Thursday 6 October 2022

Guest Blog 87

Probation as Abuser

I am a senior probation officer and have been in the service for over fifteen years. Of course, I'd be happy to own the things I'm about to say, I believe them and I can evidence them, but I'd never get permission to publish these views and if I identified myself without permission, I'd be in breach of the civil service code and subject to disciplinary action. 

It's worth pointing out that a dedicated set of public sector workers have been silenced and reduced to anonymous blogging. This itself, is the first act of institutional abuse I'd like to mention. It's hardly the behaviour of a confident organisation that's not afraid of healthy debate, more the type of censorship that might be seen in a repressive regime. 

Some time ago senior management were pushing an agenda of "professionalisation", but that's a hard circle to square with a staff group that is unable to publicly comment on their work. Truly probation staff are the "hidden heroes", hidden in plain sight and forbidden to speak.

With a few years in the job I've seen some things. From TPOs to PQiPs, from new labour to coalition, from Grayling to Gove, from NPS Mk1 to NPS Mk2, I've watched and lived it all like many who read this blog. It's entirely subjective of course but I've never seen the service in such a bad state. The staff shortages, the chaos, the weariness of colleagues is at breaking point. I know of offices with huge lists of entirely unallocated cases. A panicky email has been sent out asking for staff who might be willing to go and live in a hotel to prop up London probation. 

Why any PDU head in a remote area would approve the loss of a member of their own staff to prop up the capital is beyond me. While London is clearly in utter crisis other PDUs are teetering on the brink. Weary SPOs tell me they've been "in red" on the prioritisation matrix for months. What's the cause? Well far from being the great panacea that was promised, reunification has not brought relief to the system. 

At times of change, people change and many have voted for the door. Helped perhaps by Brexit labour shortages, they've left for the many, many jobs that now look much more attractive both financially and emotionally. Lidl pay £12 per hour and there's no domestic abuse or sex offending, well not much. The remaining staff are increasingly shell shocked and off sick. Absence rates are through the roof further tipping the service into crisis. 

Any staff that have the ability or the wherewithal are applying for jobs elsewhere in the business to get away from sentence management. That said, those PDU heads are wise to this and are simply refusing to release staff when they get new jobs! What's the answer? An army of PQiPS. Hundreds of them, in some offices I'm told there are more PQiPS than POs. This is great news, but who will train them? The stressed-out experienced staff are too busy managing the dangerous cases, there's a shortage of PTA's. 

It's like Putin's great mobilisation, an army of conscripts with no officers to train them and no ability to fight. PQiPs are leaving (deserting?) before they even qualify. They look at their weary miserable colleagues, they look at the lack of support and the huge responsibility, they look at the SPO apologetically asking them to take another high-risk case with remote oversight and it's not painting an attractive picture of their future.

Of course, the senior management response to a service in crisis is to double down. Having submitted the probation service to repeated catastrophic re-organisations the time is clearly right for further ill-conceived tinkering. Despite many failed attempts to get prisons and probation to work seamlessly (end to end offender management anyone?) they're going to have another go. We will become "One HMPPS". It's a sick joke. It's almost as if change is the only thing they can do, despite little evidence of benefit and considerable proof of harm.

Change in probation has been the one constant in my time and the pace has accelerated. The expectation that staff will absorb more change is, in my view, abusive. Is it a coincidence that the service has a largely female workforce? Certainly, probation pay has been neglected conspicuously over the years. The message for some years now has been absorb more work, absorb more change and get paid less. 

The only counterweight they have to this is tin pot reward and recognition schemes doling out consumerist shopping vouchers or "wellbeing" programmes that have to be set up and run by staff themselves. Messages like "take five to connect with colleagues" circulate alongside emails to allocate more cases. Numbers cease to make sense with 120% being the new 100% on the workload management tool. 

It's abusive nonsense and don't ever be fooled, they don't care. I'm not saying they're evil, I'm not saying they're not kind to dogs and small children, but if you think they care about frontline staff other than as bare resource to be burned up and exploited then I think you're a bit misguided to put it politely. They know what would make things better, they know that lower workloads, less change, higher pay would improve morale and wellbeing (and probably outcomes for probationers) but ask yourself, have they ever done any of those things in the last ten years? No, they haven't, and no amount of moaning on the people's survey will ever shift that dial so don't even bother.

Lets put our senior management through the lens of OASys. What would be the crime? Hard to look past some form of domestic abuse. Repeatedly punching the face of someone you claim to love. Like many an abuser you've controlled the ability of your victim to interact with the outside world, controlling their freedom of speech. 

The constant change, the threats about performance, interspersed with daft awards and occasional cake (please bake your own), what is this but a form of gas lighting, leaving staff constantly dazed and confused. The restriction of finances, both resourcing and salary wise. The constant accrual of new victims, looking at you PQiPs. It all adds up. But you know what's the worst? The absolute worst is taking advantage of someone's love, someone's passion, someone's vocation and betraying that so they let you treat them so badly. That's proper abuse that is.

There's a new Lidl opening up the road. Might have a look.


Anon

21 comments:

  1. I agree with so much said here. The only narrative that is at odds for me is that around pdu heads. In my experience heads of pdu are continually fighting for their staff try as best they can to hold it all together, with added pressures of partnership engagement. All with little power to actually do anything in a centralised world of recruitment and directives from the centre. To say heads do not care is an insult. Of course this may be different experiences for some but much like this blog has practitioners criticising spos, having an spo blanket blaming heads is niave and insuler in thinking. One final thought as bad as it is the only way out is to retain and attract staff is the constant damming of the service helpful? Or will it eventually just lead to another restructure? Perhaps instead of criticising people of any grade within the service we should look to the successive ministers whose tinkering is truly responsible

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    Replies
    1. Leaving the politicians and the highest level civil servants (Romeo et al) I agree, this is not about individuals or layers, its about the institutional systemic calousness, coercion and bullying, and a culture which defines justice as punishment and control, a definition which absolutely at variance with the culture of what I think of as Probation.
      This of course is driven by those politicians their top civil servants. "Tinkering" is not what they are at. This is ruthless concious destruction. They hate us, they dont understand us, and they dont share any of the principles and beliefs that are core to my probation. And they exploit us and our vocation. Much as I agree with the guest blog, and acknowledge that probation is traumatised by constant change, if probation doesnt get itself out of this abusive relationship, it will be extinguished. As we know, the most dangerous time in an abusive relationship is often at the point of departure, but we also know that once the victim has left, they rub their eyes, breathe clean air and start the road to recovery

      Delete
  2. Since today is setting up a hit-Job on senior management (PDU Heads). You left out they’re the biggest beneficiaries in the pay award too!

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  3. Yes, yes & yes, Thank you for taking the risk & the time.

    No surprise that the Strong White Shark aka Bully-In-Chief Romeo, having exercised even greater powers to impose yet more devastation upon the probation service than she did with TR, is about to jump ship & fuck the country by becoming the Treasury Perm Sec under Kwazy Kwarteng, with Trusssss's blessing.

    "Who is Antonia Romeo? Outside candidate lined up by Kwasi Kwarteng to be top Treasury civil servant"

    https://www.nationalworld.com/news/politics/who-is-antonia-romeo-outside-candidate-lined-up-by-kwasi-kwarteng-to-be-top-treasury-civil-servant-3868902

    p.s. the label 'disruptor' is not a benign one. In my view, for 'disruptor' read 'right wing nut job'

    p.p.s. interesting to read & hear that the Beeb are already whitewashing the damage done by the Trusssss/Kwarteng mini-budget telling us the pound has recovered & the markets were over-reacting, PLUS they're promoting public unrest about the rail strikes, e.g. Radio1 (yes, R1) all day yesterday only had voxpops of anger & frustration because "of a dispute over pay which the govt says is disappointing & harming the public."

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDs57R6MYsY

    Trust in me, just in me
    Shut your eyes and trust in me
    You can sleep safe and sound
    Knowing I am around
    Slip into silent slumber
    Sail on a silver mist
    Slowly and surely your senses
    Will cease to resist
    Trust in me, just in me
    Shut your eyes and trust in me

    ReplyDelete
  4. As an SPO, the captain of the ship, you should find what works rather than bleating about what doesn’t. You offer no solutions or ideas to navigate the problems, I would not want you as my manager.

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    Replies
    1. You assume there is a power to influence and make change, and effectively lead. There is none of those things for SPOs- they are the buffer between senior leaders/ MOJ and practitioners.

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    2. I think you do have some power and influence, at least to interpret message for your staff. Just as I despise senior managers who have no idea of what the frontline actually is, I also am wary of middle managers and SPO’s like you that offer no solutions at all and simply push blame on those above.

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    3. Why do you assume I am a manager? I think the view you have may be reflective of your experience but I do worry about your limited perspective and negativity? Exactly the same as you criticise the author of this article of? HMPPS is a top down culture- solutions are offered and often disregarded by those with the power sadly. Most managers won’t share their personal feelings with their teams but they are entitled to a view and perspective and your rudeness is unnecessary.

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  5. As a fellow SPO some comments on here give us a bit of a beating, others recognise we are between a rock and a hard place. SPO’s reiterate well-being, staffing and workload issues at managers meetings to be told it needs to be done and remember we need to support staff, and there is EAP for those that need it. Get people back from sickness absence, workloads will reduce. They don’t see the connection between the work environment and staff absence at all. Even the OH approach to wellbeing and sickness Is focused on making people feel bad for being unwell and off work. Government policy will continue to drive up workloads and bureaucracy, there is no light at the end of the tunnel. The TUs have little credibility with the top table at the MOJ and the membership. This has been undermined further by the recent pay ballot. We will become one HMPPS because they know we have been ground down to silent acceptance, that this is how it is. A mass exodus of staff is a result of the realisation that the vocation to help the vulnerable, victims and those offend, has sadly gone and won’t return.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi. As the writer of the piece above I was not aiming my fire at PDU heads, although I have some criticisms of them I could make. As someone else has pointed out the real villains are the politicians and senior civil servants.
    SPO 12

    ReplyDelete
  7. Unless I’d already handed in my notice to work at Lidl, I think “We’d be better off working at Lidl” is probably the most useless and demotivating advice an SPO could give.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Really? More useless and demotivating than JFDI?

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    2. JFDI and BOAL (Better Off At Lidl) are opposite ends of the spectrum. Both extremes are useless.

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    3. I'd rather a manager reminded me that I had other options in life. That might not motivate me to get the work done but since I can't get it all done anyway...

      Here's another four-letter acronym: TINA

      Delete
  8. In my 20+ years experiment as a PO, I have found virtually every SPO in the numerous offices that I have worked, to be decent, hardworking and caring first line managers. These same SPOs have virtually no say on what goes on and the pressure in them from above to make staff take on more work that they can safely manage must be immense.

    Nothing anyone says or does is now going to change the direction of travel. The only option for staff on a personal level is either roll with all the changes and accept ever increasing workloads and low pay or else apply for more beneficial roles with within the one HMPPS or elsewhere. Unfortunately senior management and politicians have an agenda and they are not bothered sufficiently about staff wellbeing to bring into practice, a fair and decent working environment. This unfortunately is the truth of the matter.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is my experience too, but SPOs can help staff to navigate the problems. Yes it’s dire, but they can help with ways to work within it.

      And yes Senior Managers may not listen to SPOs, but this doesn’t stop SPOs outlining the problems to them and demanding what is needed.

      The problem with pay is the fault of unions for rolling over and being “neutral” towards a crappy 3% pay deal nobody understands. GMB was the worst because it’s full of senior managers that voted for it, but my gripe is with Napo as that’s supposed to be our union !!

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  9. Probation services haven't got to where they are today overnight. It's been a long process.
    The real problem is that people have just sat back and watched it happen.
    It's where it is today because of a weak union and membership apathy, and of course those who find themselves in a good position and don't want to be found out so stay quiet and accept.
    The general complaint on this blog is about pay and conditions.
    With the exception of rare interjecions, no one complains about not being able to access the services for those they supervise, access to the nuts and bolts that allow a PO to do their work, the work they are trained to do.
    Some day soon , someones going to ask the question what the f**k is probation about, why does it cost so much, what does it actually contribute to society, and why do we need it anyway.
    Just tag 'em all and drug test them.
    G4s can do that for half the price!

    'Getafix


    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Compare and contrast with Russel Websters blog, both regular log in for me.

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    2. Just tag 'em all and drug test them.

      Already doing that !

      Delete
  10. A SPO can always make a difference. They should protect their teams and when things get tough stand with them .

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  11. An excellent analysis of the current state of our service. Staff are the greatest resource in the Probation Service yet receive the least recognition. The silent frontline are rarely recognised or rewarded when working until 10pm at night trying to keep on top of excessive workloads and the infinite 'To Do' list. PQiPs are increasingly relied upon to cover work they're not yet experienced or qualified enough to do with 'oversight' by overworked, overwhelmed qualified staff. Change projects look good on paper but in reality tend to just focus on new innovative ways to fudge the figures. Take SEEDS, good practice but in reality who has the time to deliver quality practice? I have personally been advised in the past to focus on ensuring a HR assessment is completed on target rather than prioritising actual contact with any service users. Yes, there are solutions but they don't fit with the current political ideology; financially reward staff to acknowledge the skill and passion with which we serve (not the insulting deal recently offered), prioritise good practice through effective training programmes (not just 'rush em through to boost the numbers' schemes, reward experience through recognised career and professional incentives (Senior Practitioner roles? Effective Practice Project roles?) and stop paying lip service to the concerns and anxieties that staff report.

    ReplyDelete