Comment left this morning:-
After the warm fuzzy soma land call it was back to the cold hard reality of an unmanageably large caseload, few staff and no pay rise despite rising costs. Remember work harder and longer for less because to them you are expendable and less than a number on a spreadsheet. Expect to be told you should be grateful for the opportunity to train new staff in addition to your work. Be grateful to do additional work politicians might dream up and the management agree to without question lining their pockets whilst we do the dirty work and get humiliated or fired if there is an SFO. Remember HR is not your friend. Your managers are not your friend. Only you colleagues are your friends.
So the next time they have a propaganda call don’t fill the chat with sycophantic crap but rather ask questions such as ‘Will you be willing to take a 15% pay cut to help the lowest paid staff pay their heating bills this winter?’ ‘Would you be willing to donate your performance bonus to the Edridge Fund to help those probation staff losing their homes?’ Actions not words will show how much they care. I’m pretty sure not one of them cares a jot about any of us as they are absolutely fine in soma land where the sun always shines.
--oo00oo--
Watch out for the Civil Service Awards on Friday - A team in the Probation Reform Programme is a finalist.
It felt that the comments on the call were highly moderated anyway so doubt anything challenging the narrative would get through.
ReplyDeleteThe main frustration after pay continues to be lack of real resources to do our job. This was only skimmed over. They were very positive about it he CAS3 programme “no one will be homeless on release” well I work in one of the 5 areas it is already rolled out to. The last 3 referrals have been a “no placements available” response. The last person released came out with strong plans around what he wanted to change. But his lack of supported accommodation meant a spiral back to his old ways and recall. Putting him back into the prison service is now costing joe public way more than a additional support accommodation placement would.
I’m sick and tired of everything.
I'm pretty sure one of the comments during the all staff call was from an SPO saying their new "commissioned out" accommodation seevice was proving worse than whatever service it replaced? What's people's experience with these new services? Are they providing "accommodation advice" or "accommodation". What about the personal wellbeing services...what does that actually mean, what does it entail, what do the people we are putting into these services actually say about them?
ReplyDeleteThat aside what really concerned me on the call was the strong emphasis on ramping up and putting money into electronic monitoring..."the minister is really keen on technological solutions"....well how effective are they or does the minister care? After all this is about punishment, paying lip service to "rehabilitation" and yet again ploughing public money awarded under the spending review right back into the hands of private contractors all over again. I too, left the call pretty deflated and demoralised.
It all ended with yet more fanfare about online learning about young offenders which frankly I'm fed up about....I'm sick and tired of reading the same old crap passed off as "professional development"....has four pillars or arms informed OASYS actually improved things? Nope, just more boxes to write shit about in which means nothing to either us or those being supervised.
The country is being led by cheerleaders of corruption, apologists for those caught & a raft of abusive perpetrators who take evey opportunity to stick the boot in.
ReplyDeleteThere's no hope for social work values, for consideration or for compassion when the Crime Minister & his band of assholes demonstrate that greed, plunder & abuse are the traits of the successful & powerful.
The UK is a very sick country - literally & metaphorically.
Copied from another post:-
ReplyDelete"Pitchfork was subject to more than 40 licence conditions"
No surprise then that he's been returned to prison.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-59354638
A Probation Service spokesperson said: "Protecting the public is our number one priority.
"When offenders breach the conditions of their release and potentially pose an increased risk, we don't hesitate to return them to custody."
...hostel staff had become concerned about some elements of his general behaviour and engagement with them.
They concluded he was not being as honest as he could be - although there was not one specific incident that triggered an alarm.
Pitchfork was subject to more than 40 licence conditions including living at a designated address, taking part in probation supervision, wearing an electronic tag, taking part in lie detector tests and having to disclose what vehicles he used and who he spoke to, with particular limits on contact with children.
He was also subject to a curfew, had restrictions on using technology and limits on where he went, and was banned from entering Leicestershire without the permission of officials.
Regarding moderated comments.
ReplyDeleteNone of mine made it past the moderator, and all three were relatively harmless.... relatively.
I don't think they could have arrived - I haven't deleted any for some time.
Delete