How's It All Going?

How come there is little comment on this blog on how the training that is crap e learning and caseloads are going since the merger of CRC NPS not to mention any sickness absence through stress?

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I regret I cannot answer but wonder why does not Anon tell us all s/he knows rather than just hint?

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I have definitely myself commented more than once on the lack of training available to staff, specifically on one to one work and skills to meaningfully address key issues such as anger/stress management, personal wellbeing and other skills. The "mandatory" e learning in child protection and domestic violence are in particular very basic and belittling. The mantra of probation today appears to be about referring the person on, either to other services, offending behaviour programmes that most have already attended, or watered down commissioned out services. I'm not against individuals working with other agencies...but I have started to question what the point of an individual actually attending probation is anymore. While a load of "exercises" have been chucked into equip, the skills based training to actually deliver meaningful supervision sessions is sorely lacking. The focus on writing parole reports and assessments using paint by numbers QA tools misses the point entirely.

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HMPPS/NPS have their foot on the throats of staff - "one wrong move & we'll crush your larynx." Everyone's terrified of getting caught out. Welcome to the New Probation Service. Everyone knows it. Probation Staff Survey 2021 states: "We will only report statistics where we have enough replies to ensure that no individual can be identified." Taking Back Control. Freedom. A World Class System. Or just right-wing totalitarianism? Wouldn't surprise me if JB hasn't had a shot across his bows warning him to "publish positive propaganda or we'll close you down".

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You can always make an FOI request. A simple and risk free task for a retired colleague. Just keep bombarding them with FOIs. Stress is the biggest cause of stress across the PS at the moment. They'll blame it on anything other than poor workforce planning and Tory bungling. The people being punished are experienced staff at the frontline. No other profession gets treated this way and certainly not proper civil servants. No one in their right mind would want to join probation whilst it is in its current state.

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As a returning PO out after 15 years and in post for 16 weeks what have I found? incredible pressure on main grade staff, cover your arse comments from some managers, a blame culture and the depressing loss of passionate staff who are simply fed up and or over worked. I have huge admiration for my fellow main grade staff, and for some SPO, above that I have no idea, never met them and the blurb that comes out is not relevant. It's the loss of passionate new staff that I find most concerning. They are the future.

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If they believe your concern is genuine. There's the rub. Where I am we are starting to see the steely glare of management morphing to the wide eyed panic of rabbits in headlights, as staff leave, recruitment adverts illicit no response, and long term sickness absences seem to be increasing. I'd be interested to know what the long term sickness absences look like across the board: in my office it is a significant proportion of the dwindling staff. Whenever I see this discussed, there is a defensiveness: the figures can't be compared because the CRC stats are not available or comparable or relevant now. Or it's all down to Covid so obviously we can't extrapolate or draw conclusions in this exceptional time. Not for the first time the words WE WARNED YOU spring to mind. It's all a bit of a mess, isn't it?

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Yes and the mess is getting bigger as experienced colleagues start taking their early retirement and now leaving as an option to carrying on. 3 months notice and no replacement so the solution of the management team is to add their hours to yours and if you complain it's classed as a business need get on with it. Apparently anyone can do this job and a recruitment drive eventually will fill in the vacancies. Not sure who will train these new people but hey... yet another business need and another job on top of the ever increasing workload.

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Staff at 60 will always have planned to go. It's what the NPS actually want. Old ideas values reform ideologies are to be vanquished on the dereliction of people services. It has been said a long while back on this blog there is no need for any professional judgement as we are moving to a penalty organisation. Infiltrated by police, crime is a process for punishment as more attractive to the Tories than reform. Punishment is meted out as a tariff on balance to the crime. Reform is costly and measures are not easily transformed into figures of achievement.

So we have seen and it cannot escape anyone's notice the promotion structure has favoured aggressive thickening attitudes from some nasty characters many at DD level. The CRCs have a part to play in their left over disasters now in power roles. Probation for officers is finished. Probation is not what it was or should be but it will be unrecognisable in a few years and specialist training for certain roles is all we need. The rest of you will be cheap to hire and fire as the PO will finally be sunk by the superior PO managers who have no value stock in their original career base. It is because they think they are special to achieve this financial status and lower so they will do as they are bid.

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As a local Napo rep who does her best for members I take exception to all this Napo bashing that makes me wonder whether there are in fact senior management stooges on here having a cheap shot and trying to cause as much anti-union sentiment as possible. Constructive and informed criticism is surely preferable to name calling. The way to change how a union represents people is to join it and use the democratic processes to elect those you want. You are not stuck with leaders. If you resort to name calling or misrepresentation of facts then you are simply contributing to the problem rather than being part of the solution. This blog should be building bridges to the unions and those who want to support probation. Many potential allies of the profession and potential new voices are put off by name calling and lack of reasoned arguments.

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JB Things are indeed grim. I have been a probation officer for 17 years and never known so many people going off with stress and no let up of allocations. The so called workload management tool indicates how much in excess of 100%. If we were paid according to the WMT then it would be fiddled to keep us all at 100%. I am 40% over and a PQIP just went off with stress literally ran from the building sobbing on Friday. Surely my salary should be increased by 40%. There is no one left except one other officer who said she is at breaking point. What happens when I am the last one there? 

I heard they are threatening people who are off with stress to come back to work. All the experienced colleagues have left or want to leave. They keep telling us there are more trainees coming but who is supposed to train them? Some left during COVID without actually once seeing a person on probation face to face. This job is now shit and if I get another senior management pep talk I'm liable to puke. I just want to call in sick tomorrow and stay off for 6 months. I advise everyone to go sick and don't put up with this crap any more.

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I do not work in the hardest hit LDU OMU whatever the xxxx they call it these days so cannot say, hence the question. I've heard there is huge unrest though. As for outside of this business as usual in shoving people into roles with no proper training or care, staff in tears and unwell with stress because they are left to it without management support or even responses to the problems. Shared services constant xxxx ups and months and years with no reasonable adjustments in place. It beggars belief. Maybe everyone is just too tired and stressed to say or perhaps too under the grip of fear those bxxxxxxs impose.