In order to try and keep the discussion going, I think it helps to highlight reflective contributions, such as this from earlier this morning:-
Over the years I have seen officers struggle to communicate with those they supervise and take the upward route….once promoted they become (at least in their eyes) super officers who were promoted on the basis of their excellence and seek to disgorge their ‘experience’ to those they left behind, confident that their limited skill set is the way. This group have moved now into the higher echelons of probation and as such we have this disconnect between how they think we should work and the reality.
The reality is that we work with a socially damaged group who seek to return to what they know and are comfortable with and breaking or even impeding that return is difficult and is only achieved incrementally and usually involves failure along the way. I’ve worked and mentored with some fantastic young recruits who have a natural compassion which I see eroded from them slowly but surely by the cold hand of central control.
Regional differences exist yet probations strength is local…not central and the constant launches and re launches are all centrally driven….OMIC [Offender Management in Custody] is an idea that has struggled from the start, One HMPpS will give control to exactly the wrong group…if we are looking at a redesign, local PDUs, loosely linked to other local areas with a local committee of volunteers providing a steer…..will it come to pass? Not a chance as it would take power and control from the top…..I once wrote a PSR on an RSO [Registered Sex Offender], supervised him throughout his sentence and managed him in the community for six years…….not reoffended to date and still sends me a Christmas card…..it worked for him and it was as local as it could have been………
Contribution posted on previous blogpost:-
ReplyDeleteThere are also good officers that have been promoted or have taken on a job in HQ -after years toiling at the front line and making a real difference- and then struggle because the talentless nerks that were fast tracked or promoted due to nepotism etc have no real understanding of the job and devote their energies towards playing games and undermining and rubbishing everything their more grounded and experienced colleagues say and do. Perhaps length of service and high performance as a PO should be considered and rewarded upon by being appointed to a management role at a higher salary point than someone with little or no prior practice experience. There could also be minimum qualifications for promotion such as 6 years as a PO performing highly in at least two different roles with a proven track record of promoting well-being and considerable evidence of positive feedback by peers. This would weed out those who cannot do the job from applying and getting management roles. We need to professionalise probation and part of that should be to reward experience at the frontline over the ability to play the game and ascend the greasy pole at an accelerated rate because the local manager likes you and you are on message.
Also, I heard that colleagues returning from secondment in the probation inspectorate have been treated appallingly with suspicion and contempt rather than as courageous colleagues who have told the truth about the crisis. It would be interesting to hear about their experience after the freedom to express themselves in the inspectorate. Perhaps they should have been offered permanent roles.
In the 80s it was expected applicants had to have done 3 placements in field teams and at least a jail in areas that had them. Problem is no one realises they only want a call centre approach to managing cases. No need to think of the development of administrators .
DeleteI imagine similar sorts of exchanges occured in the early 1930s before the first Senior Probation Officers were appointed - if my memory of my reading is correct in 1936 - I presume Napo was at the heart of such discussions (formed around 1912 - by a Justices Clerk - named - Edridge - whose trust I still support (must check the standing Order sometime))
DeleteWe need the MOJ and more importantly Parliament to demand and say publicly we are redesigning the probation service in England and Wales - from the ground up - if they don't the chaos (all predicted from 2013) will continue and only brave or foolish folk will remain along with those looking for a route away from the front-line.
I agree with the idea of a proper redesign but I still value the older approaches to engage meaningfully with people. Today it is brutalising and the management are brutal to staff. Until we get back a genuine philosophy on approaches to rehabilitating offending behaviour there is no discipline of thought or model. This is why we have a broad mix a lost professional status and unhappy staff who all believe they are doing the same role. It is not their fault it is our lack of specialist duties with sound underpinning structure that Demarks the distinction between monitoring pso roles and targeting behavioural thinking cognitions and care that comes through befriending. Support schemes like emergency fund. The old stuff that built relationships on respect and trust to deliver on a bond of social contract. The professional stuff where judgement and analysis play a major part in how much time to give a person. Then measure change. They won't do it so I can dream on.
DeleteSeen on Twitter:-
ReplyDelete@AlexChalkChelt "The vital work of @HMPPS staff keeps us all safe, which is why we have boosted pay significantly and launched our biggest ever recruitment campaign. New stats show its working, with thousands more prison and probation officers joining @HMPPS in the last year."
Amy Reece @CEOHMPPS "Delighted we have welcomed so many new colleagues to HMPPS this year to help us deliver our vital services to protect the public and reduce reoffending."
"What a shame we can't support the staff we already have. I know a very good probation officer who is actively looking for other jobs because of a lack of support, we should be actively retaining staff as well employing new ones."
Should this read HMPpS, let us tell it like it is, let’s get this trending, HMPpS!
ReplyDeleteLocal would not work as we’d end up under councils, PCC’s or mayor’s offices. We know already why regional and national doesn’t work. The probation service should revert back to pre-trust probation areas, but detached from prisons and the civil service, and as a separate branch of the Ministry of Justice with our own minister for probation. A national model of a standalone service with local autonomy for each county or city.
ReplyDelete13:25 Probation Trusts were devolved bodies that were governed by boards. There should have been fewer of these for a stronger service. With a bit of tweaking we could return to Trusts under a Labour administration but we need assurances that they will not start down a privatisation by stealth path. Had the Trusts continued then they would have evolved slightly and started commissioning services and entering into partnerships as a logical next step in line with government thinking at the time - Grayling went too far. Community payback and programmes would have become commissioned services and had this been a success then other organisations would have become involved in delivering probation services with core services remaining in the public sector. PCCs are prevented from involving themselves in operational matters but might be represented on boards. We have previously seen local authority involvement in probation and of course youth offending services have had a longer history. This is fine unless central government interferes or starts cutting funds that are not ringfenced. The essential thing is that probation is freed from the stranglehold of the civil service and too much direct ministerial meddling in operational matters. Some ministers have undoubtedly been reasonable to deal with but the majority are swivel eyed brainwashed Tory idiots with the Daily Mail logo stamped on their behinds. We cannot rely on the incumbent prison service illuminati to act in the best interests of probation nor champion change that relinquishes their hold on the reins. Er therefore need an uncharacteristically courageous and determined incoming Labour administration that is dead set on taking up probations cause to return to excellence and have a proper vision and do the right things to put things right so that the probation service is restored to being a strong and stable service with people in jobs they feel well able to perform and enjoy doing. We are currently on a diffent planet from that with no viable plan. OneHMPPS is a cruel joke and counter to everything probation has ever stood for at its best and needs to be stopped immediately. Let us name and shame those who are leading this shambles.
DeleteAn "ESSENTIAL THING" is that the 1991 Act is unpicked and the traditional probation order is re-established that places the supervisee on probation - with their consent - similar to after-car and parole liceneces as they were previously that the prisoner applies to be released and signs a consent form and that consent is properly understood -also Probation workers need to be returned to be an agency of The Justiuces of the peace and thus truly officers of the actual courts - thus they answer to the courts and magistrates oversee the work as previously occured.
DeleteI really wouldn’t be expecting a great deal from the Labour Party. If you look at their holding position, because it’s not really a set of policies you will see these vague commitments:
ReplyDelete“Within a decade, our mission means we will:
Halve the level of violence against women and girls.
Halve the incidents of knife crime.
Raise confidence in every police force to its highest levels.
Reverse the collapse in the proportion of crimes solved.”
They will achieve this by….vague assertions about working with the private sector, local government and the police. Needless to say their primary aim is to “take back our streets”. Criminality must be on a high if they are now stealing roads. So, the usual tripe dressed up with vacuous claims and hollow words. Keir Starmer will be little different from Tony Blair although he may avoid bombing the shit out of a few Middle Eastern countries. Labour are not a socialist party so whilst the feel may be different I doubt the outcomes will improve. Let’s not forget that this is the same party that suspended Jewish members for being Anti Semitic, when in fact they criticised Israel.
Unfortunately Labour is all we have to work with to bring about the changes that are needed (don’t rely on the present Tories or anyone else as they have purged the moderates) Labour look set to be the next government unless they give in to internal squabbles about the Middle East and longstanding divisions - however well meaning or intentioned. They must remain focused on the prize or they will end up with a tiny majority and no power to implement their plans - such as they are. It is up to us to convince Labour that probation is worth saving and give them something viable to work with that will hopefully edge its way onto the agenda by the end of a first term. As a government in waiting Labours plans at this stage are always going to be strategically vague and tend to firm up nearer to the election to inform campaigning with the door step headlines. When you are odds on to win you need to be careful what you commit to in order not to have over promised when you finally gain power. We need to keep the pressure up as once they are in government with a decent majority they may be easier to convince to embark on a programme of welcome reform especially if probation is obviously failing. The country is in a big mess and there are lots of things to address. We are a fairly big ticket item. We have to work with what we have rather than what we might like to have.
DeleteMeanwhile the present government is keen to rush through things like ONEHMPPS because it’s funded and they think that if they can get this over the line then Labour will not reverse it as it would be far too costly to do so. Part of heading off a reversal is reducing the size of HQ staff (not senior leaders of course) in order to make reversal even more difficult. However as usual their plans are thwarted by poor quality HR and SSCL who let’s face it were the lowest bidder for a crap contract and it shows. Hurray for inefficiency and incompetence.
So due to inefficiency and incompetence ONEHMPPS has made no savings and is increasingly being called out as simply another attempt to reorganise the troops in order to give the illusion of progression without improving anything at all and if anything making a bad situation worse.
An example of one of many cock ups from what I heard is that SSCL has contributed to messing up planned voluntary redundancy offers so many experienced people who might have happily gone. They of course realise ONEHMPPS is just another shit show and gravy train for senior leaders many of which have never worked in probation as officers and who are not interested in or working in the interests of probation. These poor folk are forced instead to hang around. BTW starting salary for one of new area director jobs is £111k usual suspects only TBC
Of course there is always the hope that Wales will trailblaze a different way. This from today's Napo mailout:-
ReplyDeleteProbation in Wales can show a better way
Wider than Wales: “Out of Westminster, out of the Civil Service, separate from Prisons: Probation in Wales can show a better way”.
Since the debates leading up to the establishment of the devolved Welsh Government, the now First Minister of Wales, Mark Drakeford, has argued for Probation in Wales to be a devolved service.
The Thomas Report (Commission on Justice in Wales) published 2019 recommended the devolution of Justice in Wales. The Gordon Brown Report (A New Britain) published 2022, commissioned by Keir Starmer, recommended specifically the devolution of Probation and Youth Justice in Wales.
In June 2023 First Minister Mark Drakeford, addressing a Napo Cymru event, said that “this is real: concrete planning for the devolution of Probation is underway” and acknowledged the work of Napo in this regard, adding that this would require legislation by UK government.
The outgoing Chief Inspector of Probation, Justin Russell, in September 2023 called for an independent review of whether Probation should return to local control. Napo passed a motion at our AGM in October 2023 which states “Out of Westminster, out of the Civil Service, separate from Prisons: Probation in Wales can show a better way: Napo will actively, urgently, and persistently campaign for the devolution of Probation in Wales, focussing these efforts on the Westminster Labour Party, demanding that the devolution of Wales Probation is included in the UK Labour manifesto for the next General Election.
Napo Cymru contributed to the Welsh Labour Devolution Conference in Cardiff on Saturday 11th November. Speaking at the event Jane Hutt MS Minister for Social Justice and First Minister Mark Drakeford acknowledged the work of Napo and emphasised the need for the devolution of Probation and Youth Justice to be in the programme of legislation in the first term of a new Labour UK government, and the work that is being done to make “oven-ready” preparations for this.
Su McConnel: vice-chair of Napo Cymru said that for Napo, this wasn’t solely a Welsh issue. “in Wales the work to plan a locally based Probation Service, driven by values of social justice, and supported by frontline staff, is well under way. A Welsh Probation Service could gift a healthy and functional model to England.”
Napo Chair Helen Banner outlined the reality of the current crisis of the Probation Service being subsumed by the prison system and strangled by civil service centralised control at the cost of the localism so crucial to our work.
Tweeting later, Dame Vera Baird KC, Independent Advisor on Justice to Welsh Government, wrote: “Napo’s involvement in devolution of Probation is imperative and so valuable”.
Napo Cymru Chair Lee Hoyles writes: “The success of this, and the ‘saving of probation’ relies on legislation to devolve being passed early in the term of a new UK Labour Government. We detect a certain reticence in the national Labour party to drive this forward. This is wider than Wales. This is a heaven-sent opportunity for a new Labour Government to start to right the wrongs of Graylings catastrophic TR debacle. Napo in England and Wales will be campaigning to get this through”.
Far better to light a single candle than stumble in the darkness!
DeleteWell well well, some hardworking campaigning. Potential light at the end of our tunnel
DeleteHow exactly does anyone "manage" someone elses offending behaviour?
ReplyDelete'Getafix
A misnomer to perpetuate a charade. I suspect it’s used to offer an assurance to the public that Probation has the necessary wherewithal to combat offending. When, as we know that is just an illusion. I suspect it sounds better than stumbling in the dark and generally hoping for the best. All staff really manage is trying to get home at a reasonable time and not whittling about the next SFO. The rest is just pseudo science and management flimflam.
DeleteAccording to Chatgpt posted on X managing offending behaviour involves imprisonment of more people and increasing the salaries of senior leaders when they fail. Mischief managed.
DeleteOne doesn't...well this one doesn't. Manage your managers (good luck with that one), your own expectations, and endeavour to get some love and practical help in through the cracks
Delete“How exactly does anyone "manage" someone elses offending behaviour?”
DeleteThis is the delusional thread currently running through probation work. It’s dangerous and conceited that probation officers are made to believe they risk assess and risk manage to “protect the public”. Signing up to this nonsense means we are laying ourselves wide open to be blamed for every person on probation that reoffends. Trying to “manage” every person means every failure is a failure of that “management”. Probation work is about helping people to change for the better. People change when they feel ready, not because a probation officer demanded it, not because of an accredited programme, not because of what’s written in case records. When they do change it’s because of what they did, not what we did. People change because they receive support, consistency and access to opportunities, everything and understaffed and crumbling probation enforcement agency cannot provide.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/bedford-prison-urgent-notification-justice-b2448627.html
DeleteAnon at 14:03 - Your contribution - which I published on Twitter - has been 'liked', re-posted and responded to many times, including this accolade:-
Delete"Tweet of the week keeping it real about prevailing issues in UK Probation Service."
Thanks very much indeed! Cheers, Jim
My son retrained as a barber recently as his engineering work was taking him away from his young family. He has a studio at the end of his garden which can be accessed from a rear gate where a recreation playing field car park is nearby. He cut my hair yesterday during which we had a heart to heart, actually it was more of a son telling his father some home truths. He rather bluntly told me that his early memories of me as a probation officer was one of a committed man, relishing rehabilitating others, protecting the public and coming home vibrant. That was 20 plus years ago. Fast forward to today. He stated I was a different man, often angry, often sad , and often deeply concerned for colleagues and clients. He then explained his financial arguement. He charges £7 for an OAP haircut (15 minutes) ,£14 for a styled haircut (30 minutes) and up to £30 for a full on service which included some services which sounded painful( and which I declined). He averages £28 per hour/£1120 per week if he works 40 hours. He chooses his hours of work so he never starts before 10:00 so he can prepare the breakfasts, do the school run and the housework. He’ll work until 14:30 pick the kids up etc then work 17:00 till 19:00 and on Saturdays . He has an app to book appointments so easy to regulate. He loves his new lifestyle and suggested that I needed to make some changes. I have thought long and hard about the words my son spoke - with love and empathy. I am putting my notice in on Monday and might even team up with my wonderful son, although I doubt I will ever be able to wax ears and nostrils(unless my current HoA stumbled into the chair)
ReplyDelete@19.50. I wish you every success i really do. I am about to embark on a journey taking my skills and experience with me to put elsewhere
ReplyDeleteWhere they will be appreciated. I and my experienced colleagues are treated like products making wigets in a factory to a set of ever changing targets. Enough already.
From Twitter:-
ReplyDelete"I know it goes against the grain, but if prisoners were treated better in prison and by society upon release, would the level of repeat offending be as high?"
I have recently retired . My last position was with the Parole Board for almost 15 years, previously as, and I say this with pride, as a Probation Officer with numerous secondments and promotions. I can state without any shadow of a doubt that the professionalism of probation has been decimated/shattered! A parole hearing is not unlike a court of law, it is adversarial in nature and practice. I can recall many “old school” POs robustly defending their positions denying or supporting release, sometimes under robust challenges. In more recent years I have been appalled, and actually disturbed, at the calibre of so called probation officers. What on earth happened???? Where is the interlect, the enquiring mind, the analysis of behaviour, the professionalism? Bring back the old school who would robustly challenge with evidenced based arguments grounded in theory and research, men and women proud to be a probation officer. I can assure you that my observations are also reflected by district and Crown Court judges and recorders . I will quote one recorder ( he agreed to my recording as part of a research thesis) who said to me “ I never thought the day would come that I would lament the challenges of PO xxxcccc, I feared him because because he was invariably correct and well researched, whereas I was consumed by cases. I eventually came to see him as allay who became an almost moral compass to me. That is what probation is and most certainly what it should be. I salute them as unsung heroes.” That was a quote from 2018, the decline has continued and from what I have heard from a friend, and former colleague, in the North East there are other worrying trends emerging.
ReplyDeleteBeen saying there is no professionalism. No difference in role keep getting told there is a difference but there ain't. It's a mess and po what your describing all gone. It's a mele on 2 tier terms but they are not POS in a professional role. Their senior admin
DeletePso remains assistant to the same job.
Pompous nonsense. I rarely agree with the parole board panels and their hidden agendas. I regularly know of probation officers that take on the parole board and trumped up legal reps. The problem is the parole board itself puts legal reps on a pedestal and buys into the HMPPS narrative of prioritising prison based staff over probation.
ReplyDelete