What Are We to Do?

It's a wet Saturday morning and I have no idea what to say. I should be happy but I'm depressed. Rupert Murdoch accepts his well-earned invitation to an arse-kicking party at the House of Commons and the end of the Probation Service is casually announced in a letter. 

Over on the Prisoners Families Voices website probation is regularly getting a kicking and you know instinctively much of the criticisms ring true. You can try and explain that our role sometimes means public protection has to take priority over the niceties of informing either the client or their family, but that only gets you so far. I hope the author of this recent contribution to the NAPO discussion forum won't mind me quoting it:-

"...what crap has been dumped on us over the years,I dislike all this messing with words and sticking on straplines and logos but whats worse is how some of us have helped not only spread this rubbish around but been busy composting it and increasing its foul potency and idiotic ideology -eg as Boateng said "Law enforcement it's who we are and what we do" so reductionist in the worst way and we still have colleagues who strut around boasting of how many clients they breach/recall or those who are fearful/impatient with angry/aggressive clients and will not see them to try and find out what's going on if they kick off but want a manager to call the Police instead so they can be "cleared off."

I have posted many times on the subject of the structural changes within the Service over recent years and how unhelpful they've been. I've been highly critical of the change in ethos from 'advise, assist and befriend' to 'punish, enforce etc' and the consequent change in methodology and attitude to the job by many colleagues. I'm absolutely clear in saying it's all been a mistake and not assisted the cause of rehabilitation at all and to add insult to injury our 'failure' has placed us in the position where we are to be rewarded by wholesale privatisation. Our arses are being kicked by clients, their families and now by the government. But what can we do about it? 

Of course there will quite rightly be calls for industrial action and some skillful lobbying of decision-makers in Parliament. But there has to be more than that. We have to try and win some public support and explain to people where we've been, what we're about and why we're worth saving. I would contend that in order to do that we need some constructive self-analysis. The sad irony is that many newer colleagues were already beginning to question the direction of travel in the Service and ask older colleagues about how things used to be. National Standards have been seriously relaxed, discretion and judgement are no longer terms of abuse and there is much talk of 'offender engagement.' By extension I take that to mean family engagement also, so the landscape is already changing for the better within probation.  

Since starting this blogsite I've always been conscious that the readership is varied and diverse, from clients to Judges and from colleagues to police officers. In order to save the Probation Service from the disaster that privatisation will bring, we really do have to try and win friends and influence people. To my mind one of the absolute key groups in all this are families who are indeed 'experts' and as many say, are often doing much of the work of a Probation Officer 24/7. All Probation Officers know full well that there is nothing quite like a young male offender who, having gained a girlfriend, finds their activities and liberty considerably scrutinised and curtailed as a result. I think we really do have to try and engage with partners and families more and take the time and trouble to explain why we are embarking on a particular course of action.  

Before closing, I want to end by again quoting the same author from the NAPO discussion forum site. It's written from the heart, says it all and I think represents what many officers feel about what is essentially a vocation, not just 'a job':-     


"I began work in the 80's and loved the creativity around then but could never understand this diagnosis that "nothing" was working so we had to accept the "what works" medicine of worksheets from Targets for change and Programme manuals. It was like making the client fit the book or treating them like broken jack-in-the- boxes where we had the tools (such nonsense. Despite all the talk about evidence and effectiveness I suspect much of it was spurious and scraping the bottom of the barrel to tick a(nother!)box). I'm not convinced buying into all the pseudo-scientific Oaysology (who said everyone's got to have an ology) was so clever and doubt promoting ourselves as risk-masters or rate of re-offending reductionistas was so smart either).- I think our best practice is more simple yet subtle than this sort of thing and requires a great deal more focus on the client to work out what the issues are and what room for manoeuvre/growth there may be rather than pinning us down to being 1984 type people-stampers of a "tier"/status/label or tag with the ready prescription of that wretched "what works" stuff again as if we had all whats needed even if we could be assured we knew in every case just what they need. Its hardly surprising the clients get resentful. I prefer to look at where do you want to be, where do I want you to be and how can we make these potentially divergent goals merge, become jointly respected and achieved and how cope with /handle the bad baggage/circumstances that may or may not get in the way... "

"The best thing about this letter is that it reveals all areas of our work are at threat so no-one with any sense or soul should be left unperturbed. If we all get angry and organised and can focus on responding in the ways that reveal what is best about us-values/principles and practice skills we should be able to save what it is proposed they endanger but it will take focussing on what we do best, organising and replicating best practice values in this broader arena where the clients become a wider audience and include MPs/public/media etc-listening/reflecting back honestly/having faith in change/accepting others as they are but broadening vision and respecting autonomy and individual rights including those of others outside the family."