Since when did probation become an annex of Right Move and Purple Bricks? I haven't got time or energy to write out form after form after form to cover myself in terms of contingencies because there are too many releases and not enough bed spaces and only certain tiers of offender get priority for those spaces. Where is the planning for all this? Where is the contingency? Where are the temporary APs to deal with the increase? Where is the extra funding? Where is the accountability? It's a complete farce. I don't blame the AP or CAS-3 system- they must be beleaguered, but why put them in that position?
Probation in the community is a miserable dumping ground for the ill-thought out policies that favour prisons that are in no great shakes themselves. We are sullied with this lack of professional respect and are a clearing house for failure of will, leadership, joined-up thinking and a lack of planning. Yes, the prisons need to reduce capacity. But if you don't just warehouse them in the first place and make sure their needs are identified and addressed rather than wait until they are in the community, we are less likely to have recalls.
Having an offender off the books of prisons for a few weeks only to be placed back in there is just musical cells and distorts figures.There needs to be proper investment in community probation and for those officers to be given their dignity and professional acumen back and, if necessary, be able to voice concerns before release. It seems the most efficient thing prisons do, is have the POM's name removed on Delius about 5 seconds after they've left the prison gates: Not our problem, matey. Yours now. Ta! Ta! Although... the tapping of that Part A is often not a long way off.
Anon
Ah yes. The modern probation role: part housing officer, part admin clerk, part crisis sponge.
ReplyDeleteCAS-3 referrals, AP applications, Duty to Refer, CRS forms. Page after page of paperwork chasing bedspaces that don’t exist, documenting shortages everyone already knows about, while the actual job, working with people, managing risk, building relationships, the thing most of us came into probation to do, gets pushed to the margins because there simply isn’t time.
When prisons or APs hit capacity, nothing is fixed. The pressure is just dumped into community teams and rebranded as “resettlement”.
More bureaucracy. More liability. More blame. Less professional judgement.
And after absorbing all of that, the reward is a derisory 4%, below inflation, sold to us as generous.
If this is what being “valued” looks like, it’s no wonder people are walking away
HMPPS Probation Service – Now Recruiting
ReplyDeleteBecome a Probation Officer
Extraordinary people doing extraordinary admin.
Looking for a career where you can make a real difference?
Fantastic.
You won’t have time to.
The Role
Join a modern, target-driven organisation where your primary responsibilities will include:
• Completing housing referrals longer than most Russian novels
• Explaining to five agencies why nothing is your responsibility but somehow still yours
• Managing prison releases planned approximately six minutes in advance
• Assessing “risk” using different IT systems that don’t talk to each other
• Recording everything multiple times in slightly different formats
• Feeding the systems first and seeing people if time allows
• Delivering rehabilitation primarily through keyboards, drop-down menus and duplicate case notes
• Absorbing the consequences of every upstream policy failure while being told this is “innovation”
Actual face-to-face work with people will be available occasionally, subject to admin demand.
What We’re Looking For
We welcome applicants who:
• Care deeply about people (this will be gently trained out of you)
• Can tolerate high workload and low trust
• Are comfortable having professional judgement replaced by templates
• Accept that experience is optional but compliance is essential
• View burnout as a personal development opportunity
• Plan to leave within 2–3 years for a better paid job elsewhere
Long-serving staff also welcome, while stocks last.
Pay & Rewards
Enjoy:
• A decade of pay “progression” worth roughly 7–10% against an 80%+ rise in living costs
• Settlements consistently lower than comparable public sector roles
• Occasional £20 vouchers as recognition for managing life-threatening risk
• A generous 4% offer described repeatedly as “beyond remit”
Retention not guaranteed.
Career Development
• Watch newly qualified colleagues leave for police, prisons or literally anything else
• Take on their caseload
• Repeat
Our Vision
To transform probation into a streamlined, efficient throughput service where:
Process replaces judgement
Churn replaces experience
Surveillance replaces support
And “capacity” replaces care
Apply now
Because if you wanted to actually work with people, you probably should have been a nurse, teacher or social worker.
Probation Service. Keeping the spreadsheets safe since 2010.
100% this is true
Delete99% true, even the Spreadsheets they use to keep track of crap and to admonish us with are as accurate at drunk darts player wearing boxing gloves
Delete