Tuesday 30 August 2022

Carry On Advising, Assisting and Befriending

For those unaware, probation once more finds itself under attack and threatened with losing its distinct identity by being totally consumed by the prison service - the so-called 'One HMPPS' plan. This is yet more madness being introduced at rapid speed and during an extended period of 'zombie' government caused by the defenestration of Boris Johnson. Parliament is in summer recess and then it's the party conference season. 

Things are so serious there are signs that both Napo and the Probation Institute are about to act, but in the mean time some practitioners appear keen to rally around a strong defence of our core beliefs and that mark us out from our colleagues in HM Prison Service. In essence these beliefs can best be summed up by the phrase first coined in the 1907 Probation of Offenders Act that probation officers were to 'advise, assist and befriend'

Over recent years a great deal of effort has been expended in trying to persuade practitioners that this was an out-dated concept and had no place in a service now focused on 'protecting the public'. We won't rehearse the background and journey here because it's one pretty well known to readers, but rather confirm that the concept was never expunged and has continued to be practised either overtly or covertly depending on local management circumstances. It hasn't been easy for recusant staff and sadly many time-served officers have either been bullied-out or just gave up disillusioned and exhausted.

Essentially the official line is that 'advise, assist and befriend' has no place at all in the modern probation service either in protecting the public or in rehabilitating offenders. Many of us have always known that wasn't true - it isn't true and at the weekend on Twitter confirmed by Prof Rob Canton who reminded us of his assertion from 2007:- 

"The history of probation has... been characterised as a journey from 'advise, assist and befriend' to 'enforcement, rehabilitation and public protection'. But there is now a weight of evidence and argument to show that the way to get the best from people is to treat them well - with fairness, respect, encouragement and personal interest. This is not only ethically valuable, but also conduces to probation's objectives. In each of its phases, probation has sooner or later made this discovery. Perhaps the best way to enforce, rehabilitate and protect the public is by advising, assisting and befriending."

This is so important to have academic validation. It was true then and it's still true now. With apologies to Hovis, 'it's as good as it's always been'. Probation MUST retain its distinct ethos and identity. 

--oo00oo--

It's time to revisit Guest Blog 86 from 2015:-

Guest Blog 26

Advise, Assist and Befriend.


I've seen a lot of changes in probation over the years. When I started working in probation most of my colleagues tended to have 20+ year service records, while managers had been in post for like forever. The success of qualification as a Probation Officer was a real achievement, particularly when working alongside such long serving staff, some with previous careers in professions including mining, finance, teaching and the military. In those days you had to be qualified for at least two years to supervise a dangerous offender or lifer, you wouldn't be allocated a Parole Report unless you had already proved your worth in both report writing and through-care, and you needed an arms length of quality service to become a manager and a lifetime of service to become a senior manager or Chief Officer. Nowadays the new recruits can be allocated a caseload of high risk offenders on the first day and management is an escape route for those that have the least understanding of probation work. Pay increases were on an annual basis and I'm sure pay bands used to be a lot higher too.

There were always unique characters in probation offices, such as the good-natured colleague that supervised all the lifers and was always visiting prisons, the colleague that was an expert on mental health and seemed in need of the service too, the rebellious Union colleagues that management revered, you know the ones that were eventually seconded off to the local prison (the elephants graveyard for burnt out probation officers), the colleague that would bring in token presents for the most isolated clients at Xmas and allegedly on occasion would invite the most needy to dinner at Xmas and Easter (to which management turned a blind eye), the colleagues that awoke the office with Reggae tunes first thing every morning (if you were in early enough to hear), the colleague that seemed to have mastered the art of avoiding all unnecessary meetings in place of fag and coffee breaks, the colleague that was always trying to bend and reinterpret legislation and sentencing guidelines (sometimes summoned to appear before Crown Court Judges to explain their proposals), the colleague that wrote Pre Sentence Reports so lengthy that the rest of us went into hiding at gate keeping time, and the colleague whose Pre Sentence Reports were so short they could fit on two sides of A4. What united us all was the value of being probation officers and the desire to help our clients to change and improve their lives

I think I joined up when Probation had just about clawed back its status as a worthwhile profession after Michael Howard had tried to kill it off, but since qualification it's been downhill all the way. Unfortunately much of our good work seems to have been eroded and this has escalated under recent governments and the introduction of TR. Pay freezes and 1% pay rises are now an expectation, sickness and stress levels have risen even for the most experienced staff, probation management (particularly those recently retired CEO's) sold us down the river and told us to say "thank you", and we've lost a disproportionate amount of experienced staff to CRC's to be replaced by probation (PQF) trainees fresh out of university, some of which don't really seem to know what probation work actually is, or don't really care. Sad but true.

I joined probation a few years after leaving university too. I had the experience of youth work and being employed with various non-statutory rehabilitation agencies, and before that manual labour was my thing and long before that I was a delinquent and subsequently a prisoner, that's the experience I brought. On the last point (now that I have your attention), probation believed in me and in turn I've believed in every client I've supervised. I've once known a client return to probation as an employee, and I've counted amongst my probation officer friends over the years a few former football hooligans, two reformed prostitutes, numerous recovered drug addicts and alcoholics (some in relapse if the Xmas party is anything to go by) and a few convicted of the more minor indiscretions.

So I'm not at risk of being accused of glorifying offending or bringing probation into disrepute. I add that over the years my undesirable bunch of probation officer friends has also included a range of identities and top notch exemplary characters from the lowest classes to the borderline upper class, and even two 'new money' lottery winners still actually coming to work. I've also been lucky enough to work with some of the best probation managers, and thankfully my current manager is 'old skool' and and falls into this category.

What binds us together in probation is the contribution we make to society in supporting probation clients. We hold a basic set of values believing every person can change, given adequate support, motivation and opportunity, and this can shine through for many no matter whether they qualified with DipSW or DipPS. Ever since the Probation of Offenders Act 1907 provided the statutory foundation for the probation service we've been 'advising, assisting and befriending' those under our supervision. A few weeks ago when prepping for a parole hearing I came across documentation from what was then the Probation and Aftercare Service and I thought to myself, "even though it's hard to see amidst the MoJ limescale and gloss, we still are that service".

Despite all the changes, the IT failures, the TR omnishambles and the combined impact of the ideas of Michael Howard, Chris Grayling and all the other probation-haters, we will always be probation officers doing probation work. I won't pretend that probation officers are not overworked or are sometimes too preoccupied with assessing risk, MAPPA and "protecting the public". And we know when we attend hearings with barristers and psychologists that we're evidently not lettered enough to earn anything more than £27 per hour in providing our opinions. However, for whom the Courts think fit to be placed under our supervision every colleague I know takes their duty seriously in helping probation clients to improve their quality of life, which is what probation work has been about for over 100 years.

The reason for this now rambling post was to respond to the comments on this blog from probation clients, the ones that have unfortunately had a negative experience of probation. I occasionally comment here as 'Probation Officer' and I used to Tweet as 'SaveProbation', so this is an addition to my previous two-pence worth. A while back I fell out with my probation bosses over too many outspoken views and so moved on to pastures new, but I returned a while later because of my love for probation work, albeit less active in the campaign against TR (which has now been lost). The disclosure about my own background and that of some of my colleagues is to highlight that probation officers come from all walks of life as do the clients we work with.

I cringe at the implementation of too many conduct policies, vetting procedures and the now forced adherence to the Civil Service Code, which I think has become partly responsible for some of the rigid probation practices that undermine 'best practice'. This is unfortunate as our gift is that we're real people with real experiences and we use this in our work. Saying that, we do need forms of appropriate regulation and this is not an excuse for the discontent towards probation supervision, but if recruitment does not allow for variation and diversity then we may as well buy a bunch of robot probation officers like they have in the USA (probably coming to a CRC near you soon). Sometimes we don't have the time to bend over backwards for clients, we can't provide flats in Mayfair or jobs with the Bank of England, and yes sometimes we do have to refuse a release from prison or return clients to custody. We can't please all of the people all of the time.

I understand the frustrations of both supervising and of being supervised, and I have in the past come across probation officers that wrongly believed that probation clients should not be anxious or angry about having to come to probation and should even welcome their supervision. I've witnessed probation clients wrongly breached for arriving 10 minutes late and even learned of clients recalled to prison for trying to 'chat up' their probation officer or expressing a few profanities during supervision. I remember when 'supervision' wrongly began to take a back seat to CBT programmes and the activities on offer from outside organisations became increasingly more important, and when Community Service worryingly became a way to generate an income and create photo opportunities for local politicians and Police and Crime Commissioners.

What I'm saying is that we all know that there has been problems in probation for some time, made worse by TR, but I've also seen all of the good work. Some say they took away probation's social work roots and others say they turned probation into an enforcement agency, but they did not. Every probation office I enter has the same old mix of varied staff all trying to work towards the greater good. The age and experience of new entrants to probation officer training seems to be ever decreasing with the latest recruits fresh out of university, but I still don't think the ethos of probation work can ever be removed because by the time the 'nodding dogs' have escaped to management roles the rest would have already begun evolving into "poxy social work types" (as I was recently referred to).

The government is constantly banging on about reoffending rates but what's usually omitted is the fantastic news that the majority of people on probation do not reoffend. I know my own work has aided these figures and this is a summary just from today for those wanting an insight into probation work. After dropping the kids off at school I arrived at work, fighting the traffic to arrive at my usual time. I checked my emails and picked up a file and on to visit a local'ish prison. The visit was to discuss release plans for a man soon to be released after serving a very long sentence. He has no home to go to and no family to support him, but I've got him a place in a probation hostel and he's happy with that. We finished with a bit of a chat about Morgan Freeman's parole speech in the Shawshank Redemption, one of his favourite movies.

Two hours later I was back at my desk going through emails ranging from concerns about a young offender to gripes about what may be lurking in the office fridge. I tend to pick up the phone to respond to emails it's faster and I don't need to evidence everything I do with an email. As I was on my way to join colleagues for a team lunch I bumped into a client on his way in to see me unplanned. He wanted to use the phone to call the Benefits Agency so I put my coat back inside and sat with him while he made the call. He's not very articulate (and "where's my effing money" never works) so I explained the situation to the person on the other end of the line to get the ball rolling. 40 minutes later and after listening to his reflection on his recent melt down over Xmas, job done and I managed to grab a sandwich to eat at my desk.

Over the next few hours there was the usual steady stream of emails, telephone calls and clients in my direction. At the same time I was working on a Pre-Sentence Report due in Court in a few days time. The person in question is suitable for a community sentence and that's what I'm recommending. I try to keep people out of prison wherever possible, and I try to emphasise rehabilitation over punishment. My to-do list also includes a Parole Report, a recall review report, a few risk assessments and supervision plans, and I'm usually running a bit behind in updating the contact logs with details of every phone call and email and every visit from a probation client.

It had already turned dark outside and was nearing the end of the day. The last client through the door is young and headstrong so I always try to spend a bit more time with him. He's really started to do well since being released from prison and we have a chat about his future plans to keep him focused. He failed his driving test in the past week so we talked about that too and I gave him a few tips for his retest. In return he let me hear his lyrics in his latest Youtube video, which thankfully only lasted a few minutes.

The last part of my day is usually spent updating the contact logs, and then finishing outstanding prices of work. I managed to complete a recall review report ready to be countersigned and sent to the recall unit. The client in question has outstanding offences so I'm recommending that he's not released from prison just yet. His solicitor had been constantly phoning me about this decision and doesn't seem to understand legal processes so I'm no longer taking their calls until my report had been submitted.

Just as I was having a chat with colleagues and about to switch off the computer an email came through with confirmation that a prisoner due to be released will not be detained by the immigration section. I rang his parents with the good news and my working day ended on a positive note. It was a long day but a good day, as are most days in probation. There were no crisis situations, I wasn't called a "cunt", nobody turned up homeless, and there wasn't a fire drill so it was all good.

Its probably a good point to get back to the point of the article, which is to remind probation clients that we are here to help and we are darn good at it. I'm not interested in claiming to protect the public, provide a service to victims or to enforce 'proper' punishments. My job as a Probation Officer, not an Offender Manager which is an awful term, is to advise, assist, befriend, help, support, motivate and rehabilitate. Anybody can be an 'Offender Manager' (whatever that is) and in my book impersonating a Probation Officer should become a criminal offence.

The Government meddling and the introduction of TR will not change my ethos and nor will the business plans of the new owners of private probation companies. As the news of the cost cutting strategies of the new private probation companies begin to emerge it is quickly becoming apparent that they may have bitten off more than they can chew. The Offender Rehabilitation Act is built on too much controversy, TTG to be delivered by privateers and charities is already a looming failure, and only an idiot would introduce a Post Sentence Supervision strategy that is abbreviated and referred to as PSS.

Probation work cannot be properly costed because if it were we'd be getting a lot more than £27 per hour. Nor can our work be time restricted or dictated by government whims, that's if rehabilitation is to remain an achievable outcome. When probation services are in tatters, when a new Justice Secretary is in post and when all those probation Chief Officers and management types that aided and abetting the sale of probation are forced to lower their heads in shame, we will continue to say "We told you so" and we'll carry on with advising, assisting and befriending.

Probation Officer
(10-20 years to retire!)
    

24 comments:

  1. Napo AGM soon so let's see if the motions look back. I doubt there will be many left or actually there to drive a past philosophy . Good luck.

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  2. Haha. I wrote this blog. Still not retired. Still advising, assisting and befriending against the heavy tidal wave of HMPPS bs.

    Correction: The £27 per hour referred to then agency po rates. I’m not an agency po so I earn far less. Probably less than the minimum £wage once you deduct all the unpaid overtime, unpaid expenses, pay freezes, cost of living !!!

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    1. Good to hear from you! I've always thought it's one of the best insights into our work. It would be great if you felt able to write another.....

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    2. Just a middle of the night waiting for morning thought......

      I'm a big advocate of the Advise Assist and Befriend approach to rehabilitation.
      But I wonder if there's a problem with the language rather then the concept in the modern world?
      After all assisting an offender is generally described by the media as a criminal offence.
      Befriending an offender? Well again it's said we're judged by the 'friends' we surround ourselves with.
      Just wondering if the concept of Advise,Assist and Befriend might stand a better chance of surviving, or even being rescued, by altering the terminology ?

      Like I say ,maybe just a tired sleepless night thought.

      'Getafix

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    3. Assisting an Offender - section 4(1) Criminal Law Act 1967

      The offence of assisting an offender ("the principal offender") is committed when:

      the principal offender has committed an arrestable offence;
      the accused knows or believes that the principal offender has committed that or some other arrestable offence;
      the accused does any act with intent to impede the apprehension or prosecution of the principal offender; and
      the act is done without lawful authority or reasonable excuse.

      It is an offence triable only on indictment unless the principal offence is an either way offence, in which case the offence of assisting a principal offender is also triable either way. The maximum sentence for the offence varies from three to ten years' imprisonment, depending on the punishment applicable to the principal offence: s.4(3).

      Proceedings may only be instituted by or with the consent of the Director of Public Prosecutions: s.4(4). Consent may be granted after charge but must be before committal proceedings (indictable offences) or mode of trial (either way offences). Consent must be obtained before proceedings are started by way of summons. It is not an offence to attempt to commit an offence under section 4.

      Examples of the type of conduct appropriate for a charge of assisting an offender include:

      hiding a principal offender;
      otherwise assisting a principal offender to avoid arrest;
      assisting a principal offender to abscond from bail;
      lying to the police to protect principal offenders from investigation and prosecution;
      hiding the weapon used in an assault/robbery;
      washing clothes worn by a principal offender to obstruct any potential forensic examination.

      There may be an overlap between the offence of assisting an offender and obstructing a constable, wasting police time, concealing arrestable offences (s.5(1) Criminal Law Act 1967) and perverting the course of justice .

      The courts have made it clear that assisting an offender is a serious offence and, if the statutory offence of assisting an offender can be charged, it should normally be preferred over common law offences.

      However, the common law offence of perverting the course of justice should be considered when:

      the assisting is aimed at preventing or hindering the trial process (as opposed to the arrest or apprehension of an accused);
      the facts are so serious that the court's sentencing powers for the statutory offence are considered inadequate;
      admissible evidence of the principle offence is lacking.

      Assisting an offender is sometimes not an easy offence to prove since it requires proof that the principle committed an arrestable offence and that the accused knew or believed this. In the absence of such proof, other public justice offences, such as obstruction or perverting the course of justice, can provide alternative charges.

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    4. Counsel, aid and support?

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    5. It was just a tired thought.
      Basically I was thinking, save the product by remarketing it.
      Marathon or Snickers?
      Exactly the same bloody thing, but Snickers is much more contemporary, and everyone is always looking for something new right?

      'Getafix

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    6. As always you contribute fascinating and different perspectives and I was joking I guess - but you are right it's a loaded term but one that goes right back to our roots and for that reason it's effectively our registered trademark. It was given to us by the Home Office no less, has stood the test of time and refuses to die because it's not only 'right' it works! It's also guaranteed to to annoy and get attention - you know what they say 'there's no such thing as bad publicity' and we want and need publicity for a discussion.

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    7. Call me an old-fashioned poxy social work type if you like, but I always saw it as advising, assisting and/or befriending a *person* who might be in need of one or all of those things.

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    8. Good question re terminology. As we're always filling the gaps and cracks due to the inequalities the service users experience, can we be called social plasterers ?

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  3. "and the colleague whose Pre Sentence Reports were so short they could fit on two sides of A4"

    These days that's way too long for a court to wade through...

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  4. We're doing the job and see first hand what works and what doesn't. Yet, management and some politicians make decisions that negatively impact us, service users and the public, without our consent, and expect us to do they're dirty work.
    Like the op says - we should continue doing what works, and I would add that if people don't like it and want to continue implementing more negative decisions, we should start to withhold our labour.
    We should be shaping the service along with service users, not out of touch managers and capitalist politicians.

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    1. The one-way flow of traffic as directed by the fascist capitalists continues regardless. From their perspective its their way or the highway, & they hold the balance of power & the biggest bank balances.

      "Boris Johnson may have ripped apart the soul and credibility of the Conservative Party but at least he is leaving what it seems to care about most – its wallet – in fair shape. Johnson resisted calls to sack his fellow Old Etonian Ben Elliot as Tory co-chair when the extent of Russian donations – and Elliot’s own business dealing with Russians – became clear after the invasion of Ukraine. Lubov Chernukhin, the wife of Vladimir Putin’s former finance minister, and Aquind, a company co-owned by the billionaire Viktor Fedotov, were among the most generous party donors." - The New European.

      Social media, mainstream media, government policy - wherever you look there are tidal waves of inappropriate loaded bullshit with only a handul of dissenters trying to redress the balance.

      Its good to see that this blog is one of the handful who continue the good fight.

      Advise, Assist & Befriend!

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    2. For context, here's some background on Ben Eliot:

      He is the son of Simon Elliot, a Dorset landowner & his mother is the sister of Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall

      Elliot is the co-founder of Quintessentially Group, the concierge company that provides lurid services for jillionaire members (flying teabags to Madonna in America, staging lunch on an iceberg, closing Sydney Harbour Bridge for a marriage proposal) & boasted about how it serves wealthy Russian clients

      In 2021 he raised nearly £2 million from donors with links to the Vladimir Putin regime in Russia

      He’s been a YouGov director, a board member at the Centre for Policy Studies think tank, a partner at reputation managers Hawthorn Advisors and a trustee of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

      (sources include wiki & Tatler amongst others)

      This is where the power lies in this scuzzy sewer of a government - in the hands of connected Etonians with access to £squillions.

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    3. We need to have a list of demands and we need to join other striking workers to get these met and show solidarity. If napo aren't up to the task of representing workers and side with the managers, we need to leave it, and either join another union (but not Unison as they support/supported Sir Keir), or start our own.
      Lets put a stop to being mugged off.

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    4. Horrible, but not surprising stuff there anon 13:19, and the labour party are just as capitalist, they just represent the left of it rather than the right.

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  5. Justin Russell's contribution (Jan 2021) to "words which have become famous within the service", i.e. 'advise, assist and befriend':

    "However, several significant things happened to probation caseloads in the 1970s changing the role of probation again.

    The first was that probation started to become a punishment in its own right rather than just an alternative to a prison sentence. In 1972, the Community Service Order (CSO) was introduced...

    ...A second key change was a new statutory role supervising many thousands of people on license after they were released from prison on parole – a new prison after care duty...

    ... A key reason for this was desperation on the part of politicians and civil servants to reduce pressures on the prison system...

    ... However, rather than diverting people from custody, both the prison and the probation population continued to climb and it was the use of fines which actually fell....

    ... A series of high profile murders committed by people on probation in the 1990s led to a much greater focus on public protection...

    ... the new tagline of the National Probation Service, to assess, protect and change.

    https://www.harknessfellows.org.uk/event-reports/justin-russel-from-advise-befriend-and-assist-to-assess-protect-and-change-some-reflections-on-the-history-and-future-of-the-probation-service

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  6. Dame Glenys Stacey, Feb 2018:

    "Probation officers were put on a statutory footing in 1907... And in the decades that followed, the probation role was summed up in just three or four words, ‘advise, assist and befriend’. But our expectations of probation services have changed considerably, since then."

    https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2018/02/Academy-for-Social-Justice-Commissioning-Manchester-February-2018.pdf

    In the House of Commons' Select Committees:

    "27. The Act required probation officers to 'advise, assist and befriend' those under supervision.

    28. The probation service has since seen many changes, some of which have been reflected in the training arrangements for probation officers. For example, for most of the twentieth century, probation officers underwent the same professional education as social workers, but this was set aside in the mid-1990s when the Government decided that social work was an inappropriate way to understand the work of the service; the emphasis of the profession, reflected in the training curriculum, changed towards enforcement, rehabilitation and public protection."

    https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201012/cmselect/cmjust/519/51902.htm


    And even in the US Dept of Justice library we can find a copy of Jarvis' 1972 classic:

    Advise, Assist & Befriend - A History of the Probation & After-Care Service


    Advise, Assist & Befriend is ubiquitous & inseparable from the concept of Probation.

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  7. Some legal firms have even assimilated the 'slogan' into their family proceedings guidance:

    "(a) Supervision Order - Social Services do not have legal rights. They have to “advise, assist and befriend” the family care for the child. A Supervision Order is usually made where the court thinks it best for the children to live with parents or family members. This Order is often made for a period of 6 to 12 months. If required the Local Authority can apply to extend the Order up to a period of 3 years."

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  8. Prof John Podmore, Applied Social Sciences, Durham University, 2015:

    "Advise, assist and befriend used to be the mantra of a probation service, much admired by other jurisdictions around the world. The degeneration into a community police force began a long time ago, and accelerated when the service was subsumed into the prison service under the aegis of the National Offender Management Service."

    https://www.dur.ac.uk/news/allnews/thoughtleadership/?itemno=24263

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  9. We are now in my region being told to take “stringent “ enforcement action if our cases don’t attend Unpaid Work. Some breaches I have been asked to action I have refused. Legacy NPS SPOs in particular know very little about community orders it’s embarrassing. All about targets and focussed on failings of the people we supervise. Yes enforcement action needed on occasion but not when it’s our fault they haven’t been given an appointment or when their public transport is delayed ! It’s common sense and unfortunately there appear To be very little beyond the frontline

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    1. From Rob Canton Twitter:-

      "Sad to read this and I know it’s an experience that so many (staff and service users) report. Cheap shots and lazy politics may please readers of the Daily Mail over their breakfast bowls, but punitivism is not only inhumane but also leads to more offending."

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  10. There's a bunch of managers pouring over spreadsheets and preformance data, angsting about how to hit business targets, obsessed with the idea that our clients can be shoe-horned into a flow diagram and their business needs. And there is -judging by the heartening responses here- a good bunch of Proper Probation People (PPPs if we must do this) following their professional instincts to #AdviseAssistBefriend.
    That's a helluva gulf between the management and the workforce. Who is going to flinch first?

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    1. and: actually: who is doing The Work? Not those spreadsheet target obsessed accountants, is who

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