While we wait to hear what HM Chief Inspector of Probation thinks about the TR omnishambles, here's a couple of snippets to keep us going. First, Private Eye:-
And something from 'Prison Consultants', whoever they are:-
This week, 11 December to be exact, Lord Faulks answered a written question from Lord Browne of Belmont. Lord Browne wanted to know how much it cost the Government, on average, to incarcerate a prisoner between 2011 and 2014. Back came the answer: there has been a reduction of 17% in the overall average cost per prisoner between 2011 and 2014. The average cost at the moment is in the region of £26,000 per prisoner.
That’s good news for the French company Sodexo. It runs five UK prisons at a cost to the taxpayer of £35,000 per prisoner. A tidy profit, to be sure.
But here’s the rub. Sodexo is also in charge of probation for low/medium risk prisoners in 6 of the 21 probation areas. Sodexo is in charge of those probation services in South Yorkshire, Essex, Northumbria, Cumbria/Lancashire, Norfolk/Suffolk and Cambridgeshire/Northamptonshire. And the amount Sodexo are paid per probationer is much less- as low as £1500 per person in some cases.
The probation service trade union (NAPO) makes the sensible point that it is idiocy to pay the same company a comparative pittance for keeping someone out of prison, when they can earn over 20 times as much if the same person fouls up their probation and is recalled to prison.
Are we being unfair to Sodexo? Consider this: last March a riot broke out at HMP Northumberland. Inmates took over a whole wing. Chris Grayling claimed the cause of the riot was because prisoners were forced to work longer days. There were three problems with this explanation: one there were no similar riots at other prisons. Two, there are not actually enough jobs at the prison for the 1300 prisoners. Three, it wasn’t true. The riots were caused by staff shortages. The prison is run by Sodexo.Finally, more bad news for Grayling as outlined in the Solicitors Journal Gazette:-
A year of Grayling’s failings ends with Law Society seeking judicial review
The Law Society will be seeking a judicial review of the Ministry of Justice's (MoJ) legal aid crime duty tender process, the solicitors' representative body has announced. President of the Law Society, Andrew Caplen said that in the interests of access to justice, the public and the legal profession, the Society had decided to seek a judicial review of the legal aid crime duty tender process.
"In our opinion, the process creates a serious risk of market failure which could have major implications for society as well as the profession. We know that our members have concerns about their livelihoods, but also more widely about the impact the outcome of the process will have on access to justice for the most vulnerable in our society," said Caplen.
The legal profession was vociferous in its condemnation of the government's announcement in November to continue with its plans for two-tier contracts for criminal legal aid as well as a second fee cut of 8.75 per cent next year. This completes a miserable month for Grayling, who has already suffered a humiliating defeat in the High Court over the prisoner 'book ban'. Mr Justice Collins openly criticised the Lord Chancellor, saying the reference to books as a "privilege" was "strange" and "absurd".
Looks like it's here http://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/inspections/trearlyimplementation/#.VI7BwezyGP8
ReplyDelete... existing shortfalls in systems, processes, practice quality, consistency, leadership and management. Those probation areas that had been struggling to deliver a quality service prior to TR are now finding it hardest to adapt and cope with the challenges brought by the reforms.
ReplyDelete2.20.
ReplyDelete"In making our judgements about the likely level of risk of serious harm posed by offenders, we noticed that some of the cases automatically allocated to the NPS, for example, because of MAPPA
status, were not judged to be likely to commit further sexual or violent harm in the future. Conversely, many of the cases allocated to CRCs, particularly perpetrators of domestic abuse, who were
reasonably assessed as medium risk of serious harm, were felt to be more likely to reoffend again in a violent way. While we accept this is a situation which has arisen from a correct interpretation of
case allocation, we think that it is worth highlighting that in many medium risk of serious harm cases appropriately allocated to CRCs, there are public protection issues."
http://www.itv.com/news/update/2014-12-15/govt-guidance-on-legal-aid-for-immigration-cases-ruled-unlawful/
ReplyDeletep59 "In terms of finally transferring the cases to the CRC or NPS case manager who would be working with the offender under the new arrangements, two-thirds of cases were still pending transfer being completed."
ReplyDeletep59 "We noted that a high number of cases due to go to CRCs had been classified as posing a medium risk of
ReplyDeleteserious harm. The harm primarily related to domestic violence and associated child safeguarding concerns.
A concern was expressed that, due to the staffing issues outlined above, CRCs in the short and medium
term may not have sufficient staff to respond to these issues appropriately."
on our LDU it's NPS who are overstaffed - they all talk of low caseloads & many in custody) - CRC are about right that's until Through the Gate start descending upon us.
DeleteThey also need to conduct a review of risk of serious harm assessments across the board. There are way too many cases assessed as presenting a risk of serious harm not uncommonly due to back covering and being risk averse.
Deletep54 "An impact of Transforming Rehabilitation
ReplyDeleteis that operational staff and middle managers are now
more thinly spread in the NPS. We heard examples of this leading to middle managers in the NPS covering several geographical locations, often many miles apart. Many also had multiple lead
responsibilities; one, for example, was responsible for an approved premises, court work and the victim service. We worried that these factors reduced their availability to their teams and made it
much more difficult for them to exercise reasonable management oversight of cases. "
p54:
ReplyDelete"The use of MOJ Shared Services for HR issues had transferred
many new responsibilities to line managers, which left them spending significantly more time dealing with HR issues than they had done previously.
This is a clear impact of Transforming Rehabilitation,
and while we would anticipate that the impact will reduce to some extent as new processes become familiar, these additional tasks will still continue to take NPS managers’ time away from operational
issues."
"In only 1 out of 12 cases (high or very high risk of serious harm or where there were concerns about protecting children) was there evidence of effective management oversight, which was worrying given the nature of most of the cases supervised by the NPS.
(Recommendation 61)"
http://www.politics.co.uk/blogs/2014/12/15/probation-privatisation-looks-to-be-as-big-a-disaster-as-we
ReplyDeleteNapo write to the CRC bidders
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/m3c2k74
Which part did Alan Mc Donald write? It's got to be at least 30% to be impartial!
ReplyDeleteReport received that nDelius has stalled: -
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/pxa5vcj
GS blog on NAPO website a good one IMO and the letter to CRC's must raise alarm for the bidders. Some way to go yet until contracts are signed!
ReplyDeleteIf the contracts are signed without any major changes, when (not if) something goes wrong those in charge of the CPC's will not be able to use ignorance of any facts as defence when they are sued by anyone injured as a result of negligence.
Delete'a number of PSOs have been assigned to the NPS. Apart from court ones we could not understand the reason for this and SPOs were not clear what tasks could be assigned to them.
ReplyDeletethe above statement sticks in my throat a bit - I have PSO friends who stayed with NPS as they thought it was 'safe' and they assumed when high risk downgraded to medium then they could take over the management of the case. This has not turned out to be the case and they have little to do. There were 3 PSO vacancies in the CRC and they didn't even get the chance to apply for them. They're feeling very vulnerable career wise now.
And yet in some areas NPS have been advertising for PSOs! Plus, all prison staff were told they had to go to NPS, now they are being told they are not needed because of getting rid of OMIC. Whilst I'm unhappy with the lot given to me in all this, the unfairness for those PSOs is particularly outstanding.
Deleteso let me get this straight, in my area there's no vacancies for NPS PSO and so does this mean prison PSOs are going to have to go to a CRC (no space in ours either due to a recent big recruitment drive) or basically be made redundant? That's shocking - I don't think they should've recruited in the CRCs until the NPS staffing picture was clear because now even the CRCs aren't available :(
Deleteyep, ndelius was off and on today, not good, could access records.
ReplyDeleteit was ok up until lunch time then went on the go slow then kept timing me out. I hope it's totally screwed - it's almost like a gift from above!!
DeleteI hope it's dead or terribly broken. I hate it.
Deletehttp://m.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-30476433
ReplyDeleteChanges to probation services in England and Wales are being pushed through too quickly, the service's chief inspector has warned.
DeleteA report by Paul McDowell found staff had been told of some changes by email to be implemented the next day with "little or no time for training".
Justice Secretary Chris Grayling is overhauling the service in an attempt to reduce re-offending.
The government says reforms are being phased to ensure public safety.
Changes have seen the probation service split in two, with £450m in contracts offered to private and voluntary sector organisations to supervise low and medium-risk offenders.
High-risk ones are managed by a new public sector organisation - the National Probation Service (NPS).
Mr McDowell claims the speed of changes to the service "caused operational problems that could have been avoided or mitigated".
He said they exposed existing flaws in the system, including shortfalls in "processes, practice quality, consistency, leadership and management".
"This report paints a picture of a service in transition", Justice Minister Andrew Selous said.
DeleteCatches on quick, doesn't he?
I have had seven I'd cards since I entered the world of Probation 25 years ago. 3 were due to a change of area, 4 due to a merger or restructuring. Probation has ALWAYS been 'in transition' but it has never involved this level of destruction before. This transition is out of control.
DeleteGreat day today, full of uselessness. Delius on and off all day. Putting entries on for them to disappear. Then lost 2 hours work on an SDR on Oasys, spent half hour on the phone to shared services call centre who logged the call to try and retrieve. Basically resigned myself to writing it again. Did you save it? she said. Erm, no but it was the finishing touches, putting it altogether. Oh I would recommend you save the work at least every half hour. Oh, OK, no shit Sherlock, bitlate now no? Can I continue or will I lose the work again? Erm,I work in a call centre and not qualified to be able to tell you if it's Ok to continue on OASys. You should be OK though. What makes you think that then. Erm, dunno really!! I am on nearly 200 per cent. Like I have time for this shit!! NPS.
ReplyDeleteI can't think of one single thing I like about my job at the moment sadly. Thanks Chris G, you dangerous wanker!!!
ReplyDelete