told we must fill in weekly timesheets to explain our hours. Our SPO then told us from Monday she’s coming into the office 5 days a week “to model it to you all”. Not sure what’s going to be modelled. This SPO sits in her office with the door closed firing off emails and gossiping to her cronies all day. Ask her about a case she’s like a cat caught in the headlights.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****</span><div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">If we are all due to be called back into the office five days a week, watch the sickness rates increase exponentially! Flexible working prior to Covid was a joke and you needed a letter from your mam and the local priest to be granted a work from home day. We also do not have the infrastructure for it. They have changed most if not all offices to only hold 60% of the work force in the buildings.<br /></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****<br />I’ve just received a call from my SPO. They are releasing a very high risk case on 2nd April and apparently there’s lot more of them. POP is on a standard recall but his sentence is less that 12 months custody so those cases are all being altered to fixed term recalls and being released, regardless of risk or MAPPA. Ive asked if this was national and he said he was but this is the first I’ve heard about it. I’ve been told not to share this with my colleagues because the legislation is not yet finalised. They also don’t want all staff seeing the list of names on there and they said this is because it’s confidential data but they don’t normally have a problem when we can see each others POP’s names on PP Dashboard, daily performance reports or when we need to cover another PP’s case on delius. Maybe they don’t want my colleagues to see the list for other reasons.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">"I’ve been told not to share this with my colleagues because the legislation is not yet finalised. They also don’t want all staff seeing the list of names on there and they said this is because it’s confidential". This is an absolute shitshow. Back awhile the term Omnishambles was coined. This is on a whole new level: Omnishambles on Amphet. Ministry: doing what exactly? Doubling down on failed strategy. Ministers presumably hiding under their temporary desks,<br />Civil Service: doubling down on failed strategy and waiting for eviction of Ministers, so they can advise the New Boss to be Just Like the Old Boss.</span><div><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">Professional Leadership 1 HMPPS: that leader is a prisons leader. Number one priority get some space in the prisons, probation - whatever that is - will have to cope</span></blockquote></div><div><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">Professional Leadership 2 Probation: (where is the Chief?) No idea</span></blockquote></div><div><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">Local Management: Fractured coms, headless chickens, rabbits in headlights</span></blockquote></div><div><blockquote><span style="font-family: arial;">Frontline: not enough staff, and being churned out of training into the frontline on a wing and a prayer.</span></blockquote></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">...in the trenches, at all levels actually, good decent people are trying to get the best done for people, living and breathing human beings who should be entitled to a competent service. In every place, a knackered stressed person coming out of prison is faced with a knackered stressed person in a probation office and neither of them have much options. Omnishambles squared.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I am more than qualified for PQiP - at level 7 already - but I won't make that transition from PSO because of what I read about from current NQO's and RQO's, who criticise the excessive caseload, stress that creates due to the extra free time put in to meet deadlines - and there is the fear of SFO's which is more likely to come from a PO caseload than a PSO's. What is the point of working hours free of charge only to paid per hour the equivalent of a much less stressed specialist PSO?</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****<br />The academic side of the PQIP is somewhat easier now the 8,000 word dissertation requirement has been removed. Caseloads are not in the mid-20s/30s before qualifying because of the high profile tragic and horrific cases that have caused Probation to reflect rather than the daft conceit of piling work on as a trainee in preparation for the high caseload to come. This never tackles the caseload, but further puts the emphasis on the NQO/PQIP- this is a 'get out of jail free' card for Probation to continue to culturally emphasise that it's the NQO's fault of how they manage cases not the caseload itself. PQiPs don't have to do duty if they're doing a PAROM - when the kitchen sink was thrown at me when I did my training. But will they be prepared to undertake high risk on their own without co-working? </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Cases all start with proper work made in the courts or prisons with meaningful work to prepare them for community testing - not the attitude that most offenders have when they believe that when they leave prison that's the 'end of their sentence'. Much more has to be done at the Court or prison end of the system so as to make the COM's job just slightly less arduous. In addition, cases are often more or not a success if the allocation is made as well as it can be. This comes from risk literacy and making sure that an NQO doesn't have a case of abiding magnitude that they feel overwhelmed and this may turn into an SFO.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****<br /> The ads for the job are basically lies. A lot of the trainees that join would make brilliant probation officers. But they’ve been lied to, they’re disillusioned, and they want a better working life. Nobody can blame them for that. They may lack life experience, but they don’t lack intelligence. They value themselves. The younger generation would rather walk out of a job that makes them unhappy, and find jobs that pay less, if it means they’re happy, and not burned out every moment of every day. I respect them for that. They’re being honest with themselves. They’re valuing their worth and their mental health.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Maybe it’s not the trainees that should be criticised, but the recruiters. Recruiters know how pressurised the job is. The high staff turnover is a clear indication of that. Recruiting for numbers doesn’t work. There needs to be a re-examination of the recruitment process. Having hundreds of people join only to have hundreds of people leave again is a waste of time and resources. All it does is add to the pressure the existing staff are already under. It’s an optical illusion so the powers-that-be can say they’re recruiting X number of people to help ease the pressure, when in reality they’re just making it worse, through being dishonest about the leave-rate. Criticise the right people, and not those who try.</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">I qualified 18 months ago and have never felt so undervalued in a job. My WMT is 175% and my anxiety is through the roof for fear of an SFO. I do not feel supported. I cannot manage risk when I do not have the time to spend with the people I manage. I'm ready to quit.</span></div></div></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-49003731072992730162024-03-15T05:17:00.000+00:002024-03-15T05:17:35.463+00:00On Training PO's<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">I deliver the training in a university and used to be a practice tutor assessor. I was surprised to be appointed as a Senior Lecturer causing resentment in the university amongst those who were jumping through hoops but money talks in privatised HE. I was glad to get out of probation as they are not good employers. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;">None of the comments on here surprise me. Some of the students are very young and not life experienced at all. They are still at the living at home/partying and personal experimentation stage. They are good at doing online learning when they are up in time but find face to face interaction with colleagues and service users challenging and less fun than debating gender issues and dyeing their hair green. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;">We hear many stories of unprofessional behaviour towards them but much is as a result of a lack of people skills or respect for expertise. They are often very young people who have led sheltered middle class lives. They feel very hurt when they are criticised for knowing little and lacking experience. </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial; text-align: justify;">Most are terrified of service users who they simply cannot relate to and appear to them gross.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;">They were attracted to probation because of watching true crime tv. The dirty messy reality of frontline work is for many simply overwhelming and they retreat into their computers for safety and try to shut out the realities of the real world. Perhaps they will come up to speed eventually if their weaknesses go unnoticed but as the staff to case ratio slowly decreases they will have nowhere to hide.</span></span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;">The news today about a new probation officer messing up will be seen as devastating as it throws an unwelcome spotlight on a serious problem well illustrated by other contributors. Most new qualified officers will be entirely out of depth with a case like that and not personally equipped to deal with the fall out. </span></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; text-align: justify;">An experienced colleague may well have read the signs but these days staff are under so much pressure. There is no recovery time or time to reflect. No time for supportive debriefs and lessons learned. A very awful sort of job nowadays but someone has to do it. I wonder if it is not time for root and branch change?</span></span></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-80671058030837217992024-03-14T09:18:00.003+00:002024-03-14T09:36:45.966+00:00Napo and Early Release Fiasco<div><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.napo.org.uk/news/ecsl-napos-position">Here</a> we have Napo's take on it all, published yesterday:- </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div>ECSL - Napo's Position</b><br /><br /> The Ministerial announcements on Prison capacity are in the news regularly. From the outset we want to make it clear that Napo’s starting point for any discussion on prison overcrowding is that it is a tragedy.<br /> <br />Too often the focus is on one part of the unfolding crisis, but we believe it’s important to first acknowledge the sheer scale of what is happening. This is beyond even the terrible and degrading conditions individuals are imprisoned in while being denied the opportunity of rehabilitation, the impact on victims denied what they believed justice would be, as well as being placed at risk by this policy and the unbearable anxiety caused to the families of both prisoner and victim.<br /> <br />It's about something greater than the increased risks of physical violence to Prison staff or the levels of psychological harm caused to Probation staff pushed too far by the excessive workload they are subjected to by an employer that consistently fails us on even the most basic of their responsibilities – to not harm its workforce by their actions or inactions. And it’s also more than the evaporation of what little confidence members of the public must have in the criminal justice system, contributed to in no small part in this crisis as the reputational damage to the Probation and Prison Services that Politicians, through senior leaders in HMPPS inflict with each mis-step they take on this, as with so many other matters.<br /> <br /><b>Time for a completely new approach to the problem</b><br /> <br />The crisis of prison overcrowding is one that’s been decades in the making, and for which previous Tory, Tory/Lib-Dem Coalition and Labour Governments all bear some level of responsibility. For too long, politicians have traded in simplistic arguments that misled the public, and not challenging the lies perpetrated by the media and have sought a quick fix to deeply complex problems. The failure of so many of the political class of one of the richest countries in the world over all this time to demonstrate sufficient courage and leadership to commit adequate resources to Probation and Prison Services over decade after decade has been truly shameful to witness.<br /> <br />Unfortunately, the most recent comments of the current Shadow Justice Secretary announcing an intention to attempt to ‘prison-build’ their way out of this abhorrent mess suggests that honest political leadership, evidence-based (or even reality-based) policymaking and a commitment to make generational changes for the good of the country aren’t seemingly going to be a feature of a likely incoming new Government, at least in terms of this policy.<br /> <br /><b>Napo’s efforts to influence Early Release Schemes</b><br /> <br />The End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) was introduced in October 2023. It has been apparent to us from the outset that the Government has chosen to prioritise the crisis of prison overcrowding over that of excessive Probation workloads. Nothing that has been done by HMPPS since that time has caused us to change our view. As it was a legislative change being driven forward by an elected Government our role has been limited to one of consultation rather than any form of negotiation with HMPPS. It is fair to reflect, and we’ve made these points clearly at every opportunity, that HMPPS have not consulted as often or in as sufficient detail as we would have expected. Through all this we’ve been informed and guided by the experiences of practitioners across a range of Probation work which is impacted by the ECSL scheme, and we want to take this opportunity to thank all the members who have raised this in their Branches or to Napo HQ for their contributions to this point. At the end of this message, we’ll say more on how we see this moving forward from this point.<br /> <br />Napo have been consistent in representing member’s interests and Probation’s identity by repeatedly raising concerns over the increased workload, assault on professional judgement and the obvious increased risks to the public, and individuals (including some of the most vulnerable in our society), that the ECSL scheme represents. We’ve done this in numerous face-to-face meetings with HMPPS senior leaders as well as written communications. Our view remains that in too many cases it is simply neither feasible or safe to bring forward many of the Risk Management Plans that will be in place – and will have been for some time – for the individuals involved at such short notice.<br /> <br /><b>The problems around ECSL</b><br /> <br />Napo have set out a range of practical issues faced by you as practitioners when forced to do this which, by way of only a few illustrative examples, include: a lack of Approved Premises bed spaces, or other accommodation, available for the revised release date; an inability to rearrange substance misuse, health (especially mental health) and other appointments (e.g. state benefits) previously arranged for day of release; the increased likelihood that a supervising officer will be unavailable to conduct the post-release induction appointment due to other pre-existing work commitment on the revised release date; an inability to make alternative arrangements for transport between releasing prisons and the home area, meaning more risky modes of transport are required on the revised release date than would have been used otherwise. Napo have made clear the ultimate responsibility which HMPPS hold for this scheme, including the consequences that they obviously failed to anticipate, such as: where the demand for rapid action to release an individual increases the likelihood of HMPPS breaching the part of the Victim’s Code relating to pre-release notification of information to some victims.<br /> <br />Napo have also pressed HMPPS to produce evidence for the feasibility and safety of this policy while stressing our member’s opposition to it. For example, we’ve asked for data on the amounts of ECSL releases to each Region and Probation Delivery Unit or on the numbers of recalls, Serious Further Offences and deaths of people subject to ECSL as well as a range of information on applications for exemptions made by practitioners. HMPPS initially denied holding such data but have since claimed that what they might have is subject to a lengthy verification process which would mean that information would be released much later, potentially annually (i.e., October 2024). Napo understands this was in line with an earlier comment made by a Minister in Parliament. Very recently we have received information that at least some of this data has in fact been shared with senior regional leaders and we will be following this up urgently with HMPPS to request access to this, using data protection legislation if needed.<br /> <br /><b>Media activity</b><br /> <br />In addition to the internal work Napo has undertaken, we’ve also sought to publicise the flawed ECSL scheme in the media, and it’s clear that over the last three weeks this has seen significantly increased interest. A number of interviews for various media outlets – television, print, radio and online – have been undertaken by Napo Officials to follow up on our earlier contacts with journalists where our position on this scheme, and our range of concerns, have been shared. While we cannot control the decisions of media outlets to then run these interviews, or publish articles, we’ve also been active on social media to stress our opposition to ECSL and the reasons for this.<br /> <br /><b>In Parliament</b><br /> <br />Napo also work particularly closely with a cross-party group of politicians who form the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group (<a href="https://twitter.com/JusticeUnions?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Justice Unions Parliamentary Group (@JusticeUnions) / X (twitter.com)</a>) and we’d encourage members to view their work to see the results of this collaboration. Here is an example of some of the exchanges that took place this week: <a href="https://x.com/justiceunions/status/1767570456108826632">https://x.com/justiceunions/status/1767570456108826632</a> these following the Lord Chancellors Written Statement <a href="https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-03-11/hcws332">https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-03-11/hcws332</a><br /> <br />In our close working with the JUPG, Napo can make significant contributions on how the Government is held to account in Parliament, putting forward issues for public debate on the criminal justice system and promoting the interests of members. As you would expect, we’ve been sharing our concerns about ECSL with the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group since October 2023 and our work with them has only increased as the scheme has been expanded.<br /> <br /><b>Other developments around ‘early release’</b><br /> <br />In terms of other ‘early release’ matters, members can be assured that Napo have also made clear to HMPPS our concerns about the impact on both members as well as the public from the imminent introduction of an expansion to eligibility for the Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme and the increased use of Fixed Term Recalls for those people serving custodial sentences of less than 12 months. Following a similar approach as ECSL we’ve set out how these changes will negatively impact on practitioners and your ability to do your jobs effectively (providing examples of this to support our arguments); requested data such as forecasts and equality assessments of the proposals; and offered practical suggestions as to how the full force of this additional work on members could be mitigated, for instance by suspending ESCL for periods of time in those Regions where an increased number of people are being released on HDC.<br /> <br /><b>Operation Protect</b><br /> <br />Napo also want to stress that the months long work we have been completing with HMPPS in relation to the joint union’s workload campaign – Operation Protect – should be about to produce the first results in terms of what HMPPS are referring to as a ‘Probation Reset’. Discussions remain ongoing and more information will follow from us very soon, but we want to make clear that, for us as well as our sister trade unions, this is only the beginning of the substantive workload relief we hope to see for workers in many roles across the Probation Service.<br /> <br /><b>How members can help</b><br /> <br />As we continue our work on your behalf on ECSL, as well as the other ‘early release’ schemes, we continue to need your support and contributions to inform our response to HMPPS. For that reason, and to attempt to provide a single point of contact for any experiences you might wish to share, can members please contact your Link Officials or use the following email address if they want to share any of these with us as your trade union representatives <a href="mailto:info@napo.org.uk">info@napo.org.uk</a><br /> <br />You may also want to make clear in the subject line of your email that this relates to ‘ECSL’, ‘HDC’ or Fixed Term Recall’ (or a combination of these). Members should share their specific experiences of these schemes, and how this has impacted on them and others, do not include the personal details, or identifiers, of any of those you are working with. We hope, after ensuring all are properly anonymised and cannot be traced to a particular individual or location, to use these experiences in discussions with the employer and others to better publicise the huge challenges faced by many of our members.<br /> <br />We need to stress that members must not, under any circumstances, breach the rules issued by the employer on data protection, confidentiality or information sharing.<br /> <br />Please look out for further news on the key issues being faced by our members. Meanwhile, thank you for taking the time to read this detailed commentary on our work so far on ECSL. <br /> <br />Ian Lawrence Ben Cockburn<br />General Secretary Acting National Chair<br /> <br />13th March 2024</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">--oo00oo--</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i>Postscript</i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Thanks go to the reader for pointing me in the direction of <a href="https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/horrendous-reality-being-probation-officer-28810294">this</a> from Wales Online:-</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b>The 'horrendous' reality of being a probation officer</b><br /><br />'The pressure on staff is unbearable some days. Morale is horrendous at the moment. I don't know a single person here who works the 37.5 hours a week they're meant to'<br /><br />A furious whistleblower says changes to the crisis-hit probation service will make the public less safe as well as "insulting" victims of crime. WalesOnline can reveal that offenders under suspended sentences and community orders will no longer need to see probation officers during the last third of their orders – the latest cutback to a service that for years has been stretched almost to the point of breaking. <br /><br />Justice secretary Alex Chalk announced this week that some prisoners could be released up to two months early due to jail overcrowding in England and Wales but this will mean a heavier burden on the probation officers monitoring them in the community. In an attempt to reduce pressure on the chronically understaffed service a new policy was announced on Monday in an internal video meeting. Staff were told the UK Government had signed off on offenders in England and Wales no longer needing to see probation officers during the last third of their suspended sentences or community orders, which are up to three years long.<br /><br />An experienced probation officer in south Wales told us: "This will outrage courts and victims of crime, especially domestic violence victims. They will feel even more let down by the system. People are placed on orders of certain lengths for a reason." He pointed out domestic violence offenders are meant to have two years of programme work. The new approach, he fears, will mean issues around drugs, mental health, and housing advocacy are not fully addressed. The government says the change will not affect "the most serious offenders" but the whistleblower told us that offenders labelled 'medium risk' – who are already supervised less – account for most of the serious offences committed while under an order.<br /><br />The whistleblower works in a south Wales team that is little more than half the size it was in 2007. "The pressure on staff is unbearable some days," he said. "Morale is horrendous at the moment. I don't know a single person here who works the 37.5 hours a week they're meant to. Staff take their work home with them, they work on evenings and weekends. Until about 2012 you couldn't work with a sex offender until you had two years' experience. Now newly-qualified trainees are given sex offender cases."<br /><br />The increased pressure has been accompanied by worse pay leading to "woeful" recruitment and retention problems. Recently our source learned that more than a third of staff in his team were looking for new jobs. He said: "In the past 15 years of wage freezes and below-inflation pay settlements staff have seen their pay devalued by over 25% in real terms. I didn’t have a pay rise for over 10 years. If someone can work in Aldi for £38,000 a year they are not going to train for a year to work with the most dangerous people in society for £32,000."<br /><br />While under an order high-risk offenders tend to be seen by probation officers weekly, medium-risk offenders fortnightly, and low-risk offenders monthly. If they are involved in a "reportable incident" – very often domestic violence – the probation service would call the offender and decide whether the next face-to-face meeting should be brought forward. The whistleblower says it is unclear what will now happen in those circumstances when offenders are in the last third of their order.<br /><br />When courts impose community orders and suspended sentences they often include a certain number of rehabilitation sessions. How will the new policy affect those sentences? "I think it's likely to mean those sessions are front-ended to the first two-thirds of the order, putting even more pressure on staff," said the whistleblower, adding that they already "regularly" find themselves terminating orders without all of the rehab sessions being completed. Offenders often miss appointments but if more than half of sessions have been carried out the order can be ended. The whistleblower fears the final-third policy will only add to the number of incomplete programmes.<br /><br />According to figures from last year the probation service was 1,700 officers short of its target of 6,160. In 2014 many senior staff left after the then-justice secretary Chris Grayling's disastrous part-privatisation of the service. It was renationalised seven years later following a series of damning reports by parliamentary committees and watchdogs.<br /><br />A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We recognise the pressures facing our hardworking probation staff which is why we are making changes to make sure they can continue to deliver high-quality supervision in the community. These measures, alongside our £155m investment in the Probation Service each year, will reduce caseloads and mean staff can maximise supervision of the most serious offenders."</span>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-39028995226254456382024-03-13T06:29:00.000+00:002024-03-13T06:29:34.005+00:00Fancy Being a Probation Officer? 3<span style="font-family: arial;">As a prison crisis necessitates emergency early release of prisoners up to 60 days early, it rapidly turns into a probation crisis, thus making a terrible situation even worse:-<br /><br />Tragedy and my condolences to the victims of these horrific crimes.... We should contrast the significant time and resources available to the Probation Inspectorate to produce this report with that of the frontline Probation Workers who have to deal with terrifyingly high caseloads with no time and little experience of how to do so.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">*****<br />I note that the HMIP report concerning this tragic SFO references the lack of experienced staff due to them leaving the Probation Service. I am one of them, having retired early after 3 months shy of 41 years as a probation officer (CQSW trained). Having given some months notice of my desire to retire early, I repeatedly raised with senior managers in the area in which I worked, that nothing was being done to retain staff. I left due to the impossibility of being able to work reasonable hours as an OMU PO.<br /><br />On another point, I am aware that other posters have referenced more experienced probation officers being unwilling to offer support to trainees and less experienced probation officers. As an experienced probation officer, I did my level best to help others and to offer opportunities for learning but I was very aware that my own workload considerably reduced my capacity to assist less experienced staff and this was something that did not sit well with me as I previously supervised students as a practice teacher via their attendance on CQSW/Diploma in Social Work courses.<br /><br />*****<br />Interesting comments regarding APs. Where I worked, we were encouraged to spend as much time with the 'Residents' . But things changed. No longer were we to spend time with them, just observe via CCTV. The amount of useful 'Int' gathered over a coffee and smoke was more useful than any structured meeting, just glad I'm out of it all now.<br /><br />****<br />APs are shockingly under resourced. The same number of Residential Workers in each AP regardless of whether it accommodates 10 or 40 residents. One manager, who is normally the only qualified officer in the building, but their brief is to manage the building and the staff. One part time admin staff for the whole AP!<br /><br />APs are now part of a separate directorate so don't routinely get sent the comms that go to PDUs so miss out on what changes are taking place. APs are the forgotten section of a forgotten service. The new referral process is horrific, with many managers now having limited overview of who is sent to their AP. The focus is on filling beds rather than appropriate placements. Gone are the days where you'd leave a few days between one resident leaving, before placing someone else in that room, just in case accommodation isn't sourced in time and they need an extension.<br /><br />More and more leaving APs homeless, shocking given that most referrals state they need an AP as the alternative is being released homeless or it will increase risk. Indeed, CRU will often allocate with a note to say the AP manager will need to reduce another residents stay in order to fit them in. We won't start on the leadership in the CRU but there is no support for AP staff there. The Early Release Scheme is placing more pressure throughout. APs are getting more and more emergency referrals, with no time to do pre-arrival work - the bedrock to a successful stay. APs are an invaluable intervention but are more and more being treated like B&Bs. But no one cares and no-one listens.<br /><br />****<br />Lots of panic about in HMPPS right now. Early release scheme being increased from 18 to 35 days. Announcements also coming around not supervising PSS or those in the final 1/3 of their orders - to try and ease pressures.<br /><br />****<br />You’d be lucky to find a genuine J-Cloth these days. It is a bit of a Cinderella service and convenient punch bag for vile Tory blamists. We used to complain about not being recognised or noticed but now we are front page news as if we actually have any control or influence over anyone these days. It is common to blame the unions for not doing enough but the Chief Probation Officer seems missing in action. Kim Thornton wotsit was MIA. Why wasn’t she doing the rounds explaining crushing workloads, the necessity of binging in young inexperienced staff because experienced staff won’t put up with the crap. Let’s ask what the heck she is doing first then ask whether the unions have also asked her to act. Don’t put it all on the unions. She needs to earn her title otherwise she is just another fat cat civil servant.<br /><br />****<br />I'm unconvinced that the early release scheme will reduce the prison population. In fact it may have the reverse effect. They will fill any empty spaces with new prisoners, and there will be a significantly greater number on licence that will be subject to recall. I'm guessing that many that are released early will be from the 12mth and under cohort, and in my view, they are the very cohort that are most likely to get recalled.<br /><br />****<br />The ECSL has reduced some of my colleagues to tears this week. It was already stressful and only getting 24-48 hours notice of release is a joke. Escalating to try and get gold command to look at it impossible. No duty of care given to individuals being released early with no accommodation and the only support being probation. Experienced staff will continue to leave while this is happening and ministers make decisions on a sector they have no experience or knowledge about. It’s going to end up with more overcrowding due to recalls and then the SFO’s. AP’s are at breaking point and there is so little accommodation that the early released will be street homeless or residing in unapproved addresses. This is not the service I came into and I really don’t know how long I will last with a caseload of over 150% and the added pressures of ECSL.<br /><br />****<br />Probation relies on a fully functioning well resourced welfare state and fully functioning local authorities with local services to be effective. Probation cannot compensate for years of neglect and lack of services. Levelling up was a huge con job perpetrated against the north. The Red Wall was feared by the Tories with its erosion the Tories have been able to get a foothold and attack Labour strongholds. This will mean less investment not more.<br /><br />****<br />High risk cases are already being released under ECSL. They have from the start. Soon all non-high risk recalls will be released after 14 days. Probation officers expected to arrange housing, drug service, mental health support at short notice and blamed when they can’t. It’s a joke.<br /><br />****<br />Very vulnerable young person released homeless on ESCL. We tried to plead with the powers that homelessness would increase his vulnerability in relation to required health medication. The powers that be released him anyway. Tearful and scared he wandered to his licence induction. A reception member took pity and gave him a tent and a sleeping bag. Reception member received a verbal warning after the local council complained to senior management about ‘how that made the local town centre look’. Suffice to say, his sleeping bag and tent were removed and the whole PDU were given strict instructions not to help homeless people in this way.<br /><br />****<br />Here we go again. Another recall yesterday as another high risk had successfully completed 8 weeks in an AP. The problem was there’s no move on accommodation that would support the 4 months he had left on HDC. We congratulated him by allowing the HDC to recall him. An awful way to treat a human life. We do try to negotiate with the HDC escalations team as to why we try and avoid early releases for this reason but it falls on deaf ears. I agree we should not keep them longer in custody than absolutely necessary but we desperately need move on accommodation, mental health support and adult social care. Housing stock is barely existent. MH and ASC have been all but decimated. We simply don’t have what we need to support the reintegration of people in society, so we send our successful clients back to prison instead. We all cry at night.<br /><br />****<br />If staff are crying at night, they should visit their GP for support ASAP instead of trying to soldier on. Do not destroy your mental health by attempting to function in a system which is broken.<br /><br />****<br />Interesting comments about ‘what happens to caseloads when officers are off sick’. One of the other offices in my PDU is short staffed due to a lot of them being off sick with burnout. They’ve decided the SPO over there should manage the cases himself. I think he has about 200 of them now but it looks like he is still managing what’s left of his team as well. They send ISP’s to our office to complete for him. There’s still a lot more cases just dangling in the names of officers who are off long term.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">****<br />There are many young people and young women who have life experiences. When I joined probation I had been in detention centres, in gangs. I failed at school and had been on the streets for a long time. I knew what it was like to have nothing and to fend for myself. I work many dead end jobs, put myself through university and later joined probation.<br /><br />The difference back then was the variety of life experiences and personalities when I joined. This included younger and older people who did and did not have a clue. Length of service rarely equated to mean good probation officer. Burnout was a thing back then too. Sometimes the longer serving the probation officer the more they were best avoided. The exception were the ones that went above and beyond for everyone. The ones we all learned from.<br /><br />Probation offices could be just as toxic and discriminating as when I joined, but everywhere I worked we were a team. Over the years the pressure of the lack of staffing and resources has stripped away staff resilience and camaraderie. Trainees are expected to learn from managers who never properly learnt to be probation officers and from ‘elders’ who are too fed up or busy to be probation officers. This won’t change until probation offices cease being run on shoestring budgets with skeleton staff.<br /><br />Probation must reset and decide what a probation officer should be. Put the relevant degree or social work training back in place, require prior relevant work experience and work out how to bring in the young, old, life experienced and life inexperienced alike. Until then, my advice to those thinking about probation is that it’s a job, but there are better paid and more rewarding careers out there.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****<br />I trained new officers for ten years or more and it was always a two way exchange of ideas. Then one morning my SPO sent me a message saying that they were no longer going down the mentor route , and I was no longer to do it, by lunchtime I had two new cases…..the osmosis style of learning is now king….i would suggest that the attrition rate has increased accordingly as new officers don’t have a named mentor, least not in my corner of the probation universe……..</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">****<br />Senior and line management obsession with performance management and so-called quality assurance has condemned the workforce to a life of unbearable stress and a laptop probation service. Result: exit experienced and newly-qualified staff under demoralised mega-stress. NAPO must build a fight back and show campaigning leadership as opposed to simply turning up to negotiations knowing they are paper tigers.<br /><br />****</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I have never accessed the EAP stuff. The trust between me and the employer is zero, so why would I in any state of vulnerability and distress dial in to their shitty and doubtless cheap and outsourced EAP? Would I feel safe? Be safe? It's there to tick a box. And box ticking does nothing for anyone other than the bean-counter and the manager blissfully thinking they're more powerful than the counter of beans.</span></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-76182224097269259462024-03-10T06:20:00.000+00:002024-03-10T06:20:57.105+00:00Fancy Being a Probation Officer? 2<span style="font-family: arial;">It's been a long time since I felt able to put together a compendium of contributions, but just recently I've detected a fresh tide of anger and despair and it's coinciding with a dramatic fall in recruitment and retention. We all know probation is utterly broken and needs fixing and the time is right to say it loudly and repeatedly:-<br /><br />A friend’s son asked me about joining. He is in his 30s with plenty of life experience and a positive happy go lucky mindset. 20 years ago I’d have been very happy to help him join and felt good about it. Instead I warned him off telling him to steer clear and trust me on it. The reason I did so is because he is a good lad and I know his mum. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for upsetting her and messing up his life.<br /><br />*****<br />Funnily enough, I had a conversation with an offender in a prison this morning who rang for an update on when his parole is likely to be. The conversation went on to other relevant topics and he said he was concerned that he would be allocated another officer in the community if he is released. I agreed that due to other circumstances at play, he most likely would. I agreed that this was not optimal but this is where we are and the times were are in. Gone are the days when we had a lifer from start to release and then in the community. He said he did not want to rehash all his life all over again with someone new and I completely understood that too and in fact sympathised with it. More tellingly, and this is where today's post resonates, he said he did not want an offender manager who did not have life experience. He did not want someone 'young' who has not lived life. He was in his forties and wanted someone who would understand life and some of the issues which affect us all. Unfortunately,<br /><br />'...You should hear some of the newly qualified officers berating those who have been in the job for decades when they know nothing about life let alone probation work...'<br /><br />refers and I absolutely know that he will not get what he wants because in the office I am in, it does not exist although it is very badly needed and they know it. All gone. Those of us who are experienced are regrettably, a dying breed. I stay because now an old cove, I always considered it a vocation and that is very difficult to walk away from for me anyway.<br /><br />*****<br />Part of the issue with retention for trainees is the job description. ‘Want to make a difference’, ‘rehabilitation’ and all the other buzz words and catchy phrases. If job descriptions were accurate and stated that the job was 90-95% admin and that ‘POPs’ actually get in the way of endless form filling, irrelevant emails, endless NSI’s for everything and ridiculously long repetitive and convoluted Oasys assessments, then at least people would enter the role with realistic expectations.<br /><br />******<br />Completely agree. The adds should read ‘Want to fill out long forms and spend hours in front of your computer imagining you are making a difference? Want to be responsible for high risk cases but not have time to work with them? Want to be part of an organisation that doesn’t care about you, those you work with or your local community? If the answer to these questions is ‘Yes’ then you could be the ideal candidate to join the probation service. Under 25, fresh out of uni, naive, not too bright (it helps not to be) No problem. <br /><br />*****<br />It's almost encouraging that HMPPS continue to peddle the "buzz words and catchy phrases". Like a fading recognition that a) that is what identifies probation b) what attracts people to it. Trouble is, what should be a philosophy and culture is just buzz words and catchy phrases. If HMPS really meant it, there would be a big top down strategy to cement a culture of rehabilitation and all that entails. You can't run a cruel, punitive enforcement agency with cruelty and punishment seeping through every HR and practice policy, and the everyday language of the organisation, and just pin a pious message onto the letterhead. If they really mean it, they must follow it up with a root and branch cultural refreshment. And clean separation of Probation from the prison system.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />I had a first weekend of retirement moment on Sunday: I felt rising anxiety, then realised that I didn't have to go in and open up the emails the next day. That is true of everybody who ever retired: However, what struck me was that my anxiety was "What have they done?", not "How are they doing?". That is the shift in culture that we have undergone. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I recall a decade ago having literally sleepless nights because my lad was coming out of prison and had no accommodation lined up. The idea that a human being for whom I had some responsibility could be in that awful situation filled me with horror. If I couldn't get that sorted, then WTF was I for? Scroll forwards ten years, and without missing a beat, I routinely saw people in the same position, signposted them to a local agency that would- or might- give them a tent, and got back to the keyboard. Where I would, of course, complete an assessment of their risk as raised due to their homelessness, and an evaluation of how that, they, might be managed.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />PS "My lad" was doing fine last time I looked. Back then I and a colleague with an awesome little notebook of local contacts, found him a roof for over his head, it wasn't brilliant but we got him there and then on and out to better. The colleague has like me left, couldn't bear it anymore. And with him his awesome little notebook. Shame. Shame! <i>Pearly</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>*****</i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I couldn’t think of anything worse than being a probation officer these days, undervalued, poor training, lack of diversity in workforce, punitive agenda, join the police, earn more, retire earlier.<br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />*****<br />Joining the police is like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Many professions such as teaching, social work, nursing and probation are undervalued. A brief examination of news articles will show that there is relatively little positive coverage reflecting the skills and knowledge of practitioners. The impression is that anyone, even someone fresh out of university, can do these jobs. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There is plenty of negative coverage regarding those who are considered to have fallen below the standards required. Being sacked is not good enough as they must be sacked and thrown under a bus by their senior leaders. It’s a mixed bag but one thing that unites these professions is that they are mostly feminised. It is probably true that those men who would have joined the probation service in the 80s would not now consider joining unless they really want to embrace working in a female dominated environment where they will only progress if they are willing to ditch their masculinity. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Feminised professions generally suffer low wage increases, tend to be less actively unionised, and in some cases are not considered to be proper professions especially by right wing governments but rather as 'do-gooder' vocations where earning money and professional status are secondary to satisfaction gained from caring and helping. This is perpetuated in the media. When the public perception bubble is bust, then it is like open season with teachers and young doctors/nurses being portrayed as greedy selfish or lazy and out to harm kids, old people etc but at the same time providing a vital service we all want.<br /><br />*****<br />“There is a big problem group of millennials who think older more experienced officers are toddlers who should retire asap.” No, no, no! Most of the older more experienced probation officers I come across should retire asap. They are the rudest and most unhelpful set of people. I am tired that this set of POs, PSOs, staff think harping on about their 20 years experience entitles them to think they own the probation office and can be rude and offensive to everyone else. Worse are the ones older than that who think administrators are servants and can’t do anything unless the admin does it for them. Once upon a time we had decent experienced staff, but now we’re left with the chaff. Out with the old and in with the new.<br /><br />******<br />Correct. It is the recruitment of young and inexperienced staff that is the problem. Perhaps bring in a mandatory life/work experience test and 6 months voluntary in the local food bank or similar. Probation should never be a first job for someone fresh out of university. It’s double punishment for the punters. We used to weed these people out in the assessment centres as having insufficient life skills, but then we were instructed to take anyone with a pulse.<br /><br />*****<br />Completely agree with the comments about the wrong type of people being employed. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple in my team with potential but we've also had to have the counter corruption team in as there is now a culture developing of cocaine usage - open secret on nights out with all the younger lot.<br /><br />*****<br />This isn’t about age, but we definitely need to address the gender and ethnicity balance and lack of life experience for some of the new recruits though. Mainly due to the complexity of issues our clients bring to their supervision. Never have I experienced such difficulty in engagement of the people we work with. IMO this is because we are not spending time with them, building a relationship and doing the work we should be. We are administering a sentence now, not delivering rehabilitation. Whilst we allow HMPPS to erode the skills we have, the vocation of probation practice and our value base- we will end up as a service offering nothing other than community enforcers.<br /><br />*****<br />I think it is too late. I battled on for years before eventually calling it a day as it was impacting on my health. I got disciplined 6 months before I left after a 30 year spotless record. The reason was that I failed to keep records to the required standard. I used to spend time with my clients. I remember my practice teacher saying to me ‘people not paper’ I did not use the prescribed format for contacts and refused to change on the basis that it made no sense. I was directed to look at a good example. This was someone I knew spent on average 10 mins seeing her clients but nevertheless produced long detailed contacts that were grammatically perfect - had a degree in English. I read them all on all her cases and spookily they were all very similar. I am sure one of those plagiarism detectors would have something interesting to say. Not one of my bullet point working notes type entries was the same and accurately reflected the ongoing work. But I am the one in trouble even though I rarely breach and all mine used to show up. It didn’t seem right so I quit. Since quitting I volunteer and litter pick and help out at the local community centre helping refugees. I recently retrained as a counsellor. I feel like I am doing something useful unlike the last 6 months of working in probation when I just felt like an outcast. Quit now and do something useful with your life.<br /><br />*****<br />They just need tick boxing robots these days. I go in for the money. It is miserable. Really negative workplace. If a warehouse job paid better I’d do that. I feel less loyalty to the organisation every day. No one gives a crap anymore. Mind you it’s the same everywhere. Crap government, NHS has gone downhill, rubbish everywhere, levelling up runs downhill to the south. Got a Union email the other day saying HMPPS HQ sent a sick note to the meeting they were supposed to attend. Back in the day employers met with unions at a big meeting called NNC. If the employers wanted to negotiate they were there mob handed. This lot don’t even turn up. They should try a couple of weeks on the frontline then they’d know what feeling sick feels like. Making out they are irreplaceable.<br /><br />*****<br />At our Birmingham office there are good young officers but also the immature lazy ones. Had to endure a whole morning of chat between 2 about Crocs and what to get for KFC. Discussions with POPs on loudspeaker. The officers should be sitting with their own teams but hide in the attic space saved for hot desking as they know they can get away from doing hardly any work. It isn't an age thing just the type of person who has no desire to put in the work with a bad attitude. Management are fully aware but only care about weekly quizzes and everything on the diversity calendar<br /><br />*****<br />Yes and this appears to be the notorious office in Birmingham that hit the blog a few months ago. How long do they let this PDU head continue to manage before action is taken, or he is made accountable for decisions made within his PDU. It is shocking to know that this is happening in one office and in the another office within the same PDU has overworked staff who manage unworkable caseloads. My understanding is that he has allowed one office to function in green prioritisation framework by resourcing it and left the other office in amber with WMT for officers at up to 180% ! How is it possible to have 2 offices in a PDU working 2 prioritisation frameworks ? Why is a head allowed to treat people in this way ?<br /><br />******<br />I'm not surprised that Probation recruitment has fallen off a cliff edge. Many of the younger potential Probation Officers are very media savvy and well versed with social media which gives numerous accounts of the toxicity of Probation. They are forewarned about the blame culture and grinding workloads and probably (and sensibly) choose to look for work elsewhere.<br /><br />*****<br />I trained at a time when you were expected to have significant life and work experience prior to training. We had to cut our teeth on roles such as residential child care or youth work etc, It helped to sort the wheat from the chaff. You knew what you were getting into and whether you had the resilience and understanding to do the job. That's all changed now and with it retention will plummet. Also the job was nowhere near as stressful back when I started. Yes, it was very challenging, always has been but you felt supported and there was not the idiotic bureaucracy there is now. I didn't go to work daily worrying about an SFO, who has stabbed who or died from drugs overdose, the lack of support for service users with such complex mental health issues. I would not recommend this job to anyone, not to my children or anyone else I know. How could I do that whilst I know the level of angst and the mental health issues this job has brought to me. Anxiety and PTSD symptoms to name a few. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I would advise people to steer clear and avoid being an AI 'screw on wheels', forced to bang up people with MH issues and complex personality disorders, no autonomy, just part of a broken system, then hauled over hot coals when something out of your control happens. Too much responsibility too much stress and compromised beliefs and not enough respect or rewards. Can't even tell friends or public what you do, they have no understanding or could react negatively if they do and you get no social recognition such as a Doctor, nurse, teacher would get despite the important job we have trying to keep the public safe. This is something we rarely acknowledge in my opinion but it's important. This leaves you feeling undervalued and invisible and saps your self esteem. You feel like a persona non grata, if that's the correct Latin as I can't be bothered to check!<br /><br />*****<br />Are we not all in this together (pqip, nqo, PO with 20 years experience)? Surely we should be, do we not want the same things, did we not join the service for broadly the same things? Why are so many of you criticising the young people or criticising the experienced practitioners. Working at probation is pretty dire at the moment and fighting each other and turning against colleagues doesn't help. I'm an NQO with the utmost respect for experienced colleagues and I have found every single one of my team exceptionally helpful. I'm sorry others haven't but can we not support each other through this s@@t show and try get through together?<br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">*****</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The job is simply unmanageable now. They are expecting us to be all things to everyone when the reality is we have crumbling public services and no resources. I am fed up of being expected to do everyone else’s job including my own .. “oh it’s only a small form” “we’ve streamlined the process” no, all you’ve done is add another admin task to my day. I am not a housing officer nor a police officer! The pay is piss poor and the only good part of the job is working with the PoPs who teach me far more about life than the toothless managers that spend their time wasting mine.</span></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-63527222317864773072024-03-07T07:18:00.000+00:002024-03-07T07:18:06.584+00:00Another Graphic Illustration of Failings<p><span style="font-family: arial;">With quite astonishing testimony coming in on the state of probation, including cocaine use and 90% of the job being work on the laptop, one cannot escape the conclusion that fundamental restructuring cannot be far off. As the latest SFO <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/03/Independent-serious-further-offence-review-of-Joshua-Jacques.pdf">review</a> from the new HM Chief Inspector confirms, the present state of affairs is untenable. Here's the <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/media/press-releases/2024/03/sfojj-pn/">press release</a>:- </span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Independent serious further offence review of Joshua Jacques</b><br /><br /><b>Background:</b><br /><br />On 25 April 2022 police forced entry to a property in Bermondsey, London, where the bodies of Denton Burke (aged 68), Dolet Hill (aged 64), Tanysha (Raquel) Ofori-Akuffo (aged 45), and Samantha Drummonds (aged 27) were found. All four victims had suffered stab wounds and lacerations. Joshua Jacques was charged with these murders.<br /><br />In June 2022, the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State asked the Chief Inspector of Probation to undertake an independent review into how the Probation Service managed Joshua Jacques, as he was under probation supervision when he was arrested for these offences. This review was completed in November 2022 and can now be published following the completion of criminal proceedings.<br /><br /><b>Statement:</b><br /><br />Chief Inspector of Probation Martin Jones CBE stated:<br /><br />“There were serious failings in the supervision of Joshua Jacques. Despite concerns about repeated non-compliance with his licence conditions, enforcement practice was inconsistent and opportunities to recall Jacques to custody were missed.<br /><br />“Joshua Jacques was incorrectly allocated to a newly qualified probation officer who had only finished their training three months before being assigned the case. Under guidelines by HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), Jacques should have been allocated to an experienced, qualified probation officer. The probation practitioners in this case lacked the required experience to respond adequately to the complexity of the case. The management oversight of the probation practitioners involved in this case was also insufficient. Probation staff reported a lack of confidence in decisions made by their line manager, contributing to a reluctance to seek out further management oversight.<br /><br />“There was a lack of professional curiosity in all areas of probation practice in this case. This meant several events, such as an arrest for further offences, disclosure of declining mental health, problematic behaviour towards neighbours, a new relationship, and the unpermitted use of social media, were not responded to or explored sufficiently.<br /><br />“Joshua Jacques was appropriately assessed as posing a high risk of serious harm to the public prior to his release from custody. However, his risk in other categories, including to staff or potential partners was underestimated. No risk assessment was completed for Jacques following his release which resulted in no risk management plan or sentence plan in the community being completed.<br /><br />“Probation practitioners were aware of Jacques’ mental health history, including that he had been sectioned in 2018 and that he had behaved violently during a period when his mental health was not stable. Jacques had also reported that random aggression could be a symptom of declining mental health. In February 2022, Jacques disclosed to probation court staff that he was experiencing a decline in his mental health; however, no action was taken. Inspectors found during this review that probation staff felt ill equipped to understand and respond to mental health concerns, with limited training and support being available to them.<br /><br />“The case records show that Jacques was routinely using cannabis whilst on probation, and his licence contained a condition to engage in a drug abuse intervention on release from prison. No such intervention was organised by the Probation Service and our inspection found no evidence of a referral to a drugs agency.<br /><br />“Sadly, this case is symptomatic of the issues we have observed across the probation service in recent years. A reliance on an inexperienced cohort of probation staff, a lack of support for mental health and substance misuse issues alongside insufficient management oversight are concerns which have been highlighted repeatedly. As a result of this review, eight recommendations were made to HMPPS. They have accepted all these recommendations and responded with an action plan for implementing them.”</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The following extracts are from the full <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/03/Independent-serious-further-offence-review-of-Joshua-Jacques.pdf">report</a> and although lengthy, give a graphic illustration of the fundamental flaws in how the probation service as simply not fit for purpose as part of HMPPS and under civil service control. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>1. Foreword </b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In April 2022, Joshua Jacques was charged with the murders of a family of four: Denton Burke, Dolet Hill, Tanysha Ofori-Akuffo, and Samantha Drummonds. On 21 December 2023 he was found guilty of murder following trial. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Joshua Jacques was under probation supervision when he was arrested for these offences, having been released from prison on licence in November 2021. Ordinarily, the Probation Service would conduct a review of the management of the case, in the form of a Serious Further Offence (SFO) review. In this case, the Secretary of State for Justice asked HM Inspectorate of Probation to complete an independent review into how the Probation Service managed Joshua Jacques. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The impact of these shocking crimes cannot be underestimated and will have had a profound impact on their family and the wider community. We offer our sincere and heartfelt condolences and recognise that the family need information about how Joshua Jacques was supervised in the community and answers as to whether there were failings in this practice.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This report presents the findings of our independent review and sets out that the practice in this case fell below the expected standards. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">As a result of recent recruitment drives and of experienced staff leaving the Probation Service, many probation teams now have large numbers of newly qualified officers (NQO) or recently qualified officers. In the Southwark Probation Delivery Unit (PDU), this situation impacted on the level of experience in the teams available to manage high risk and complex cases, something our core inspections have also routinely found. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">We found Joshua Jacques’ case was incorrectly allocated to an NQO, and the lack of good quality management oversight of this member of staff impacted on the quality of decisions made. There was a notable absence of professional curiosity1 across all areas of probation practice from court through to sentence management, and a failure of the probation practitioners overseeing the case and their manager to meet fully their expected responsibilities. As a result, several significant events, such as an arrest for further offences, disclosure of declining mental health, problematic behaviour towards neighbours, a new relationship and use of social media when not permitted to do so, were not responded to sufficiently. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">While appropriate referrals were made to Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) and to Approved Premises (AP) by the probation practitioner, these critical elements of increased supervision did not fulfil their potential in supporting the management of risk of serious harm posed by Joshua Jacques. An initial OASys assessment was not completed upon his release, which meant that his management in the community was not supported by a robust risk management plan, nor a sentence plan to inform his supervision on licence. The pace and level of engagement of Joshua Jacques with his licence was seemingly determined by him, rather than the probation practitioners, who viewed his engagement and progress too optimistically. </span><br /><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There were concerns Joshua Jacques was not complying with the conditions of his licence and, though this happened repeatedly, they were each dealt with in isolation. Practitioners did not see the bigger picture and missed opportunities to respond sufficiently to his concerning behaviours, for example through a recall to prison. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Many of the findings of this review mirror those of our thematic and regional probation inspections. This review makes eight recommendations to His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service which we require implementation of as a matter of urgency to ensure learning is implemented quickly and nationally, not just in the PDU where this case was supervised.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Martin Jones CBE </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">HM Chief Inspector of Probation</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>5. Summary of Key findings </b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">JJ’s supervision was characterised by several practice deficits and missed opportunities which impacted on how JJ was managed on licence. Nine key themes identified from the independent review are outlined below. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Risk of serious harm assessment </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In custody, two OASys assessments were completed which concluded that JJ posed a high risk of serious harm to the public, specifically identifying the public to be drug users and peers operating in drug supply. This was an appropriate assessment, however it failed to identify all factors that were linked to the risk of serious harm such as his mental health, substance misuse and current accommodation. JJ was assessed as posing a low risk of serious harm in all other categories, which was an underestimation of the level of risk he posed. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">An initial OASys assessment was commenced upon release, however, this was never fully completed and remained an incomplete document. This was poor practice and was not in line with organisational expectations. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The failure to complete an OASys assessment on release resulted in no assessment of risk of serious harm and no risk management plan in the community to inform how the risk posed should be safely managed while on licence. Additionally, there were no sentence plan objectives to support and inform the supervision appointments, which should have been targeted to address those factors most likely to contribute towards further offending. Further reviewing did not take place following MAPPA meetings, nor in response to changes of circumstances and significant events. Completing a review would have enabled the probation practitioner to consider the significance of new information, and review the sentence and risk management plans accordingly, to ensure the necessary arrangements were in place to protect the public. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The pre-sentence report prepared for court, and the OASys completed following sentence to the suspended sentence order, both replicated the pre-release assessment and did not take the opportunity to consider all available information to support an updated and holistic assessment. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">MAPPA meetings considered the level of risk of serious harm posed by JJ; however, this did not negate the need for an OASys assessment to be completed. This is essential probation practice to ensure that the management of each case is supported by a robust and defensible assessment of risk of serious harm and need. In the absence of a formal assessment using the OASys tool, inspectors would have expected to see other evidence of assessment and planning within case management records. However, there were no such records to satisfy us that a clear understanding of how to manage the risks posed were in place. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Professional curiosity and optimism bias </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">PO1 and PO2 put a strong focus on addressing JJ’s needs, such as accommodation and employment. Though these were important factors and progress was made, the supervision sessions were not underpinned by a sentence plan and there was no evidence of interventions which focused on offender behaviour being delivered. Inspectors found that this strong emphasis on relationship building and addressing JJ’s needs was not balanced against the need to manage risk of serious harm. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Probation practitioners viewed JJ’s behaviour on licence through an over optimistic lens and did not fully understand the expectations on them to be professionally curious and proactive. As a result, they did not adequately explore issues such as why he had purchased a vehicle, or his problematic behaviour in his accommodation and they failed to inform police of a second breach of the criminal behaviour order (CBO). </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">These skills of professional curiosity grow and develop with practitioner confidence and experience, and with the effective support and oversight from peers and managers. There was a lack of experience within the probation practitioner staff group at Southwark PDU and lack of robust management oversight further contributed to this. Where a workforce has limited experience, they need guidance from those with a more established level of knowledge to provide support and oversight to aid their development. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Enforcement </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Good probation practice seeks to motivate people on probation to comply and engage positively with the requirements of their sentence. While this should include a focus on desistance from further offending, it should also include appropriate enforcement action being taken when required. Instances of non-compliance should be responded to in a proportionate, fair, and transparent manner.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Enforcement practice in this case was inconsistent, with instances of non-compliance considered in isolation rather than seen in the round. Opportunities to escalate and consult with the delivery unit head (HOS1) were not sought. There was a failure to act upon a pre-release assessment that identified that swift enforcement of the CBO and licence were required to manage the risk of serious harm posed by JJ. Enforcement guidance issued in October 2021 was not followed. Our inspectors felt the decision not to recall JJ following his arrest for further offences was defensible. However, in making the decision, senior manager oversight should have been sought by SPO1 and the failure to do so was against expected practice. The enforcement practice in this case did not analyse the behaviour being displayed by JJ, nor did it explore whether additional supportive or restrictive measures short of recall were needed to manage his licence. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Resourcing and workload </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Southwark PDU had been operating under ‘green’ status under the national prioritising probation framework but had several vacancies, particularly at probation officer and probation service officer grade. Many staff within the PDU were at early stages of their career and there were limited numbers of experienced staff available. The probation practitioners in this case lacked the required experience to respond adequately to the complexity of the case and behaviours being presented. In addition, the pace and volume of work impacted on the quality of work undertaken in this case. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">HMPPS’s <i>Tiering framework and case allocation</i> guidance was not followed, and JJ’s case should have been allocated to a more experienced probation practitioner. The allocated probation practitioner in this case was within their newly qualified probation officer (NQO) period and in allocating the case, the SPO should have been assured that PO1 had the required knowledge, skill, and experience to manage the case effectively. JJ’s tier increased following the initial MAPPA meeting and this should have prompted re-allocation of practitioner in line with the expected practice for NQOs. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Management oversight </b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Management oversight was of an insufficient standard. Staff reported a lack of confidence in decisions made by their line manager, contributing to a reluctance to seek out further management oversight. When sought, decisions made by the probation practitioners would generally be approved without the necessary discussion or scrutiny needed to ensure that the most appropriate course of action was being taken. Opportunities to escalate to HOS1 were also missed. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Similar to the findings from the Inspectorate’s broader local inspection programme, the workload, and responsibilities of line managers in this Probation Delivery Unit were found to be concerning. SPOs were managing large teams and were expected to provide support and oversight of their staff and manage human resource issues, as well as provide oversight and scrutiny of each probation practitioner’s caseload. SPOs also have additional lead responsibilities, such as MAPPA, which impact on their ability to perform their role to the expected standards. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Inspectors also found insufficient processes in place to manage staff absence. PO1 was absent from work for a period of three months. While during this time PO2 had maintained contact with JJ on their own initiative, the process for caseload reallocation during an absence was not clear, which resulted in a lack of clear ownership of this case and many of PO1’s other cases during this period. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">JJ’s index offence (the last set of criminal actions that brought him into contact with the criminal justice system) meant that he was not automatically eligible for management under multi agency public protection arrangements (MAPPA). Therefore, it was good practice for JJ to have been referred to MAPPA as a Level 2, Category 3 case. However, there was insufficient evidence that this MAPPA referral positively impacted upon the management of the case. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The MAPPA referral for JJ was completed late, only one month prior to release. To allow effective coordination this should have been done six months prior. In recognition of the complexity of the case and imminency of need, it was positive to see that JJ was listed promptly for discussion once he had been referred. However, the initial delay in referral resulted in little time for MAPPA to effectively contribute to the pre-release planning, with PO1 having already set licence conditions with the prison, without a contribution from the MAPPA panel. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The minutes from each of the four the MAPPA meetings held to discuss JJ were of an insufficient standard, providing limited evidence that partner agencies were active in supporting the management of risk of serious harm he presented. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There were missed opportunities for meaningful actions to be set in response to new information, and a lack of oversight of outstanding actions. JJ was de-registered from MAPPA oversight without an adequate rationale, whilst two actions which had already been carried forward remained outstanding. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Approved Premises </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The Approved Premises (AP) placement was an opportunity to positively contribute to the management of JJ’s risk of serious harm. Key work sessions were held by AP staff which were appropriately focused, with structured sessions on the immediate needs of JJ; exploring issues such as registration with a GP, finance, and education, training, and employment (ETE), which supported his resettlement into the community. However, professional curiosity was not applied during AP staff interactions with JJ. There is no evidence that there was sufficient exploration of his behaviour and movements, which would have aided the probation practitioner’s understanding of how JJ was spending his time away from the AP. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">AP staff should play a significant role, both in providing relevant risk information to the probation practitioner and in contributing to effective risk management. It is essential that they understand the risk of serious harm presented, are actively involved in the delivery of the risk management plan and are part of MAPPA meetings. An AP representative was not able to engage in pre-release planning due to the delayed referral, and subsequently did not attend the MAPPA meetings held, which impacted on pre-release planning, information exchange and the effective risk management of the case.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Mental health </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">JJ had been sectioned previously in 2018 and had informed probation practitioners that feelings of anxiety and paranoia were normal for him. Prior to release, JJ’s mental health was described to be stable, and probation practitioners stated that there were no obvious signs of a mental health decline upon release into the community. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">However, he was described by PO1 as presenting as ‘low’ on occasion, which was attributed to boredom and need for structure in the community. Days prior to the SFO, JJ was described as talkative and going off on irrelevant tangents in his conversations with probation staff. Furthermore, JJ informed PSR1 that when committing the further offences on licence, he had been experiencing poor mental health. This was not explored further and there was a lack of significance given to this statement, resulting in no analysis or action. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Probation practitioners were aware of JJ’s mental health history but lacked any detailed information. They were also aware that he had behaved violently during a period when his mental health was not stable, and JJ himself had reported that random aggression could be a sign of his mental health declining. However, this was not identified as a factor linked to risk of serious harm within OASys assessments. Additionally, the correlation between his continued use of illegal substances and his mental health was not sufficiently explored or responded to. Prior to JJ’s release from custody, information on JJ’s mental health was sent by the prison mental health in-reach team to his registered GP, however they were not aware that the GP had retired. Upon registration with a new GP, this prior information on JJ’s mental ill health was not passed to them. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There was a reliance on JJ recognising and self-reporting a decline in his mental health and on the one occasion he disclosed such concerns no action was taken. Probation practitioners stated that there was a gap in services available to support those with mental health, particularly if there were also substance misuse concerns. As emphasised by the report published in 2021, <i>A joint thematic inspection of the criminal justice journey for individuals with mental health needs and disorders,</i> mental health can present significant challenges for probation practitioners, and is often characterised by insufficient information exchange and the need for better training and support. Inspectors found during this review that staff felt ill equipped to understand and respond to mental health concerns, with limited training and support being available. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Substance misuse </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">JJ had used cannabis since he was a child and was described to be lacking insight into the harmful effects of his substance misuse. Probation records and a psychiatrist’s assessment indicate a link between JJ’s substance misuse use and mental health, and that JJ’s sectioning in 2018 had been preceded by the consumption of medication, alcohol, and cannabis. Additionally, much of JJ’s offending was linked to substance misuse. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Probation case records show that JJ was routinely using cannabis while on licence. He had completed substance misuse intervention programmes in custody and his licence contained a condition to engage in a drug abuse intervention on release from prison. However, such an intervention was not organised by probation practitioners, and we could find no evidence of a referral to a drugs agency. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Inspectors found that probation practitioners did not explore the underlying reasons for JJ’s substance misuse, and minimised and tolerated regular use while he was on licence. This was underpinned by a failure to adequately analyse the impact of substance misuse to the risk of serious harm he posed.</span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-84960809120653683082024-03-05T08:55:00.001+00:002024-03-05T13:04:54.050+00:00Fancy Being a Probation Officer?<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I'm hearing that recruitment for PO training has fallen off a cliff, standards are falling along with retention rates. I wonder why folks?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Seen on Twitter:-</span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">"I see that PO training is being advertised again. Although I would never advise someone not to apply, I would urge caution. Chat to other probation staff and make sure you know what the job is. If you want to go for it I wish you the best of luck."<br /><br />"Guy I know was asking me about applying. In every convo I had with him over ages, I warned him to lower his expectations. Eventually got on PQiP and lasted 2 weeks before returning to his old job. Couldn't believe the paperwork, demoralised staff and lack of contact with cases."<br /><br />"Sadly the job is not the vocation we signed up for anymore. Desperately sad to see new colleagues leaving after a few months. Long and short HMPPS are not interested in rehabilitative work with people, just risk assessments that are generic." <br /><br />"Still relatively new having started in 2015. Often think I've been insulated from how bad it is, as it's been like this all the way through. YJS seconded currently - the longer I'm separated from probation practice, the more my eyes seem opened to the chaos colleagues experience."</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">--oo00oo--</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><b>Postscript</b></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><b><br /></b></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This came in over night and seems extremely prescient:-<b style="font-style: italic;"> </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><br /></i></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">"Probation isn’t going to be sorted out anytime soon. They have gone for low hanging fruit by recruiting young female graduates rather than individuals (male or female) who have life experience. The job is not glamorous and without general appeal. It has been under attack as a profession both from psychologists and the civil service with criminology given a minor role.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The recruitment net has mostly dragged in the wrong type of fish but there are a few with potential. There is a big problem group of millennials who think older more experienced officers are toddlers who should retire asap. I don’t think anyone can blame the old guard for being defensive as they have been put upon time after time and many have been at the top of the salary range for decades seeing the main grade job degraded and perks we used to have such as lease cars, lower caseloads, and professional development opportunities become the stuff of myth. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The job now mainly involves sitting in a poorly equipped airless office typing information into shoddy IT systems with the occasional irritating interruptions by people on the probation conveyor belt. The skill in the job is all but gone replaced by endless regulation designed to take away any professional judgement or autonomy. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">You should hear some of the newly qualified officers berating those who have been in the job for decades when they know nothing about life let alone probation work. In years gone by they would have been PSOs and supporting POs but now they think they know it all because they can whizz around computer systems and love filling in forms. Doing assessments is a bit trickier. There are also loads of administrators that no one really knows what they do half the time. There is no penalty for their failure or incompetence as bodies are in short supply and those that would previously be sacked are allowed to cruise along apparently believing the crap work they are doing is good enough - few experienced people to say otherwise. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Most of the smarter POs have decamped long ago and would never be tempted back to the meat grinder. All the PR and flashy videos are peddling lies. It is dirty work now done extremely badly by the majority being propped up by the hard pressed few who refuse to quit. It is the few that I support and are keeping the flame alive for a better probation service."</span></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-30052907905444504532024-02-29T10:55:00.000+00:002024-02-29T10:55:42.135+00:00Prison Population to Rocket <div><span style="font-family: arial;">I notice the latest prison population <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/65df5123b8da630f42c86271/Prison_Population_Projections_2023_to_2028.pdf">projections</a> have been published today:-</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b> Prison Population Projections 2023 to 2028, England and Wales </b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This bulletin presents prison population projections for England and Wales from December 2023 to March 2028. It is produced to aid policy development, capacity planning and resource allocation within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS).<br /><br />The prison population is projected to increase to between 94,600 and 114,800 by March 2028, with a central estimate of 105,800. This projected long-term increase is predicated on several factors, including continued growth in police charging and prosecutorial activity and falling Crown Court outstanding caseloads (both of which could increase inflows into the prison system and in turn the prison population), and changes in sentencing policy and behaviour to keep the most serious offenders in prison for longer.<br /><br /><b>Introduction</b><br /><br />This bulletin presents prison population projections for England and Wales from December 2023 to March 2028. It is produced to aid policy development, capacity planning and resource allocation within the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). The latest published useable operational capacity (23rd February 2024) is 89,041.. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The projections are produced using a model of flows of offenders into and out of prison which estimates the resulting prison population each month. A key driver for future prison population (and a major source of uncertainty for these projections) is the volume and composition of cases entering the criminal courts, i.e. upstream demand. To illustrate the impact of these upstream demand assumptions, three plausible scenarios have been agreed between the MoJ, the Home Office and the Crown Prosecution Service, and this publication presents the prison population projection as a range based on these scenarios. The projected prison population range presented here only estimates the impact of differing upstream demand assumptions and therefore does not represent the full range of uncertainty surrounding the projections. All three scenarios are presented from December 2023 to March 2028 and are considered to be plausible outcomes of the growth of the prison population over the next five years. This differs from the previous publication which only presented the central scenario over a three-year horizon. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Alongside incoming demand, the size of the prison population over 2023 to 2028 is also expected to increase due to courts addressing growth in the outstanding caseload that has been seen since 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns restricted the courts’ ability to process cases through 2020 and 2021 and the Criminal Bar Association disruptive action between April and October 2022 also affected court proceedings, leading to further growth in the outstanding caseload. Over the first three quarters of 2023, Crown Court disposal volumes increased but remained below receipts, meaning the outstanding caseload continued to increase. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The projections also incorporate the estimated impacts of agreed sentencing policies, including the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act, and the Release of Prisoners Order 20205 which include provisions to increase custody time for violent and sexual offenders sentenced to a standard determinate sentence of 4 to 7 years and over 7 years, respectively.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Since there is considerable uncertainty around the assumptions in these areas, the prison population will likely differ from what has been projected – there is a more detailed discussion regarding uncertainty in Section 2.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">--oo00oo--</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Do we really want to continue down this path? I notice the Bishop of Gloucester and Anglican Bishop for HM Prisons <a href="https://gloucester.anglican.org/2024/bishop-rachel-on-sentencing/">suggests</a> we need to change the narrative. That sounds like a good idea:- <br /></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b>Bishop Rachel speaks out on sentencing</b><br /><br />As we venture towards a General Election at some time this year, the prison population is approaching 90,000 underpinned by a rhetoric across the political spectrum of ‘being tough on crime’. The common narrative is that locking more people up and for longer will result in stronger and safer communities. The evidence does not support this, and rates of reoffending are prolific. So, as Anglican Bishop for HM Prisons in England and Wales I am determined to be part of the solution.<br /><br />Prison costs in the region of 50K per person per year, and the social and economic cost of reoffending is estimated at £18 billion per annum, thus our current system makes no sense, even if you only care about money. It is not prisons which need expanding but rather our imaginations and public understanding.<br /><br />The approach to so much in society fails to start with vision, and instead focuses on short term fixes for presenting issues. This is certainly true regarding criminal justice and prisons. Yet it is only when we paint a vision of the sort of society we want to see that we will begin to respond appropriately.<br /><br />As a Christian I hold fast to hope in the transforming work of God revealed in Jesus Christ, at the heart of which is the fulfillment of a vision of restored relationship. It is about the flourishing of humanity and all creation, and that is a common theme within different faiths and expressed in the longings of many people regardless of whether they are people of faith or not.<br /><br />Prisons offer a window onto so much which is broken in our society. Broken relationship is evident across every aspect of our criminal justice system, not least fractured relationships in the lives of offenders, often from an early age, and the fractured lives and communities impacted by crime. Yet, prisons also have the potential to provoke us into shaping a vision for the future.<br /><br />Over 40% of those in prison were expelled or excluded from school; almost 25% of adults in prison have previously been in care, rising to nearly 50% of all under 21-year-olds in contact with the criminal justice system. Furthermore, it is estimated that 300,000 children a year have a parent in prison, and of those over half of boys go on to commit an offence. These are just a few of the stark statistics which reflect our failure to create a criminal justice system which focuses on relationship and which looks both upstream and downstream with a commitment to taking a long-term view, holding before us a vision of restoration and transformation in the lives of individuals, families and communities.<br /><br />Against this backdrop of a commitment to a different future, I convened a roundtable discussion in Westminster in November 2023 comprised of experts from the field of criminal justice, including academics, MPs and Peers, CEOs of leading organisations, and those with lived experience of prison. Under Chatham House rules we sought to identify some significant steps towards prison reform. The intention is to further conversations and action in our different spheres of influence, including the vital need for clarity, not least among wider society, as to what prison is for.<br /><br />If we truly want safer and stronger communities, including respect and care for victims of crime (noting that offenders are also often victims), then punishment can only ever be part of the picture. Rehabilitation and purposeful training and activity must be a major focus within prisons, and continue beyond the prison gate. These points have been repeatedly made by Charlie Taylor, the Chief Inspector of Prisons, and one of the roundtable participants.<br /><br />Furthermore, given that prison staff have the potential to shape a rehabilitative and relational culture when led by an inspiring and motivated Governor, it is shocking that they are undervalued, with initial training being a matter of weeks with negligible investment in further development and support. There is much which could be gleaned from the innovative ‘Unlocked Graduates’ programme <a href="https://unlockedgrads.org.uk/">https://unlockedgrads.org.uk/</a> whose CEO, took part in the Westminster discussion.<br /><br />While crime should never be condoned, prison is rarely the only answer to the problem – so, with vision, we would be more courageous in establishing alternatives to the revolving door of prison and the repeated pattern of fractured relationship. Such solutions would include ever-more imaginative community-based initiatives; not using prison as a place to accommodate people with severe mental health problems; and shaping alternative interventions for many whose offending is rooted in drug addiction. With a clear vision we could do better join-up across issues, with a willingness to look upstream and downstream, including the strong shining of light on the importance of enabling offenders to develop and strengthen meaningful and healthy relationships – a point emphasised by another roundtable participant, Lord Farmer, in his 2017 government review on family ties.<br /><br />The Westminster roundtable agreed this all requires national debate, not least regarding sentencing as recommended in the <a href="https://icevlp.org.uk/">2022 Independent Commission</a> into the Experience of Victims and Long-Term Prisoners, chaired by a previous Bishop for Prisons, The Right Revd James Jones. Indeed, as was highlighted at the roundtable, if there is to be meaningful progress regarding prison reform and using available funds effectively, then we need to work persistently and creatively at changing the public narrative. In 2024 I hope it will be possible to create a groundswell across a diversity of media outlets and public figures willing to influence the debate and be part of that drive to expand our imaginations while resisting the expansion of prisons and the prison population.<br /><br /><i>The Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Anglican Bishop for HM Prisons in England and Wales</i></span></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-26753728473076929882024-02-28T06:59:00.000+00:002024-02-28T06:59:02.361+00:00Guest Blog 95<span style="font-family: arial;"><b>The Bob Hall Test</b><br /><br /> Well then. 38 years since I stumbled into a job in Community Service, here I am on retirement eve. A family bereavement has pushed this life event into the sidelines till now and puts me in a valedictory frame of mind. <br /><br />I’m going a wee bit early, a year short of state retirement age. It’s going to be financially cramped but I had absolutely run out of steam.<br /><br />Casting my eye back, a couple of snapshots: First up: catching a job in Community Service in Bristol in the 1980s. I had absolutely no idea what the job was. I was living on a boat in the chilly Bristol docks and the job came with a heating system, some cash, and was recommended by the lovely partner of the folksinger in the local pub. Only a few weeks in I was enthralled. I mean, wow, the State funded an organisation that worked alongside citizens who had fallen between the cracks of the state and broken its laws. We wanted them to do well. This organisation was imbued with a culture of social justice, a healthy suspicion of The State, and crucially, it was fun. It was actually fun to go to work. Uplifting. We liked each other, we respected our management, we took our responsibilities to our clients very seriously.<br /><br />Second up: The Bob Hall Question. While I was training in Cornwall as a TPO, 2001- ish, I was mentored by the wonderful Bob Hall, PO. He was funny, brilliant, wise, humane. He called me “Grasshopper” (Kung fu, catch up younger readers). He had left his calling in the church but hung onto his pastoral mission. He was an old school Probation Officer, an inspirational role model with various sayings, one of which was “nobody in my caseload fails probation for not turning up” … he would drive home calling on any clients who hadn’t attended during the day to lodge the encounter in the records. He knew everyone on his patch. Another was “C’mon Su, we’ll do this the old-fashioned way”. This was to insert ourselves into the family home and “intervene” from there, counselling doting mums to try some tough love, persuade the landlord to hang off from eviction, trudge down to the CAB office to sort out benefits, check on how the kids were doing. As Bob neared the end of his days, he asked, poignantly “Did I make a difference?”<br /><br />Spending most of my career in Probation management, I kept The Bob Hall Test in my head for the duration. Will it make a difference? While battling increasing managerialism early this century, at one point the Bob Hall Test was formally written into the analysis of new initiatives and any assessment of how much the team would sign up.<br /><br />Did I make a difference is the question we should all ask ourselves every day. Top down. “Did I hit the targets?” is an incidental, secondary issue, and if the first test isnt met, the second is irrelevant.<br /><br />Nearly four decades in, I reckon I can count on the fingers of one hand, maybe two at a stretch, the people I have worked with where I have assisted a really positive difference – and, sidenote, all of them clients with whom I had long lasting relationships. That is maybe a good enough tally. There are plenty who I have just eased through the system with as little mishap as possible. I can also number on the fingers of one, maybe two, hands the number of people on whom I have inflicted Enforcement, be it breach or recall.<br /><br />I have been and remain, a signed up, subs paying Napo member, rep, and activist. Sadly, I can no longer represent individual members, but there is a fight to be fought for the heart and soul of Probation. I will endeavour to keep that up, but the ability to represent something you are no longer part of is difficult. The Bob Hall Test applies to all that work too.<br /><br />I don’t believe in any hereafter, but should I have got that wrong, when challenged by St Peter (other religions are available) I will call up as witnesses those few wonderful, courageous people who turned themselves around, against all the odds, while I was on their case: hence my nom de plume Pearly Gates. <br /><br />I am off to my lovely Probation team tomorrow for a last day. Don’t know whether I will laugh or cry. <br /><br />Over and out <br /><br />Su McConnel</span>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-79021102519154713782024-02-19T11:58:00.000+00:002024-02-19T11:58:24.810+00:00Probation Must be Free of Civil Service<span style="font-family: arial;">I'll start this post with a great contribution from regular reader 'Getafix, prompted by Saturday's post referencing my talk on Friday:-</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><blockquote style="font-style: italic;">"It's often said that probation work is grounded in the relationship between the offender and the PO, yet if any relationship exists today it's one based on fear. One side of the desk perpetually fearful of recall, the other side perpetually fearful of an SFO."</blockquote><p>One of the many subjects touched upon in my talk is that of the civil service. Who on earth would wish to be associated with an institution seemingly dedicated to being as shitty as possible to vast swathes of the population? Whether it's the Windrush generation; asylum seekers; illegal migrants; benefit claimants; the sick; disabled; unemployed; etc etc; all these groups are increasingly being treated dreadfully by a compliant and complicit civil service thoroughly corrupted by 14 years of increasingly right wing governments. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/16/jobcentres-told-to-stop-referring-benefit-claimants-to-food-banks?CMP=share_btn_tw">This</a> from the Guardian three days ago:-</p><b>Jobcentres told to stop referring benefit claimants to food banks</b><br /><br />DWP briefing says jobcentres should no longer issue ‘signposting slips’ over concerns about data privacy</span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Jobcentre officials have been ordered to stop referring penniless benefit claimants to food banks because it breaches data privacy law, in a move charities have warned will cause delays in crisis help for thousands of hungry households.<br /><br />For years the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has allowed jobcentres to issue DWP-designed “signposting slips”, which allow claimants to access local food banks, many of which will not give out food parcels without a formal referral.<br /><br />However, an internal DWP briefing seen by the Guardian says it will no longer issue the slips – which require the name of the claimant and brief details, such as the number of children in the household – because they amount to “inappropriate use of personal claimant data”.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Can you imagine what it must feel like to be a decent, caring civil servant when orders like this come down from the top/ Oh hang on a minute - <i>probation officers are now civil servants.</i> My contention is absolutely clear - <u>you cannot be a civil servant and a probation officer</u> - there is a fundamental incompatibility in being part of a top down command and control structure. Probation cannot be repaired unless it returns to some form of independent QANGO structure.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">--oo00oo--</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Happily there is some good news on the horizon because former senior civil servant Sue Gray in her new role as Keir Starmer's chief of staff is beginning to spell out how a future Labour administration would go about changing various toxic structures and processes <a href="https://www.politics.co.uk/news/2024/02/19/labour-will-introduce-citizens-assemblies-after-transformational-success-in-ireland/">This</a> today on the politics.co.uk website:- </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Labour will introduce citizens' assemblies after 'transformational' success in Ireland</b></span></div><div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"> The Labour Party has said it is drawing up plans to introduce “citizens’ assemblies” which could be used to bypass Whitehall and make key decisions. Sue Gray, the chief of staff to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer, has said in her first interview in the role that plans are being worked on to involve the public directly in deciding contentious issues. <br /><br />Gray, who is in charge of the party’s preparations for government, said such assemblies could give the public a say in constitutional reform, devolution and the location of new houses. Keir Starmer has pledged to build 1.5 million new homes in his first term as prime minister, if the Labour Party wins the general election later this year. It has been suggested that the commitment is likely to draw criticism from so-called “nimbys” — those who say “not in my backyard” to housebuilding. <br /><br />Meanwhile, recent reports have suggested that Starmer intends to delay a previously touted plan to abolish the House of Lords. A report in the Financial Times earlier this month suggested Labour would only implement limited reforms to the Lords in order to focus on economic priorities. The party had previously committed to scrapping the upper house in a first five-year parliament.<br /><br />Labour’s plan to introduce citizens’ assemblies is described in a biography of Starmer by Tom Baldwin, which is being serialised in <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sue-gray-announces-citizens-juries-that-will-bypass-whitehall-pqnn9nwh3">The Times</a> newspaper. Gray has told Baldwin of the “transformational” success of citizens’ juries in Ireland that had built consensus for constitutional changes, such as the end to the ban on abortion and allowing gay marriage. <br /><br />However, she also acknowledged that the plans would face resistance in government, saying: “Whitehall will not like this because they have no control.”<br /><br />In Ireland, a “Citizens’ Assembly” is tasked with deliberating on matters of national importance. It is typically made up of 99 randomly selected members of the public and one appointed chairperson. Invitations are sent to randomly-selected households, and from those who agree to take part, members are subsequently selected to reflect Irish society in terms of age, gender, social class and regional spread. Recent questions considered include: abortion, fixed-term parliaments, referendums, population ageing, and climate change.<br /><br />In the UK, Gray has said the assemblies could be used to get agreement on Lords reform, devolution and housebuilding. Citing opposition to these proposals, Gray said: “[A citizens’ assembly] is one way we can help resolve these questions by involving communities at an early stage.”</span></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com58tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-64047603516882444182024-02-17T04:24:00.002+00:002024-02-17T10:00:51.902+00:00We Can Change Things<p><span style="font-family: arial;">Yesterday was a significant day for me because after some 14 years hammering away on these keys of a succession of laptops, I decided to accept a kind invitation to speak at a West Yorkshire Napo branch meeting. This was a big decision because I've never wanted this endeavour to be focused on me, but rather a platform for all who care about the world of probation to discuss, debate and share thoughts, experiences and concerns. I know it's provided support and comfort to many through some very dark times and that's great because sometimes it can help to know you are not alone and there are colleagues who have had similar experiences and worries.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The invitation came out of the blue and in a way I surprised myself by accepting without hesitation. Upon reflection, the time just seemed right. I've been aware for ages that the audience was changing as experienced staff inevitably slipped away through retirement or disillusionment and they've not been replaced by newer colleagues for a variety of reasons. I've also become painfully aware of a growing toxic work environment, but most significantly that probation was losing grasp of what it was for and that it had become part of the problem rather than the solution. I find this deeply troubling and something I want to be part of changing.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This is election year and there is real hope of change being possible. A lot of nonsense will be spouted by the likes of the Daily Mail on the crime and punishment front and there's work to be done in countering this, as well as trying to influence sensible policy decisions of any incoming alternative administration. We know this process is well under way in Wales and it would be ridiculous if England was to remain an embarrassing outlier in its treatment of probation delivery. There must be a comprehensive probation review and the service must break free from HM Prison Service and the dead hand of the civil service.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So, once again I sense that the blog will need to enter campaigning mode. I was hugely energised by my reception yesterday and I want to warmly thank all those who turned up both in person and online. There were many young faces and I sensed a mood to get involved and that it was possible rather than just accept the way things are as a result of unrelenting top down command and control directives. Probation was never like this, but rather an organisation that encouraged innovation, thoughtful reflection and respect for all those engaged and on whatever side of the desk they sat. I think we can regain this ideal by talking together and getting involved. </span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">I'll round this off by saying I'm very happy to speak to other branches if it is felt it might be helpful and I would remind readers that I'm always keen to publish, anonymously, reflective pieces on any aspect of probation work. I can be contacted on jimbrown51@virginmedia.com </span><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Thanks again for reading and your support. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Postscript</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I've known for some time that the blog gets a wide international audience, especially in the USA and it's been brought to my attention that in a very recent <a href="https://blog.feedspot.com/probation_blogs/">poll</a> it ranked third in "10 most popular (probation) blogs and websites" after</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> Massachusetts Probation Service and Probation Officers Professional Association of Indiana. </span><span style="font-family: arial;">How about that? </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-46051620556273013262024-02-15T05:17:00.000+00:002024-02-15T05:17:49.033+00:00The SPO Role<div><span style="font-family: arial;">Continuing with the theme of probation in Wales going its own way, it's interesting to note that both HMPI reports into the role of SPOs published last month include description of the new work in Probation in Wales on the "Human Factors Model" which "acknowledges that we all make mistakes and that we must learn from these", as well as "understanding better why things go right most of the time.” Lets look at the <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/01/The-role-of-the-senior-probation-officer-and-management-oversight-in-the-Probation-Service.pdf">first:-</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>The role of the senior probation officer and management oversight in the Probation Service<br /></b><br /><b> Foreword </b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The Probation Service manages a complex and challenging caseload. The work of probation practitioners in court and sentence management teams is fundamental to the Service’s ability to protect the public. Our probation inspection programme found that, where it was required, the quality of management oversight was insufficient in 72 per cent of the inspected cases. It is therefore vital that effective management oversight arrangements are in place. This is currently not the case. We found that management oversight policies are applied inconsistently, and this is underpinned by a defensive operational culture. This undermines the quality of decision-making and the confidence of operational staff and is of serious concern. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">A revised framework is required to enable both day-to-day decision-making and the proactive assurance of cases. Only 39 per cent of senior probation officers in our survey believe that the current management oversight policies meet the needs of probation service delivery, and the probation caseload. Lines of responsibility are not clear, and in relation to staff supervision and oversight, policy implementation has not been well coordinated. It is therefore unsurprising that many operational staff lack confidence in the current framework and are uncertain as to their responsibilities. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Operational staff in Wales have responded positively to the introduction of the ‘human factors’ approach in sentence management. The new operational structure has resulted in a less frenetic working culture and more considered decision-making. The resilience of this structure and its impact on the quality of delivery still need to be evaluated. However, we welcome the proactive arrangements now in place to meet the challenges of the probation caseload. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The senior probation officer role should focus on service delivery, and the management oversight and development of their team. The spans of responsibility of the current role prevent this, and their focus is too often on non-operational tasks. This undermines the senior probation officer’s ability to deliver effective management control. Until this is addressed, their focus on operational delivery will continue to be diluted. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">We have expressed concerns about the senior probation officer workload in previous reports, and those concerns remain. Internal probation service reviews have also found the workload to be excessive. During this inspection, we met and heard from many senior probation officers who had unacceptably high workloads across a wide range of responsibilities. Additional administrative support has been provided and there has been significant success in filling vacancies. The responsibilities of the role have, however, remained unchanged. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The role of the senior probation officer and arrangements for management oversight in the Probation Service need to be reviewed. This will, now, take place within a merged ‘One HMPPS’ governance structure for prisons and probation services. It is important that operational staff are consulted meaningfully and that new policies are grounded in the realities of the probation caseload. Our recommendations, if followed, are designed to support senior probation officers to focus on the oversight of work and, in so doing, to improve public protection. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Sue McAllister </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Interim HM Chief Inspector of Probation January 2024<br /><br /><b>Executive summary </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Context </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The role of the senior probation officer (SPO) and the delivery of management oversight are central to effective sentence management and court work in the Probation Service. The probation caseload is complex and challenging. It is therefore important that the teams delivering these key services in courts and the community are supported and that their work is overseen effectively. Since before the unification of the Probation Service, there have been concerns about the workload of SPOs and the effectiveness of management oversight. These concerns have continued following the findings from HM Inspectorate of Probation’s core inspection programme 2021–2023 and recent high-profile Serious Further Offence (SFO) independent reviews. The formation of the unified service has seen several policy initiatives in relation to management oversight – notably, the touch points model (TPM) and the reflective practice supervision standards (RPSS). In addition, the Probation Service managerial role review (HMPPS, 2022) considered the pressures and workload of the SPO in sentence management and court teams. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This inspection examined the effectiveness of the current arrangements and policies. It focused on management oversight and the SPO role in sentence management and court work because it is in these teams that the key decisions in relation to risk and public protection are taken. As part of this examination, we considered whether the current operating structure meets the requirement of managing the dynamic probation caseload. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Methodology </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">We undertook fieldwork in five probation regions and held focus groups with the key staff groups, including senior staff and operational managers. In the 15 SPO focus groups we met a total of 94 SPOs. In the probation practitioner (PP) focus groups, we met a total of 82 PPs. Fieldwork was also undertaken with senior leaders in the national HM Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) teams. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">We also circulated a national survey to all SPOs which included key questions on management oversight and their responsibilities. A total of 392 SPOs completed this survey, which was 27 per cent of the total number of SPOs in post at that time. In the regions, we also asked SPOs in sentence management and court teams to complete an activity survey. We received 29 responses. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The management oversight data from our core inspection programme was analysed in relation to SPO vacancy rates and spans of control. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Policy, strategy, and staffing </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There is no overall strategy for the delivery of effective management oversight in the Probation Service. Different management oversight frameworks for casework and performance management have been introduced, but not as part of a coherent framework. This has contributed to the confusion and uncertainty felt by operational staff. In the future, sentence management and courts will sit in the chief probation officer’s directorate, which will have responsibility for management oversight policy. It is important that the views of frontline staff and an understanding of the probation caseload inform decision-making in the new structure. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Following a cultural assessment of the organisation, the probation service in Wales has adopted a learning organisation model. Central to this is the implementation of a ‘human factors’ approach in the sentence management teams. A premise of the approach is that humans are fallible, and errors are to be expected, even in the best organisations. The analysis of culture and clarity of communication that supported implementation in Wales is impressive and has helped to embed it in the organisation. Sustaining this change and learning from the experience will now be key. More widely, regional leaders are cautious, doubting that there is an appetite, nationally, for the adoption of a systems-based approach to learning.<br /><br />Staffing levels for SPOs and PPs have improved but the Probation Service has an inexperienced workforce. This contributes to the dependence and lack of confidence of PPs. Some regions continue to experience high vacancy levels. This inevitably increases the stress on teams, directly affecting the availability, and quality, of management oversight. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>The effectiveness of management oversight in sentence management and court teams</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Overall, we found a reactive management oversight culture. SPOs are generally dependent on PPs raising concerns with them before they examine a case. One-to-one supervision meetings between SPOs and PPs have a broad agenda, restricting the time available to review cases. Only 39 per cent of SPO respondents working in sentence management thought that the current management oversight policies met the needs of probation service delivery and the probation caseload. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The implementation of the TPM and the RPSS varied across the regions. The TPM ensures that all cases are reviewed by an SPO at some point during the management of the case. However, the model is inflexible, and this can precipitate unnecessary management activity. It was introduced with complex recording instructions which are used inconsistently across the regions. In most of the inspected regions, there was little evidence that planned RPSS sessions were taking place. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">In the inspected English regions, we were told that a culture of fear was becoming embedded. This is driven primarily by the fear of SFOs and the consequent need to evidence management oversight activity. This undermines the confidence of PPs, and the effectiveness and quality of management oversight practice. The SPO review (HMPPS, 2020) recognised that the demand placed on SPOs to countersign work was excessive. A countersigning framework was introduced in February 2022 and relaunched in May 2023. However, this has not reduced the burden. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The human factors approach in Wales has improved team communication and provides a more responsive approach to the oversight of cases. Morning check-in meetings and SPO protected hours are now central to operational delivery. This provides a more effective model for managing the probation caseload, particularly in relation to changes in the level of risk of serious harm. It allows for, and anticipates, crises in line with the often complex, challenging, non-compliant reality of the individuals managed. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The demands of the court environment are recognised in the management oversight arrangements for court teams. These teams have a large proportion of probation services officers (PSOs) working in them and they could consult either an SPO or a probation officer on matters such as the risk of serious harm or curfew requirements. However, the gatekeeping arrangements for court reports are inconsistent. This is partly due to staffing levels, but also the demands of the court’s timescale. However, all reports on individuals assessed as presenting a high risk of serious harm are gatekept by a qualified PP or SPO. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>The SPO role and the operational structure </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The current management structure and arrangements for the delivery of sentence management do not enable effective management oversight. The structure does not anticipate the demands, or the complexities, of the probation caseload. It is dependent on SPOs being available to make decisions when crises arise. The nature of the caseload means that key management consultations and decisions are needed outside of planned oversight meetings, and the operational arrangements for sentence management should reflect this requirement. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The SPO span of responsibility includes non-operational tasks, such as facilities management and health and safety. There has been an improvement to the support given to SPOs with the introduction of the case administrator and the relaunch of the managerial hubs for human resources (HR) issues. However, in our national survey, only 17 per cent of sentence management SPOs said that they had time to deliver effective management oversight on cases. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Unlike the English regions, in Wales the quality development officer (QDO) is located within the probation delivery unit (PDU) structure. Under this line management arrangement, they are involved more directly in operational delivery and more able to look at specific areas of practice relevant to the PDU teams. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">There is no national SPO induction and training programme. The English regions and Wales have developed their own induction and development programmes. A Civil Service e-learning package on generic management skills is available, alongside the recently launched HMPPS ‘people manager handbook’. However, these arrangements do not fully meet the requirements of the SPO role’s demands and complexity.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Recommendations </b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>HM Prison and Probation Service should: </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">1. ensure that HMPPS delivers a clear policy framework for management oversight and first-tier assurance that meets the demands of the probation caseload </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">2. ensure that effective management oversight arrangements are in place at the regional and PDU level to assure the quality of work to protect the public </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">3. review the business support functions in relation to facilities management and human resources, to ensure that SPOs are focused on the management oversight of casework </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">4. design and implement a comprehensive induction and professional development programme for all SPOs working in sentence management and the courts </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">5. fully evaluate the human factors approach adopted in Wales and consider implementing it across the English regions </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">6. review the operating model to consider locating QDOs within the PDU governance structure, in line with the approach taken in Wales.</span></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-37020557050808682802024-02-13T04:57:00.000+00:002024-02-13T04:57:56.937+00:00A Golden Opportunity<span style="font-family: arial;">Regular readers of this blog will be fully aware that, whatever criteria you choose to look at, probation as practiced since amalgamation with HM Prison Service, under civil service command and control, is utterly dysfunctional, toxic and failing miserably. Something has to change and I notice Su McConnel of Napo Cymru ably outlines the case in this <a href="https://fabians.org.uk/a-bang-a-whimper-and-an-opportunity/">article</a> published by the Fabian Society:- </span><p><span style="font-family: arial;">A BANG, A WHIMPER, AN OPPORTUNITY</span></p><span style="font-family: arial;">Wales can lead the way with a devolved probation service after years of botched reforms, writes Su McConnel <br /><br />The renewed media attention afforded to the Post Office scandal sends a very strong signal to all organisations that not listening to frontline staff can result in human misery, organisational dysfunction, and reputational damage. The history of probation in UK over the last decade reflects many of the mistakes made by Post Office management in discounting the realities of frontline service. Despite being told frequently by unions and serving and experienced staff and managers that partially privatising the service – and, more recently, merging probation and prisons – would not work, ministers in the Ministry of Justice made and are continuing to make disastrous decisions because of a ‘we know best’ culture.<br /><br />The Chief Inspector of Prisons has described Britain’s overcrowded prisons as a ‘ticking time bomb’. In response, new legislation and other measures have been announced, including early release of certain prisoners and a reduction in short prison sentences.<br /><br />What these measures have in common is establishing the probation system as a key component of the proposed solution. However, probation faces its own ticking time bomb. The fuse was lit in 2014 with the catastrophic “Transforming Rehabilitation” (TR) part-privatisation plan.<br /><br />Today, the UK’s probation system suffers from a poorly defined purpose, identity and culture. Its now retired strapline “advise, assist, befriend” served for a century to anchor the service to its social work roots and made it a crucial counterweight to the punitive roles and cultures of other criminal justice agencies. Embedded in its local communities; healing, restorative, nurturing; based around a strong social justice ethos; the probation system had championed an approach which empirical research continues to demonstrate is the most effective for rehabilitation and public protection. Under the Blair government, attempts to reshape probation driven by political expediency (with home office minister Paul Boateng reframing the probation service as “an enforcement agency”) could not shake the sector’s steadfast adherence to its original principles and values, not least as probation then operated as a number of quasi-independent local services.<br /><br />Chris Grayling’s 2014 reforms, however, were a different story. Transforming Rehabilitation which was the bang that finally blew this historic mission apart.<br /><br />Five years later, the privatised model established by Grayling was described as ‘irredeemably flawed’ by the outgoing Chief Inspector of Probation Dame Glenys Stacey. The reintegration of the probation service into the public sector followed soon after; but, critically, probation was simultaneously engulfed by a new department, HM Prison and Probation Service. As probation frontline staff are wont to remark ruefully, probation is the ‘silent p’ in HMPPS. Centrally controlled, bureaucratic and in a forced unequal marriage with the prison service, probation as a distinct agency of the criminal justice system continued to face just as existential a threat as it did during the Transforming Rehabilitation fiasco.<br /><br />In HMPPS, the probation service has been subject to further damning inspection reports. Like Stacey, her successor as Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, used his final report in September 2023 to call for a major overhaul. “I think the time has come for an independent review of whether probation should move back to a more local form of governance and control,” he said, observing that “probation leaders (…) often feel heavily constrained” and “play second fiddle to the priorities of the prison service to which they are tied in the new One HMPPS structure”.<br /><br /><b>As probation frontline staff are wont to remark ruefully, probation is the ‘silent p’ in HMPPS</b><br /><br />Meanwhile, as the service underwent botched reforms of the botched reforms, the Thomas Commission on Justice in Wales was gathering evidence and published its report in 2019. This recommended the wholesale devolution of justice to Wales. Probation union Napo was already campaigning for probation in England and Wales to be separated from the prison service and removed from civil service control; following the Thomas Report, Napo backed devolution. In December 2022, Gordon Brown’s report, A New Britain, specifically recommended the devolution of probation and youth justice to Wales, and in March 2023, Welsh Labour conference voted unanimously to endorse this plan. The Welsh Government has been making practical, researched evidence-based preparations, supported by justice sector unions in Wales.<br /><br />If our once proud “gold standard” probation service is to be recovered, time is short. The relentless machinery of the civil service motors inexorably towards the increasing merger of probation into the prison service, where it will not survive in anything but name. That relentless machinery is less tangible than the personality of Grayling and a single piece of notorious legislation, but it is just as destructive. A once effective and world-leading service will be extinguished, and in the maelstrom of shrill political justice rhetoric and a public spending crisis, it will disappear with a whimper, not a bang.<br /><br />The debate about the devolution of justice to Wales is underway, but it will be a long process. The probation service is in imminent peril. In 2019 probation in Wales was reunified in the public sector ahead of the same exercise in England in 2021. Wales can again lead the way in establishing a locally based, devolved service, rooted in social justice principles: the groundwork is already under way.<br /><br />Whether the probation and youth justice proposal is the thin end of the justice devolution wedge or a single reform remains to be seen. What is already clear is that this is a heaven-sent opportunity for a new Labour government to start to right the wrongs of Grayling’s catastrophic Transforming Rehabilitation debacle.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Su McConnel</span></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com18tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-37819408493281857322024-02-10T05:01:00.000+00:002024-02-10T05:01:55.991+00:00Some Sound Advice<div><span style="font-family: arial;">Facilitated by HM Probation Inspectorate, <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/research/reflections-from-research/">here</a> we have Professor Rob Canton taking just 5 minutes to explain the essence of probation. Sadly, the fact of the matter is it is simply not achievable whilst under civil service command and control and shackled to HM Prison Service. </span></div><div><br /></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/-x9K7gNiLBc?si=r7LsCDlCrnJSHw33" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><b style="font-family: arial;">Reflections from research</b></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />These five minute reflections from research videos are aimed at all those interested in the key lessons from probation and youth justice research studies. Reflecting upon their work, leading academics set out their top pieces of advice for the delivery of high-quality probation and/or youth offending services. The videos help to provide a rounded view of the evidence base, assisting with informed debate and aiding understanding of what helps and what hinders service delivery.</span>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com19tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-43670083397331970092024-02-08T06:37:00.001+00:002024-02-08T06:47:06.568+00:00Case For Change is Building<div><span style="font-family: arial;">Whilst in England things seem to have gone very quiet on the subject of getting the Probation Service out of the iron grip and stifling bureaucracy of HMPPS, in Wales steady progress continues to be made in building the case for probation to become a standalone agency once again. In what is after all election year, it's to be hoped the Labour Party in England might yet be encouraged to take an active interest in the obviously failing and nationalised service and follow the advice of former HMI Justin Russell and others to re-establish an independent and locally based service. <a href="https://www.southwales.ac.uk/news/news-for-2024/devolved-probation-powers-and-a-stronger-evidence-based-approach-could-improve-community-safety-and-social-justice/">This</a> from the University of South Wales:- </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div>Devolved probation powers and a ‘stronger evidence-based approach’ could improve community safety and social justice</b><br /><br /> A group of academics from Welsh universities, along with current and former probation officers, have published ideas on the future of the Probation Service in Wales. This comes after the <a href="https://www.gov.wales/independent-commission-on-the-constitutional-future-of-wales-final-report">Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales</a> published its report in recent weeks recommending the devolution of probation to Wales.<br /><br />The Probation Development Group, part of the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice (WCCSJ) which includes academics from the University of South Wales, Bangor University and Swansea University, has set out evidence and ways of working for developing a devolved probation service in Wales.<br /><br />The publication includes thinking on a new independent probation service centred on the supervisory relationship between the probation officer and the probationer, better use of evidenced-based interventions, local resources, and strong partnerships.<br /><br />The group also highlights the important role of the community and community sentences, to promote effective rehabilitation and victim safety.<br /><br />Probation delivered effectively, the group say, can lead to less costly imprisonment, reductions in offending, and safer communities with fewer victims of crime.<br /><br />Swansea University Criminology lecturer and former senior probation officer, Ella Rabaiotti, who convenes the Probation Development Group, said: “Whilst we recognise that more disruption within probation is far from ideal, we do think there needs to be to a stronger evidenced-based approach to probation work to help address the real disparities in Welsh criminal justice outcomes.<br /><br />“It will be for policymakers to decide on the shape of a Welsh Probation Service in proper consultation with the appropriate stakeholders, but there is significant learning offered in our publication to potentially improve community safety and social justice for all communities in Wales.”<br /><br />In putting forward <a href="https://wccsj.ac.uk/en/probation">their proposals</a> to the Welsh Government, the independent expert group has drawn from decades of research and experience in probation practice and governance. Their work aims to contribute to the <a href="https://www.gov.wales/oral-statement-tribunal-reform-and-wales-evolving-justice-landscape">Welsh Government's justice policy plans</a>, following the conclusions of the <a href="https://www.gov.wales/commission-justice-wales">Thomas Commission</a> which found that the current criminal justice system is not serving the people of Wales. They say this has now been further reinforced by the new report from the Independent Commission.<br /><br />The Welsh group’s views follow <a href="https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/2023/09/a-farewell-from-chief-inspector-justin-russell/">concerns by the outgoing Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell</a> who stated that probation standards have ‘worsened’ in the last two years. And the latest <a href="https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/2779833/Prisons-in-Wales-2022-Factfile.pdf">findings from the Wales Governance Centre</a> state that the Welsh imprisonment rate continues to exceed any other part of the UK.<br /><br />The Probation Development Group plan to use their publications to assist conversations on devolving probation in Wales, as well as promoting further opportunities for research and understanding into effective probation services.<br /><br />More information about the work of the Probation Development Group and the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice can be found at <a href="https://wccsj.ac.uk/en/probation">https://wccsj.ac.uk/en/probation</a>.<br /><br /><a href="https://wccsj.ac.uk/en/publications/2024">A full copy of the report can be viewed here</a></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>EXECUTIVE SUMMARY </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Introduction </b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">People who work in probation in Wales are experts in change; they support change in people’s lives, whilst operating under constantly shifting organisational structures. In the last decade or so, four probation trusts across South Wales, Gwent, Dyfed and Powys and North Wales merged into Wales Probation Trust. The newly established but well performing organisation was subsequently ‘split’ into the Wales Community Rehabilitation Company and National Probation Service in 2014 and despite efforts by its Welsh leaders to implement this ‘irredeemably flawed’ policy, the two parts were reunified in 2020. Therefore, it is with some trepidation that this publication provides evidence for moving towards yet another version of a Wales probation service. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">However, the findings of the Thomas Commission emphasised that the current Welsh criminal justice system is not properly serving the people of Wales. Furthermore, renationalising is not sufficient alone to address the detrimental ‘legacies of change’ within probation (Tidmarsh, 2023)3 . To respond to this, the Welsh Government has begun planning for the devolution of justice and encouraged the Probation Development Group (PDG) to support discussions around the development of a devolved probation service for Wales. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Whilst PDG members recognise that more uncertainty over the future of probation is far from ideal, we do think there needs to be further change in probation in Wales beyond the blueprints and partnerships between devolved and non-devolved services to fundamentally address the disparities in Welsh criminal justice outcomes. We support a devolved probation service that better serves the people of Wales and offer papers that might guide a renewal.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">This publication consists of three papers prepared by the PDG which draw on a wide range of experience in research and practice in probation in Wales and beyond, including at practitioner and management levels. The papers share our thinking and draw on the evidence base for three crucial aspects for developing a devolved probation service in Wales, namely, Values and Principles, Effective Practice, and Governance and Partnerships. Common threads throughout the papers relate to the provision of an independent probation service centred on the relationship between the worker and the probationer, which takes a rights-based approach, using evidenced-based interventions, local resources and strong partnerships. Diversion of individuals from custody is central, recognising the important role of community and victim safety, as well as public protection. The papers, the issues and potential solutions raised within them have been subject to much discussion within the Probation Development Group and wider, which has helped to shape these published versions. However, we expect these conversations to evolve and for further publications to follow. We would also like to involve more probation leaders and practitioners in our thinking and reaching some conclusions, but understand, to date, this has been difficult.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The PDG has identified a fourth area which needs particular attention and research – the high imprisonment rate in Wales. This is not addressed in detail in this publication, but we would like to highlight the latest Prisons in Wales factfile (Jones, 2023). Of note, the Welsh imprisonment rate continues to exceed any part of the UK, and worrying disparities exist around homelessness for ex-prisoners, higher recall rates than England and an overrepresentation of ethnically diverse groups on probation and in prison in Wales. It is these concerns that help drive us forward – towards a devolved probation service for Wales.<br /></span><div><br /></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Concluding remarks </b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The latest model and structure of probation does not appear to be working. Drawing on over thirty inspections between June 2021 and July 2023, the outgoing Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell concluded that ‘the Probation Service is struggling’ and supervision of people on probation is ‘not at the level it should be’. He suggests an independent review is necessary to consider moving Probation back to local control. Indeed, these evidence-based papers provided by the Probation Development Group may contribute to reconsidering probation work in Wales but will also have relevance for England. Whilst these papers do not provide a blueprint for a Welsh Probation service, they offer evidence as to what has been shown to work in probation governance and practice, as well as highlighting advantages and disadvantages of certain delivery decisions. It is a task for policymakers to decide on the shape of a Welsh Probation Service in proper consultation with the various stakeholders of such as service but there is significant learning offered in our papers from research and experience on over a century of probation practice and governance developments. This set of papers merely offers support to enable the development of a Welsh Probation Service by making informed value and evidence-based choices to improve community safety and social justice for all communities in Wales.</span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">--oo00oo--</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://napomagazine.org.uk/independent-commission-recommends-devolution-of-probation-in-wales/?fbclid=IwAR3JzbgRarQ-o6ioycS3f179Bv55GUaUQHbCHgvC1sDiSPYCw5cRVzkljLo">This</a> from Napo News:-</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Independent commission recommends devolution of Probation in Wales</b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b>The report of the Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales is now published. Napo Cymru gave evidence to the commission, and we welcome its findings which endorse our campaign.<br /><br />You can read the full report here <a href="https://www.gov.wales/independent-commission-constitutional-future-wales">The Independent Commission on the Constitutional Future of Wales | GOV.WALES</a><br /><br />Napo Cymru Vice-Chair Su McConnel says: “The Independent Commission joins the rapidly growing calls for the devolution of Probation in Wales. We are nearing if not at the point where all but the architects of the current sorry state of Probation in England and Wales are calling for this.”<br /><br />Su then went on to pull key highlights from the report.<br /><br />Like policing, the probation service works closely with devolved services and could be transferred to the Welsh Government with minimal disruption. Following agreement in principle between the two governments, work could begin on designing a governance and accountability structure for a Welsh probation service, building on work underway by the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice.<br /><br />In his foreword to the 2022-23 Annual Report of HM Inspectorate of Probation, the Chief Inspector makes a number of observations of relevance to devolution. He notes the challenges facing the service after the upheaval of four major structural reorganisation in 20 years, and expresses concern about the impact of the new, merged ‘One HMPPS’ structure for prisons and probation.<br /><br />The Chief Inspector noted that: “Past experience with the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) is that the day-to-day operational and political demands of the prison service can all too easily distract from the Probation Service and its particular (and very different) needs.”<br /><br />He went on to add: “While I recognise that another reorganisation of the service, and any shift in this direction would have to be with the explicit agreement of local managers and staff, I think the time has come for an independent review of whether probation should move back to a more local form of governance and control, building on the highly successful lessons of youth justice services – 70 per cent of which we rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ last year.”<br /><br />Devolution would be relatively straightforward in practice for the following reasons:</span><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">A Welsh probation structure and budget already exists within the HMPPS and could readily be transferred to the Welsh Government.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">The preventative ethos of the probation service is closely aligned with the policies of the Welsh Government and the wider Welsh public service.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">There would be an opportunity to create a structure for a Welsh probation service, in collaboration with staff, to achieve the strong partnerships and operational flexibility advocated by the Chief Inspector, as discussed above.</span></li></ul></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-47709794536936139492024-02-04T07:20:00.000+00:002024-02-04T07:20:15.190+00:00Some Thoughts<div><span style="font-family: arial;">Many thanks for the get well messages. It's been a long haul, but I'm now much improved from the very nasty viral arthritic attack and ready to resume something like normal service. So, lets start with this that came in over night:- </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div> I was a court probation officer for most of the 80s and 90s, when offenders were asked to consent to being placed on probation. Interestingly, some opted to be sent to prison for a year rather than spend two years on probation. They knew that once they had done their time, they were then free to get on with their lives. That is not the case now with post sentence supervision. This is an albatross around the neck of many practitioners and generates a lot of unwelcome admin work. What lunatic thought that was a good idea? It really does set people up for failure and needs to be dropped. Huge drain on resources with little benefit. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Also, I was thinking the other day about volunteers. Probation in many areas used volunteers to support clients with resettlement. I know this awful government wants to be seen as tough on those who commit crime (unless they are members of their cabinet or give them cash for their election campaign) but why not involve the community by establishing a local volunteer probation service that would do much of the support work that the newly qualified wet behind the ears probation officers are too busy to do. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Also, lower the bar a little for Unpaid Work Supervisors. There are many people who are released from prison who could do that role, or indeed drug and alcohol counselling roles or employment, benefits advice or and housing advisor roles. Surely the money would be best spent there rather than on more layers of management. The probation service could be rebuilt as a local service from the grassroots. Of course the naysayers will say it's all gone to hell in a handcart, but that is because we let it happen and so if we pitch in and do our bit we can turn things around.</span></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-87980120695143658372024-01-13T08:21:00.002+00:002024-01-13T08:30:31.743+00:00A Can Of Worms<span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, a bit late in the day, but with the Post Office scandal growing in size and scope daily and both the media and public keen to hear a lot more about other scandals in election year, there's growing evidence the spotlight is beginning to turn on our own scandal. Questions in the House and particularly regarding the disgraceful OneHMPPS takeover of probation, is quite likely to put the MoJ under close scrutiny and even re-energise the unions, including of course Napo. Richard Burgon MP helpfully <a href="https://napomagazine.org.uk/parliament-ponders-probation/">reminded</a> everyone of the registered trade dispute over OneHMPPS and wondered why it was being implemented anyway? Just like the Post Office scandal, it could begin to open the whole can of worms, as helpfully this contributor has reminded us:- <br /></span><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, they knew TR wouldn't work but they didn't care because it was not what it seemed</span></li></ul><div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, it was a distraction technique to wrest control of probation services from independent minds</span></li></ul></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, target culture was a blunt tool designed for simple-cell bullies with not a scintilla of intelligence</span></li></ul></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, the bullies were mostly ignorant of the profession, the tasks, the ethos & the skills involved</span></li></ul></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, it was a politically ideological outcome initiated by blue labour & expedited by tories</span></li></ul></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, it was a horrible & protracted experience for many staff to live & work through</span></li></ul></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, the end game was faux privatisation & collective punishment of staff, not least being theft of 60% of staff redundancy entitlements by corporate bandits.</span></li></ul></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Yes, they knew what they were doing</span></li></ul></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">No, they don't give a fuck for anything except themselves</span></li></ul><div>Add to this the staffing crisis, low morale, high sickness rates, toxic work environment, poor training, inadequate supervision, wage erosion, terrible HMI reports, tragic SFO's, crap IT, uncompleted UPW, inadequate PSR's, tick box supervision and endless bureaucracy, the time has come to get probation set free from the clutches of HMPPS and let it fly again! </div><div><br /></div><div>--oo00oo--</div><div><br /></div><div>Postscript:-</div><div><br /></div><div>SSCL hold a particular position of universal dislike and mistrust within probation circles. </div></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b>Driving efficiency and modernising ways of working</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Fujitsu has been at the forefront of the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/a-shared-services-strategy-for-government">Government’s Shared Services strategy</a> as the technology provider for the Single Operating Platform (SOP) providing back office services to over 350,000 users, currently the largest Oracle deployment in EMEA. We have also delivered both Oracle eBusiness Suite and <a href="https://www.fujitsu.com/uk/services/application-services/enterprise-applications/oracle/cloud-applications">Oracle Cloud services</a> to other government departments and local authorities alike to digitalise HR processes and accelerate public sector transformation. </span></div></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com115tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-11135800964791772422024-01-09T06:18:00.000+00:002024-01-09T06:18:26.152+00:00New Probation Scandal<p><span style="font-family: arial;">OK it's not 'that' new, but because we've all watched ITV's Mr Bates vs The Post Office and been suitably appalled to the extent there's zero chance of it slipping off the news and political agenda anytime soon, other command and control bureaucracies are shitting bricks lest their dirty laundry sees the light of day. To put it bluntly, there is alarm and despondency at HMPPS HQ lest the media and the public get a taste for digging up dirt, after all, this is about possible 'reputational damage' to the probation brand <i>and</i> it's election year.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal ContentPasted1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> So, let’s review the situation. For months, this blog has been highlighting lots of testimony as to the toxic workplace environment that is becoming widespread and resulting in already hard-pressed staff old and new experiencing a great deal of unhealthy pressure and in quite a few instances exiting in droves. I've personally received many examples of harassment and bullying that management not only ignore, but as often as not complaints are not dealt with, and some well-known repeat bullies remain at liberty to bully others and in some cases even promoted.<br /><br /> Regular readers will be very familiar with stories of staff being induced by any means to fill in the annual staff survey, thus ensuring claims of legitimacy, but many staff refused to comply knowing that the results would be 'massaged' in the interests of avoiding reputational damage to a fairly well-trusted brand. Well, judging by widespread rumours, it would seem the staff survey has indeed highlighted widespread bullying, thus confirming the anecdotal evidence submitted to the blog and the TUBU, Tackling Unacceptable Behaviour Unit. This is of course potentially all very unwelcome at a time when presumably OneHMPPS plans are being shared more widely, and the public may remember that it was senior MoJ staff that complained about a now ex-Justice Secretary regarding his unacceptable bullying behaviour.<br /><br />Like all Command and Control bureaucracies, HMPPS have been in denial for some time and used any number of wheezes in order to cover things up, but a la Post Office, things are highly likely to unravel for the deeply flawed and toxic OneHMPPS project and Probation Operations Directorate where it is rumoured bullies are now firmly ensconced. It would be highly embarrassing for yet more evidence to be flushed out via social media and in the wake of the public getting a thirst for seeing wrongs being righted. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal ContentPasted1" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Remember, all this comes on top of persistent examples of racism, failure to make appropriate provision for staff with disabilities or other protected characteristics, poor IT systems, office accommodation and HR. Add this to poor pay, high caseloads, inadequate training and supervision, bad HMI reports, shocking SFO cases, UPW hours routinely uncompleted, there is a perfect storm brewing and case building for a reversal of the OneHMPPS plan and recreation of a distinct and separate Probation Service, locally controlled and free of the civil service. </span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt;"> </span></p>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-72502337061316900382024-01-06T05:08:00.000+00:002024-01-06T05:08:00.648+00:00Remembering Jeremy<div><span style="font-family: arial;">In my experience, probation has always produced rather more of its fair share of 'characters' and none more so than Napo legend Jeremy Cameron. No AGM was ever complete without a witty and incisive contribution from this remarkable man and sad news of his passing will generate many anecdotes I'm sure. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgo8K4rr0Um3czTaDeb1OVqdba_RBXDWceWJovJQFXGe34Bm-4-ZYj8mzRjCH33-xw8xf5OxEsksENj0h_KcrLUQLBBa4u9wTYCF-nYOXrXLALLRID06CBEUCxMBvCQiufh5G3iwithnn1L_SSkgEmt4mdkYTcIqX6Wcly6FlYPm2OGkD6y2Bk-li5avwI" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgo8K4rr0Um3czTaDeb1OVqdba_RBXDWceWJovJQFXGe34Bm-4-ZYj8mzRjCH33-xw8xf5OxEsksENj0h_KcrLUQLBBa4u9wTYCF-nYOXrXLALLRID06CBEUCxMBvCQiufh5G3iwithnn1L_SSkgEmt4mdkYTcIqX6Wcly6FlYPm2OGkD6y2Bk-li5avwI" width="320" /></a></div></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><div><br /></div>The following has been shared by Napo London Branch:-<br /> <br />It is with great sadness that we have to inform you of the sudden death of Jeremy Cameron on New Years Eve. This wonderful tribute comes from our own Cyril Cleary, long term colleague and friend of Jeremy’s: <br /> <br />Jeremy had been in very poor physical health in recent years, but, as we know, this did not stop him living an immensely active and varied life which was both unique and inspirational to many of us. <br /> <br />In that spirit, he was in Tobago, where he had gone as usual to watch his beloved test match cricket, where he was taken ill unexpectedly, and passed away doing what he loved, in a place he greatly loved. <br /> <br />Jeremy remained super active in Napo up to and including our last recent AGM. He recently proposed a motion setting up the Retired Members' Network, and, at our last AGM, proposed a Motion deploring the catastrophic cuts to Foreign Aid - one of many international issues very close to his heart, and, of course, his speeches to Conference over the years often brought the house down. <br /> <br />Those of us who knew him over his decades of immeasurable service to Napo and the Probation Service will have a ton of special memories of the way in which he touched and changed the lives of countless people over the years. However, some may not be so familiar with other aspects of his life as an author, traveller, friend, partner, sportsman, allotment holder and village community librarian- the list is endless. <br /> <br />Jeremy was one of the most compassionate, selfless, empathetic, principled and loyal people you will meet in a lifetime, and his untimely passing has profoundly affected all who knew him. <br /> <br />We will inform everyone of arrangements in due course. You can be certain we will organise a celebration of Jeremy’s life and legacy in the coming weeks. <br /> <br />We also hope to put together a permanent record of personal recollections, stories and memories of our dear friend, to ensure that they are not forgotten, and hopefully future generations will be inspired by his life and socialist values in the way so many of us have been.<br /> <br />NAPO London Branch would just like to add, our sincere gratitude and thanks to Jeremy for all of the hard work he did for our Branch and beyond. He worked tirelessly as a National Rep for National NAPO and many of our members were supported by him over the years. London Branch were privileged to have first sight of his motions to Conference and the pithy speeches that went with them. <br /> <br />His deep passion for Social Justice combined with his sense of humour and his gift of oratory, meant his speeches were the event of Conference. He was an inspiration and a friend to many and will leave a large gap in our Branch with his passing. <br /><br /> Rest In Peace Jeremy ❤</span><p></p>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-91217428474428575432024-01-02T06:43:00.000+00:002024-01-02T06:43:35.783+00:00New Year Wishes<p><span style="font-family: arial;">A New Year and it's pretty likely there will be a new government by May, so the pressure is on to try and influence things. <a href="https://reformingprisons.blogspot.com/2023/12/will-2024-be-year-of-prison-reform.html">This</a> from Rob Allen:- </span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Will 2024 be the Year of Prison Reform?</b><br /><br />There’s growing recognition across the political spectrum that radical change is needed in criminal justice. This year’s converts to the cause include <a href="https://prisonreformtrust.org.uk/sir-john-major-we-over-use-prison-and-under-value-alternative-sentences/">John Major</a> who argued in May that “we over-use prison and under value alternative sentences; ” former Labour Home <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2023/12/28/community-sentences-prisons-vital-lord-blunkett/">Secretary David Blunkett</a> “struck by the genuine meltdown in the criminal justice system”, and perhaps most surprising of all, leading Brexiteer <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/27/criminality-thrives-in-our-disgusting-prisons/">Lord Frost</a> who recently wrote of a duty to revamp our disgusting prisons.<br /><br />But how should a new government set about addressing the myriad problems facing the penal system?<br /><br />Some, like Justice Committee Chair <a href="https://x.com/neill_bob/status/1740499452585247142?s=20">Bob Neill</a> think we need a “proper and honest debate about what prison should be for, who should go there and the costs”. While it might be tempting to try to persuade the public that the approach we’ve been taking for decades is not working, there’s no guarantee what conclusion they’ll reach. <br /><br />After all, for Frost, getting a grip on the crime problem means sending more people to prison, not fewer, for short sentences and “minor” crimes. Neill himself supports a proposal from think tank <a href="https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/The-%E2%80%98Wicked-and-the-Redeemable.pdf">Policy Exchange</a> for mandatory minimum prison terms of at least two years to be imposed on ‘Hyper-Prolific Offenders’ a measure which could overwhelm prisons with people convicted of theft. There may be little evidence behind Frost’s view that unless people think they might actually end up in prison, there will be no deterrence - but many probably share it .<br /><br />Instead of a debate, what’s needed is some systemic change to drive and oversee reform. As former Lord Chancellor <a href="https://x.com/DLidington/status/1740418260800258162?s=20">David Lidington</a> put it, the politics of prison reform “is horrendously difficult for governments of any party”, if it means spending more on prisons at expense of other, more popular public services and/or reducing significantly the numbers we send to prison. <br /><br />So, let’s find ways of taking the politics out of it.<br /><br />One way is to look at New Labour’s post 1997 reforms. They inherited a slow, cumbersome, and inconsistent approach to children in trouble, both in custody and the community. They set up an expert Task Force to establish priorities, subsequently creating the Youth Justice Board to oversee local multi agency work with offenders and to commission and set standards for secure establishments. <br /><br />Outcomes haven’t always been perfect by any means, but it marked a major structural overhaul which remains in place, focusing attention and investment on a neglected area and keeping politicians at arm’s length. The prison and probation service arguably now needs this kind of external supervision and oversight if they are to have any chance of overcoming the current crisis and adopting a genuine rehabilitative agenda.<br /><br />A new government should immediately commission a Criminal Justice Task Force to establish what changes are most urgently required. In prisons these are likely to involve action on training and recruitment of staff, the development of regimes and improved reintegration. Reducing the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/prison-crisis-homelessness-probation-reoffending-b2461968.html">600 people who leave prison each month without a home</a> seems an obvious target.<br /><br />On the community side, restoring probation’s place as a primarily local agency looks inevitable. While a recent report from the <a href="https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld5804/ldselect/ldjusthom/27/27.pdf">House of Lords Justice committee</a> cautioned against yet more large-scale restructuring in the coming years, it’s call for much stronger links between probation and local treatment and other social services in fact argues for just that.<br /><br />A new government could also alter the ways funds are made available for criminal justice services in order to create stronger incentives for local agencies to prevent crime and reduce imprisonment. At a macro level, with two proposed new prisons struggling to get planning permission, some of the funds earmarked for more custodial places could be switched to strengthen capacity in the community – hostels, restorative justice programmes and women’s centres would all benefit from expansion.<br /><br />At a micro level, if localised multi agency probation services succeed in keeping people out of prison, a proportion of the costs they have saved could be transferred to them. Creating such a virtuous spending cycle would help further enhance the way local communities can safely supervise and reintegrate people outside prison. A new Criminal Justice Board could be set up in law to monitor the system as a whole, working alongside the current inspectorates. <br /><br />A further measure would be to revisit the role of the Sentencing Council whose guidelines were in part originally intended to keep a lid on the prison population. It hasn’t achieved that in part because New Labour backtracked on explicitly linking sentencing levels with available resources, in part because courts have found ways to sentence more and more harshly. Requiring government to submit its criminal justice proposals for independent scrutiny by the Council could bring down sentence inflation as could a more rigorous obligation on courts to follow the guidelines. <br /><br />A <a href="https://www.college.police.uk/research/crime-reduction-toolkit/imprisonment-and-other-custodial-sanctions">College of Policing review</a> published last month found that on average, custodial sanctions increased reoffending compared to noncustodial sanctions. It said that “it is likely that individuals who are in custodial settings are more exposed to risk factors associated with criminal activity and behaviour and have less access to protective factors to protect them from this behaviour”. <br /><br />There are strong reasons for looking to drive down the numbers who go to prison and drive up the standards for those who do go. Let’s hope a new government has a plan to make it happen.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Rob Allen</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">--oo00oo--</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">It's also worth noting what is number one the following wish list for politicians posted on Twitter by former Governor John Podmore:-</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;">If any of the political parties need some policies for their manifestos here’s some to be going on with:</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">1.Take probation away from prison & localise it </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">2. Implement the Corston report.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">3. Redeploy HQ managers to prisons to support Governors.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">4. Give prison officers 6 months training </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">5. Stop building new prisons and invest in community punishments. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">6. Transfer resources from HMPPS to HMCIP and increase his powers </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">7. Create proper local prisons managed by local communities/ separate off a nationally managed long term high secure estate.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">8. Import new leadership </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">9. Open more approved premises & invest in move- on accommodation </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">10.Tackle corruption & SOC in prison like you really mean it </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">11. Allow wings/parts of prisons to be fun solely by drug & alcohol service providers </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">12. Allow pre-release prisoners in open prisons mobiles & computers</span></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com24tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-46913311876764425972023-12-22T06:58:00.001+00:002023-12-22T07:01:44.103+00:00Leadership!<div><span style="font-family: arial;">I note Napo's Acting Chair has written to all members and takes the helm at a testing time to put it mildly. It's all well and good to stress the democratic nature of the union, but I suspect what the membership is really in need of is <i>effective and visible leadership. </i>Very regular and meaningful communication and a visible presence. Where is the case being made to be out of HMPPS - not cosying-up to a toxic employer. </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><div><br /></div>Festive Greetings From Napo</b><br /><br /> Ben Cockburn Acting National Chair writes:<br /><br />As ever, 2023 has seen our members make incredible efforts across England, Wales and Northern Ireland to have a real, positive impact on our communities, in particular the individuals and families we work with. What we do is often not well recognised by the wider public, though our efforts as a trade union to change this have seen more progress on this in recent years, but the jobs we do remain some of the most meaningful there are.<br /><br />Over the last year Napo has been active in representing our members in Cafcass, Probation and Probation Board Northern Ireland, individually and collectively, from a local to a national level. In our meetings with Government ministers, senior civil servants or management at a national or regional level, we have continued to promote the issues and concerns that our members tell us are of the greatest important to them, for example the crushing demands of excessive workloads or the ongoing cost of living crisis. We have seen some important successes, as well as some disappointments despite our best efforts. Going into 2024 we fully recognise the need for further work to secure the best for all our members, and that the work the union does must intensify with the high likelihood of a General Election in the next 12 months.<br /><br /><b>Stronger together</b><br /><br />As with any trade union we are at our best and strongest as a collective. Recent years have seen, in the face of growing inequality in our society and the attacks working people have faced by those who have political power, an increasing recognition of the importance of the trade union movement in combating the worst excesses we have experienced. The recruitment of new members remains a priority for Napo and we continue to work on our efforts in this regard as well as remaining open to any suggestions from members on how we can improve. In addition, we continue to need activists and representatives in many Branches and in the wider operation of Napo at a national level. All of us have something to offer the union, and we are more effective as a union for each of our greater involvement in fighting for our goals, so if you have the capacity to do more we’d welcome whatever you can contribute.<br /><br /><b>It’s your union</b><br /><br />Napo is a trade union and professional association that is led and directed by its membership, not controlled from above as is the case with our employers. A great example of this is in our annual Operational Plan where members, through agreed strategic aims and the results of motions debated at our Annual General Meeting, review the work of Napo over the previous 12 months and set the course of the work of Napo for the coming year. You can find a copy of the current Plan via this link – <a href="https://www.napo.org.uk/sites/default/files/NEC33-2023%20Napo%20Operational%20Plan%202024.pdf">Napo Operational Plan 2024</a> – and mailouts to be sent in the months prior to next year’s AGM will update members on how they can submit motions for debate to be a part of next year’s Operational Plan and attend AGM itself, either in person or virtually.<br /><br /><b>Hope ahead</b><br /><br />Finally, it’s becoming more difficult to find descriptions for the past year that aren’t variations on "difficult" or "challenging" that have been used in similar mailouts as these going back a decade or more. That said, there is cause for optimism in the new year that can only be further strengthened by us maintaining a strong and proud collective voice, direction and action. The Napo Officers and HQ team want to wish all members happiness over the festive season, with a peaceful period for those of us working during this time and a restful time for those of us who are not.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">--oo00oo--</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/652014">https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/652014</a></span></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-19623386368425016842023-12-20T06:06:00.000+00:002023-12-20T06:06:10.697+00:00Attention All Staff<div><span style="font-family: arial;">Despite the recently published HMPPS <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/strengthening-probation-building-confidence-monthly-bulletin/probation-service-change-bulletin-issue-21-december-2023">propaganda</a>, there is widespread evidence that the probation workplace has become an increasingly toxic environment under their command and control and therefore the two following developments will be of interest to all staff:-</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/652014">Parliamentary Petition</a> </span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div>Recruit more probation officers, increase funding and review working conditions</b><br /><br />The Government must recruit more probation officers, increase funding for probation services and conduct an urgent review into working conditions for staff. We believe the Probation Service is critically past its maximum capacity to manage dangerous offenders and staff are burned out.<br /><br />We are concerned that health and safety risks to officers, some holding caseloads close to 200%, are being ignored. With many leaving, or on long term sickness, we believe a rise in serious further offences is inevitable. The Government must act to improve the work-life balance of staff without further detrimental impact to staff health and well-being, and the impact on their families. Probation work needs to be condensed into a more manageable, effective framework to lessen the burden on staff..</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">--oo00oo--</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://napomagazine.org.uk/wellbeing-operation-protect/">Workplace Wellbeing</a></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Wellbeing is an important part of the Operation Protect Campaign</b></span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b>As we leave 2023 behind, we wanted to acknowledge how aware we are as joint leads for Napo on Health and Safety, of the working environment staff find themselves in at this time.<br /><br />Our Officers and Officials are receiving many reports of how excessive workloads are impacting on our members and manager member’s health. This, along with staff shortages, lack of resources and 100+ % caseloads are taking their toll. Despite the efforts to recruit new staff (which Napo fully supports), members tell us that morale is at an all-time low. Staff sickness figures as a national average, show little real sign of improvement and departure from the service is still alarmingly high.<br /><br /><b>What can you do?<br /></b><br />No matter what your grade, whether you are a receptionist or a manager, you are all in this together. As a member of Napo, you are able to seek assistance if you are experiencing the following issues</span><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Feeling bullied within the workplace</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Being subjected to racism, cultural prejudices, faith prejudices, ageism, disability discrimination, gender discrimination, sexism, or any other forms of toxic or unacceptable behaviours</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Being expected to do work that takes you over your contracted hours – (without so much as the offer of overtime payments). By using the contact details below in confidence, you can help us monitor the number of extra hours staff and managers are doing each week in order to try and cope with your workload.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Being in receipt of a warning letter on your return from sickness absence or having to issue these against your better judgement .</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Not being heard when you state that you cannot (or your staff cannot) take on more work, and how management respond to this</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Feeling overwhelmed and traumatised</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Having had to seek medical intervention to help you manage work-related stress / depression</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Anyone who feels they are working within a hostile office environment</span></li><li><span style="font-family: arial;">Current concerns that you may have over potential SFOs and high/unmanageable caseloads.</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: arial;">Our aim is, and always has been, to consider feedback from members as to how we can better support them in a practical manner.<br /><br />As noted above, we’re aware that members, of all grades, are working in excess of their contracted hours due to excessive workloads. We would advise all members to ensure that this is recorded and that you request that your manager advises you on the priorities of your work, please ensure that this conversation is clearly recorded. We would advise our manager members to also ensure that they inform their manager when they are aware that staff are working excess hours.<br /><br />Health and safety within the workplace is of the utmost importance so that staff can protect themselves and their well-being. we recognise that public protection becomes less and less possible when staff are struggling in unmanageable circumstances. The purpose of asking people to come forward, and speak to us confidentially, is so that we can try to address the impact that current workloads are having on staff and managers, mentally, emotionally, and physically.<br /><br />By helping to contribute to the wider picture, we can consider how best we can support people in this difficult time. We are also aware that each area may have its own unique issues, while all areas will have some shared concerns and difficulties. The issue of Workloads should also appear on Regional JCC agendas so that regular dialogue is maintained with management.<br /><br />To contact Napo you can email or call us on the Central Napo contact details below, or to find out your local Napo branch representatives for your area.<br /><br />Phone: 020 7223 4887<br /><br />Email: info@napo.org.uk<br /><br />To join Napo please email the address below:<br />membership@napo.org.uk</span></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com40tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-63107077960022890602023-12-17T10:17:00.001+00:002023-12-17T10:17:51.971+00:00It's All Going Jolly Well!<div><span style="font-family: arial;">Thanks 'Getafix for reminding us to look at the latest <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/strengthening-probation-building-confidence-monthly-bulletin/probation-service-change-bulletin-issue-21-december-2023">update</a> from HMPPS HQ and contrary to popular belief, it's all bloody wonderful:- </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>Probation Service Change Bulletin 21</b></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b><br /></b></span></div>1. Foreword</b><br /><br />Welcome to the bi-monthly Probation Service Change Bulletin – keeping you updated on what is happening across the Probation Service. I am Amy Rees, Director General CEO HMPPS.<br /><br />As we approach the end of 2023, I am delighted to see a real boost in recruitment into probation. There is a lot of great work going on in this area and to see numbers of senior probation officers increase by 13 per cent and also the recruitment of 1,514 trainee probation officers in the 2022/2023 financial year is a really positive way to end the year. We want to keep building on this positive trend and continue to recruit staff and, of course, retain them and their invaluable experience. We are also launching a Probation Alumni Network and you can read more about it below.<br /><br />It is an exciting time for us as we recently launched our new recruitment campaign, which runs again in the New Year. The campaign’s strapline is ‘An extraordinary job. Done by someone like you.’ You may have heard the ads on radio or perhaps seen them at sports events, on television or online. The Probation TV advert and the Prison TV advert were created with valuable insight from people working for HMPPS, ensuring they reflect the reality of our work. We hope they will encourage people to join the service, helping to make an impact on reducing reoffending and protecting the public.<br /><br />You can <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@HMPrisonandProbationService">watch both adverts on the HMPPS Youtube channel</a>.<br /><br /><a href="https://rootbranchexhibition.wordpress.com/venues-and-dates/">The Probation Exhibition</a> continues its tour across England and Wales and is currently in Wrexham before moving to Cardiff in the New Year. Please do go along to one of the venues if you can and let us know what you think.<br /><br />We are also reaching the end of our 50th anniversary celebrations for Community Payback and I am delighted to see prisons and probation working so well together to improve the environment at Medway Secure School in Kent. I have enjoyed hearing about the great work being done and thank our staff for their tremendous efforts which make a difference to communities and lives across England and Wales every day.<br /><br />I’m pleased we have all our Area Executive Directors (AEDs) now in place and you can read on for more information about One HMPPS, Courts and Electronic Monitoring.<br /><br />Finally, I wish you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year for 2024!</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b>2. One HMPPS update</b><br /><br />Work continues to progress well with the HQ redesign and the area model has now been live since early October. HQ restructuring will commence in early 2024 following consultation with our recognised Trade Unions.<br /><br />David Hood commenced his new role as Area Executive Director (AED) for the Southeast and East Area in November. He joins the 6 AEDs who formally started their posts in early October, who are:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">Helen Judge, Northeast<br />Sarah Chand, Midlands<br />Sarah Coccia, London <br />Alan Scott, Northwest <br />Chris Jennings, Southwest and South Central<br />Ian Barrow, Wales <br />David Hood, Southeast and East<br /><br />David joins us from the Ardagh group, having previously held commercially focussed roles within the MOJ and recently holding the role as Vice President and Managing director of MTC, which was the parent organisation for the Community Rehabilitation Companies for both London and Thames Valley.<br /><br />David’s arrival cements another significant step in the development of our area model, which sees Regional Probation Directors (RPDs) and Prison Group Directors (PGDs) (outside long-term high security) come together under the line management of the new Area Executive Directors for England and Wales. <br /><br />We have launched the OneHMPPS to make sure our Probation and Prison frontline staff have the right support to be able to deliver the very best services. <br /><br />The new Area Model will bring the probation regions and prison groups together under 6 new geographical areas in England, and Wales. This will provide increased ‘join up’ between prisons and probation by bringing responsibility for both together at the area level, with more devolved authority to the areas to facilitate innovation and faster decision-making, closer to the point of operational delivery. It will also deliver a strengthened operational voice in both central decision-making and national services, and smarter organisation of area and regional resources to strengthen and better support the frontline.</span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b>3. New learning and development for Probation Court staff</b><br /><br />We are really pleased to have launched a new learning and development package designed specifically for court staff in the South Central region on November 6. The learning and development modules focus on court skills and pre-sentence report practice and have been developed as part of the ‘Pathfinder to Improved Pre-Sentence Advice’ pilot that is being tested in the South Central region.<br /><br />The Pathfinder pilot, being delivered by the Probation Court Strategy and Change Team, is testing a new delivery model for pre-sentence advice in 16 courts in the South Central region. The focus is on improving the quality and timeliness of pre-sentence advice, both in informing sentencing and providing the right start to the defendant for their journey through the criminal justice system.<br /><br />This comprehensive learning and development package has been developed as part of this project to ensure probation court staff have the right court craft skills to deliver the high-quality pre-sentence advice required by the judiciary. The learning and development package will be reviewed based on feedback from South Central probation staff to help inform the final design and content prior to wider national rollout.Probation exhibition touring England and Wales<br /><br />‘Root and Branch – How five shillings, faith and belief inspired the beginning of the Probation Service’ continues its tour of venues across England and Wales.<br /><br />Following its opening in Cheshire in August the exhibition moved onto Keighley in Yorkshire and Nottingham.<br /><br />Throughout December you can visit us at our first venue in Wales – Wrexham Catholic Cathedral. We then move to St John the Baptist in Cardiff from January 3 to 14.<br /><br />The journey of the Service is told through a timeline and includes the initial donation, the links with Primitive Methodism, the hostels set up to help residents and teach them skills such as farming and gardening.<br /><br />The work of the modern Probation Service, including Approved Premises and the work of Community Payback, currently celebrating its 50th anniversary, also feature.<br /><br />The exhibition is run in partnership with Englesea Brook Chapel and Museum, in Cheshire.<br /><br />We’ll share more details and information around forthcoming venues and dates in the <a href="https://rootbranchexhibition.wordpress.com/">exhibition blog</a>.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b>4. Electronic Monitoring update</b><br /><br />The contracts to deliver the Electronic Monitoring service from May 2024 have now been awarded. Serco Ltd has been awarded the Field and Monitoring Service (FMS) contract, and G4S Monitoring Technologies Ltd has been awarded the Monitoring Devices and Systems Service (MDSS) contract.<br /><br />Through delivery of the MDSS contract, G4S will be responsible for providing, configuring and repairing the equipment, as well as the systems used to interpret data from them.<br /><br />Through delivery of the FMS contract, Serco will be responsible for installing and removing tags from those required to wear them, as well as monitoring the data generated by them.<br /><br />The new contracts will last for six years and will allow us to continue delivering our innovative tagging scheme to better protect the public and help divert offenders away from a life of crime, whilst ensuring best value for the taxpayer.<br /><br />The Ministry of Justice will be working with Serco and G4S over the next year to implement the new contracts, which will be fully operational by the end of 2024.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b>5. Recruitment Rise and launch of Probation Alumni Network</b><br /><br />We’re pleased to report the focus on recruitment and retention is delivering positive results and an upturn in numbers across the Probation Service.<br /><br />The recent <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hm-prison-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-september-2023/hm-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-september-2023#probation-practitioners-and-senior-probation-officers">HM Prison and Probation Service workforce quarterly: September 2023</a> report demonstrates that the approach is working with the workforce growing by over 4,856 across HMPPS since September 2022. <br /><br />In the past year, 2,138 probation services officers were appointed, some of whom will be training to become qualified probation officers. As of September 2023, we saw an increase of:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">174 Senior Probation Officer (13.0%)<br />304 Probation Officers (6.9%)<br />267 Probation Services Officers (4.2%)<br /><br />The Probation Service will also launch a new Alumni Network by January 2024. This initiative follows the successful launch of a similar program in prisons in 2023, which resulted in a significant increase in the number of staff returning to the service. <br /><br />The Probation Service Alumni Network will foster a community of former employees by keeping them informed of what is happening in the service. <br /><br />It will also facilitate the building of business and personal connections and provide a vehicle for promoting career opportunities to alumni staff who may be interested in re-joining the service, as well as acting as advocates and promoting available roles to their own networks.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b>6. Community Payback celebrations</b><br /><br />Community Payback teams have been helping to maintain a zoo in Hampshire and planting trees at a secure school in Kent as part of this year’s 50th anniversary celebrations.<br /><br />Throughout 2023 we’ve toured the regions - beginning in London in January and reaching South Central in November and Kent, Surrey and Sussex this month -looking at our projects and people.<br /><br />We’ve focused on a variety of work from beach and river cleans to maintaining a tourist railway and historic ship and cooking lunches and looked at how our projects benefit communities and allow people on probation to pay back their communities while learning new skills.<br /><br />A thousand trees have been planted by people on probation to improve the wellbeing and outlook at a secure school in Kent.<br /><br />Community Payback teams have planted a variety of species, including large cherry trees, at Medway Secure School near Rochester.<br /><br />The project was part of the Queen’s Green Canopy initiative (to plant trees as part of Her Late Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee) and also celebrated this year’s 50th anniversary of Community Payback.<br /><br />Throughout the project – which started in March this year - Probation worked in partnership with the Prison Service.<br /><br />Teams have been carrying out maintenance work, such as strimming, mowing, mulching, replacing unsuccessful trees and replanting any that required attention.<br /><br />Teams in Hampshire are working at Marwell Zoo, a not-for-profit organisation set in parkland near Winchester with tigers, rhinos and giraffes among other animals.<br /><br />Community Payback teams help to maintain the 140-acre site, clearing animal enclosures, repairing fencing and constructing drainage ditches.<br /><br />The teams work in the meerkat and giraffe enclosures, as well as completing maintenance work on the site where there are tigers, sloths, hippos, white rhinos, snow leopards and lemurs among others.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><b>7. Would you like to nominate a community project?</b><br /><br />Would your local community benefit from help with a project such as clearing wasteland, planting trees or removing graffiti?<br /><br />If so, we’d like to hear from you.<br /><br />Our Community Payback teams are seeking nominations for projects in your local area. The newly revamped Unpaid Work Nominations Website is now live and we want you to have a say in the work we carry out.<br /><br />Unpaid Work is carried out under supervision as part of the punishment of offenders, but also enables people on probation to give something back to their community while learning new skills and enhancing their employment opportunities.<br /><br />We want to increase the number of nominations to give our communities a greater opportunity to improve their local area through Unpaid Work activity.<br /><br />The work we carry out must benefit the local community, not take paid work away from others, and not make a profit for anyone.<br /><br />We take on multiple tasks and projects, which include removing graffiti, clearing wasteland, improving and decorating public places and buildings (such as a community centre), repainting communal areas, pathways made accessible, alley clearing, grounds maintenance and gardening, tree-planting, and litter picking.<br /><br />Projects are assessed following nomination and we will then contact you to let you know if and when we can commence work.<br /><br /><a href="https://www.gov.uk/nominate-community-payback-project">Visit the website</a> to make a nomination or to read more.</span></div></div>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com54tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-114953795485178032023-12-11T09:07:00.000+00:002023-12-11T09:07:26.191+00:00Relieve Jails = Overload Probation<p><span style="font-family: arial;">I notice that the 'i' newspaper has picked up on the impending disaster for a probation service already broken. <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/nobodys-safe-plan-to-relieve-jails-will-overload-broken-probation-service-2798142">This</a> from yesterday:-</span></p><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>‘Nobody’s safe’: Plan to relieve jails ‘will overload broken probation service’</b><br /><br />Police, relatives of murder victim, and probation union say sentencing changes will place extra pressure on already 'struggling' service<br /><br />Fears are being raised that a struggling, “broken” probation service will be unable to protect the public under <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prison-reforms-will-cut-reoffending-and-put-worst-offenders-behind-bars-for-longer">plans to keep some criminals out of prison</a> that will add thousands to its caseload. The Government wants to tackle <a href="https://inews.co.uk/topic/prisons?ico=in-line_link">prison</a> overcrowding by instructing courts to deal with many offenders, who would currently go to prison, in the community instead. But the prospect of the probation service having to deal with a flood of extra cases has alarmed those who have already suffered from its shortcomings and led to warnings from the police and probation officers’ trade union Napo.<br /><br />“We are not safe, you shouldn’t feel safe,” said Farah Naz the aunt of<a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/zara-aleena-family-demands-law-change-her-murderer-sentence-cut-2733268?ico=in-line_link"> Zara Aleena</a> who was murdered last year by a violent criminal who had been released from prison just nine days earlier. If this is what the government is doing to probation services, if this is what it’s landing on their shoulders, nobody is safe.”<br /><br />The 35-year-old law graduate’s killer should have been arrested days before for breaking his licence conditions, and had been wrongly graded as only a “medium” risk of further harm. The <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/zara-aleena-man-charged-with-murder-of-35-year-old-1712541?ico=related_stories">killing in June 2022 </a>was one of a series of recent cases where investigations have found dangerous blunders by probation services.<br /><br />“If probation couldn’t keep up then, they certainly aren’t going to be able to keep up now,” Ms Naz told i. “How many dead bodies do they want?”<br /><br />There are currently around 500 reports each year of people under probation supervision committing serious violent or sexual offences, including murders and rapes. Justice secretary Alex Chalk announced an<a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/what-is-the-government-doing-to-reduce-pressure-on-prison-capacity/#:~:text=Early%20release%20on%20licence&text=This%20would%20be%20done%20using,justify%20release%20on%20compassionate%20grounds."> early release programme</a> in October to free up jail cells, which has caused concern over its application to violent offenders and domestic abusers.<br /><br />A new Sentencing Bill, currently being considered by Parliament would further increase the pressure by raising the number of inmates released under a “home detention curfew” and forcing courts to “suspend” most prison sentences of under a year and subject offenders to “community orders” instead.<br /><br />The Ministry of Justice says the change would add between 1,700 and 6,800 people to the probation caseload and require more monitoring and more rehabilitation programmes. But the Government has no plans to increase the probation service’s capacity to handle the new laws.<br /><br />Tania Bassett, national official for the probation trade union Napo, said the service was already “broken”. She called the new laws a “recipe for disaster” because of the “phenomenal increase of demand into a workforce that can’t cope with the work it’s got already”.<br /><br />Latest <a href="http://here%20https//www.gov.uk/government/statistics/hm-prison-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-september-2023/hm-prison-and-probation-service-workforce-quarterly-september-2023">Government figures</a> show that the probation service currently only has 68 per cent of the 6,780 officers needed for its “required staffing level”. It’s more than 2,129 officers short and saw saw more than 1,200 people quit in the last year.<br /><br />“There’s been no thought to the capacity of probation to accommodate these changes” Ms Bassett told i. “We’ve been losing people as quickly as we’ve been recruiting them, and it means you’ve got a very inexperienced workforce dealing with a lot of complex cases.”<br /><br />She said that the litany of errors in previous cases – like the killing of Zara Aleena and the four murders committed in Killamarsh, Sheffield, in 2021 by Damien Bendall, deemed by probation to be a “low risk” to his eventual victims – were not one-offs. Increasing caseloads worsened the quality of risk assessments and the “robust engagement” needed with offenders to properly supervise them, Ms Bassett added. “No one will pay attention until it’s gone horribly wrong,” she said. “It’s almost if no one is dead – nobody’s looking at it.”<br /><br />Chief Constable Rob Nixon, who leads on criminal justice for the National Police Chiefs’ Council told i that the entire system was already “under strain”, with “too much demand and not enough capacity”. He said he expected police workload to increase as a result of upcoming changes because more released prisoners may commit further offences or break conditions requiring them to be tracked down and jailed.<br /><br />“Where people are on a suspended sentence or they’re on licence conditions and they’re not complying, naturally policing will have to take a role in that but the bulk of the demand, I suspect, will fall on the probation service,” he said. Mr Nixon warned that offenders “need to be really effectively managed within the community”, and that the task requires probation not just to enforce their sentence but to “deal with any associated issues like housing and drug abuse”.<br /><br />Another measure in the new Sentencing Bill aims to make rapists and other serious sexual offences serve their full sentences in prison rather than become eligible for release at the two-thirds point. It means some may have a licence period of just a year where they are supervised on probation. Ms Bassett warned that was not long enough to carry out accredited psychological programmes currently used to reduce the risk they pose. “If someone needs to do a community sex offender programme they won’t have time,” she said. “They would have to do everything inside but not all prisons provide it. They are less likely to receive meaningful rehabilitation in the community.”<br /><br />In its most recent annual report published in September the HM Inspectorate of Probation said that two years after the Government reversed the disastrous part-privatisation of the service it was still “struggling” with chronic staffing shortages and “unmanageable workloads”. <br /><br />“My main concern is public protection, which has been a consistently weak area,” said the outgoing Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell. “Probation officers have too many cases and too little time to focus on this key area of their work, putting the public potentially at risk.”<br /><br />The watchdog also warned of the “ever-growing number of days when staff are absent because of sickness”, more than half of which are the result of mental-health issues linked to workplace stress.<br /><br />Several MPs raised concerns about the Government’s plan during a debate on the Sentencing Bill on Wednesday, which saw the House of Commons vote the law through for scrutiny in the House of Lords. In response to a question on pressure on the probation service, Mr Chalk did not announce any measures to increase capacity, but said: “I am speaking to them directly about the workload that they face and how they can target it to protect the public most effectively.”<br /><br />Labour’s shadow Justice Secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said the Government was “failing to keep the probation service properly staffed, and these shortfalls could have dangerous consequences”. "The government’s strategy appears to be to take the pressure off the prison service, only to transfer it to the probation service instead,” she added. “The government has provided no new funding, no new resources and no action plan to deal with the significant additional workload for the probation service. That is not credible, not reasonable and not safe.”<br /><br />Several Conservatives also called for action, with South Dorset MP Richard Drax saying he was “very concerned” about pressure on probation and Aylesbury MP Rob Butler adding; “It will be necessary to ensure that the probation service is properly resourced to support additional offenders.” Sentencing minister Gareth Bacon admitted demand would increase but said the Government was “committed to ensuring that probation has the resource it needs to meet demand”.<br /><br />Chief executive of Justice charity Nacro, Campbell Robb, said: “In order to see less crime and fewer victims, ending ineffective short prison sentences is the right thing to do. “But key to the success of ending short sentences is a properly resourced probation service to provide the supervision, monitoring and support needed for people serving their sentence in the community. This is where the government’s focus must now be.”<br /><br />A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: “Our hard-working probation officers do incredibly important work in protecting the public and helping offenders turn their backs on crime. “That is why alongside our long-term reforms to prisons to keep the public safe – including keeping rapists and the most dangerous criminals locked up for longer – we are also investing £155m extra a year in the Probation Service to bolster the frontline and reduce workloads.”<br /><br /> The Probation Service was approached for comment.</span>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com48tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-83826558815552356792023-12-09T06:15:00.000+00:002023-12-09T06:15:17.649+00:00Being a Former Prisoner<div><span style="font-family: arial;">I notice that former prisoner and campaigner <a href="https://www.david-shipley.com/">David Shipley</a> has been interviewed for <a href="https://www.ntd.com/british-thought-leaders">British Thought Leaders</a> on the subject of our prison system:-</span></div><div><br /></div><iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://youtube.com/embed/IM9AV1z3QZs?si=txErcaWeqDAxuM-m" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">I watched it to the end trying desperately to avoid thinking this is what TV might look like if run either by Conservative Central Office or a religious sect. Anyway, the NTD or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Tang_Dynasty_Television">New Tang Dynasty Television</a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> budget certainly doesn't extend to employment of the most engaging of interviewer, or indeed set design, but many will find the content of the interview will provide much food for thought. Probation starts about 36 minutes in. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">--oo00oo--</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">The following <a href="https://capx.co/as-a-former-inmate-i-know-just-how-badly-our-prisons-need-reform/">article</a> by David Shipley was published on the CAPX site in June 2023:- </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><b>As a former inmate, I know just how badly our prisons need reform</b></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br />Before being sentenced to 45 months in prison for fraud, I knew that British prisons were bad. I expected endemic violence, drugs and filth. What I found inside still horrified me. Yes, our prisons are dirty, dangerous and awash with drugs. What’s much worse though is that they make prisoners more likely to reoffend, costing British society over £18bn a year. <br /><br />This might seem counterintuitive. Surely locking criminals away protects us, and reduces crime? To an extent this is true. However, the reality is that only about 10% of the prison population are ‘lifers’ or IPPers, on indeterminate sentences. Almost all other prisoners will be released one day. The UK imprisons about 85,000 people at a time and about 45,000 of those are released each year. An effective prison system would do everything possible to ensure released prisoners become productive members of society rather than reoffending. <br /><br />Unfortunately our prison system is far from effective. Over 31% of prisoners are proven to reoffend within a year of their release. As police only solve about 9% of reported crimes the real reoffending rate is likely to be higher.<br /><br />Almost all prisoners are jailed for breaking society’s rules. An effective prison system should teach inmates to respect rules. Unfortunately our prisons also teach that rules, rather than being respected, should be circumvented whenever it is convenient to do so.<br /><br />The prison system suffers from having too many rules. While some, like prohibitions on weapons, phones, drugs or alcohol, are sensible and consistently applied, others are seen as trivial or ridiculous by prisoners and staff.<br /><br />For example, most prisons have a ‘no vaping on the landings’ rule. In my experience this is almost never enforced. At HMP Wandsworth prisoners and officers often vaped while walking about the wings. I once watched a very new officer tell two prisoners to stop vaping, only to be laughed at by those men, and by other officers.<br /><br />Another rule bans trading between prisoners, with the intent of preventing debts and the violence that can follow. In reality, a huge volume of trade occurs, with prison officers turning a blind eye and sometimes even facilitating it. I often observed officers in Wandsworth transporting ‘canteen’ items from one cell to another as a favour to prisoners.<br /><br />When the people in charge have such little respect for rules, prisoners learn exactly the wrong lesson; rules shouldn’t be taken seriously.<br /><br />Further, rules, and their application, vary hugely between prison, meaning that each time an inmate is transferred he has to adapt to a new system. Communications are often lacking. In 2022 the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) found that:<br /><blockquote><i>‘The communication of prison rules and procedures by word-of-mouth could be even worse. Staff might get exhausted with prisoners constantly asking the same things. prisoners might pass on incorrect information, genuinely and on purpose’.</i></blockquote>A better approach would be a ‘zero-based’ review of prison rules. For example, we probably no longer need the ban on maps which resulted in my copy of Risk being impounded at HMP Wandsworth. Prison governors must ensure that retained rules are communicated and consistently applied by all staff.<br /><br /><b>Perverse incentives</b><br /><br />Prison incentive structures are also flawed. At HMP Wandsworth in the summer of 2020 a prisoner assaulted his elderly cellmate so violently that the man was hospitalised. Officers rewarded the attacker with a single person cell and a desirable, unsupervised job in the gardens. Another man destroyed his cell, ripping pipes and fittings from the wall, and staff found him an Xbox. Those prisoners who made noise and complained would often be allowed more time out of their cells, while those who sat quietly suffered in isolation. <br /><br />Why does this happen? Being responsible for a wing full of prisoners is a demanding, stressful and challenging job. This is exacerbated by what Alex South describes as ‘benchmarking’, an MoJ policy which drives prisons to use as few staff as possible for every process. Prisons themselves are traumatising environments. Every shout and bang echoes off steel and concrete. Chains jangle. Locks thunk. Hundreds of near-strangers crammed together, watching one another. While I, and every former prisoner I know, carries that trauma, I also believe our prisons harm those who work in them. A former soldier I met at HMP Hollesley Bay said to me that ‘prison is as strange as war, and as hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been there’.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /><br />The result is that staff often burn out. Alex South says that ‘almost every officer’ develops their ‘own version’ of this trauma. Nightmares and anxiety are common. So our experienced prison officers quit, or become so emotionally deadened that they lose all empathy. Over 40% of prison staff want to leave. <br /><br />As a result prison wings are staffed with a small number of often inexperienced officers who regularly choose to placate prisoners because it’s easier than demanding rigorous, consistent standards of behaviour. Every day prison shows inmates that antisocial behaviour produces better outcomes. Why would we expect them to behave differently on release? <br /><br />Prisons must retain high-quality staff, ensure that enough of them are present on wings and that they have the direction, leadership and support to hold the line against antisocial behaviour. Of course this will require more funding. <br /><br />A further weakness in prison incentives is the Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) scheme. In theory this rewards good behaviour and punishes rule breaking. Unfortunately other than the loss of a TV, the downsides to being on ‘Basic’ rather than ‘Standard’ or ‘Enhanced’ are limited, and most prisoners secure Enhanced status within weeks of arriving. At that point unless they are caught doing something particularly egregious, inmates will remain Enhanced until their release.<br /><br />An effective incentive system would have more layers, and take longer to progress through. It could also be explicitly linked to transfers to lower security and open prisons. <br /><br /><b>School for scoundrels</b><br /><br />Ensuring that our prisons teach inmates to obey rules and behave in a prosocial manner isn’t enough though. We must also ensure prisoners leave prison with the skills necessary to secure legitimate work and support their families.<br /><br />Prison education is very challenging. A quarter of prisoners are care leavers, over 40% were permanently excluded from school and nearly a third have a learning difficulty or disability, while 57% of prisoners have a reading age below that expected of an 11 year old. I witnessed prisoners unable to read well enough to understand the literacy tests they’d been asked to complete. Ofsted and HM Inspectorate of Prisons conducted a joint inspection into prison literacy education in 2022. They found that ‘few teachers know how to teach prisoners to read, resources are inadequate and there are no meaningful measures of progress’ and ‘contracts for education providers’ do not reward literacy programmes.<br /><br />Education for prisoners who are literate is not much better. Qualifications are often unaccredited and of no value outside the prison system. In some cases this is a result of the tendering process. John, the owner of a prison education provider, told me that he recently lost a tender because the prison chose an unaccredited provider as they were £10,000 cheaper. This approach means prisoners spend time completing courses which do not provide access to further education upon release and offer little to employers.<br /><br />One exception to this grim picture can be found in our open prisons. These establishments house around 4,000 prisoners who are considered unlikely to abscond and who aren’t believed to pose a risk to the public. Subject to further tests, prisoners in open conditions are able to take advantage of ‘Release on Temporary Licence’ (ROTL) to study or work at external educational institutions, travelling there each day and returning to the prison in the evening. <br /><br />ROTLs provide fantastic opportunities. I spent the second half of my sentence at Hollesley Bay, an open prison on the Suffolk coast. Men there attended local colleges and universities, completing robust and meaningful courses. One prisoner I came to know well had left school at 16. With two years left to serve he applied successfully for a degree at a local university. By his release date he’d completed the first two years of a BA, and managed to find a full time job via the university.<br /><br />The Commons Education Committee accepts Dame Sally Coates’ 2016 recommendation that ‘every prisoner must have a Personal Learning Plan that specifies the educational activity that should be undertaken during their sentence’ but acknowledges that ‘this is not happening consistently’. <br /><br />Prison work is similarly poor quality. The MoJ says ‘Having a job on release helps to support people leaving prison rebuild their lives, reducing reoffending and preventing future victims of crime‘. But the reality falls far short. Most prison jobs are make-work, pay a maximum of about £25 per week and do little to prepare prisoners for seeking employment on release. At Wandsworth I worked in what must have been the most overstaffed library in London. Ten of us performed a job that one or two would have managed in the community. This is typical of prison jobs. The aim is to have as many inmates as possible ‘working’, whether they’re developing real skills or not. Even so, many prisoners don’t participate at all, preferring to spend day after day in their cells.<br /><br />Again, open prisons do it very differently. During my time at Hollesley Bay hundreds of men left the prison each morning to work in local factories, distribution centres and retailers. They received fair wages on which they paid tax. For many this was the first time in their lives they’d earned honest money. Each prisoner also paid a substantial deduction towards the Victim Surcharge Fund. Even after these deductions men were able to save money, meaning they’d be able to afford to live upon release. Some sent money home to their families supporting their loved ones for the first time in years. The self-respect, appreciation of honest work and strengthened relationships all helped these prisoners be less likely to reoffend on release. <br /><br /><b>Making prisons forces for change</b><br /><br />How do we fix all these huge problems? We would need to start by expanding the Open prison estate. Far more low-risk prisoners could be housed in open conditions, saving approximately £15,000 per prisoner per year. Once in open conditions the expectation should be that most prisoners spend their days on ROTLs, either working or studying in the community. <br /><br />Alongside this, a ‘zero-based’ review of prison rules would establish a new, clear set of rules and policies including around antisocial behaviour. These rules would then need to be enforced consistently and robustly. <br /><br />We should also develop a bespoke, personal plan for each inmate on their arrival in prison. This would identify education and training needs, with the goal being greater employability on release. All courses would need to be accredited and recognised outside prison. Prisoners would be expected to participate enthusiastically in this plan, with progression through a more graduated IEP scheme, and transfer to open conditions dependent on this participation. This would mean an end to prisoners wasting endless days in their cells.<br /><br />Of course, this greater investment in education would cost. Moving a greater portion of the prison population to open conditions could free up a substantial amount from the existing prisons budget, and to the extent that further spending is required we should remember that reoffending costs over £18bn every year. Reducing that cost, and turning career criminals into productive, working, tax-paying members of society would be of huge benefit to the UK.<br /><br />Many will say that prisons should be tough, punishing places and that criminals need to pay their debt to society. Perhaps that’s true. But I’m not sure what we achieve in having prisoners waste years on their bunks, or completing unaccredited courses. Having to study or work full-time seems tougher than a diet of daytime TV, and it will change lives for the better.<br /><br />Our prisons could be powerful places for change. They could ensure that the vast majority of prisoners are released with more respect for rules, a less antisocial attitude, better qualified and more able to find honest work. If we achieve this we will live in a country with less crime, more social cohesion and a healthier economy. </span><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><i>David Shipley is a writer, speaker and former prisoner.</i></span>Jim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.com15