The Leaving

As anyone in the public sector knows full well, the end of March, beginning of April can be a strange, even surreal period. For years colleagues in HM Inland Revenue have traditionally enjoyed a New Year party as the old tax year draws to a close and ushers in a bright new one. In other parts of the public sector, probation included, in stark contrast to the exhortations all year to save money, there is typically an urgent phone call or e-mail from Head Office asking if we need any desks or filing cabinets? In fact anything, as long as it can be spent now and avoid the tragedy of losing unspent money left in capital budgets. In days gone it meant speedy visits to Argos or Dixons for a new pool table for the day centre or video equipment for groupwork. Nowadays it's more likely to be for a new fridge to keep the packed lunch in.

But it's also a period when time-served colleagues decide it's time to pack it in or cave in to the thought that just maybe this might be the last year Early Retirement is on offer. I always find it sad when the inevitable notice comes round announcing the imminent departure of yet another colleague who seems to have been part of the fabric forever and whose wise counsel you know you are going to miss. Ever since I set out on this journey over 25 years ago, I have marvelled at the wit, wisdom and skill of many colleagues and in particular how they crafted the English language on a daily basis in order to convey ideas, passion and reason. It really is a skill that is sadly disappearing as anyone reading what passes for a PSR today will testify to.

Over the years it has been a bit of a probation tradition not to go quietly however, and one or two of us have hung on to particularly noteworthy 'final thoughts' as the author leaves the building. The following came into my possession several years ago via a colleague in another area, but is so good in my view that I feel it's worth disseminating a little further. As well-loved colleagues depart into well-earned retirement, I find myself dwelling on the sentiments so ably expressed and that are possibly even more valid today. Needless to say, I share them entirely. Should the person recognise their handiwork, I hope they forgive the impertinence, but my motive is one of simple admiration. 

"For most of the.....................I have been employed by.......................,I have enjoyed the pleasure and the privilege of working with predominantly dedicated, robustly compassionate and often highly creative colleagues. There are many aspects of what used to be the best job in the world which I will miss. However, there are other aspects which I will be glad to leave behind as the role and the organisation become increasingly procedural, defensive and, above all, tedious. 

I will not, for example, miss OASys, the cumbersome, time-consuming hindrance to coherent assessment as opposed to the aid which it purports to be.  I will not miss case management, an initiative so ill-defined and fragmented that most would not even recognise those whose risks we are supposedly managing if we fell over them in the street. I will not miss accredited programmes and the evermore ludicrous pretence that they are universally, rather than occasionally, effective. I will not miss sterile, open-plan offices in which we rarely look up from our computer monitors to talk to each other and in which we often seem to prefer the virtual reality of data input to client contact.  I will not miss the happy-clappy, hierarchical culture which pretends that all is well when clearly it is not and which sometimes patronises, sometimes vilifies, always disqualifies the ideas of all but those who have taken the corporate management shilling. I will not miss the madness and immorality of an organisation which promotes a disproportionate number of its staff to middle management positions only to supplement their already increased salaries with the proceeds of freelance 'flat-rate' PSR's, which mysteriously they have no time to prepare during the day-job but which, unsurprisingly, there are no longer sufficient main grade officers to complete. Least of all will I miss the bullying hypocrisy of certain managers who routinely label disagreement as resistance to change when their own idea of adventure and adaptability often amounts to no more than sitting at a different table for lunch in the head office canteen.

One facet of the Service which I will most definitely miss is the challenge of writing persuasive court reports within specific constraints and to tight deadlines. I will also miss the many gifted storytellers whose practice of this narrative art is about to be further undermined by the roll-out of a 'painting by numbers', short-form PSR. I will miss the collective spirit, generosity and gallows humour of a range of colleagues with whom, at various times over the years I have shared team meetings, awaydays, groupwork (including residentials), family therapy sessions, court welfare disputes, practice teaching and even, for a short time, Divisional Management Meetings. I will miss the many students, trainees and other fellow-learners in whose development I have had the good fortune to be involved, albeit that some of them will not necessarily miss me. I will miss, in particular, the unfailing kindness and quiet efficiency of clerical and administrative staff, whose insufficiently recognised contribution to the work of the Service is reflected in their scandalously low pay. Last, but by no means least, I will miss the clients who despite their many imperfections and sometimes horrific acts remain, lest we forget, the means by which we all pay our mortgages and put food on the table, as well as a reminder that "...there but for fortune go you and I."