Transforming Rehabilitation: The Movie

“The Ministry set itself up to fail in how it approached probation reforms. Its rushed roll-out created significant risks that it was unable to manage."

So, Probation unions, grounds for those who lost their careers to claim against HMG for gross negligence, loss of earnings, constructive dismissal? THEY, the MoJ, imposed premeditated job losses when negotiating & issuing contracts to the new providers. They cannot pass the buck. Job losses were integral to this flawed project & Grayling's provision of £80m from the Modernisation Fund to pay redundancies is evidence of that. Make them pay the price - we had to.

*****
It was never about innovation or reducing reoffending. It was about handing money to the private sector, cutting wage/pension bill, palming off responsibility for any problems from the government to others.

******
The 'new model' being rolled out in Interserve CRCs such as Cheshire and Greater Manchester is a 'new model' in name only. No money is being spent on it - quite the contrary in fact. In a clumsy attempt to reduce expenditure still further the 'new model' consists of nothing more than some meaningless new team names within which the only change is yet higher caseloads for PSOs and the few remaining POs while Interserve sells off the services of experienced PO staff to the NPS. This was initially attributed to a bogus claim that they had suddenly realised their CRCs had too many POs for the nature of the caseload cohort, before the justification was quickly abandoned because it was transparently untrue, and they admitted it was entirely a matter of wanting to spend less. For the sake of the staff, the client group and above all for the sake of public safety their collapse is the best thing that can possibly happen.

*****
For me the real elephant in the TR room is Interserve. In two weeks time they will ask their shareholders to vote through a rescue deal which will wipe out 95% of their holdings. All shareholders that is except its board members. Orwellian turkeys voting for Christmas. If the deal isn't passed, Interserves piggy bank is empty, and it's government bailout or fold. If a second TR contractor should go into administration then TR2 must be dead in the water. In summary to my meanderings? Well it's all just the most awful f****ng mess.

*****
On behalf of all the under 12mth group that's not mentioned I'd like to extend a big thank you to Grayling for the wonderful support his probation privatisation has brought everyone. Through the gate? Most under 12mths are now through the gate many times a year on recall or breach of licence. But I guess that represents the support with accommodation that you promised.

It's unfortunate that the third sector have failed to play fair and provide substance misuse and addiction services for free. It wouldn't be fair on the private sector to expect shareholders or CEOs to contribute to those services and damage their bonuses.
And the mentors are great, and I just can't understand why there isn't more of them. It's an opportunity to do something for free whilst helping big corporations earn lots of money.
And on the subject of money you deserve a special thankyou as everyone still gets £46 to put in their pocket! Thankyou Mr Grayling.

*****
I would also like to point out the immense amount of talent and experience lost to the Probation Service as a result of TR. Talent and experience that was matured by years, often decades, of personal dedication and by the profession, a public sector profession. Talent and experience sold for tuppence to the lowest bidder in order that they could contrive a profit at all our expense. I think a lot of these companies were, still are, chancers and opportunists with limited credentials.

*****
Two deaths on my caseload this year a drug overdose in a notorious den and a suicide, 46 and 28yr old. I'm in CRC and the system is broken, minimal rehabilitation it's all about enforcement. Staff sit behind computers clicking away and management send spreadsheet after spreadsheet. We need to reform with the NPS to save lives of service users, victims, families and staff.

*****

I have recently started training as a probation officer and I am considering leaving already. I can see the POs are hard-working and trying their best but the morale and office environment is shocking. They are all looking for new jobs and look exhausted. I wanted to have some security in this training and learn from POs around me but they have nothing more go give, they are burnt out. Most of them have been in the job 20 years and they say the job is beyond recognisable, they used to enjoy it but the changes have made the job and case loads unmanageable. I had a job interview today and I hope I get it so I can leave. I value my own mental health and there are red flags everywhere for a team that is like a sinking ship.

******

So many years have seen a few hardcore anonymous voices fighting to keep the issues surrounding Grayling's murder of the Probation profession alive, with Jim's commentaries & his all-inclusive blog the locus of those who regularly post. Bizarrely, a blog overtly ignored by at least one trades union. Perhaps the criticisms on the blog were a bit too close to the truth...It's intriguing to see who is now venturing out of the woodwork to condemn Grayling & TR.

Posters to this blog have generated many links & exposed practices or policies that have no place in a Probation setting, whether CRC or NPS. Sadly it will probably be a case of "told you so", rather than seeing Grayling swing from any metaphorical lamp-post. The machinations of TR2 are progressing apace behind closed doors & it would be hard to see Gauke & co pulling back from expediting (what I guess are) deals that are more-or-less done, e.g. Seetec get the Wonky Links contracts. Well done Jim & the contributors to this blog. Keep it up!! It aint over.