What a relief!
It was screamingly clear at work for at least a two weeks that the pandemic was on the increase. We are running short of staff, colleagues are ill. The feeling of relief, a weight off my shoulders, is a weird thing given the dire news, and curtailed plans to meet up with people for Christmas, but at long fucking last the government(s) has acknowledged that this is fucking serious. Until the government says, this is fucking serious, no manager in probation is going to say it, so phew.
The older of us are more freaked about this virus than the younger ones, and also less inclined to toe the line that the one priority that should drive our every thought is to hit targets and deliver business as usual. I am due in the office right up to Xmas Eve, with an appointment with a guy I am really concerned about (and with good reason), and Xmas is his dodgy time, so worth it, but when I have done that, I will walk. Fuck overdue boxes to be ticked!
My various communications feeds are bleating away about the “heartbreak” of Christmas plans broken, and the suffering of businesses. I am sympathetic to both, but speaking from the frontline, it is a relief to get this gripped. I guess it is also a relief for those on the health frontline, albeit that their exhaustion and anxiety must be pretty much off the scale regardless.
Agree absolutely, although I wouldn't be as uncouth in saying it. You could have wielded an editorial red pen, there, Jim.
ReplyDeleteAnon 09:47 I could and I thought about it, but my policy has been to only edit guest pieces for what I might term exceptional reasons, such as hiding identity. Sometimes colourful language is necessary in order to convey the seriousness of a situation and to convey exasperation.
DeleteI follow the journalist Ian Dunt on Twitter and he is renowned for cussing - only yesterday I think I saw him say of Boris Johnson "why doesn't he comb his fucking hair?!" Especially for sombre occasions, I think I have to agree.
“no manager in probation is going to say it”
ReplyDeleteHere in the heart on NPS London my SPO manager has been saying ‘it’ since March 2020. The problem is that ‘they’ refuse to listen to him.
Any response is pure BS, because of the fact that senior managers see us all as cannon fodder. Remember this Guest blog from March 2020? ‘They’ couldn’t get their arses in gear then either.
Emergency Message for NPS and CRC Senior Management Teams
http://probationmatters.blogspot.com/2020/03/emergency-message-for-nps-and-crc.html?m=1
“By the end of the week hardly any colleagues are left in the office. There are widespread rumours of colleagues in other offices falling sick. Every time one goes down there is a domino effect and others fall sick too. Managers continue to tell and email us it’s “business as usual”. Directors continue to email us “business as usual”. The other line they’re using is “we’re all going to catch it anyway”. I think they’d change their mind if they had to sit in front of an infected and coughing service user just released from prison. I phoned Napo Union for advice and they told me they were busy. Napo are not seeing members face to face and are working remotely. Why haven’t they instructed members to do the same?”
DeleteBecause Napo only look after Napo not members .
DeleteCan't agree with that. They have destroyed NAPO. It is no longer a trade union and doesn't do any of the sort of things a trade union is supposed to do. They only care about themselves and their pockets!
DeleteGuest blogger 80 is too optimistic. Tomorrow we’ll all go into work and probation directors will IGNORE the government has just put most of the country in TIER 4.
ReplyDeleteJust last week, at TIER 3, we were told probation was on “the road to recovery”. Same time we were being told of staff and service users were testing positive for coronavirus.
Couldn’t make it up.
Some Xmas reading via NPS on twitter:
Delete"New process published titled ‘Management oversight’ which can be located in NPS EQuiP at level 1.2.5.6 or by using keyword ‘management oversight’ (over night sync required for keyword to embed)"
HoHoHo
It *will* be taken seriously now because its affecting London. As we all know, nothing is real unless & until it affects London. Just watch the govt raid the public purse again as the extra support for London businesses is pumped in at high speed. There'll be instructions coming out of your ears this week.
ReplyDeleteFor example, HMPPS page has already updated guidance for prisons today; the first time since March 2020:
Delete"Coronavirus (COVID-19) and prisons
Guidance for families and friends of people in prison in England and Wales during the coronavirus pandemic.
Published 13 March 2020
Last updated 20 December 2020"
Or here, an update for thge first time since July 2020. They're not taking any chances now its affecting London:
Delete"Visit someone in prison during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
Information and guidance about visiting prisons in England and Wales.
Published 14 July 2020
Last updated 20 December 2020"
Jim's editorial censorship seems to apply only to posts that might lift the mood or detract from the daily determination of posters to outdo one another with ever more horrifying predictions for the future or 'nobody understands the science quite like I do' commentaries. I've seen a handful of alternative posts appear and quickly disappear from this site in recent days which don't subscribe to that formula and I wonder what that's about. Feels like if your not Getafix or FranK - with their reliably predictable views - then your take on things isn't all that welcome. Okay then... lets have today's numbers cut and pasted from the BBC so that others can quote the Guardian in response...
ReplyDeleteAnon 10:52 I've deleted very little indeed of late so don't know what you are referring to? Can you be more specific?
DeleteI will delete pandemic deniers, vaccine sceptics and anything that purports to support the view Trump 'won big'.
DeleteCan I please ask why you delete those particular things. I don't believe in any of those 3 viewpoints myself but respect the fact other people in the world have different opinions to myself. Obviously it's your blog so you can do as you see fit but am just curious.
DeleteAnon 12:41 A very good question that almost certainly requires a blog post to answer properly. I'm pretty sure I've had a stab several times before because it raises so many issues of fake news, manipulation, illegal or abhorrent beliefs - the very reasons why people can hold such fundamentally different views. I think about it a lot, especially as to how a mature democracy can elect a fucking moron and 70 million people endorse his racist bollock views. In my view this cannot be dealt with by typical BBC 'balance and equivocation'. We don't do that with Holocaust Denial do we?
DeleteReal 'Fake news' is dangerous and killing people - that's why I would have no truck with it. Differences of opinion that can withstand examination and discourse - that's fine.
I'm proud to say this blog remains very unusual in that it is unmoderated for 99% of the time and runs on trust, responsibility and concern for others. My editorial pen is reserved for instances where I consider those core principles are compromised.
12:41 - I, too, can respect that others have different opinions to myself. I don't think it's ever been expressed better than by C.P. Scott: 'Comment is free, but facts are sacred.' Once you go down the road of alternative facts (as Trump endorsed), you create a liar's charter and give free reign inflammatory and inciting propaganda, whether it comes from ISIS or the White House. There are always vested interests who want to suppress the truth in order to spread their ideologies.
DeleteWell somebody else must have edit rights then Jim. Because the disappearing posts didn't fit those descriptions at all. I assume / hope you're already aware of what you've deleted so I won't feel the need to start detailing dates and contents.
ReplyDeleteOnly I have edit rights, but the original poster of any comment can delete their own at any time. I don't record what I delete and memory fades fast. Other categories can include offensive, exceedingly boring and comments that I feel are just designed to inflame, eg continually inciting division between categories of practitioner. This is not exhaustive but as always discretion resides with myself, but I'm always prepared to reconsider decisions.
Delete@11:27, the question has already been asked: "Can you be more specific?"
DeleteSo, can you start to 'feel the need' & enlighten us?
(I think Frank uses the data from the HMG website)
I do see a lot of cross views deleted as JB has an overprotective halo for po grade usually at the detriment to PSOs being able to have a view. Same as Napo but not as often.
DeleteAnon 18:23 I only delete if it's deliberately offensive, repetitive or almost unintelligible. I'm a PO and take offence at anyone slagging off my grade.
DeleteThe Guest Blog is a bit of a broken record, the same old complaints evermore colourfully expressed. Some probation workers do catharsis well, but when it's done ad nauseam it becomes a bit self-indulgent. It's not news, it's not suggesting strategies for change. It's tautology and it's also a modus operandi that is denied to service users, from whom new thinking is usually demanded if they are to break out of whatever self-defeating habits of mind they are in the grip of. If it boils down to being stuck in a lousy job, then there are only two options, the second one being having to grin and bear it, like millions of others carrying out unsatisfying occupations. As for protests that it's 'my vocation', I doubt whether the calling would survive winning a lottery jackpot or a big inheritance.
ReplyDeleteAnon 12:04 "a modus operandi that is denied to service users". The blog is an open forum available to anyone who wishes to express a view.
Delete12:04 I can assure you that many probation officers / workers remain in the job, not because it’s the best job or vocational option, but because it’s the best option available right now. Rarely do I hear any saying “it’s my vocation or calling”, and I doubt I ever have. We are no better off than factory workers forced to keep the cogs turning come what may, or risk being penalised and replaced the night before Christmas. Most will realise this long before they get their hands on any vocational qualifying certificates, and the lack of care for both employees and clients has been hammered home during the pandemic in which many have resigned. Left within this probation pit of despair, it is inspiring that many but not all do the best job they can, which includes ensuring the all-management-cares-about overdue boxes are repeatedly ticked.
DeleteI wasn't seeking to imply that service users don't have access to the Guest Blog, etc. It was a reference to a moaning mindset, in that probation usually seeks to discourage thinking that goes round in circles.
DeleteNot true. A few moan on a blog while hundreds do good in the probation office where complaints can be met with severe penalty. Many who listen to and champion the views of the clients themselves, some who were clients once upon a time too, myself included.
Delete13.10 - Your points are fairly made, but would just caution against any suggestion that resignations are on the rise in probation. This is from the quarterly workforce statistics (Sept 20):
DeleteThe leaving rate for staff at the NPS overall in the year ending 30 September 2020 was 6.5%, which is a slight decrease of 1.5
percentage points since the year ending 31 March 2020. In the operational grades within the NPS, the leaving rate was highest
amongst probation services officers at 7.2%: a slight decrease of 1.4 percentage points from the year ending 31 March 2020.
Leaving rates for probation officers and senior probation officers stood at 5.1% (a slight decrease of 1.1 percentage points)
and 3.7% (a slight decrease of 1.1 percentage points), respectively, compared to the year to 31 March 2020.
Probation is well known for fudging the figures.
DeleteYes they are paying disproportionate salaries between grades and roles.
DeleteAnon 18:33 Warning - we are not having a re-run of PO v PSO roles, training, qualification or experience.
DeleteOh oh censor alert. You gotta protect the unfairness again.
DeleteOf course we use this forum to have a moan, and thank heavens for it. Anything short of happy clappy enthusiasm at work is regarded as unacceptable and likely to engender even more emails exhorting "wellbeing initiatives".
ReplyDeleteReliable predictable data from:
ReplyDeletehttps://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/
new cases: 35,928 positive tests in last 24 hours
deaths (28 day rule): 326 deaths : 3,232 in last 7 days
daily hospital admissions (data from weds 16 dec): 2,034
All opinion or commentary is suspended for fear of causing offence (via horrific dystopian fantasies) to those who believe its okay to travel to see family or friends for Xmas celebrations, probably without wearing a pointless stupid mask because it doesn't stop the virus, regardless of oppressive left-wing rules which remove the right for freedom of movement or speech for decent people.
FranK.
That's right FranK. There are only 2 possible interpretations of all things. Both extreme opposites. How wonderful it must be to be perpetually pious and correct. Of course those who disagree are right-wing, hypocritical, fantasists who risk others lives for fun. To think anything else would just be too complicated. Stick to the figures ... they dont require reasoned argument.
DeleteKnock it off I think the virus has been largely ignored by bodger Johnson continually getting it wrong. We now have a super virus in mutation and again it will catch quick infect more faster and kill at a new higher rate. While Tories fucked it all up to start and continue to do so. Frank is reporting the known facts why dig at that.
DeleteThe virus operates in a binary world.
DeleteIt either infects a host & lives to share itself as wide as possible & survives; or it dies.
Its not very big on reasoned argument, social etiquette, popularity contests or philosophical, political & economic discourse.
Anon 18:19 What a distasteful and exceedingly obnoxious contribution that adds fuck-all to a reasoned discussion or debate. I'll leave it though because it says so much more about the charmless author than it does about the original post.
DeleteThe charmless author did not feel it necessary to resort to forced expletives. I wonder why this prompted a response like this, and really do think it exposes a very low threshold for finding something 'extremely obnoxious'. Perhaps you might want to re-read the exchange before leaping to such a conclusion. As an earlier post noted, if you're not Getafix or FranK maybe you can expect to be judged like this here. One might even think they were JB's own nom de plumes.
DeleteMy offering to the OED this year.
Delete'JOHNSENCE'.
Noun:-
Creating false optimism by speaking perpetual political gibberish, designed to recruit the gullible to a particular agenda.
Example:-
"The PM stands at the dispatch box every week and talks utter Johnsence."
'Getafix
You tell him Jim! I've noticed a lot of contributions recently from people with right of centre views. I wonder if you could be more specific in the title of your blog to say that only liberal/left wing views are welcome? I think that would help.
DeleteAnon 19:08 It's an offensive comment and contributes fuck-all to discussion in my view - it's not a forced expletive by the way but quite considered - and your response adds nothing positive to debate either, but I'll leave it here and will moderate further contributions. Yes very unfair etc etc but there it is.
DeleteAnon 19:17 Yes very amusing but we have no problem with a variety of views as long as they are reasoned and not designed to inflame or be offensive.
DeleteThe poster has a made a fair point in obs over some editorial bias. You are protecting a job that has long since gone south. However no point in criticising Frank efforts to inform. Perhaps your too far out of touch of the work to see how things are fixed now.
DeleteThe folly of taking on a virus & telling everyone you're winning - Part 37, 23 Nov 2020:
ReplyDelete"Mr Speaker, thank you very much and with your permission, I will make a statement on the Government’s COVID-19 Winter Plan.
For the first time since this wretched virus took hold, we can see a route out of the pandemic.
The breakthroughs in treatment, in testing and vaccines mean that the scientific cavalry is now in sight and we know in our hearts that next year we will succeed.
By the Spring, these advances should reduce the need for the restrictions we have endured in 2020 and make the whole concept of a Covid lockdown redundant.
When that moment comes, it will have been made possible by the sacrifices of millions of people across the United Kingdom.
I am acutely conscious that no other peacetime Prime Minister has asked so much of the British people and just as our country has risen to every previous trial, so it has responded this time, and I am deeply grateful.
I can therefore confirm that national restrictions in England will end on 2nd December, and they will not be renewed."
And on 26 Nov:
"The data already suggests national measures in England have slowed - and in some places reversed - the growth of new cases."
Hurrah - news from across the water via The Independent newspaper. The news we've all been waiting for:
ReplyDelete"Donald Trump has reportedly discussed the option of bringing in the military in an effort to rewrite the election result as the president searches for options as he refuses to accept his loss.
Michael Flynn, whom Mr Trump recently pardoned for lying to the FBI, apparently suggested the president could impose martial law and use the military to re-run the vote."
Dah-dah-dah-dum-de-dum-dum-de-dum...
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/news/health/new-coronavirus-strain-prisons-jails-b1776730.html%3famp
ReplyDeleteNew Covid strain could see ‘heavy toll’ of infections in jails, warns former prisons watchdog
Delete