AC December 2019 highlight. Congratulating our newly qualified Probation Officers, now working across the National Probation Service South West and South Central ...
JB Gender balance?
AC I know! And other issues of representation. I haven’t got the figures to hand but we have got a way to go. We’ve been working on it for as long as I’ve being involved with trainees in 2005. Any thoughts and ideas gratefully received...
JB Research, openness, flexibility, willingness to listen, discuss, debate and innovate. Community and volunteer involvement. Not possible as part of Prison and Civil Service command and control.
AC I’m sure you won’t be surprised when I say I disagree & that we are - although I do accept NPS has more to do to involve the communities we serve . However I’m not sure how improvement in any of these will address gender balance?
JB Civil Service control makes community involvement impossible. Volunteers? Job satisfaction, salary erosion, worsening terms & conditions, disability provision etc all play a part in hindering diverse work force profile. I'm sure research will enlighten.
AC Whether we agree or not, I’m still not sure why you think these issues are more important to men than women?
JB I don't recall saying that.
AC You commented about gender balance. I asked how we might attract more men.
JB Not sure why asking a question about gender balance raises a query regarding the gender of the person asking the question.
AC Sorry that’s not what I meant. You commented about lack of gender balance in photo I posted. I agreed & asked how we might attract more men. You replied with a list of things you say is wrong with Probation, none of which I think are the reasons we attract females but not males.
JB Blimey - if you think it has nothing to do with the list of things I suggested then I guess there's very little point in continuing a dialogue.
AC My only query was why you thought these issues are more important to men than women. And I disagree that dialogue has little point. How else do we develop. Should we only engage with people we agree with?
JB As a Probation Officer I've always felt it part of the job to ask awkward questions from a variety of standpoints and as a prelude to some open discussion. I'm sure gender balance is of concern to everyone, isn't it?
AC I value your questions and challenge & agree it’s an important part of what we do in Probation whatever role we have.
AC Sorry that’s not what I meant. You commented about lack of gender balance in photo I posted. I agreed & asked how we might attract more men. You replied with a list of things you say is wrong with Probation, none of which I think are the reasons we attract females but not males.
JB Blimey - if you think it has nothing to do with the list of things I suggested then I guess there's very little point in continuing a dialogue.
AC My only query was why you thought these issues are more important to men than women. And I disagree that dialogue has little point. How else do we develop. Should we only engage with people we agree with?
JB As a Probation Officer I've always felt it part of the job to ask awkward questions from a variety of standpoints and as a prelude to some open discussion. I'm sure gender balance is of concern to everyone, isn't it?
AC I value your questions and challenge & agree it’s an important part of what we do in Probation whatever role we have.
The biggest reason for the lack of diverse representation is the change to the qualifying route under Pqip. Recruitment is organised nationally, most of those who get on pqip have criminology and/or psychology degrees courses which attract a disproportionate number of white young females as opposed to other groups. We need a new training route which can be accessed by other staff already working in probation ( psos, admin) - it has become incredibly hard for existing staff to get on the training, yet we have more diverse staff especially at lower grades already in the service with valuable experience. Targetted recruitment campaigns, advertise in publications and websites which attract male,black, and disabled viewers, outreach activity, have a presence at community events , look at how other organisations improved diversity and follow similar strategies. All of these options are possible ( even under civil service control) but we really need to address this imbalance. I think it is actually a form of indirect discrimination not to have a training route which recognises educational disadvantage faced by black people, the barriers to getting a degree are much greater if you are black or poor. We can be more representative of the communities we serve but it takes recognition and analysis of the problem first, then a strategy to address it.
ReplyDeleteJB nails it viz-'probation is dead' with that simple exchange. NPS & those who perpetuate it are completely happy with the current situation, albeit they add the odd caveat here & there, e.g. "I haven’t got the figures to hand but we have got a way to go."
DeleteBut then they say "We’ve been working on it for as long as I’ve being involved with trainees in 2005."
Perhaps the 'awkward question' should be...
Q: So you clearly haven't got it right yet, even though you've been involved in that aspect for 15 years? So why the fuck are you still in the job? Either someone should have booted you out or you should have walked years ago. Perhaps YOU are the problem?
“everyone rises to their position of incompetence” :)
DeleteAnd, it seems, stays there for at least 15 years.
https://amp-theguardian-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2020/jan/02/cummings-likely-to-have-big-influence-over-whitehall-reforms?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1#referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fpolitics%2F2020%2Fjan%2F02%2Fcummings-likely-to-have-big-influence-over-whitehall-reforms
ReplyDeleteCivil servants have been warned that they are “woefully unprepared” for the sweeping reforms of Whitehall being prepared by the prime minister and his special adviser, Dominic Cummings.
DeleteOfficials could be made to take regular exams to prove that they are up to their Whitehall jobs under “seismic” changes being planned by No 10, Rachel Wolf, who helped draw up Boris Johnson’s election-winning manifesto, has said.
Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Wolf said reported plans for merging, creating or abolishing departments were just a “tiny fraction” of the changes set to be implemented.
Wolf said the changes, set to begin in the spring, after the UK’s due date for leaving the EU, would end the “merry-go-round” of officials changing jobs every 18 months. But she dismissed suggestions that the civil service would be “politicised” under the reforms that Cummings is likely to have a big influence over.
Wolf said Johnson wanted to run “the most dynamic state in the world”. She added that one of the biggest changes was likely to be in the area of Whitehall recruitment and training.
Wolf stated that anyone staying in the same job for longer than 18 months is currently seen to have “stalled” in a culture that ensures “everyone rises to their position of incompetence”. She also predicts that civil servants will be “reoriented to the public” rather than “stakeholders”.
Many officials “cannot believe the prime minister and Dominic Cummings mean business”, she writes, and that “as a result, they seem woefully unprepared for what is coming”.
What is more concerning is the lack of awareness from AC.
ReplyDeleteA senior manager no less appears to be a bit backward in coming forwards with some leadership and skills base to address the issues properly.
DeleteThe positioning of the person I see as the only bloke in that picture also seems to speak volumes.
ReplyDeleteIt reminds me of a conversation I had at the Frederick Street, Camden, Team office I had in about 1989 - which was the first all women probation team that I had encountered in 16 years since I started as a Home Office sponsored probation officer trainee on a CQSW course at the University of Liverpool's, Institute of Extension Studies (as I think it was then called).
Around that time there was the big increase in anti racist and other equality training, something that was not a major feature in my early training.
I recall something about being the x in the room, it certainly helped my thinking.
Interestingly when I started in the newly merged Merseyside Probation and after-Care Service as a probation officer from 1975 - there was a hangover from the days of a Liverpool only Service - where they already had policies about recruiting both men and women - alongside recruiting as many Catholics as Protestants - though not then folk of varied races - though the range of folk I joined were fairly mixed, or so it seemed to me, as a Londoner.
https://www-lancasterguardian-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.lancasterguardian.co.uk/news/people/tributes-former-senior-probation-officer-george-mayne-1353822?amp_js_v=a2&_gsa=1&&usqp=mq331AQCKAE%3D#aoh=15779780208701&_ct=1577977841536&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&_tf=From%20%251%24s&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lancasterguardian.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fpeople%2Ftributes-former-senior-probation-officer-george-mayne-1353822
ReplyDeleteI'm no fan of NPS senior management but even I think you're all being unreasonable here. AC acknowledged that a lack of gender diversity was an issue and asked for suggestions on how that could be tackled. JB mentioned things like research, innovation, salary erosion, etc, which whilst all important issues, don't seem to be directly linked to a lack of gender diversity. Unless you're all suggesting that women are attracted to professions where research isn't carried out, where there is little innovations and where salaries have declined?
ReplyDelete“ I'm no fan of NPS senior management“
DeleteEvidently you are !
It would help if AC actually appeared to have some direction or knowledge and researched base for the feminised recruitment process. If men are wanted but do not apply for roles perhaps they realise they are not actually wanted. The structure of this women dominated profession says it all to would be applicants.
DeleteSo, the techweasels & manipulators who engineered victories for Brexit & the Tories were also responsible for installing the disastrously Right-of-Liberal PM in Australia, a man who holidays in Hawaii & spends days watching cricket while his country burns. Yesterday he was told to 'fuck off' when visiting a scene of devastation. The people now realise how they'd been misled by a bullshit campaign which installed a fuckwit as PM.
ReplyDeleteI can only hope the scales fall from the eyes of the UK electorate PDQ.
But the national disaster that will ravage the UK & result in mass devastation has been set. It is already established & beyond control of parliament: "putting out fire with gasoline".
Waking up to a breaking news story that Trump is desperately trying to start a new Middle East war, and might have succeded this time.
DeleteSo expect forecourt fuel prices to escalate, heating oil costs to rise and price hikes all round as oil prices skyrocket when Middle East oil availability stops. US Republicans will become greatly enriched as their oil becomes many times more expensive - Trump's gift to them to ensure impeachment doesn't pass.
DeleteWhen the Donny the Mobsta met the Nazis in The Oval Room, The Whitehouse, USA.
DeleteIt was never going to end well for anyone.
No-one is safe.
The image says it all. Amongst the abundance of females, the first apparent male is hiding at the back and the second is billy-no-mates with daylight between him and the rest of the group. It’s a surprise this did not compute to Angela Cossins, Deputy Director National Probation Service South West, South Central, but the gender minority worker is not featured on diversity training.
ReplyDeleteAll Senior Management, including Angela Cossins, know very well what the recruitment issues are. Some of the bigger issues are;
The main wage earners in most households are still men – probation jobs simply don’t pay enough and there are many other justice and graduate jobs that pay better.
Except for negative media, not much is known about probation, and both it’s roles and progression opportunities are limited - it needs to raise awareness of the roles in the profession.
There are no government-set targets to ensure that sufficient funds are allocated to recruitment drives, including to recruit more men.
With a female dominated workforce, male role models in the sector are limited but essential to recruit more young men and males into probation.
There are other potential issues too which require research;
Males are more likely than females to be ineligible to apply due to previous convictions. This may be more of an issue in the NPS due to vetting.
Probation previously tended to attract administrative staff who wanted to train as probation officers - usually female.
Probation training programmes now tend to attract graduates - predominantly those with criminology degrees.
Similar to care professions, is it possible the more female dominated probation is the more difficult it will be to recruit males?
AC - move along now, nothing to see here.
DeleteClearly you cannot read !
DeleteI can read and it is a mark of the failings of the leadership not to recruit in the structures appropriately diverse staff. However it makes no difference male of female who is doing the job. Its the same training the same old tried and argued rotating door argument no matter who is behind the desk.
DeleteSo no BLACK newly qualified probation officers working across the National Probation Service South West and South Central.
ReplyDeleteAC not read the Lammy report?
Can she read is the question ? All you ever get from her is blah blah blah talk a lot of talk.
Delete