Bleak Futures Week 18

Yet another upgrade to N-delerious and worse again - its a fecking joke.

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Unable to get on Delius all day. Seems like even the system realises how fucked up things are at the moment. Yet when the pressure starts to build re missed targets managers will not want to know. To anyone in the same position, make sure that when the system decides to return make sure that you enter a detailed explanation re the delay.

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After 2 days off, enjoying sun, I returned to work today, dreading the upgrade, something always goes wrong or we have to re-learn how to access and use the IT systems. I was not disappointed, got a an email from Crown Court asking for the case allocation document! I checked and it was there in n'delius, uploaded when it was done in Feb! Oh no, would you believe it, its a blank doc! I always put a hard copy in the file too, so faxed it over.

Not 10 minutes later, I was advised the FDR was also blank! I don't make a habit of uploading blanks, and I was a little put out by the inference that I hadn't done it, as I did and offered to fax a copy, but was reminded by court staff that I will have to do them again in nDelius to complete the record!

Well no, I completed the work once and have the evidence, actual hard copies so, I won't be re-doing it all again anytime soon, been allocated more reports since then. So it looks to me that the upgrade erased some text, another colleague sent a blank recall report to Noms yesterday, unaware it had been erased! You really couldn't make it up. I will be entering a complaint to my SPO.

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'Upgrade' has been a disaster in our northern office. People seem to have lost access to records, whilst some offenders and their records seem to have become invisible and impossible to find. We know they should be there but we can't find them. And then the computers are crawling for some and completely stopped for others. I'm in NPS but god knows how my CRC colleagues are coping with their increased OASys demands. Must be pulling their hair out. Interesting how CRC colleagues no longer have time to see clients. Too busy fudging OASys stats.

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Six times yesterday I tried to make an entry on same individual and six times got exception error - three times tried again on same offender this morning. Finally cracked it when I did not use next appointment but that meant I had to put this in separately. It's beyond a joke now. 2 staff in my office covering 5 caseloads - I am on the verge of breakdown without N-disastrous.

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Don't know which northern office you are from my friend, but same state of play in my northern office too.

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Some northern offices completing basic level one OASys to save time but not being told this is officially allowed. Staff at breaking point with others shipped to TTG, leaving rest to pick up the caseload. Nightmare continues.

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It won't let me change the screen colour - its dark blue and we can't read the top of the screen - there's a facility to change colour but it doesn't work unless it will upgrade overnight. And don't get me started on it kicking me out when I've not used it for like a minute aarrgghh.

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Horrendous IT day yesterday with loss of capacity for hours both Citrix and Delius. Whole day without everything working, really, really, shameful. Heading in now hoping to do some catch up, I really cannot go on like this.

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Yet more problems with N-disastrous. All day long I have had exception or time out errors, repeatedly having to make the entries over and over. With only two staff and a caseload of five staff - a trying day to say the least. We were told this upgrade would improve the system - it is worse than ever and takes even longer to find something.

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Durham Tees Valley have people starting training this week. Unsure what it consists of as there is no one in my office who has been selected. I'm sure it will all work out though and the Prison officers will make them feel really welcome.

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I said this wasn't going to work when we first heard of it inside. How are they going to get people into their local resettlement prison when the prisons are so full? There's nowhere to transfer the current occupants to in order to make room for the new influx. There's 2 people in Leicester as far as I know. They won't have a chance of getting everybody. TTG and the new RAR system need a huge investment of money and people and all we get are cuts. How can it be said that people will be provided with accommodation when local councils are making it harder by the day to apply and hostel places are disappearing overnight?

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Surely TTG in concept should be about providing support for those leaving custody that only have £46 in their pocket (and a £1000 debt), and in most need? That would be those that need help with accommodation, employment etc that don't already have any support networks to turn to? These however, are the most time consuming and expensive people to extend the service to. Making it voluntary is just a sneaky way of cherry picking those that will need the least assistance and therefore cheaper and easier to acquire the 'outcome' required for payment. 

Something that hasn't been mentioned of late is that TTG is to work in association with the creation of 'ressettlement' prisons, where prisoners are released from their local prisons after being transferred there a month or so prior. I'm a little perplexed as to how TTG can actually start running until the resettlement infrastructure has been put in place?

To my knowledge, no prisoners are yet being transferred for local discharge, and people living in London are still being released from areas such as Durham or Liverpool. How can TTG work whilst that's happening? TTG is a concept that sounds good to politicians and the public that have no real knowledge of the issues that exist within the CJS, and a half baked notion from a SoS that has even less of an idea.

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On 1st May we just got an A4 notification to say Shelter were doing the TTG. It also says 'the other TTG services, emergency 48hr post release accommodation and support to prisoners who've been subject to domestic or sexual abuse and those who may have been sex workers will be introduced later in the year and will be delivered by OTHER commissioned providers'. It further says 'NOMS have created a number of resettlement prisons & it's ANTICIPATED prisoners will be transferred to these - if they're not, the prison will liaise with the Responsible Officer to agree support (I'm guessing this will happen a lot - can't see resettlement prisons taking off tbh).

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I had a conversation with the department that organises Through the Gate in a Northern prison and was informed that despite them being one of the designated prisons they have no-one in post and no training planned at this time - perhaps Mr Grayling could suggest why this would be?

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I hear that a northern prison had a big issue with TTG and conflict between Sodexo-based CRC and another CRC both of which cover that prison. Because info is commercially sensitive they are watching each other carefully but have requested separate offices in that same prison. Now this is likely to be replicated in other areas too, isn't that interesting?

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Another prison visit and another sea of blank looks when I asked how the plans for TTG are going? Now some prisons are shanghaiing admin and support staff into roles without any formal training. Message to those staff who see this as a career move, if something goes wrong in between picking your old lag up before transporting them to their new pad, please make sure that you are in a union. Those that aren't can expect to get picked off one by one.

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An IT technician with Gwalia Housing has just started working as a TTG peer mentor trainer with St Giles in a prison in Wales. I give him the benefit of the doubt!

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TTG Cardiff prison still not up and running. Community part of the contract not being awarded until June.

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Interesting thought. A lot of people used to do Criminal Justice related voluntary work because they wanted experience that would help them to get into Probation. Now there IS no Probation, what's the incentive?

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It used to be a befriend and assist job. If you had life experience, you may be suitable as long as you could show you could relate to the clients. Now you need a degree and the ability to enforce punishment for non-compliance. Some colleagues' whole life work trashed and maybe facing unemployment in their 50s. Lost career and vocation to make way for profiteering from crime. This is the new future of the Probation Service. Oh and don't forget the devalued pension pot they have robbed as well. RIP

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A prisoner released after 5 yrs in prison, never used the internet, told by Work Programme to go to his local Hub to enrol on an IT course so he can upload his CV to emails etc. Course was full. He has to try again for next months course. He wants a CSCS card so he can work in construction but WP won't pay the £180 for it unless he has a firm job offer. He attended ETE in Probation, run by longstanding partnership, who have sorted all of this for him apart from the CSCS as they don't have a budget. The Work Programme fails and parks prisoners. This guy is trying to go straight after supplying class A. He can easily make some money but chooses to go straight. He needs professional help to do this, not volunteer mentors who don't have the expertise.

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At this moment in time, I am actually spending more time behind a PC than I was pre-TR - not what I expected in CRC - man down pub tells me it's going to get better - if and when it does I may buy that man a drink but I cannot see it being achieved in my CRC lifetime.

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We spend more time at a PC than ever before, the systems are less efficient and detrimental and duplication is running rife.

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In our offices (joint CRC and NPS) the receptionists can't see delius for NPS. This causes a whole heap of problems. Anyone else in the same boat?

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Yes same in my office/area - causes heaps of problems. Recently Social Services were after information on a case not long finished - CRC staff unable to access - once terminated goes back to NPS - had to ask them to look up information - swamped by bureaucracy.

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Only going to get worse, wait until you are not even working in the same building and everything is fed through and out of the central Hub..

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I work as a joint CRC/NPS receptionist and can still see NPS front screen records just not full functionality. A lot of it is interpreting the information we can see which boils down to experience in our particular field. Safeguarding and Prison checks on the increase. We are a small cog in the big wheel, but important front line staff and if it causes a whole heap of problems now, wait until we are not there anymore which seems to be the plan!!!

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I'm aware of central hubs for CRC but what will happen at the few NPS offices that are left? Will there be any receptionists there? Receptionists are indeed an important - if not the most important - cog in the wheel and I for one would struggle without them!

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The fact is that the default operating models are not fit for purpose in the real world. In my opinion, they have been designed without any comprehension of the environment in which they will be delivered. Every offender has a phone, none of them are mentally unwell or suffer from substance misuse issues, public transport is universal, everyone has good reception on their mobile phone, no-one ever turns up late or early, no-one misses a group. The list of factors is endless. Receptionists are the gatekeepers. Without them there will be chaos. The CRC management know this and are still arguing the point with Sodeveryone.

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Excellent points well made. Reception staff - I am sorry you've been taken for granted for so long. Your hour of recognition is now here. Similarly case admin staff - the prospect of losing your knowledge & experience makes my blood run cold.

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When we first split the Courts were not ringing OMs for updates to aid sentencing, however today I've been emailed to send court a progress report to aid sentencing. Never heard of these reports - I'm happy to fill it in as it will mean someone getting sentenced right (hopefully) but the whole NPS/CRC is shifting sands.

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Unpaid Work is a disaster - only one supervisor as the other on training, no sessionals anymore. 16 turned up as per signed instructions and 6 of them were sent home. Offenders arguing about who went home last week (cos of the same problem) and who's turn it is to go home this week; others arguing to stay as it's not their fault we've no staff; OMs arguing for their clients to stay. But never mind, Sodexo saving £18k pa in staffing.

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This situation can have serious consequences for any offender doing unpaid work and claiming benefits. If your contract with the Job Centre has the time you spend weekly on unpaid work factored in, and the Job Centre get wind that you haven't actually done those hours of unpaid work for any given week, then you run the risk of being sanctioned. It matters not that it isn't your fault, you just haven't fulfilled your agreement. Harsh, even cruel, but true!

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Couldn't agree more. Our UPW vans are off the road cos no one has a PSV licence. Now have hire vans but can't take the tools out cos no tow bar to carry the trailer.

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Not sure what area you are in, but in our CRC Unpaid Work we have had 4 supervisors to 6 service users today. We are twiddling our thumbs here. Maybe I can suggest coming to give you a hand?

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Staff do not need a PSV licence. It is CP card that Sodexo are refusing to let the staff get. They will not put staff through this training, thus resulting in only being able to carry 8 passengers. Vans are off the road because they do not know what they are doing, they do not understand how unpaid work, works. This is another way of cost cutting. They think that by refusing the CP card to the supervisors that they will save money. Really more money is being spent on hiring brand new mini buses.

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It's a bit worrying that they can't arrange transport for their offenders. It makes me wonder how they deal with real problems that involve risk?

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Our CRC not very good at maths. We are expected to take 10 offenders with only 8 available seats on the van.

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What is so disheartening about all of this is that, despite all the evidence on here and tweeted etc elsewhere of the disintegration of the Service, none of it will make a blind bit of difference to those with decision making powers. We have HMI in at present doing an 'audit' of how things are working post TR. Assured of anonymity, all questions are being answered honestly by those of us whose cases are in the sample. But will what we say have any impact - I doubt it. Still, I await the HMI report with interest, as I was told by an Inspector that it won't go to the CEO (for tweaking) before publication, as is the normal practice with inspections, apparently.....

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Whilst a deterioration was expected, that it is happening so fast is frightening. It seems people have regressed and lost all sense of what had been learned, supposed to have been put in place years ago and have reverted back to systems and process that applied to very dark times. Whilst 'service user' feedback is now derigeur, engagement, effective practice, for those who knew what that was, seems to have flown out of the window. Restrictive punitive measures and approach abound, law, policy and guidance is disregarded as back covering and so called risk management, predominates. Half a day training or do it yourself IT training, easy enough to cheat and falsify, resulting in.. the horrors are too many. People died, were abused, treated unfairly because of exactly this type of behaviour in the NHS. It's only a matter of time before it all crashes down on them. In many ways am beginning to see the value in kiosks, at least that will mean some people will not have to suffer.

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Anyone in Northumbria want to add to this list of the impossibility of getting breach papers past the Enforcement Team in NPS?

Your breach is rejected because:

1. You haven't tried to do a home visit (offender is known to stab people)
2. You haven't checked if they have outstanding fines (I was asking for 7 hours additional Unpaid Work)
3. You haven't sent warning letters (he doesn't have an address)
4. You haven't ruled out a curfew (I wasn't asking for a curfew I was asking for more Unpaid Work)
5. You haven't provided witness availability for Unpaid Work staff (I would if he denied the breach, we're not at that stage yet)
6. Your Delius entry from 3 months ago says someone rang and said she was sick (I don't have a sick note, I don't know who the caller was)
7. You need a letter from his employer (his employer doesn't know he's on Probation)
8. Your word is just hearsay, not evidence (I'm his Probation Officer!!)
9. You haven't said whether you have tried to phone him (He hasn't got a phone)
10. You haven't got a signed agreement to say that he understands that he has to come to appointments (He hasn't attended at all. He hasn't been signed up yet)

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NPS in the northwest are also doing a fine job of knocking everything back. They simply loathe requests for WWOB; they'll eat hot gravel rather than apply for an arrest warrant.
What's the story, NPS?

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You're making a single fatal error, you had the client at the centre of things, the breach procedure has targets at the centre of all things!

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As far as I'm aware in the NorthWest and using Merseyside as an example, the warrant team is tiny and so anyone on 'their toes' has minimal chance of being hauled back before the courts. Warrants only tend to get executed when they are arrested on new matters. Stay on your toes for 3 years or so and Probation Court officers will re-apply to court to have the warrants cancelled.

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Who are the breach officers in Northumbria? Are they the ones transferred over from G4S as part of TR? Remember, they didn't get asked just like we didn't, and may not have been given suitable support and training. If not, then I have no idea what's going on!

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If it's any consolation in another northern office close by Northumbria, breaches are also being rejected for ridiculous reasons.

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I cannot stress how much sympathy I have for PQF learners. I have never seen entrants into probation treated this way. We all know how their salaries were messed up at the outset with many having no income until the mess was sorted, they have also been auto enrolled into a pension scheme without even basic information provided - a clear breach by NPS of pension regulations.

But by far the worst part is their training, often hitched to over-burdened PO "mentors" who can't keep up with their own case loads let alone training others, managers with no time to spare....and who cares???? I have tried to help a lovely person in our team to the detriment of my own workload and having to catch up out of hours. She tells me she is in despair because she was promised a rewarding career with decent training and she dare not speak out. Isn't that a shame?

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It's shocking but the same right across England and Wales. I went to a conference the other month when a man from NOMS asked our opinion on new learners asking, should their caseload be protected and if so for how long? We stared blankly at him for a long time. Of course they should be protected but we're so short-staffed how can that be possible and with highly qualified staff being dismissed on the other side, didn't know what to say! Speechless. We eventually let him know what we thought.

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I also really feel for the new PQF trainers. Last week I reluctantly refused a request to act as mentor for a trainee due to start tomorrow. This decision came about owing to the failure of management to date to rectify my unmanageable caseload and bring it in line with comparable role PO's elsewhere in the 'business'. A number of us commenced grievance proceedings 6 months ago on this matter and yet again we hear today the hearing date has been delayed, so we have informed management we will not take any 'new' work for the foreseeable. It goes against the grain to refuse to help a colleague, especially a newly-appointed trainee, but we are on our knees here with no end in sight.

Day 3 of the HMI inspection and the inspector I saw today probably wasn't anticipating the response he got when he told me that our teams decision last July not to do any more Oasys or ISP's (after requesting direction on prioritisation of work and been told by Snr Management that 'everything was a priority') had been 'indefensible'. He spent the next 10 minutes heavily rowing back on that one, saying it wasn't personal and hopefully their report will make a difference in terms of resource allocation. Well, as I told him, I'm not holding my breath on that one. It couldn't get any worse here than it has been today...

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Well it's an absolute certainty that no TPO is going to be failed...at least they know they will have a job.

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I am a TPO and worked for a significant period in AP's and programmes beforehand. I joined a Trust. I am thriving and absolutely adore being a TPO. Sorry to go against the grain of this post but I just feel I should share my experience.

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I think there's a gulf between those who have grown up (professionally speaking) in recent times, and those who have longer memories & experiences. Neither is right or wrong, but times and practice are significantly different. My DipSW Learning/training experience bears no relation to the current TPO experience. My time as an assessor didn't have any resonance with my practice teacher's efforts to knock me into shape. It shouldn't be a case of going against grain, it is just different for so many reasons. Grumpy old gits sometimes find it hard to be eclipsed by young pups, whilst fresh blood can be feisty and enthusiastic and blind to the priveleges that experience brings.

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I "absolutely adored" being a PO...and then along came TR...

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I have been qualified 9 months, was a PSO before. I had to fight for protected caseload and someone to support me with my first parole report before I even qualified. I now have a caseload of 47 mostly high risk. For the first time in my life I am now on anti-depressants.

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Everyday in the CRC gets worse. You can see the stress etched on colleagues faces. We were recently given a week to transfer cases. Today we got learning point from a recent SFO - when cases are transferred there must be a handover between staff. Staff being sent into prison without risk assessments or proper training. Message being sent out from management that we must divert from recall.

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There was a big performance metrics meting for NPS this week. Apparently a recall will count as an unsuccessful completion. Wonder if same for CRC and that's why being advised to divert? It's all about the targets and profits. I guess the instruction will be risk escalate before recall? Just had a SFO for murder - risk escalation.

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If there's a message being sent out that states 'divert from recall', then that really needs to be published. Such an instruction takes away the individual (and trained and experienced) judgement from the probation officer, and puts a management decision focused on meeting targets way above concerns for public safety. Recall should occur only when necessary, and being instructed to refrain from doing what is necessary when public protection is concerned is just frankly shocking. Print it off and send it to Sadiq Khan with your anonymous concerns about what risks such advice may have on public safety.

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If there's another "dinosaur/old git" comment in our shared building today I won't be needing my redundancy, but I will need a PSR after I've given one of the smug NPS newly-qualified POs a good slap. NPS manager isn't interested in addressing it. CRC manager says it's not his staff member so he can't do anything about it. Looks like it'll have to be 2 falls and a submission a la Mick McManus, or a thick ear a la Frank Bruno. I haven't a fucking clue what happened to professional standards in the probation service. Where did they go?