Fancy Being a Probation Officer? 2

It's been a long time since I felt able to put together a compendium of contributions, but just recently I've detected a fresh tide of anger and despair and it's coinciding with a dramatic fall in recruitment and retention. We all know probation is utterly broken and needs fixing and the time is right to say it loudly and repeatedly:-

A friend’s son asked me about joining. He is in his 30s with plenty of life experience and a positive happy go lucky mindset. 20 years ago I’d have been very happy to help him join and felt good about it. Instead I warned him off telling him to steer clear and trust me on it. The reason I did so is because he is a good lad and I know his mum. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for upsetting her and messing up his life.

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Funnily enough, I had a conversation with an offender in a prison this morning who rang for an update on when his parole is likely to be. The conversation went on to other relevant topics and he said he was concerned that he would be allocated another officer in the community if he is released. I agreed that due to other circumstances at play, he most likely would. I agreed that this was not optimal but this is where we are and the times were are in. Gone are the days when we had a lifer from start to release and then in the community. He said he did not want to rehash all his life all over again with someone new and I completely understood that too and in fact sympathised with it. More tellingly, and this is where today's post resonates, he said he did not want an offender manager who did not have life experience. He did not want someone 'young' who has not lived life. He was in his forties and wanted someone who would understand life and some of the issues which affect us all. Unfortunately,

'...You should hear some of the newly qualified officers berating those who have been in the job for decades when they know nothing about life let alone probation work...'

refers and I absolutely know that he will not get what he wants because in the office I am in, it does not exist although it is very badly needed and they know it. All gone. Those of us who are experienced are regrettably, a dying breed. I stay because now an old cove, I always considered it a vocation and that is very difficult to walk away from for me anyway.

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Part of the issue with retention for trainees is the job description. ‘Want to make a difference’, ‘rehabilitation’ and all the other buzz words and catchy phrases. If job descriptions were accurate and stated that the job was 90-95% admin and that ‘POPs’ actually get in the way of endless form filling, irrelevant emails, endless NSI’s for everything and ridiculously long repetitive and convoluted Oasys assessments, then at least people would enter the role with realistic expectations.

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Completely agree. The adds should read ‘Want to fill out long forms and spend hours in front of your computer imagining you are making a difference? Want to be responsible for high risk cases but not have time to work with them? Want to be part of an organisation that doesn’t care about you, those you work with or your local community? If the answer to these questions is ‘Yes’ then you could be the ideal candidate to join the probation service. Under 25, fresh out of uni, naive, not too bright (it helps not to be) No problem.

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It's almost encouraging that HMPPS continue to peddle the "buzz words and catchy phrases". Like a fading recognition that a) that is what identifies probation b) what attracts people to it. Trouble is, what should be a philosophy and culture is just buzz words and catchy phrases. If HMPS really meant it, there would be a big top down strategy to cement a culture of rehabilitation and all that entails. You can't run a cruel, punitive enforcement agency with cruelty and punishment seeping through every HR and practice policy, and the everyday language of the organisation, and just pin a pious message onto the letterhead. If they really mean it, they must follow it up with a root and branch cultural refreshment. And clean separation of Probation from the prison system.

I had a first weekend of retirement moment on Sunday: I felt rising anxiety, then realised that I didn't have to go in and open up the emails the next day. That is true of everybody who ever retired: However, what struck me was that my anxiety was "What have they done?", not "How are they doing?". That is the shift in culture that we have undergone. 

I recall a decade ago having literally sleepless nights because my lad was coming out of prison and had no accommodation lined up. The idea that a human being for whom I had some responsibility could be in that awful situation filled me with horror. If I couldn't get that sorted, then WTF was I for? Scroll forwards ten years, and without missing a beat, I routinely saw people in the same position, signposted them to a local agency that would- or might- give them a tent, and got back to the keyboard. Where I would, of course, complete an assessment of their risk as raised due to their homelessness, and an evaluation of how that, they, might be managed.

PS "My lad" was doing fine last time I looked. Back then I and a colleague with an awesome little notebook of local contacts, found him a roof for over his head, it wasn't brilliant but we got him there and then on and out to better. The colleague has like me left, couldn't bear it anymore. And with him his awesome little notebook. Shame. Shame! Pearly

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I couldn’t think of anything worse than being a probation officer these days, undervalued, poor training, lack of diversity in workforce, punitive agenda, join the police, earn more, retire earlier.

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Joining the police is like jumping out of the frying pan into the fire. Many professions such as teaching, social work, nursing and probation are undervalued. A brief examination of news articles will show that there is relatively little positive coverage reflecting the skills and knowledge of practitioners. The impression is that anyone, even someone fresh out of university, can do these jobs. 

There is plenty of negative coverage regarding those who are considered to have fallen below the standards required. Being sacked is not good enough as they must be sacked and thrown under a bus by their senior leaders. It’s a mixed bag but one thing that unites these professions is that they are mostly feminised. It is probably true that those men who would have joined the probation service in the 80s would not now consider joining unless they really want to embrace working in a female dominated environment where they will only progress if they are willing to ditch their masculinity. 

Feminised professions generally suffer low wage increases, tend to be less actively unionised, and in some cases are not considered to be proper professions especially by right wing governments but rather as 'do-gooder' vocations where earning money and professional status are secondary to satisfaction gained from caring and helping. This is perpetuated in the media. When the public perception bubble is bust, then it is like open season with teachers and young doctors/nurses being portrayed as greedy selfish or lazy and out to harm kids, old people etc but at the same time providing a vital service we all want.

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“There is a big problem group of millennials who think older more experienced officers are toddlers who should retire asap.” No, no, no! Most of the older more experienced probation officers I come across should retire asap. They are the rudest and most unhelpful set of people. I am tired that this set of POs, PSOs, staff think harping on about their 20 years experience entitles them to think they own the probation office and can be rude and offensive to everyone else. Worse are the ones older than that who think administrators are servants and can’t do anything unless the admin does it for them. Once upon a time we had decent experienced staff, but now we’re left with the chaff. Out with the old and in with the new.

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Correct. It is the recruitment of young and inexperienced staff that is the problem. Perhaps bring in a mandatory life/work experience test and 6 months voluntary in the local food bank or similar. Probation should never be a first job for someone fresh out of university. It’s double punishment for the punters. We used to weed these people out in the assessment centres as having insufficient life skills, but then we were instructed to take anyone with a pulse.

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Completely agree with the comments about the wrong type of people being employed. Don't get me wrong, there are a couple in my team with potential but we've also had to have the counter corruption team in as there is now a culture developing of cocaine usage - open secret on nights out with all the younger lot.

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This isn’t about age, but we definitely need to address the gender and ethnicity balance and lack of life experience for some of the new recruits though. Mainly due to the complexity of issues our clients bring to their supervision. Never have I experienced such difficulty in engagement of the people we work with. IMO this is because we are not spending time with them, building a relationship and doing the work we should be. We are administering a sentence now, not delivering rehabilitation. Whilst we allow HMPPS to erode the skills we have, the vocation of probation practice and our value base- we will end up as a service offering nothing other than community enforcers.

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I think it is too late. I battled on for years before eventually calling it a day as it was impacting on my health. I got disciplined 6 months before I left after a 30 year spotless record. The reason was that I failed to keep records to the required standard. I used to spend time with my clients. I remember my practice teacher saying to me ‘people not paper’ I did not use the prescribed format for contacts and refused to change on the basis that it made no sense. I was directed to look at a good example. This was someone I knew spent on average 10 mins seeing her clients but nevertheless produced long detailed contacts that were grammatically perfect - had a degree in English. I read them all on all her cases and spookily they were all very similar. I am sure one of those plagiarism detectors would have something interesting to say. Not one of my bullet point working notes type entries was the same and accurately reflected the ongoing work. But I am the one in trouble even though I rarely breach and all mine used to show up. It didn’t seem right so I quit. Since quitting I volunteer and litter pick and help out at the local community centre helping refugees. I recently retrained as a counsellor. I feel like I am doing something useful unlike the last 6 months of working in probation when I just felt like an outcast. Quit now and do something useful with your life.

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They just need tick boxing robots these days. I go in for the money. It is miserable. Really negative workplace. If a warehouse job paid better I’d do that. I feel less loyalty to the organisation every day. No one gives a crap anymore. Mind you it’s the same everywhere. Crap government, NHS has gone downhill, rubbish everywhere, levelling up runs downhill to the south. Got a Union email the other day saying HMPPS HQ sent a sick note to the meeting they were supposed to attend. Back in the day employers met with unions at a big meeting called NNC. If the employers wanted to negotiate they were there mob handed. This lot don’t even turn up. They should try a couple of weeks on the frontline then they’d know what feeling sick feels like. Making out they are irreplaceable.

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At our Birmingham office there are good young officers but also the immature lazy ones. Had to endure a whole morning of chat between 2 about Crocs and what to get for KFC. Discussions with POPs on loudspeaker. The officers should be sitting with their own teams but hide in the attic space saved for hot desking as they know they can get away from doing hardly any work. It isn't an age thing just the type of person who has no desire to put in the work with a bad attitude. Management are fully aware but only care about weekly quizzes and everything on the diversity calendar

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Yes and this appears to be the notorious office in Birmingham that hit the blog a few months ago. How long do they let this PDU head continue to manage before action is taken, or he is made accountable for decisions made within his PDU. It is shocking to know that this is happening in one office and in the another office within the same PDU has overworked staff who manage unworkable caseloads. My understanding is that he has allowed one office to function in green prioritisation framework by resourcing it and left the other office in amber with WMT for officers at up to 180% ! How is it possible to have 2 offices in a PDU working 2 prioritisation frameworks ? Why is a head allowed to treat people in this way ?

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I'm not surprised that Probation recruitment has fallen off a cliff edge. Many of the younger potential Probation Officers are very media savvy and well versed with social media which gives numerous accounts of the toxicity of Probation. They are forewarned about the blame culture and grinding workloads and probably (and sensibly) choose to look for work elsewhere.

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I trained at a time when you were expected to have significant life and work experience prior to training. We had to cut our teeth on roles such as residential child care or youth work etc, It helped to sort the wheat from the chaff. You knew what you were getting into and whether you had the resilience and understanding to do the job. That's all changed now and with it retention will plummet. Also the job was nowhere near as stressful back when I started. Yes, it was very challenging, always has been but you felt supported and there was not the idiotic bureaucracy there is now. I didn't go to work daily worrying about an SFO, who has stabbed who or died from drugs overdose, the lack of support for service users with such complex mental health issues. I would not recommend this job to anyone, not to my children or anyone else I know. How could I do that whilst I know the level of angst and the mental health issues this job has brought to me. Anxiety and PTSD symptoms to name a few. 

I would advise people to steer clear and avoid being an AI 'screw on wheels', forced to bang up people with MH issues and complex personality disorders, no autonomy, just part of a broken system, then hauled over hot coals when something out of your control happens. Too much responsibility too much stress and compromised beliefs and not enough respect or rewards. Can't even tell friends or public what you do, they have no understanding or could react negatively if they do and you get no social recognition such as a Doctor, nurse, teacher would get despite the important job we have trying to keep the public safe. This is something we rarely acknowledge in my opinion but it's important. This leaves you feeling undervalued and invisible and saps your self esteem. You feel like a persona non grata, if that's the correct Latin as I can't be bothered to check!

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Are we not all in this together (pqip, nqo, PO with 20 years experience)? Surely we should be, do we not want the same things, did we not join the service for broadly the same things? Why are so many of you criticising the young people or criticising the experienced practitioners. Working at probation is pretty dire at the moment and fighting each other and turning against colleagues doesn't help. I'm an NQO with the utmost respect for experienced colleagues and I have found every single one of my team exceptionally helpful. I'm sorry others haven't but can we not support each other through this s@@t show and try get through together?

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The job is simply unmanageable now. They are expecting us to be all things to everyone when the reality is we have crumbling public services and no resources. I am fed up of being expected to do everyone else’s job including my own .. “oh it’s only a small form” “we’ve streamlined the process” no, all you’ve done is add another admin task to my day. I am not a housing officer nor a police officer! The pay is piss poor and the only good part of the job is working with the PoPs who teach me far more about life than the toothless managers that spend their time wasting mine.