Wednesday 8 February 2023

More Whistleblowing!

Astonishingly, we appear to be 'on a roll' media-wise as it looks as if the BBC have some whistle-blowers of their own. I've just noticed this article recently posted on the BBC news website. I have to say it's incredibly gratifying to see that dedicated staff and possibly former staff are willing to come forward and tell the media what's really going on in probation. 
 
Most probation services are over capacity, leaked data reveals

The majority of the service which tries to prevent criminals reoffending in England and Wales is working at excessive capacity, internal figures seen by the BBC show. Some officers in the Probation Service have workloads twice as large as their recommended capacity. A whistleblower warned the risks to the public are "significant". The government said it would "recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safe".

The revelations about the extent of the probation crisis come after two damning reports into failures to monitor offenders who went on to commit murders. His Majesty's Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, said the service failed at every stage to assess the risk of killer Damien Bendall, who murdered his partner Terri Harris, her two children and their 11-year-old friend. Mr Russell also said it was impossible to be sure the public was safe because of the quality of work in parts of the Probation Service, after Jordan McSweeney murdered law student Zara Aleena nine days after being released from prison.

Probation officers play a critical role assessing how much risk criminals pose to us, during the sentencing process, during sentences served in the community, and after someone is released from prison. Their jobs combine face-to-face meetings with criminals with writing reports and making checks to prevent them descending back into criminality.

The BBC has seen a snapshot of data from an internal Probation Service workload measurement system which monitors daily case numbers and warns if staff are operating beyond their capacity. The numbers were collected this week and assess workload based on a points system which takes into account the complexity of cases. In the 12 regions of England and Wales, 10 were operating at over 100% of capacity. Only Wales and the North East Region were just below. Seven were "showing red" with average scores of more than 110%.

Justice Minister Alex Chalk said in 2021 that "anyone over 110% for a period of four consecutive weeks is deemed to have an excessive workload", adding that there were policies to help staff who meet this threshold. London is under most pressure at around 127% of its capacity on average, followed by the Yorkshire and Humber and Eastern England regions at 118%. Our analysis suggests at the moment the data was collected, more than 400 probation officers were working at 160% of their capacity or more, with some over 200%. This includes probation officers still in training, as well as more experienced staff. In some cases, staff had individual caseloads of more than 70 people.

The probation watchdog concluded in 2021 that "in our opinion, it is difficult for even experienced practitioners to deal with 60, 70, 80 or more cases properly". The figures do fluctuate, but insiders told the BBC the pressure on the workforce creates an inevitable risk of mistakes. Staff said the workload makes it harder to dig deeper into cases and chase up checks with police forces, who often fail to respond. "We are supposed to question everything, but people don't because it opens a can of worms," one said. Even offenders rated low and medium risk can be people capable of killing themselves and others, probation officers say.

A string of cases have demonstrated the risks of failing to carry out checks. One murder a week is committed by an offender on probation. Nadine Marshall, whose son Conner was murdered by David Braddon while he was on probation for drug offences and assaulting a police officer, said the data shows there are not enough probation workers and the service is "completely inept". Probation officers are being fed to the dogs by the management and structure of the probation system. They are left to carry a heavy load which is unsustainable," she said.

An internal report on the case, marked "sensitive" but obtained by the BBC, describes a key probation officer involved feeling "overwhelmed" by work and says the "alertness to risk" had suffered. Braddon missed a number of meetings with the service and the reasons were not fully investigated, the report found. At moments when an offender breaches the terms of their licence or sentencing conditions, the probation service is under pressure to gather evidence to support an offender being sent or returned to prison. A whistleblower told the BBC that if this does not happen, "you're just sitting there waiting for another offence to be committed". 

Low level breaches of sentence conditions are supposed to be dealt with within six days. But a recent data snapshot for London also shown to the BBC reveals that of more than 860 breaches, 669 had not been resolved within that target time. After three months, 198 were still outstanding. 

A whistleblower told the BBC staff were "burnt out" and "working late every night and weekends". Another junior probation officer said they had dealt with caseloads "in the high 70s", sometimes seeing up to 12 offenders a day, though recently the demand had reduced. At one point in the pandemic, an offender they were overseeing committed a serious offence. 
Pressure on the probation service grew with changes in the law leading to an increasing number of cases requiring their attention. Then in 2013, there was a disastrous reorganisation of the service. It was reversed by 2021, but the probation inspectorate said it played a major part in pushing up workloads. Covid made matters worse, with probation officers reduced to going to offenders' doorsteps for face to face meetings.

By next month 4,000 new probation officers are being recruited, the Ministry of Justice said. But front line officers are leaving because of the mental health pressures they face. In the year up to September 2022, data reveals that mental health or behavioural issues were the cause of half of all days of staff absence. This figure is rising steadily. The Ministry of Justice said "we have taken immediate steps to address the serious issues raised by recent reviews and are investing £155m more every year into probation to improve the supervision of offenders."

The ministry said the extra spending would "reduce officers' caseloads and recruit thousands more staff to keep the public safe". The government is also introducing more rigorous requirements for prisoners to be given parole, and the power for the Justice Secretary Dominic Raab to prevent the most dangerous offenders being released.

44 comments:

  1. 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.

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    1. Josephine Public reading that BBC piece wouldn't know what 100% WLMT means... & the throwaway lines don't help either:

      "Some officers in the Probation Service have workloads twice as large as their recommended capacity."

      "Another junior probation officer said they had dealt with caseloads "in the high 70s", sometimes seeing up to 12 offenders a day"

      They mean nothing without context.

      Benefit agency staff might see many more people each day; doctors might see many more people each day.

      So what does it actually mean?

      Sadly it just seems to be media noise, rather than anything constructive or informative.

      Delete
  2. I noticed this:-

    'Get in touch'

    Have you been personally affected by the issues raised in this story? Share your experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

    Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

    WhatsApp: +44 7756 165803
    Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay
    Upload pictures or video
    Please read our terms & conditions and privacy policy

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  3. From Twitter:-

    "This week I’ve handed in my notice. 10 months post qualification. I’m sad to be leaving a role I absolutely love and despite how I feel about the service, I’m grateful for the skills and knowledge I’ve gained to use throughout my new adventures. Thanks for all the support folks."

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  4. If you’re going to whistleblow at least provide the solutions.

    The reports show Probation officers are poorly paid for unmanageable amounts of work and responsibility. The current probation officer starting salary is £30,812. Many have had salaries frozen below this amount for a decade. The recent 3% pay rise was abysmal.

    Probation officers are expected to do excessive work in unsafe conditions, blamed for SFO’s and punished with more training, audits and micromanagement. Senior probation managers have failed to fix the structural problems but are awarded bonuses and OBE’s.

    The solution is simple. Pay probation officers better and staffing levels will increase. It’s the least they deserve.

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    1. What astonished me is that discipline is used to abuse staff after an SFO. However this occurs it's not a deliberate action by any po so if the workload is what's preventing better management then that's about support not attack.

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    2. And this shows how corrupt the SFO investigators are, our own probation colleagues throwing us under the bus. They know the situation we are in yet in their reports they maximise fault finding and minimise the reasons that make our job impossible. Then they get pats on the back from their senior managers and all have a laugh knowing they’re sending a poor po to the mental ward or dole queue.

      Delete
    3. "Anonymous8 February 2023 at 18:35
      If you’re going to whistleblow at least provide the solutions."

      What utter rot - that is like blaming a driver for a crash when a design fault in a vehicle causes the steering to fail!"

      Unfortunately - practitioners are so overworked they cannot have the time, resources or energy to design the solutions unless the management gives that time

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    4. No Andrew Hatton you’re grossly mistaken.

      If probation staff are taking the risk to speak out publicly and say what’s happening, then use the opportunity to say what we need too.

      If we do not say what we need then senior managers and HMPPS will themselves fill that void with their own opinions and it will not mention the two main issues which are poor pay and conditions.

      We do not want more training and silly support scheme, we want to be paid better which will in turn attract and retain staff.

      Delete
    5. "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.

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    6. “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.

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    7. Anon, 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 PS 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.

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  5. There is a huge amount of Probation Officers based on prisons. At what point will our Chief Probation Officer direct them permanently back into probation community teams?

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    1. when the probation service is under leaders who uncouple probation from the prison service. This is a nonsense, that we are a natural partner.co defendent of the prison service. Probation should be aligned with social serivices, health, education, housing. Anything but the MOJ but the prison service. Probation at its best is part of the solution, not the problem

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  6. Two observations
    The disaster of TR was NOT "reversed". This keeps being reported and its not true. With taking the credit ops into NPS 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

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  7. Jim. Pushing all this negativity is not helping. If you really want to help, get back on the front line instead of criticising the service and allowing some scandalous comments (which you approve) that are sometimes wholly inappropriate.

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    1. The message was meant for you privately and not for you to publish so you can get some kind of support you seem to crave. You published it, so there you go! Whilst I enjoy the blog, the comments are becoming hurtful and I ask a considered approach is taken. I used to enjoy hearing from people who do our work. Now there seems to be a lot of hate peddled towards the usual names and people.

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    2. Where did it say 'private'? You submitted a comment and I always publish comments that are critical of me - I do not publish the majority of 'scandalous' or 'inappropriate' comments and believe me, they sadly are both nowadays.

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    3. I'll vouch for that I send in some really awful truths and jb keeps them. I don't mind a bit of vetting even censorship but JB has the real truths and I am glad . JB still gets the wider message out so stopping my angst at times is ok. Thanks j

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    4. Anon 20:01 I appreciate your understanding.

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    5. Probation has never been a happy clappy society despite so much nonsense published nowadays by managers - If Anon at 19.50 lacks the confidence to give their name but sends in comments - s/he cannot be surprised if a blogger chooses to publish or withhold

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  8. 19:43 are you willing to disclose how many years under your belt

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  9. 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.

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    1. 20:26. The WMT doesnt even paint an accurate picture. Drill down by viewing it in excel instead and look at how many SPOs are holding caseloads and sitting at 0% on the WMT...

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  10. Awww, come on Sonia (presumably that's who is @19:43). You've not done so bad out of the probation service with your bonuses, generous salary & protected status. And no-one's going to take away your precious gong + enhanced pension. In fact, why not have some fun & dish some dirt while the bandwagon is rolling?!?

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  11. " so you can get some kind of support you crave" writes 19.43 and "are you willing to disclose how many years under your belt " they add later. Well quite a few years as the blog has been going for god knows how long....and as for "craving support" well this is just pejorative nonsense. Salva Jim Brown!

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  12. This blog has become the black cloud that just wants to keep raining down on those trying their best to get through the bureaucracy to help people. You publish posts that are half-truths that conveniently support your draining and depressive narrative, it’s the unpopular truth I hear you say Jim - not it’s not, it’s the warped version of the truth you need to peddle to keep this blog going and it’s the disgruntled that feed off your toxic narrative. Yes it’s hard out there but unless you want to get off the touch line and help it’s best you look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself what your contribution to probation is.

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    1. hmpps are clearly rattled. Good work JB.

      Delete
    2. Anon 00:19 I assume "not it's not" should be "no it's not"? Thanks for your observations, but I would point out a couple of things. Firstly I'm more than happy to publish any guest blog piece so that obviously would include one that paints a different picture. Secondly the aim of the blog is to provide a platform for discussion and debate. That wouldn't work if there was only one viewpoint. Finally, it's all anonymous so publishing what is true is a challenge, but I do my best and weed out blatant nonsense, the deliberately inflammatory and the utterly scurrilous.

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    3. 00:19 Tell that to my colleagues that are either sobbing in the office most days or have the haunted, sunken look of someone that's not slept well in months.
      Tell them to their faces that it's not that bad. Tell them that their stress is in their head, and that they're wholly responsibility for their wellbeing. Tell them it's OK, they're safe if there's an SFO or that the mounting bills will still get paid when they're signed off long term sick.
      Look them in the eye and tell them this reality, our reality, is warped. I dare you.

      Delete
    4. You dont post my stuff JB because its way outrageous but you know those tossers deserve it. All said I respect you.

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    5. 1219. Please think on what your saying. This blog is not as you suggest. The distortions lies manipulations all stem from those in power roles. Any challenges and it's the chop.the unions Napo at least are a real bunch of collusive and absolute dishonest liars. This is a real life multi level decade plus experience . The managers and chiefs are bullies and incompetant . Annual reports prove but here they stay overpaid for being useless. It's clique your either in or your out from all sides. Conform or they will extinct staff. You stick up for them and when they get you cornered as your overworked you'll think now where did I read about these goings on. Oh yea JB blog.

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    6. Regarding Long Term Sick leave.

      Way back in 2002 - despite being assessed by a Chartered Psychologist as dyspraxic and dyslexic - I could not get the support I needed, when without a formal change of my employment contract - administrative support was almost completely withdrawn when simultaneously with only cursory training I was also expected to keep client records using a computer.

      I did not manage the situation well and despite at that time being a member of the new Greater London Napo Branch's executive committee firstly tried to resolve issues myself.


      One day - I needed to keep a medical appointment at my GP surgery (about 50 miles from my office) for routine testing in relation to a heart condition I had had by then for 20 years. I had time limited work to complete that needed submitting on the Monday - this was the previous Friday.

      There was an emergency at the GP surgery and my appointment was delayed - I hang on anyway because I had already postponed the appointment and the GP was refusing to reissue a life preserving prescription without me being seen.

      By the time I was finished at the GPs it was past midday - there was an office party event for someone leaving that day - I mused - I will go home have lunch & drive to work and get on instead of going to the party - later I was so tired - I just decided to go in and do the work on the Saturday - next day and the Sunday the same occurred - by then it was Monday - dam it I thought - it is not my fault that I am disabled - I cannot face it - I am not going in & phoned the very unsympathetic new senior and just said I am not coming to work - here are my appointments for today - you can't do that said she - well I have done it - I best phone the union - fortunately the branch chair - wonderful woman took my call - instructed me to go to my GP and report the situation -GP issued a sick note (I know the rules have changed) - effectively then a sick note from a GP meant you cannot be insured if you go to work; the diagnosis was work related stress.

      The situation dragged on beyond the 6 months my contract of employment allowed me full pay. The Trade Union represented me and THIS is my reason for commenting

      *the six months was extended*

      because my illness was work related - ultimately, I took Union advice to protect my family finances and rather than test the situation at an employment tribunal accepted the London Probation Area's (my then employer having been TUPE-eed from ILPS) offer of early retirement. It was a miserable way to end a thirty year career, but I suspect if I had fought on I would not be alive 21 years later!

      Delete
  13. 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.

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    1. Especially when we have senior managers like this that have absolutely no idea when it comes to understanding, Professionalism, responsivity and health and safety

      http://probationmatters.blogspot.com/2022/03/command-and-control.html?m=1

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    2. Is this peddling negativity?
      Is this an untruth?

      https://www-bbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-64569273.amp?amp_gsa=1&amp_js_v=a9&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%3D%3D#amp_ct=1675933634067&amp_tf=From%20%251%24s&aoh=16759336283213&referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com&ampshare=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fuk-england-leicestershire-64569273

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  14. What's sad is that officers tell admin not to terminate cases on Delius that have finished in fear of getting extra cases allocated to them. It really shouldn't be like this

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  15. 00.19 nailed it

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    1. So says 00:19 @ 17:53!

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    2. "Anonymous9 February 2023 at 18:32
      So says 00:19 @ 17:53!" - exactly whilst posting anonymously rather than at least using a pseudonym like getafix (a sad pseudonymn for such constructive remarks) - we have no idea whether contributors are coming back to repeat or boulster what they have already said.

      Now JB is understandably & exhausingly monitoring all - might there be some way of identifying contributors other than simply "Anon" - I am not very IT literate and get confused by these things - but it seems that Microsoft and others have ways of coding stuff I do on my PC that can assist me at times to relocate material.

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    3. He/she nailed it. My view

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  16. 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 blue factory. There are many great people of all grades in the service pushes 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 .

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