A Paper Mouse With No Gnashers

Nothing seems to change with these reports. They get made. There's a bit of tract and then nothing and then another report and so on and so forth. It's a paper mouse with no gnashers. It's no wonder staff are fatigued from filling in the People's Survey, to give us the illusion that our voice is being heard, when most just want more money and this is constantly fudged like the Cadbury's factory. The country is still slavishly listening to the raged majority in the Shires and the investment-starved inner cites who want to bring back executions, frontier justice, the mass deportation of immigrants; the belief that all sex offenders are off small boats; the dim-bulbed misunderstanding of what a minimum tariff for a life sentence is: "they'll be out in 8 years. Not long enough." 

So, we get prisons being front and centre of this thirst for vengeance and no wonder Probation is starved of investment- it's not an appeasement to the baying mob. As far as recruitment goes: this is constantly in flux. It doesn't take into consideration those wanting to leave now or are thinking of leaving and the number of new recruits who may not stay the distance, which is between 24 and 32 months after PO status without NQO and completion of the PQIP has been achieved, because the culture at a given a PDU may not be conducive to a person's circumstances or working practice. Cliques, favouritism, factions, staff using leverage, side hustles that lead to exemptions, meaning more work for others; some factors that come into play in a PDU that are hidden until you get there. Probation often doesn't help itself with the culture it creates and normalises, because it is what it is becomes the status quo

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[above] has nailed it - report after report after report after report, but no-one gives a flying fuck what they say; they make no difference to the day-to-day reality... people get paid shitloads more to prepare & publish the reports than those trying to deliver what the reports blather on about. casey has made a fortune out of being a professional "cszar"; chairs of enquiries get paid £hundreds-of-thousands over the period of the hearings they preside over; judges get their salaries PLUS whatever the hearing daily rate is.

What's the fucking point? As someone else has already highlighted, the first NAO report on TR was predicated on govt lies & misinformation... just because a report matches your prejudice doesn't mean its accurate. The situation for probation staff is dire, whether you're new or existing or long-serving. Management is a non-sequitur, in the majority of cases its simply a label for collusive shitweasel (there are always exceptional exceptions).

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HMPPS’s ‘Our Future Probation Programme’ is not bold and innovative approach, it’s nonsense and I cringe every time I hear it. If HMPPS acknowledges that the Probation Service is currently unsustainable then why isn’t it adequately paid and resourcing probation staff. The fix isn’t rocket science, but let’s see how quick they farm in Serco, Sodexo, G4S and others to do the “extra work” the prison crisis and so called reforms are generating. It’s been said time and again, even on this blog, until probation is separated from prisons, the civil service and political meddling, there will be no change.

If probation is unable to develop a clear and credible identity, distinct from narratives around punishment, public safety, use of technology, cost-effectiveness, or custody alternatives, and to resist the urge to overpromise on risk management, public protection, and crime control, then it will continue to face the challenge of misrepresentation. Without a clearly defined identity, probation remains vulnerable to external pressures, limiting its autonomy and effectiveness to dust.