Over the years I've been contacted many times by the media and have always tried to assist, but this is different both in terms of breadth of interest and what I perceive as a genuine desire to really understand what probation is about; it's significance as a concept and it's many and varied problems brought about by successive politically-motivated upheavals.
It's clear the service is broken and the media is keen to expose what has been discussed anonymously on here many, many times over the years, but also take the time and effort to put it into a wider context. But they need help and anyone who can give 'chapter and verse' is particularly asked to consider getting in touch and contact details are on the profile page.
Of course what has now been set in train has both potential benefits and serious risks attached, but it's widely understood that the service was effectively destined for oblivion under HMPPS/MoJ command and control anyway. I sense there's a growing mood to just 'go for broke', get the whole sorry story out there, but at the same time make the case for a reconfigured and independent service. We can do this, but it requires the help of all those who can speak authoritatively on our behalf, academics, politicians, CJS charities, former Chiefs and HMI's.
--oo00oo--
It's a bit of a perfect storm isn't it? We are in the wake of appalling and inevitable failures of our Probation public protection brief. Redefined in current media and by this awful government, and the equally awful MoJ command, as the agency with responsibility no not so much as manage risk, but to eliminate it, the flickering flame of Probation Identity as an agency of social justice, critical of the state, and alive to the social context of crime, working in therapeutic and humane ways with our clientele, may be extinguished, if it isn't already.
Exhausted and betrayed staff are now queuing up to blow the whistle and Pandora's box is now opened. Probation people are in my experience, a very diffident, moderate, corporate and discreet bunch but they have been tested to destruction. The alacrity with which they are now giving vent in public is tantamount to civil unrest. It's a development fraught with risks, given the relish with which the party in government is now debating the benefits of capital punishment within its ranks.
There are allies and practitioners at all levels working to forge progress within the current structures, and power to their elbows, but it's too urgent and the organisation has no capacity or will to listen. The alternative is however to start from scratch: a small movement of missionaries - lets say people with social consciences and humanity - to start from scratch. The quandary for all of us, not least our Union, is that with wilful hastening of the destruction of what remains of the profession, there will be a real and painful impact on the lives and living of employees.
They could pay POs better wages and pull POs out of prisons into probation offices. Instead the HMPPS sticking plasters while it’s prison driven steam train drags Probation further towards the scrapyard.
I was struck by a comment on yesterday's blog post that pointed out that whilst the recent publicity and whistleblowing probation is experiencing might do a lot in exposing the problems and pressures that probation services are faced with, that exposure might come with a significant cost to the service. Might the solutions that must come not further imbed probation within the prison service? Might the service not become more like 'prison officers working in the community' rather then 'probation officers working in prisons'?
Channel 4 reported on the whistleblowing story yesterday, and although the news was specifically about probation, the video that accompanied the story contained nothing but locks, bolts and bars, and prison gates and landings. Surely that imagery can do little else but imbued in the public's mind that probation is indeed part of the prison service?
The Probation Service used to have fantastic training staff, long serving officers had time to nurture the new recruits coming into the service. Staff of all grades stayed, believing the PS to be a good employer. As officers, we could frequently see positive outcomes for those we support.
All of this has been replaced by counting by numbers training that does little to educate and does nothing to help staff retain learning. Staff of all grades are expressing continued discontent or leaving, and those in charge do little to evidence they are listening or even barely interested in the thought of frontline practitioners.
Inspections report failings but influence very little and the unions are of little effectiveness. The question is, can staff collectively come together to bring about meaningful change and if so, who will lead us in doing so?
Staff retention is a huge problem. Throwing money at recruiting so many PQiPs is not the answer. I know of many reputable, well experienced officers who have left because there is no other choice. We are told there is no fix and when we say we are struggling, we are compared to others who are seemingly ‘coping’. Truth of the matter is they are not. The environment is mundane and seeing so many colleagues burn out is soul destroying.
The Senior management team have their own cliques and if you are not part of it then you may as well talk to a brick wall. Being asked for ideas on how to help is not enough, as often it’s not followed through. Management make changes to tick their boxes and not for the benefit of frontline staff or PoPs.
Training is a critical issue, front-end & ongoing; learning should never stop. CPD has never been formally established within probation work. It does not work well when linked to pay progression; natural curiosity & a desire to improve used to be enough.
Simply demanding more money will attract some staff, but not neccessarily those who have the 'probation ethos' in their hearts. It has been the myth of "more money" that has contributed to the current catastrophe, e.g. new staff only applying to get a degree without paying for it & then clearing off, eager applicants for managerial jobs with a handful of months' experience, secondments to 'the centre' & ultimately never returning.
The service needs to decouple from HMPPS, to redefine itself along the lines of 'advise, assist, befriend' and hold firm. Labour's tough on crime & the Tories' new death squads headed by Lee Anderson do not represent probation work, however well paid they might be.
****
“Training is a critical issue, front-end & ongoing; learning should never stop.” Again mistaken. The response from London Probation to the abysmal HMIP inspections and SFOs has been to send probation officers on more training. The failing is not because of lack of training it is because of lack of staff. We could have the best trained staff in the world, and once did, if they are not paid and treated well they will leave and never return.
****
Here's another angle you might consider in lieu of you actually speaking to any of the whistle-blowers bravely breaking cover trying to make someone take notice and help us so we and the public don't come to serious harm. Perhaps ideas regarding solutions were provided but they're not deemed attractive reporting. Perhaps they said that individuals had been trying to sound the alarm via appropriate channels but were ignored or told that they couldn't possibly know what they were on about.
Perhaps the pathetic excuse the Probation Service calls training was brought up, the continual abuse of staff with any whiff of a protected characteristic, the increased numbers of suicidal staff, the staff charging electronics in the office because they can't afford to do so at home. Maybe even simple solutions for those were proffered. Perhaps the need for better pay, gross overhaul of management, mental health provision, the need to overhaul the criminal justice system and the need to focus on the social work aspect (rather than prison command/control rhetoric) were discussed.
Perhaps it was mentioned that the probation service is reflecting just how sick public services are - even if we had the most incredible and supportive probation service ever, how would it ever function well when the NHS, social services, housing, education, the police, the DWP etc aren't fit for purpose either. It's not like probation works in isolation. That's far too political and talking about reality just means people can't play ignorant and bury their heads in the sand.
Perhaps those things were even acknowledged but they couldn't be reported on because hard evidence is needed and evidence in the MoJ and HMPPS is slippery. But heck, what do I know? I'd be lying if I said I understood what goes through the minds of journalists or editors in determining what Joe Public wants to read or needs to know.
*****
Two observations. The disaster of TR was NOT "reversed". This keeps being reported and it's not true. With taking the credit it just removed half of the problem and relocated it into the other half of the problem. Neither existed pre TR. The exposing of the scandal that is the wrecking of Probation is needed, and on balance probably good and I hope more staff roll up. But: the risk is that all remedial action will be in the form of strengthening risk management. AKA policing. Any narrative about redemption, forgiveness, healing, reparation, is being blown away like sand in a gale.
*****
The regional WLMT shown today is scary showing 8/12 regions in the red. Drill down to PDU level and the picture is dire… its about parity of pain, city v rural it hides the reality at regional level. Long term more POs/PSOs with better pay will obviously be a good thing, but it is broken today and will be tomorrow.
Number of issues highlighted with NPS, lack of experience of SPOs, many cushy jobs created to quickly get off the frontline. Unrealistic expectations, target driven service, poor pay and conditions the list is endless. In over 20 years I have never seen the service so utterly broken, if it was a horse it would be in the glue factory.
This week alone with the media full of SFOs the Tories have appointed a chairman openly in favour of the death penalty. They've rejected the notion of resentencing IPP prisoners. They've given police forces quotas to take in the prison over spill. Rabb has announced prison abstinence wings to reduce 'state sponsored drug dealing' reducing the amount of methadone and subutex given in prison to addicts. They've changed the criteria for releasing prisoners serving under 4 years early on tag. They've excluded people serving sentences for domestic violence, stalking and harassment etc from being able to be released early on tag, whilst in an attempt to balance the impact this will have on prison population, they've increased the period for those who are eligible from 4 and a half months prior to release to 6 months prior to release.
I have no idea how this will impact on the courts or probation services. The CJS is always used as a political football as elections approach, but more then ever I fear we are going to see big changes, bigger lies, more spin then ever before. The Tories are going to be the new vaccine for crime. And as usual, very little good will come of it.
Exhausted and betrayed staff are now queuing up to blow the whistle and Pandora's box is now opened. Probation people are in my experience, a very diffident, moderate, corporate and discreet bunch but they have been tested to destruction. The alacrity with which they are now giving vent in public is tantamount to civil unrest. It's a development fraught with risks, given the relish with which the party in government is now debating the benefits of capital punishment within its ranks.
No response from within HMPPS will be anywhere near the mark of what is needed and wanted. Government-in-waiting is not inspiring - to be kind - on this front. The scope to build something meaningful and progressive from within looks pretty minimal, so maybe destruction of the status quo is the only and inevitable way.
*****
It is happening already; Downgrading eligibility criteria and lengths of Probation Officer training. Red site status stacking cases, conducting reporting centres and suspending core work. Focus on recruiting PSOs over POs. Removal of release recommendations in Parole reports.They could pay POs better wages and pull POs out of prisons into probation offices. Instead the HMPPS sticking plasters while it’s prison driven steam train drags Probation further towards the scrapyard.
*****
The probation service isn't being directed by the prison service, it's actually become an extension of the prison service. What's more I believe it's now being seen as the failing part of the prison service.I was struck by a comment on yesterday's blog post that pointed out that whilst the recent publicity and whistleblowing probation is experiencing might do a lot in exposing the problems and pressures that probation services are faced with, that exposure might come with a significant cost to the service. Might the solutions that must come not further imbed probation within the prison service? Might the service not become more like 'prison officers working in the community' rather then 'probation officers working in prisons'?
Channel 4 reported on the whistleblowing story yesterday, and although the news was specifically about probation, the video that accompanied the story contained nothing but locks, bolts and bars, and prison gates and landings. Surely that imagery can do little else but imbued in the public's mind that probation is indeed part of the prison service?
******
I sincerely hope that it does galvanise some serious debate Jim, not least because probation supervise a population that's roughly equivalent to the population of Milton Keynes.
They've somewhere along the line stopped being people and become caseloads. They've become the problematic tenant in the probation household, and just like people in prison are processed until they reach the end of their sentence, people on probation are processed until they reach the conclusion of their supervision period. That approach serves no one, and it's a very expensive investment with little reward for anyone involved.
As for suitable imagery? I really don't know. Maybe probation helping someone fill in a housing application would be better then prison landings, gates and keys? I think the right imagery may become clear once probation can define it's role in the CJS in it's own right, and maybe that's the fundamental question probation needs to answer. Who are we? Why do we exist?
They've somewhere along the line stopped being people and become caseloads. They've become the problematic tenant in the probation household, and just like people in prison are processed until they reach the end of their sentence, people on probation are processed until they reach the conclusion of their supervision period. That approach serves no one, and it's a very expensive investment with little reward for anyone involved.
As for suitable imagery? I really don't know. Maybe probation helping someone fill in a housing application would be better then prison landings, gates and keys? I think the right imagery may become clear once probation can define it's role in the CJS in it's own right, and maybe that's the fundamental question probation needs to answer. Who are we? Why do we exist?
*****
"They've somewhere along the line stopped being people and become caseloads." Thank you. In a nutshell. Regarding imagery, if I wanted to encapsulate an image of the wasted time and resource, it would be rows of probation staff sitting in rows, typing. If I wanted an image of the potential and the joy, it would be encounters with befriended people on the park benches, the doorsteps, the car parks, the CAB offices. Sometimes but not often in the office.
I cuddled a baby last week, with her dad, who a year ago was in trouble and despair. Proud dad, proud probation officer. The room was full of love and optimism. He was never a threat to public safety, just to himself, and to others in being inconvenient, antisocial and using up a lot of court time. The "solution" was never ever punishment or incarceration. It was housing purpose and hope.
"They've somewhere along the line stopped being people and become caseloads." Thank you. In a nutshell. Regarding imagery, if I wanted to encapsulate an image of the wasted time and resource, it would be rows of probation staff sitting in rows, typing. If I wanted an image of the potential and the joy, it would be encounters with befriended people on the park benches, the doorsteps, the car parks, the CAB offices. Sometimes but not often in the office.
I cuddled a baby last week, with her dad, who a year ago was in trouble and despair. Proud dad, proud probation officer. The room was full of love and optimism. He was never a threat to public safety, just to himself, and to others in being inconvenient, antisocial and using up a lot of court time. The "solution" was never ever punishment or incarceration. It was housing purpose and hope.
*****
With local line managers, local senior managers and alike unable to influence how current policy hampers officers doing their job, and who are notably responsible for creating and maintaining the oftentimes, toxic and bullying environment we have to work in, one must question what can be done to bring about meaningful change.The Probation Service used to have fantastic training staff, long serving officers had time to nurture the new recruits coming into the service. Staff of all grades stayed, believing the PS to be a good employer. As officers, we could frequently see positive outcomes for those we support.
All of this has been replaced by counting by numbers training that does little to educate and does nothing to help staff retain learning. Staff of all grades are expressing continued discontent or leaving, and those in charge do little to evidence they are listening or even barely interested in the thought of frontline practitioners.
Inspections report failings but influence very little and the unions are of little effectiveness. The question is, can staff collectively come together to bring about meaningful change and if so, who will lead us in doing so?
*****
The sad reality of the service is finally revealed, although not to it’s full extent. Staff have been struggling for long enough and even when you go off sick, there is a short period of ‘grace’ if we can even call it that, and then it’s back to the old same issues.Staff retention is a huge problem. Throwing money at recruiting so many PQiPs is not the answer. I know of many reputable, well experienced officers who have left because there is no other choice. We are told there is no fix and when we say we are struggling, we are compared to others who are seemingly ‘coping’. Truth of the matter is they are not. The environment is mundane and seeing so many colleagues burn out is soul destroying.
The Senior management team have their own cliques and if you are not part of it then you may as well talk to a brick wall. Being asked for ideas on how to help is not enough, as often it’s not followed through. Management make changes to tick their boxes and not for the benefit of frontline staff or PoPs.
*****
The issue that many readers will know is not necessarily how they stand on WLMT, but that this tool does not accurately allocate the true amount of time that tasks actually take. OASys as one example. OMs are allocated something along the lines of just 2 hours for an ISP, when it can take even the most experienced staff member close to 10 hours if not longer. The same can be said for reviews. If the WLMT provided an accurate allocation of time for tasks, then I’m pretty sure staff would be in excess of 200% or even 300%. Why NAPO and other unions allow this injustice to skew the true workload OMs are having to cope with is beyond me. The risks to the public are evident.*****
"We do not want more training and silly support scheme, we want to be paid better which will in turn attract and retain staff." Pay & Ts+Cs have been happily surrendered by the unions over the last decade or so. As a consequence of that capitulation, regaining that ground will be very difficult.Training is a critical issue, front-end & ongoing; learning should never stop. CPD has never been formally established within probation work. It does not work well when linked to pay progression; natural curiosity & a desire to improve used to be enough.
Simply demanding more money will attract some staff, but not neccessarily those who have the 'probation ethos' in their hearts. It has been the myth of "more money" that has contributed to the current catastrophe, e.g. new staff only applying to get a degree without paying for it & then clearing off, eager applicants for managerial jobs with a handful of months' experience, secondments to 'the centre' & ultimately never returning.
The service needs to decouple from HMPPS, to redefine itself along the lines of 'advise, assist, befriend' and hold firm. Labour's tough on crime & the Tories' new death squads headed by Lee Anderson do not represent probation work, however well paid they might be.
****
“Training is a critical issue, front-end & ongoing; learning should never stop.” Again mistaken. The response from London Probation to the abysmal HMIP inspections and SFOs has been to send probation officers on more training. The failing is not because of lack of training it is because of lack of staff. We could have the best trained staff in the world, and once did, if they are not paid and treated well they will leave and never return.
****
Here's another angle you might consider in lieu of you actually speaking to any of the whistle-blowers bravely breaking cover trying to make someone take notice and help us so we and the public don't come to serious harm. Perhaps ideas regarding solutions were provided but they're not deemed attractive reporting. Perhaps they said that individuals had been trying to sound the alarm via appropriate channels but were ignored or told that they couldn't possibly know what they were on about.
Perhaps the pathetic excuse the Probation Service calls training was brought up, the continual abuse of staff with any whiff of a protected characteristic, the increased numbers of suicidal staff, the staff charging electronics in the office because they can't afford to do so at home. Maybe even simple solutions for those were proffered. Perhaps the need for better pay, gross overhaul of management, mental health provision, the need to overhaul the criminal justice system and the need to focus on the social work aspect (rather than prison command/control rhetoric) were discussed.
Perhaps it was mentioned that the probation service is reflecting just how sick public services are - even if we had the most incredible and supportive probation service ever, how would it ever function well when the NHS, social services, housing, education, the police, the DWP etc aren't fit for purpose either. It's not like probation works in isolation. That's far too political and talking about reality just means people can't play ignorant and bury their heads in the sand.
Perhaps those things were even acknowledged but they couldn't be reported on because hard evidence is needed and evidence in the MoJ and HMPPS is slippery. But heck, what do I know? I'd be lying if I said I understood what goes through the minds of journalists or editors in determining what Joe Public wants to read or needs to know.
*****
Two observations. The disaster of TR was NOT "reversed". This keeps being reported and it's not true. With taking the credit it just removed half of the problem and relocated it into the other half of the problem. Neither existed pre TR. The exposing of the scandal that is the wrecking of Probation is needed, and on balance probably good and I hope more staff roll up. But: the risk is that all remedial action will be in the form of strengthening risk management. AKA policing. Any narrative about redemption, forgiveness, healing, reparation, is being blown away like sand in a gale.
*****
The regional WLMT shown today is scary showing 8/12 regions in the red. Drill down to PDU level and the picture is dire… its about parity of pain, city v rural it hides the reality at regional level. Long term more POs/PSOs with better pay will obviously be a good thing, but it is broken today and will be tomorrow.
Senior management such as heads of operations and above need to tell MoJ/HMPPS to park/suspend the service levels. Above all, shut down the algorithmic monster known to all as OPen it is a live beast that needs feeding daily and it’s always hungry. If not, try as I might, please accept that I cannot deliver a good service to all of my people when I am constantly hovering around 147%. WLMT is not my invention, it’s a service designed system to show managers that staff will burn out if you leave them at 110% for too long. When at that magic figure, managers should intervene and take supportive action. Unfortunately their managers tool box is empty.
*****
As a PO of 20 years having moved through 4 specialist areas of work plus one secondment to YOS, my view is the vast majority of what I read (and 100%) of what I contribute on this blog is true. RoSH is being manipulated to allow allocation of more cases to officers, the WMT does NOT reflect the actual time taken by a competent officer to do the tasks measured and indeed, the WMT is changed at times and not all work we do is measured anyway.
*****
As a PO of 20 years having moved through 4 specialist areas of work plus one secondment to YOS, my view is the vast majority of what I read (and 100%) of what I contribute on this blog is true. RoSH is being manipulated to allow allocation of more cases to officers, the WMT does NOT reflect the actual time taken by a competent officer to do the tasks measured and indeed, the WMT is changed at times and not all work we do is measured anyway.
Finally SFOs are not an accurate measure of serious offending by those we supervise and in the months after TR, offences were actually removed from SFO reporting. The truth is important but front line practitioners are labelled negatively by management if they speak up within the organisation it is a “put up or shut up” culture in probation now. Management has lost the confidence and trust of the majority of the front line. We are exhausted trying so hard to do our jobs properly and the culture we work in is now toxic. This blog is a place of testament.
*****
WLMT isn’t fit for purpose, we all know that and nothing happens when in the red! Prison based POs have no WLMT and in my recent experience we have lost 3 POs leaving 2 POs to manage 84 high ROSH cases each . Before backlash starts, I fully acknowledge the role is different to the community, however still target driven under OMIC which should be called COMIC, still unmanageable to undertake work with prisoners. Swallowed by HMPPS.
*****
WLMT isn’t fit for purpose, we all know that and nothing happens when in the red! Prison based POs have no WLMT and in my recent experience we have lost 3 POs leaving 2 POs to manage 84 high ROSH cases each . Before backlash starts, I fully acknowledge the role is different to the community, however still target driven under OMIC which should be called COMIC, still unmanageable to undertake work with prisoners. Swallowed by HMPPS.
Number of issues highlighted with NPS, lack of experience of SPOs, many cushy jobs created to quickly get off the frontline. Unrealistic expectations, target driven service, poor pay and conditions the list is endless. In over 20 years I have never seen the service so utterly broken, if it was a horse it would be in the glue factory.
There are many great people of all grades in the service pushed to the edge and with the move to laptops it appears unwritten rule that people work over the paid hours of 37 hours and somehow those who try and stick to those 37 hours are frowned upon for not meeting unrealistic targets given the caseloads. As a service we have never really celebrated our achievements, the thousands who don’t commit SFO for a start! Rightly so the spotlight should be shone on failings, but let’s not forget the failings are top down not bottom up.
*****
As the next general election approaches, with the state the country is in, the Tories have precious little to sell the public in order to garner votes. A poll this week even suggested that if a snap election were called now they might even find themselves as the third party in parliament instead of in opposition. Enter the CJS. I think there's going to be a lot of dissembling and scaremongering going on, and I think the CJS is going to be in for a rough ride over the next 18mts.
*****
As the next general election approaches, with the state the country is in, the Tories have precious little to sell the public in order to garner votes. A poll this week even suggested that if a snap election were called now they might even find themselves as the third party in parliament instead of in opposition. Enter the CJS. I think there's going to be a lot of dissembling and scaremongering going on, and I think the CJS is going to be in for a rough ride over the next 18mts.
This week alone with the media full of SFOs the Tories have appointed a chairman openly in favour of the death penalty. They've rejected the notion of resentencing IPP prisoners. They've given police forces quotas to take in the prison over spill. Rabb has announced prison abstinence wings to reduce 'state sponsored drug dealing' reducing the amount of methadone and subutex given in prison to addicts. They've changed the criteria for releasing prisoners serving under 4 years early on tag. They've excluded people serving sentences for domestic violence, stalking and harassment etc from being able to be released early on tag, whilst in an attempt to balance the impact this will have on prison population, they've increased the period for those who are eligible from 4 and a half months prior to release to 6 months prior to release.
I have no idea how this will impact on the courts or probation services. The CJS is always used as a political football as elections approach, but more then ever I fear we are going to see big changes, bigger lies, more spin then ever before. The Tories are going to be the new vaccine for crime. And as usual, very little good will come of it.
Guardian Editorial 9th Feb:-
ReplyDeleteThe Guardian view on the probation service: a crunch has been building for years
Zara Aleena, a law graduate from Ilford, was walking home from a night out last June when she was killed in a brutal attack. Seven months later, the chief inspector of probation concluded that Jordan McSweeney, who raped and murdered Ms Aleena, would not have been free to attack her that night had it not been for a series of blunders. McSweeney had previously been convicted 28 times for assaults on police and civilians, theft and racial harassment, yet his risk level was only classified as “medium”. The concern is that dangerous offenders are being let out with minimal supervision because the probation service in England and Wales is unable to cope.
Reports from the probation inspectorate point to a creeping internal malaise: officers feel overwhelmed and overworked, with large numbers of people off sick and inexperienced staff taking on complex cases. Most of the service is working beyond its capacity. Some officers have workloads twice as large as they should. Planning for the release of sex offenders has been described as “nowhere near good enough”. It is alarming that figures from the Ministry of Justice since 2010 suggest that one person is murdered by someone on probation every week. Higher-risk cases are supposed to receive more resources, but one whistleblower recently told Channel 4 they faced pressure to lower the risk rating to offload work.
The most recent hole blown in the probation service was the Transforming Rehabilitation initiative, the brainchild of the former justice minister Chris Grayling. This policy, which partly privatised the service, led to a sharp rise in “serious further offences” and crippling caseloads, with the number of service users climbing by 74% between 2015 and 2020. In an indictment of the policy, probation services were renationalised in 2021, but this alone won’t solve this crisis. “There are no magic bullets here”, as the chief inspector of probation said at the time.
That’s because many of these issues date back further than Mr Grayling’s reforms. Over the last two decades, top-down reorganisations have centralised the probation service and subordinated it to prisons. When probation works, it is supposed to prevent people from reoffending by connecting them to local services such as mental health support, education and housing. In Scotland, probation has long been known as “criminal justice social work” – a title that is more befitting of officers’ responsibilities. Prior to Mr Grayling’s reforms, local probation trusts across England and Wales allowed officers to work closely with the police and councils. Yet austerity has left these other services threadbare. This was grimly encapsulated in the finding that some people were given tents upon release from prison because their probation officers couldn’t find them housing.
Fixing these failures will require more than just resources, although that would be a good place to start. The government has already hired more probation officers, but it will take years to build up lost expertise. Probation should be treated as a profession that requires specialist skills, with wages that reflect this. Making probation separate from prisons and further devolving the system would be an improvement, allowing officers to link up with other local services. Yet the government is moving in the opposite direction, with recent plans to streamline prisons and probation. A crunch has been building for years, leaving officers “crossing their fingers [and] hoping for the best”, in the words of the former chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal. Tragedies like Zara Aleena’s show that isn’t good enough.
Too little too late. People should have spoken up sooner The public perception of Probation is now incompetent, which will allow for further "reforms". I notice no mention of rehabilitation in the new chief's opening words, just risk assessment and public protection
Delete“Is it just me who is a little annoyed that the only mention that Probstion gets in Happy Valley is a drug hassled emotional wreck vhino as an officer.
ReplyDeleteNice public perception eh?”
I read this today in a Probation social media group. Couldn’t be more accurate, going by the sickness rate Probation staff have been reduced to stressed out wrecks and I’m sure many reach for the wine bottle as soon as they get home.
I noticed that and it's been brought to my attention by both a colleague and a friend with no connection to probation "isn't that what you do?"
DeleteIt’s what Noms and HMPPS have intentionally turned us and the service into. A far cry from the gold standard Probation of over a decade ago.
DeleteMan down the pub saying senior managers in London probation all jumping ship before they’re pushed by the London director now actively separating wheat from chaff because of HMIP, SFOs and shite poor leadership.
ReplyDeleteLondon has always been a bit of a mess. I started in 1987 just before another increase in housing costs and my service welcomed a number of ex London officers moving up north for larger houses and a better lifestyle. Given the current housing market in the big city it’s a surprise that they have any staff at all. This situation is only going to get worse and is really part of a larger problem this country faces with its massively inflated accommodation costs. So ACOs may leave or get pushed but without addressing the wider structural issues all public services face, who will replace them? Probation has suffered on two fronts. Austerity and imbecility. Alas neither are easily fixed. Austerity part two appears to be trundling into view as the current administration repeats the mistakes of previous incumbents, which I presume is also partly behind the one HMPPS. As for imbecility this now appears to be hard wired into the minds of most senior leaders. In many respects it’s like a one of those zombie apocalypse movies when the get infected by a host. The hosts being senior ranking civil servants. Once the infection grows senior probation leaders can only see the world as described to them. So eventually they stop seeing things for themselves and believe all they are told. The fact of the matter is that the civil service is primarily a policy machine. It fails when it moves into an operational setting e.g. probation, CPS, the courts, border force, job centres…..the list goes on. It fails primarily because it doesn’t brook criticism. Which means no one is willing to tell the top brass that it’s all fucked up. They keep their mouths shut very tight. And that’s how the zombie apocalypse was allowed to spread, because no one was willing to stop it as they largely believed it was government policy and to criticise that would be unwise.
DeleteBut in 2023 post TR and Unification these SLT journeyman are not #probation elites bringing gold, frankincense and myrrh, they are failures bringing confusion, chaos and JFDI methods with them. No, stay in London probation we do not need you.
DeleteFrom Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"Probation have become agents of punishment just say it out loud and you'll feel better. Victim focus has replaced rehabilitation."
The number of service users rose 74% between 2015 and 2020.
DeleteGrayling proudly peddled the line that it was unfair and unjust for those serving sentences of 12mts and under not to be able to benefit from what the probation service could offer others serving longer sentences when they were released.
What he was really doing was increasing the probation 'stock' in readiness for auction to the private marketers.
The following is an example of what he actually achieved, and how the 12mth and under have benefited from his actions.
https://www-walesonline-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/man-released-jail-homeless-found-26204518.amp?amp_gsa=1&_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16761102293008&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&share=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.walesonline.co.uk%2Fnews%2Fwales-news%2Fman-released-jail-homeless-found-26204518
'Getafix
“We can do this, but it requires the help of all those who can speak authoritatively on our behalf, academics, politicians, CJS charities, former Chiefs and HMI's.”
ReplyDeleteWishful thinking. The Essex head of operation just left to work on One HMPPS. Sonia Flynn to the probation workforce programme. Others too. Reminds of TR when many departing chief officers were paid huge sums to work on TR then popped up again working for HMIP, HMPPS, ….
It’s the academics, media and practitioner whistleblowers that will make the difference. We need better pay, better conditions, detach from prisons and the civil service, put a probation officer at the top and return to a pre-2010 structure.
Probation also needs to get out of bed with the police who seem to hold the most prominent discourse in local offices these days
ReplyDeleteIt couldn’t be more back to front. Some of the biggest mistakes Probation did was buddying up with the police in IOM teams, taking on the work of police in sex offender teams and giving away probation responsibilities to prisons. Police and prisons started calling themselves offender managers to take ownership of rehabilitation and left probation officers with the monitoring and control. Some probation officers like it like this but it’s not what probation work should be.
DeleteSpoke to a two week in PQip last week asking about rehabilitation…….no idea what it was or how it fit…..and this from a graduate….they want to be police officers without the shifts
ReplyDeleteWith the state of the police over the past 10 years it’s a shame Probation has been increasingly incorporating the police into probation offices and work rather than dismissing them from it altogether.
DeleteThe Police! They vet us! Given their reputational damage I am not happy with the idea that they get to sift our data and decide whether we are fit. Last Prevent questionnaire asked me if I was aware of any dodgy groups or individuals, giving as examples "socialists" and "environmentalists". I didnt dib myself in, guilty on both counts. Direction of travel really is deeply sinister
Delete“any dodgy groups or individuals”
DeleteYes the police vetting us, visiting our probation offices and sitting next to us at MAPPA. The prison officers sending us emails. Couldn’t make it up.
Blimey - I am a socialist
DeleteThat’s not fair, there are so many people coming into PQiP with real interest in the role and good welfare ethics. Who mentors them? Training isn’t the be all and end all, just think what we have all learned from experienced practitioners, then reflect on many more trainees in each office than we have ever seen and many fewer experienced staff to support them. They must be so disillusioned as the job that is described at recruitment does not exist in reality. Have a thought for what they could be with good support.
ReplyDeleteDoesn’t matter how enthusiastic new recruits are if the organisational structure is lacking. Then probation training programmes and training teams should have adapted. No point relying on mentoring and “learning from experienced practitioners” if there aren’t any available or practices have been HMIP assessed “inadequate”. They should have leant this from covid when many pqips failed, left or qualified inadequate because of the lack of others to lean from and redundant ptas.
Delete14:23 that is the responsibility of the organisation not the probation practitioners. Short sighted to herd trainees into offices where existing probation officers, administrators and managers are themselves overwhelmed, overworked and can’t support themselves let alone mentor wide eyed and bushy tailed trainees. Where are the trainers and pta’s whose job it is to train staff … you hardly see them.
DeleteWhere I am, new trainees being mentored by those who graduated less than a year ago
DeleteSame where I am. New pso’s and pqips learning from those with hardly a year’s experience. Some of the ptas and SPOs not much better. Everyone’s saying how great it is while the rest of us looking on shaking our heads.
DeleteCant access the whole article, but the headline sounds pretty ominous.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/02/11/probation-officers-face-annual-spot-checks-series-blunders/
'Getafix
I cant access it either, and its not getting my money. In any case, I predict the content will be a trashing of public services in general, us in particular, and pedal a line from HMPPS that its all down to individual mistakes. I am both bored and furious
Delete
DeleteTelegraph article (part 1)
Probation officers face annual spot checks after series of blunders.
New checks on officers' abilities to protect public from violent offenders come after 'unacceptable' failings led to murder of Zara Aleena
Every probation officer in England and Wales faces an annual check on their ability to protect the public from violent offenders after blunders that led to the murders of two women and three children, the Telegraph can reveal.
All 18,000 probation officers will undergo a spot check where at least one of their offenders’ cases chosen at random will be reviewed by watchdogs to check they have made an accurate assessment of the risk to the public, and that they have in place all the necessary safeguards.
Staff in London will face six-monthly checks after a series of devastating HM inspectorate reports found “shocking” standards of supervision across the capital and “unacceptable” failings that led to the sexual assault and murder of Zara Aleena, a 35-year old law graduate.
She was killed by Jordan McSweeney in a random late night attack in Ilford, east London, just days following his release from prison after probation officers wrongly classed him as medium rather than high risk and failed to recall him to jail for breaches of his licence.
It was the second case in a month after inspectors found similar errors with triple child killer Damien Bendall, 32, who was also wrongly assessed as “medium risk” which meant he walked free from court on a suspended sentence before murdering his partner and three children with a claw hammer.
The cases prompted Justin Russell, the chief inspector of probation, to warn it was “impossible to say” the probation service was keeping the public safe from released violent criminals because it was “not getting it right” in its “core function” to safeguard society.
Telegraph article (part 2)
DeleteSpeaking to The Telegraph, Fara Naz, Zara’s aunt who has acted as the family’s spokesperson, said: “A lot of people will say that there are rare people who commit monstrosities and that Aleena was very unlucky. But, actually, her murder was facilitated by a state that wasn’t doing its job.”
She said it was important “front line officers aren’t blamed”, but that their managers and the way competence is assessed throughout the system was scrutinised to prevent a repeat of the tragedy.
“If I am a manager and my team is operating well, that’s down to me,” she said.
“If I’m not doing a good job, then it’s down to the person supervising me. So ultimately, who is accountable? It’s very important that we don’t just blame the probation officers.”
She welcomed the spot checks announced by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), but said they did not go far enough.
She is backing a call by Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, for all released offenders rated as medium and high risk and being supervised by the city’s probation service to be reviewed to ensure the assessments are sound and safe.
In a letter to Dominic Raab, the Justice Secretary, and Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary - as seen by The Telegraph - Mr Khan urged an independent inquiry into McSweeney’s case to establish; what was known by prison, police and probation staff; what was done to mitigate the risk; and what more can be done.
He also called for increased resources after HM inspectors warned in November that 500 vacancies in London were contributing to a staffing crisis that meant cases “could not be managed properly”, and that the “assessment and management of the risks of serious harm to the public are far from satisfactory”.
They found nine out of 137 “medium risk” offenders in London had been wrongly categorised and should have been deemed as “high risk of serious harm”.
Under the new spot checks, any probation officers judged to have got it wrong will have their caseload reviewed, and receive extra training and support. The MoJ said a review of hundreds of “medium risk” cases in London had begun in November.
It said urgent work was underway to improve the quality of risk assessments nationally through updated mandatory training for all new staff and strengthened quality checks of risk assessments, while an extra 2,500 probation officers had been recruited.
An MoJ spokesman said the murder of Zara Aleena was an “appalling” crime.
“We apologise unreservedly to Zara Aleena’s family for the failings in this case,” he added.
Anon 2018 and 2019 - Thanks very much - this will go down like the proverbial lead balloon.
DeleteAgain, blaming and punishing the staff. Not enough Probation Officers to do the work, pay and conditions so bad everyone’s leaving or on sick leave. London probations SLT solution is spot checks on the staff. Sadly the donkey SPOs are to green or scared to oppose it. Absolutely disgraceful.
Delete“Under the new spot checks, any probation officers judged to have got it wrong will have their caseload reviewed, and receive extra training and support. The MoJ said a review of hundreds of “medium risk” cases in London had begun in November.”
DeleteShocking. So despite Probation Officers with excessive 150% caseloads, it’s blame the probation staff not the senior managers that have made the job unmanageable and failed to recruit and retain staff.
"All 18,000 probation officers will undergo a spot check where at least one of their offenders’ cases chosen at random will be reviewed by watchdogs"
DeleteThe perfect response by the govt that has no idea what public services are. So three guesses as to who the reviewing lapdogs will be, who will appoint them & how many frontline staff will end up as ballast for the HS2 line.
Clue: arselickers, lickspittles & the chumocracy will have first dibs; socialist & environmentalists won't survive (take note @19:26)
Let us not forget Sadiq Khan (now Mayor of Greater London) was Labour Shadow Secretary of State for Probation whilst Transforming Rehabilitation was put in place _ I was not much impessed with the strength or substance of his opposition at that time
DeleteProbation as a credible organisation is extinct and to some extent deserve the bad press they are getting. The toxic leaders, career chasers, and the most dangerous of all, the incompetent leaders who seem to be getting promoted beyond their capability have all sucked the oxygen out of the remaining energy the faithful had left. No doubt the clown possie will try to policy framework their way through this and keep sending people over the top of the trenches to certain burnout. Remember the opening scene from Enemy at the Gates when two Russian conscripts had to share one rifle and a handful of bullets between them and the cyclic shouting of “when the person with the rifle gets killed pick up the rifle and shoot” - well we seem to be herding the volumes of PQuiP’s to the frontlines in the same way although the shouts this time are “when the person with the excessive caseload burns out, pick up the caseload and ensure your Officer diary online learning, SOP, and anything else completely unrelated to your job is in order”.Our incompetent leadership will just keep throwing staff into the sentence management blender and hope the bad news stories run out before their staff do. An organisation that does not listen internally must be made to listen so I would say to the whistleblower good on you and let’s hope others do the same.
ReplyDeleteThis is probably the most accurate description I’ve read in a while. Probation is still there though, it’s the probation officers, administrators and managers, it’s all the people in prison and on probation depending on us, it’s all the new recruits waiting to learn from us. We used to be a formidable lot in the past, feared by managers and senior managers alike, and stubborn, opinionated and for the cause of helping others and doing right. The flame is dying but it’s not gone out just yet. All it needs is somebody or something to fan the flame.
DeleteIn my mind the first thing that needs to be done to start to make amends and bring people together is to come clean about the whole botched privatisation and how it was done. There is far too much divide and rule going on. Playground stuff…… They are no good because they were CRC etc.
ReplyDeleteWe need an investigation about how the service was split to challenge this ridiculous belief that ‘the elite’ went to NPS and that everyone sifted into CRC was somehow no-good. Far too many people including managers have false beliefs around this issue because nobody has come out and told the truth.
To bring people together you need an honest account of what happened in the past. So that we can all agree where things went wrong. Only then can you start to map a way to a more unified well managed service with a clear purpose.
All I can say right now is it's exhausting. Not so long ago we were all accused of being risk averse! Now it's the opposite and we are threatened with exposure and SFO's if we don't tow the line, do everything perfectly,tick all the boxes, send people back to custody or breach them after two failures even though they are homeless and struggle to remember what day it is. We are supposed to pull rabbits out of hats and wave magic wands to get people housed when there is no housing, get their mental health back on track when that service is pretty broken, sort out their relationships, Mend their broken lives and heal their trauma, we basically have to do it all whilst chained to the computer screen churning out endless reports and doing mindless e training to show we have covered our arses when the next SFO comes in. The task has become impossible and meanwhile the new pquip's fill up the desks that the experienced staff have vacated when they implode and go off with stress. I have never felt so exhausted in the job, I was even hoping I might get thumped the other day by an angry 'pop' , ridiculous term, as I could at least have taken a few weeks off. Can't see me lasting too much longer at this rate. Used to love the job and spent most of the day seeing the punters, doing home visits, proper prison visits, going to various meetings and a bit of computer time but now it's become a sedentary desk job interspersed with trying to pretend I can actually do RAR days and supervise people in the 10 to 20% time that's left over! How can that be right? The idea that some PO's can manage caseloads of 60 or 70 is frankly ridiculous. We have very little admin help and the time it takes to negotiate all the bureaucracy is ridiculous. Management solution to coping with the crisis is to pile even more pressure on us. It's frankly ridiculous. PO's need more status and far more support. Start respecting us, listen to us and do what we say will work, bottom.up and not top down. I have no respect for the ACO's that hide away pumping out more beauracracy. They should have a few cases allocated to them so they can see the reality and how much time supervision of just one case can take up. Give all the ACO's and SPO's a couple of token cases and watch the colour drain from their faces, especially the SPO's who moan that they are not earning much more than a PO! Do they think their job is any harder? This is a bloody tough job, you have to be incredibly resilient to cope, yet maintain compassion. Sadly that compassion is lacking in the service as a whole. We are treated like robots and when we crack we will be shoved out into the junk yard because the service thinks the new Pquips will be more malleable. Sadly they will likely use the service as a stepping stone and move on when they realise the dream job they were sold was a lie.
ReplyDeleteMost SPOs here are in their early 20s and literally qualified as a PO the year before. Used to be lots of experienced staff competing for these jobs, now anyone can get one
ReplyDeleteIf they can do the job and aren’t hand picked by the crony crew then it’s okay by me. The problem is many are either timid as mice and can’t hack the pressure while others think they’re working for the police.
Delete