Tuesday 1 November 2022

A Dystopian Nightmare

Seeing as it's been referenced, ('more wanky shyte') we might as well cover the latest Probation Service Change Bulletin. I have to say I find it paints a particularly depressing and emotionless picture of bureaucratic-speak, utterly devoid of any soul and in somewhat stark contrast to all the fluffy bullshit associated with 'Probation Day' at the other end of the spectrum.

Of course, as we know, the centre of the practice spectrum is characterised by widespread low morale, departures and crisis, but hey ho, this is what happens when you have the vast civil service bureaucracy running things and, as has been highlighted, the perfect recipe for more breaches; more offences; more imprisonment. But then HM Prison Service is increasingly driving things. What a dystopian nightmare we are steadily creating.  

1. Foreword

Welcome to the bi-monthly Probation Service Change Bulletin – keeping you updated on what is happening across the Probation Service. I’m Ian Barrow and I’ll be hosting this month’s bulletin. I’m the Executive Director of the Probation Workforce Programme.

A lot has happened since the last bulletin in July. We have seen significant changes in Government and His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS). We welcome back Dominic Raab as the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice.

There have also been changes within our own leadership team. Amy Rees was appointed Director General CEO for HMPPS and Phil Copple appointed Director General Operations, further information on these changes can been see in our recent update.

Amy and Phil are leading our plans to reshape the agency, with their joint focus being a continuing and greater focus on the operational front line. Their aim is to make sure the frontline has the right support and that we remove any obstacles that stop us being more efficient and effective, ensuring that Prison, Probation and the Youth Custody Service are support to enhance the vital services they provide.

Jo Farrar continues to have oversight for HMPPS alongside her wider Second Permanent Secretary responsibilities overseeing the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA), Legal Aid Agency, Office of the Public Guardian, and leadership of the service delivery transformation portfolios. Amy and Phil’s appointments signal the start of an exciting journey for HMPPS.

I also wanted to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Sonia Flynn, Chief Probation Officer, who after 35 years of working in Probation will be making a change of career direction and taking up a part time role within the Probation Workforce Programme as of February 2023. Sonia will be leading on the development and setting up of the new professional register, an area of work I know she is particularly passionate about. It will be great to still have her wealth of experience and knowledge within probation.

2. Reform Programme Closure

The probation reform programme will close as planned at the end of the year. We have delivered a big, very complex Government programme on time, to budget, much of it in a global pandemic. In June 2021 we welcomed over 7,000 probation professionals, either directly into probation services or employed by one of the organisations delivering commissioned rehabilitative services. We have completed 47 delivery priorities out of 69 based on the target operating model. Highlights this month include the launch of the new resettlement framework and enhancements to the Victims Contact Management System.

Since unification, our focus has been on ensuring a smooth transition phase and embedding some of the changes we have made. Once the programme does close, we will continue to implement the reforms set out in our Target Operating Model. In the December issue we will be updating further on all that has been achieved since the programme commenced.

3. Reducing Reoffending

This summer (July) we marked the one-year anniversary of the launch of our prison leaver accommodation service (Community Accommodation Service – Tier 3, or CAS3), a temporary accommodation service which aims to ensure no individual subject to probation supervision is released from prison into homelessness.

CAS3 provides up to 84 nights of temporary accommodation and support for all adult offenders released from prison or leaving an Approved Premises or BASS (Bail Accommodation and Support Service) residence who would otherwise have nowhere to go upon release. Hear from Probation Officer Lindsay as she explains how CAS3 supports safe reintegration back into society.

3.1 Stable Accommodation

Prison leavers who do not have access to stable accommodation on release are almost 50% more likely to reoffend. In creating a stable environment through accommodation, CAS3 gives people on probation the opportunity to address aspects of their behaviour linked to their risk of reoffending, including substance misuse issues and unemployment. CAS3 also supports pathways into settled accommodation, working with local authorities to increase access to private rental properties for prison leavers at risk of becoming homeless.

3.2 One Year On

CAS3 was launched in July 2021, initially in the North West, Greater Manchester, Yorkshire and the Humber, East of England, and Kent, Surrey, and Sussex probation regions. Since then, 2,396 individuals have been successfully placed into temporary accommodation. Roll out in Wales has now begun, and the programme team are in the process of competing contracts for the remaining probation regions.

3.3 Mandatory Drug Testing

People on probation recently released from custody residing within Approved Premises will now be randomly tested for 14 different types of drugs as part of a £1.2 million initiative to reduce reoffending. Read more about how this will help to reduce drug-fuelled crime.

4. Electronic Monitoring

We highlighted in the last bulletin the publication of the electronic monitoring strategy, setting out our clear vision for electronic monitoring. One of the key aspects of the strategy is the integration of electronic monitoring into Offender Management.

As we continue to expand electronic monitoring capabilities and its use, we will continue to ensure that our electronic monitoring structures are more closely integrated to offender management, building on the advantages of the Probation Reform Programme, ensuring electronic monitoring can provide the greatest effect for both those on probation in terms of rehabilitation and from a safety perspective for wider society.

The latest electronic monitoring statistics were recently published, with figures showing that the number of individuals actively monitored has increased in the last year, with 14,996 individuals actively monitored at 30 September 2022.

This is the first quarterly publication that has been produced and contains details of the number of individuals in England and Wales with an active electronic tag fitted, the number of new notification orders and the number of completed orders. It also contains details of the number of individuals with an alcohol monitoring tag and the number monitored under the acquisitive crime pilot.

We continue to expand electronic monitoring capabilities and Wednesday 26 October saw the expansion of the eligibility criteria for the compulsory GPS tagging of people on probation convicted of specific acquisitive crimes.

The project will now see the eligibility cohort expanded to those who are serving standard determinate sentences of 90 days and over – previously only those serving 12 months or over were eligible – who are released or re-released to reside within one of the 19 in-scope police force areas: Avon & Somerset, Cheshire, Gloucestershire, Gwent, Humberside, West Midlands, Bedfordshire, City of London, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Durham, Essex, Hampshire, Hertfordshire, Kent, Metropolitan, North Wales, Nottinghamshire and Sussex.

5. Grant Scheme

A grant scheme launched by the Probation Service is encouraging applications from charities and not-for-profit organisations. The scheme is to assist people with shared characteristics or shared experiences, and to provide support for people on probation with their desistance and rehabilitation. Grants are being funded through the Probation Service’s Regional Outcomes and Innovation Fund and aim to cover most activities regions would wish to grant fund.

Organisations interested in applying for a grant from this scheme should register through the Probation Grants Application Portal.

Once registered on the Ministry of Justice Sourcing Portal, organisations should go to PQQ open to all suppliers and click on Probation grants Application Process to complete their registration. The first round of grants will be for people from ethnic minority groups. Organisations successful registered on the Portal can submit a funding application for the first round until 2pm on 2 November.

6. Unpaid Work

People on probation on Community Payback are cleaning up the coastline in South Wales as part of the Marine Conservation Society’s annual Great British Beach Clean. The groups will be bagging up broken glass, plastic, and litter from beaches in Ogmore and Aberavon to support the green drive and pay back to the communities they have harmed. The rubbish they recover will be logged and the data then used by the charity to pinpoint the main pollutants and campaign for change.

The coastline clean-up marks the beginning of a new partnership between the Probation Service and Marine Conservation Society that will eventually see hundreds of people on probation on Community Payback cleaning beaches across England and Wales.

It follows a similar partnership with the Canal & River Trust with offenders on Community Payback helping to maintain the country’s waterways and is part of the government’s £93 million investment to increase unpaid work carried out by offenders up to eight million hours a year. The public can nominate Community Payback projects in their local area via the nominations page.

13 comments:

  1. I can’t think of a worse time for yet more change. Staff are still getting to grips with unification inc for some getting used to civil service beaurocracy, staffing levels are low and caseloads high along with low moral and stressed out staff !!!

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  2. @09:34 - Its THE most perfect time for yet more change.

    It keeps everyone unsettled, uncertain, nervy, anxious, easier to manipulate; its also easier to slip through unpleasant amendments, to rewrite history, to promote preferred leaders & to offload troublemakers.

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  3. What a load of absolute codswallop. But then Probation Staff are not the target audience. Column inches suggest that the Business of EM is the actual focus.
    This is supposed to reassure us: "Amy and Phil are leading our plans to reshape the agency, with their joint focus being a continuing and greater focus on the operational front line." but it fills me with foreboding. I don't want to be subject to greater focus from Amy and Phil. I don't want them in charge of me, and I with a passion hate being in the civil service and loathe the plan to join us every more closely into the Prison Service, from which both of them hail.

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  4. From earlier post, but worth repeating here I think:-

    "Probation has lost its heart to those running this shit show with so little experience on the front line. There are managers who have never even held a Mappa case! How can u know what will make the wheels turn properly if u lack understanding in how to ride properly? Too many sitting behind their desks calling people on the phone because they’re too scared to see them in person. It’s lost its true perspective and the reason those with the most experience are leaving is because we’ve become completely undervalued and misrepresented in the service. So much so that people on probation are getting a disservice and the public are in no way protected. Those at the top need to work out how to value their staff and to retain them or else officers will keep leaving. If their only plan b is to recruit inexperienced youth to manage highly complex cases then the service will continue to fail. The ‘old school’ trusts worked - since then it’s been an awful environment to work in."

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  5. Thanks Jim for your acknowledgement of my comments! It’s been a long time since anyone listened to an ‘old time’ probation officer (or whatever we’re called these days). I think if probation offered those with significant experience an attractive package to return then they probably would. For those of us in our ‘later years’ with so much more financial responsibility than those just fresh out of college, we need more of an affluent, workable package with better working conditions and prospects in order to come back. It seems to be ‘out with the old, in with the new’ but it should be ‘out with the new, in with the old’! Lol

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    1. Anon 12:42 Au contraire! Views of 'old time' PO's round here are bread and butter to us - this is the official home for all refuseniks so do please give us more and consider a Guest Blog piece. Cheers, Jim

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  6. Anyone noticed on intranet pic of Amy Rees re todays update from her that she is wearing a Lanyard that says CEO? Shurely shome mistake? Made me think of people with personal number plates that start BO55.

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    1. I hear Sonia changed her number plates once she got her new job. Apparently Ian Lawrence had first refusal, didn't want them, so there's a scrabble going on at Petty France for her old plates. Best & final offers if anyone fancies buying AR53 LKR...

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    2. Your wrong my DD has arse licker already and it's been on her mercedes for years.

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  7. Aah thankyou so much! Welcome to all those who remain in the ‘old school’ bracket and welcome to all those just starting out also. Hopefully one day we can all work together to make this service work - just gotta get those at the top to gather some perspective and remember the roots of the probation service. Then maybe the wheels will turn again. I got everything crossed 🤞

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  8. While Rome burns

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  9. Serious public safety concerns after police vetting inspection. Yet we have visor from them when they are clearly corrupted. Speaking as a 60s child I recall all the police corruption through the 70s and they have not changed to date. Rotten to the core.

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    Replies
    1. Vetting should have never been forced on probation.

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