Lessons to be Learned

A great piece here in thejournal from the Emerald Isle and that serves to remind us what sensible jurisdictions think about our failing probation service:-

Longest serving probation officer: 'Nail 'em, jail 'em policies will not solve repeat offending'

“Capture ‘em, nail ‘em, jail em” will not solve the problem of repeat offenders but including them in the community can positively move people away from a life of crime, Ireland’s most experienced Probation Service officer has said.

Gerry McNally has spent 45 years at the coal face of the Irish Probation Service, starting all the way back in 1978. He has spent that time working in the courts and the prisons and found himself trying to set people back on a straight track. He reached the level of Assistant Director with ‎responsibility for research projects, policy briefings and special international projects. He’s also a former President of the Confederation of European Probation (CEP).

It has been a long journey from his Monaghan upbringing and his degree in English, philosophy and psychology. That degree led him to teaching for two years but an interest in probation and the law led him to take a second degree in social sciences. He had no desire to become a social worker but was fascinated by the growing Irish interest in probation.

A riot in Mountjoy in 1971 saw then Justice Minister Dessie O’Malley work to find a different way of managing prisoners and to grow the Probation Service. McNally joined in 1978 and spent the rest of his professional life working in the area.

He has seen Ireland transform over the years and witnessed the societal impact of the heroin epidemic on the streets of Dublin in the 1980s and to the present era of organised crime mixed with the apparent hopelessness of drug addiction. In those 45 years of service he said the greatest skill is dealing with people in the criminal justice system not as individuals to isolate but as people to be included in communities.

McNally believes fundamentally that his role is separate from that of the gardaí. “Your purpose as a probation officer is about helping people change their behaviour – that the focus. So you’re actually working for the betterment of the community and the betterment of the individual. “And you work in partnership – you’re supervising the person on behalf of the court. You’re exercising authority yes but there is no benefit for us to be dealing with them in a capture ‘em, nail em, jail ‘em way,” he said.

The Probation Service is an agency of the Department of Justice, and defines its role as working to reduce offending, create safer communities and fewer victims through offender rehabilitation. Rehabilitating offenders to achieve and maintain positive change is at the core of the work carried out by the staff at The Probation Service. The Probation Service comprises 270 Probation Officers who are supported by Probation Assistants. A total of 500 people work for the Probation Service nationwide and it has an annual budget of €50 million.

Critical thinking

McNally said critical to that work there is a need for critical thinking, not just towards the people he is tasked with monitoring but also his own work. He said that key to that is the practice of probation officers moving in their roles every four or so years to “keep it fresh”.

“You don’t have to question everything, but you have to make sure that you have tested out the ideas. You have to be aware, but you also have to be critical of how you’re thinking and that you’re not just thinking in a program way. You almost have to be able to do everything fresh and avoid falling into routines,” he added.

Those routines, he said, can be caused by spending years in the prison system working with offenders. McNally said it took him a number of years to stop approaching cases in an institutionalised way.

Probation officers appear in court daily where they present reports and interact with gardaí and judges. They also meet offenders inside prisons and in the communities where they live. Mcnally said this is facilitated by working with the “entire community” from local organisations, school attendance officers, social workers and gardaí. “It’s a partnership, but everybody knows each other’s role. And you have to have clear boundaries. “That’s where I would stress that from the very beginning that the core business of probation is in the community – it’s about being enmeshed in the community about being part of the community,” he added.

McNally stresses repeatedly throughout the interview that the probation officer has a completely different role than a garda. His view is that in changing an offender’s outlook around committing crime that he is helping the victims – to dissuade a convicted criminal away from committing crime again is the goal. McNally said this is achieved by using psychology and techniques to help people “change culture”.

Lessons to be learned

There are lessons to be learned, he said, from other jurisdictions, particularly in England and Wales, where a focus on the punitive has replaced the holistic methods that McNally believes work for the betterment of communities.

He said the tragedy of the UK is that it was once the model for every other jurisdiction to follow but that changed 20 years ago because of a populist perspective from political leaders both in Labour and the Tories. McNally believes it will take 20 years for British practitioners to try and get back what they lost. “It went from being the model adopted across Europe to the example of the model that you don’t want to do. They are now more focused on enforcement, and risk management but that is a fundamental difference to the Irish approach of rehabilitation.

“The British model is not about rehabilitating people, it’s about restricting and controlling people. So it moves from a degree of partnership to actually much more overt, it’s almost like policing, which isn’t our role,” he said.

McNally said it was a warning for those who would recommend the lock them up and throw away the key model beloved of populist tough on crime exponents. “It was a cultural shift – both under Labour and the Conservative in England in the 1980s and the 1990s. “I think anybody who’s worked in the criminal justice system see that being tough, doesn’t necessarily bring about results. You don’t scare people straight. You don’t punish people straight and prison doesn’t necessarily make people better and deterrence works for about 20 minutes,” he explained.

McNally believes the key to changing offending behaviour is about showing people a different way to live. “If you treat people badly how can you expect them to show respect back. “It’s all about trying to not just teach people respect. There is a big thing that needs to be done and that is to give people hope.

“Most people don’t want to go to jail. Most people want to live a decent life. A lot of people don’t know how to live a decent life, because they have never had that experience and most people want to go straight. Yeah. Sooner or later. Yeah. But they don’t know how – what we try to do in Ireland is give them the tools to do that,” he added.

Change

The statistics from the Probation Service is a fascinating snapshot of those who commit crime in Ireland. Offenders are for the most part men, at 84%, and 16% are women. They are 92% adults and 8% young people under the age of 18. The top offences in order of most referrals are drug offences, assault, theft, public order road traffic and burglary.

McNally is now facing into retirement but said that he will continue to work on international projects. His key takeaway from 45 years of working with the disaffected: ”Not changing is the biggest sin in the world. If the guy on probation isn’t changing we can’t blame them for not changing if we don’t change, we have to upscale ourselves and learn to do things differently.”

Guest Blog 96

Reflections 2

I thought I would offer an update regarding my employment. My leaving the service approx 3 years ago was published anonymously as Guest Blog 84 in November 2021. 

I took early retirement after 21 years as a probation officer (in 2021). however I then worked elsewhere for approx 18 months. My old senior and the chief then persuaded me that my experience was sadly missed and asked if I would return on a part time basis? The promise of a mentoring role, guiding inexperienced and newly qualified officers whilst supporting my old team was, I thought, an opportunity to return to the work I once loved.

I have now achieved 15 months back in post as a part time PO, my case load currently sits at 170% capacity (workload management tool). I am told what to do by numerous SPO’s who all have differing agendas. I have had no refresher training and yet the way OASys is now written bears no resemblance to how I was trained. I am micro managed in every aspect of the role and told all decisions regarding enforcement, breach, recall, transfers, amendments and warnings etc ‘must’ have management oversight. 

The team is short staffed and cannot fill vacancies. I am told my role will change ‘when’ the vacancies are filled. People are now being directed to work at my office and sickness absence has reached new highs. Morale is lower than I have ever seen.

I am told that in order to complete mandatory training as part of the CBF framework I should now undertake that work as overtime! If I don’t, I simply won’t get my incremental pay rise! Under the current circumstances I have now tendered my resignation. I have undertaken an exit interview and was asked if I wanted more time to think about my decision (twice). I was then asked to defer my decision for a couple of months! (declined). 

The Service is broken beyond repair. The core skills of a professional Probation Officer are no longer required or desired. Good performance is measured in OASys timeliness and constant management oversight. The development of effective and meaningful relationships with offenders is no longer encouraged or required.

Prisons are at capacity, early release is now common place, PSS licence is on the cusp of being ditched, IPP sentences are being revoked due to the lack of capacity rather than the effectiveness of risk management. When it all goes wrong and the inevitable SFO’s start to occur, it will be the hapless ineffectual and over worked Probation Officer who will be thrown under the bus!

I am done, I give in, this Gold Star Service is no more. I have become a square peg that could never fit the shapeshifting demands of the HMPPS. Hope this helps the cause.

Best wishes,

Anon

--oo00oo--

Have something to say? Want space to reflect? Want to get something off your chest, but anonymously? Why not hit the keyboard and send it in for publishing? jimbrown51@virginmedia.com  

Fancy Being a Probation Officer? 5

I’ve been in the service since 2010 and as a PO for the past 8 years and right now I am feeling so exhausted and disillusioned by the unrelenting pressures, constant high caseload and swift practice changes which make things worse (like ECSL, 14 day recalls for the majority of cases, clunky EPF to name a few!).

There is no emphasis or passion shown from above about the quality of work and actually doing a good job… now it’s all about skimming the surface, doing the bare minimum and ticking those boxes! This does not motivate me and what message does this give new recruits? It’s not just about getting the job done - it’s about doing a good job too!

In my area we are in amber measures and not delivering toolkits for low and medium ROSH cases - just aiming for tick box appointments and asking those risk related questions - the Courts don’t know this. Court reports make recommendations for toolkits and interventions and they are just not being delivered - it’s embarrassing. I no longer feel aligned to the service and am not prepared to compromise on my integrity and values and starting to explore other avenues as a result. I am also no longer to prepared to work extra hours like I have for years but what this has lead to is spiralling anxiety which I’m trying to work on from knowing that some things are not being done as timely as it should be for good practice and it’s naturally led to some balls being dropped but I’ve decided that self care and well-being comes first and work is not going to consume my life… I’ve experienced burnout previously resulting in several months off. I do not want to get back to that place.

It makes me really sad as when I started pre TR (2010) I genuinely loved the service and it felt like we were all encouraged to do our very best, the culture and training was organised well and there was a focus on continuous practice development.

I just can’t see how things are going to get better anytime soon.

A Typical Day at the Office?

I notice that the ipaper published this a few weeks ago:-

‘I’m firefighting all the time’: 24 hours as a probation officer

Sarah Edwards, 35, worked as a probation officer from 2014 to 2020. In November 2020, she left her job and set up a coaching business to help people get into the probation industry. She also works part-time writing probation reports for courts to use during sentencing.

Edwards is the author of a book, Success on Probation: A Step By Step System to Reform Your Life. These 24 hours are based on her work as a probation officer from 2014 to 2020.

7am

I wake up thinking about work. I already have a knot in my stomach and can’t stop thinking about all the things I need to do. I don’t have breakfast at home – I just go straight to the office. I’m anxious to get on with things.

7.30am

The train journey takes about an hour. My worries about my job are always in the back of my mind, but I listen to music to help me switch off until I get in.

8.30am

There aren’t many people in the office at that time, but I like to get there early. I have a cup of tea and check my emails. I heat up my porridge in the microwave.

9am

I’m a morning person – it’s when I work best, so I start the day by writing up assessments – this is where probation officers assess the risk of serious harm by an offender and risk of reoffending and help manage the risks. I usually have about 40 cases at any one time, and they’re mainly high risk, which means they’re usually violent offences or sexual offences.

If they were to harm someone, the risk would be high. These cases are complex, because the people you’re dealing with have other issues like mental health, drug and alcohol issues, and problems with housing. The assessments are time-consuming and each one has a deadline.

The deadlines vary depending on the task and the specific case – it could be 10 days for some assessments, or three weeks for a court report.

10am

I’m in the flow of writing up my assessments but I have to stop at 10am for an appointment with an offender. The people we work with might be on probation or in prison.

We chat about their current situation. In this appointment, the offender mentions that they have seen one of their co-defendants and they’re not supposed to. That means I have to check this information with other professionals involved, like the police, double-check their licence conditions, and decide what action to take, which varies depending on the situation but they might get a written warning, or put on a programme to help them change their behaviour.

10.30am

After that, I write up my case notes. I prefer to do it straight away, otherwise, you can end up with a backlog and no time to get them done. The case notes are important because people need to see what’s happening day-to-day. After I’ve written up my notes, I update my to-do list with any actions I need to take.

11am

I have another appointment with an offender, but they’re late. If someone on probation doesn’t turn up, there are consequences – if you have three absences, you’re supposed to start proceedings to send their case back to court. If someone is late, it creates another decision making process you have to go through. You think: “Is this a general pattern of theirs, or is it a one off? Have they contacted me to let me know?” Eventually, the offender turns up 30 minutes late.

12pm

I’m still writing up my case notes and I get a call from the police about a referral I asked for a week earlier. I have to stop what I’m doing and focus on that instead. Everything I’m working on has a chain reaction but you don’t know when that reaction is going to come. I don’t ever feel I have time to get organised and get on top of things. It feels like I’m just firefighting all the time.

12.30pm

I take half an hour for lunch, because I’d rather leave early than take a whole hour. There’s a kitchen where we can eat, but like most of my colleagues, I eat at my desk while I type up yet more case notes. Then I go for a 20-minute walk to get some fresh air.

1pm

I have to go to an inter-agency meeting, which is when different professionals meet to discuss a particular offender. This meeting is about someone who’s in supported housing and has been causing trouble. You have to go into these meetings really knowing your case because each professional is going to have their own agenda. For example, the housing officer’s priority is to prevent them becoming homeless and maintain housing standards, while a probation officer’s priorities are to prevent them reoffending and causing harm to anyone.

I meet with the housing officer and a police officer and we try to get to the bottom of what’s been going on. After the meeting, we each have a list of actions to take. I have to send over a risk assessment, so I add that to my to-do list.

2.30pm

One of the offenders I’m working with calls me. He’s an 18 year old who’s in prison for robbery, and it’s his first offence. I can tell he really values our conversations. He calls to tell me that he’s put on a musical performance in prison and been doing a chef’s course. While he’s been in prison, I’ve been speaking to him on the phone and writing to him. In these moments, I feel a lot of job satisfaction because I know that I’m making a difference to him.

3pm

I meet with a police officer and a staff member from the hostel where an offender is staying. He’s a 40-year-old man with autism who has committed sexual offences against young women. We’ve had reports that he’s been flashing people at bus stops and walking around his hostel and behaving inappropriately. When a person is going back to behaviours that led to the offence, you have to find out what’s going on. These are warning signs and we know that there’s a high likelihood he could be currently committing offences and not getting caught or that he’s about to.

I then go straight to meet another one of my cases, a domestic violence offender who also has alcohol issues. He works in construction and he hides behind his work a lot. He won’t really address his offending, and is quite difficult to work with.

4pm

I have another difficult appointment with an offender. A lot of times people get angry and start shouting at you. As a probation officer, you’re trying to build a relationship with the offender but you’re also trying to enforce the rules. But if they’ve seen you as quite friendly and then you enforce the rules, they think you’re turning against them. People are often derogatory.

In this meeting, the offender shouts at me, saying: “You can’t do your job properly” and “You’re just a little girl, you don’t know what you’re talking about”. You have to remain calm. I tell them that they express themselves but they can’t shout at me. This offender doesn’t listen, so I leave the room. We always sit closest to the door so we can leave in those situations. There’s an emergency buzzer if you’re ever worried for your safety.

4.30pm

I have a catch-up meeting with my manager. We mostly talk about if I’ve met my targets and my deadlines. There’s a target for every little thing, from putting equality and diversity information on the system, to making sure social services or police checks are done in a certain time frame. We spend about five minutes talking about how I am. As a probation officer, there isn’t a lot of time to carve out space to reflect on how the job is impacting you.
5pm

I leave work at about 5pm. Sometimes I have to stay for an appointment at 7pm or 8pm, if the offender is working and needs to have an appointment after work. When I finish for the day, my whole body feels drained. I’ve been on the go all day and writing assessments – it’s constant.

6pm

I get home and I feel irritable. My energy levels are depleted. The day was relentless and I wonder: When is this going to stop?

I make myself a quick dinner of chicken and rice. I don’t want to rely on ready meals or takeaways – I know that I need to eat healthily to help manage my stress.

7.30pm

Sometimes, I do taekwondo or yoga after work to help me let off steam, but tonight I just watch TV. I just want to numb out and switch off. I feel emotionally depleted and that affects my body as well.

10pm

At about 10pm, I make a conscious effort to switch off and go to bed. I’m thinking about work – I know that I’ve got a busy day again tomorrow and that I will need my energy. I have this dull feeling of dread in the background. I know that I’ve got to do it all over again tomorrow.

--oo00oo--

From Amazon:-

• Sarah Edwards has worked for Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service for 10 years. Up until November 2020 Sarah worked as a qualified Probation Officer working with offenders who have committed serious crimes.

• Sarah Edwards, Mum of 2 is the founder of Edwards Tutoring. A tutoring and coaching company for Psychology and Criminology Students. Sarah’s proven methods have helped many students not only with academic improvements but to help motivate them and find confidence in their abilities so they can excel in their academic goals and beyond.

• Being involved in projects that align with Sarah’s values and missions is central to Sarah’s ethos. Sarah is involved in the social policy-making initiative with ‘We are Telescope’ www.wearetelescope.org to contribute to work collaboratively with frontline workers and policy makers in public services. Sarah is specifically focusing her efforts on the Justice sector.

• Sarah Edwards is the author of “ Success on Probation: A Step By Step System To Reform Your Life And Release Yourself From Your Mental Jail” . Sarah has used her understanding and experience of rehabilitating offenders and translated this into how to change your own mindset, set goals and take action on your own life, particularly focused on the narrative of being a Mum to young children.

A Probation Manifesto

I note the Probation Institute is 10 years old and has published a shopping list of what is required from any new in-coming government " for Probation to return to a robust state."  Lets hope the politicians are listening:- 

A few thoughts on ten years of the Probation Institute

At a time when both prison remands and prison sentences are increasing for a high number of people who have committed non-violent offences, it is imperative that the important contribution that probation can make to the lives of people who have offended is properly recognised and resourced. Community sentences under the auspices of the Probation Service do work! Over the years, the probation service has supported thousands of people. The Probation Institute has a significant role in both championing and supporting probation practice through its professional discussions, contributions to training, and generally keeping the flag flying for all things probation.

Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe
Chair

I joined the Board of Directors in 2015 a year after it was established. Transforming Rehabilitation had just happened amid confusion, fear and considerable outright opposition. The Probation Managers Association morphed into the Probation Institute seeing itself as a continuation of the employers organisation and operating a voluntary Professional Register.

Twenty two new Community Rehabilitation Companies were formed. Each bidding for the low to medium work of the former Probation Trusts. The National Probation Service was formed to manage high risk cases. Staff were spilt between the two new organisational structures almost arbitrarily.

It's all history now of course. The rapid but nonetheless slow motion failure of the CRCs as private companies - a completely inappropriate model for the management of people with complex needs. The robust interventions of Dame Glenys Stacey catalogued the inadequacy of the new arrangements. The privatisation experiment ended. It was no surprise that our voluntary professional register struggled in the TR years!

A note regarding CRCs however - which in a few particular instances produced pockets of innovation and lateral thinking that was fresh air - I'm thinking of developing people with lived experience as mentors and moving reporting centres into the community.

In 2016 guided by Professor Paul Senior, a small group of the Directors reviewed the structure of the Probation Institute and successfully proposed that it should focus on the professional development of probation practitioners and wider professionals working in rehabilitation. This was a major shift and undoubtedly has proved to be the right decision. The voluntary register closed, and we committed our energy to professional development, offering events and publications focussing on evidence based research, principles of practice and sharing information in accessible modes. I became Acting Chief Executive and subsequently Chief Executive.

In June 2019 Paul Senior died after a long illness. He has been greatly missed, and very often remembered.

Nick Smart, Mary Anne McFarlane and currently Professor Loraine Gelsthorpe have continued Paul's position as Chair of the Board of Directors, becoming a Board of Trustees in April 2022 when the Probation Institute became a Charitable Incorporated Organisation.

During the COVID era the Probation Institute became almost completely virtual and we are grateful to Richard Rowley who has very effectively built up our website and social media platforms. Since 2019 the Probation Quarterly has further developed as a recognised source of writing on professional matters particularly by practitioners and academics on a wide and important range of topics in the field of rehabilitation. Anne Worrall and Jake Phillips have successively and very successfully edited the Probation Quarterly (PQ) supported by an editorial board. Issue 31 of PQ is published in the week of our tenth anniversary.

Since 2014 the catalogue of significant publications from the Probation institute has continuously grown. Our catalogue includes the only Code of Ethics in the field, thirteen Position Papers including Court Work, Remote Working and Race Equality, and Research Reports, including significant joint work on veterans in the justice system. We regularly hold online Research Events and Trainees Events. The Sir Graham Smith Research Award has produced a suite of excellent practice based research reports which we have launched and published. Our responses to government consultations, developed increasingly with our Fellows, are published and shared widely. We work with a range of organisation including the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, Centre for Justice Innovation, Napo, and the Magistrates Association. We welcome the support of a number of universities in the field who work collaboratively with us.

In recent conversations with politicians we have been asked what needs to happen for Probation to return to a robust state. This is what we are saying;

• Independent , external Professional Recognition and Regulation is now essential

• A complete and independent review of the organisational purpose and location of Probation is necessary, being sensitive to the importance of stability on the ground but looking at devolution and models such as Youth Justice - for example should we put desistance at the centre of the purpose in the way that prevention is at the heart of youth justice?

• The Probation Service needs to be taken out of the Civil Service

• Diversity must be understood and valued; respect for difference never taken for granted

• The voluntary sector needs to be trusted and better resourced to support the statutory responsibilities; access to funding needs to be much easier for small voluntary organisations

• Sentencers must give more time for the completion of thorough Probation Pre Sentence Reports to help to reduce risk, building on the pilots

• The presumption against under 12 month sentences must be enforced

• The relationship between sentencers and the Probation Service must be rebuilt as an effective trusting partnership

• People with lived experience must be valued and recruited into the service

We have the prospect of a Labour Government within the year of our anniversary. Over the years Labour Governments introduced Parole, the legislation for Community Service and the Youth Justice Board. We should seek brave and ambitious decisions for Probation and the wider field of rehabilitation from an incoming Labour Government. The Probation Institute is ambitious for the Probation Service to be the best that it can be.

We are a membership organisation open to anyone who wants to support professional development for probation and rehabilitation practice. We do not receive any government funding and we rely on our membership income. Please join here.

Helen Schofield
Chief Executive

Another Milestone

Later today this blog will hit yet another milestone as the counter inexorably tips us over another million hits, taking us to 9 million since it all started on the sofa with a a laptop and cup of tea some 14 years ago. Thankyou all for your interest and support and I cannot think of a better way of marking the occasion than the following reproduced from the latest bumper edition of Probation Quarterly from the Probation Institute:-

A Conversation on Values and Principles in Probation

John Deering 

Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Criminology University of South Wales

Martina Feilzer 

Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice Bangor University

Su McConnel 

Vice Chair, Napo

Ella Rabaiotti 

Lecturer in Criminology, Swansea University

Introduction

The following conversation took place as part of the work of the Probation Development Group at the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice (Deering et al., 2023). We reflect on the impact of policy and organisational changes on staff in probation, focusing on their values and principles regarding probation work. In particular, changes within probation following the Transforming Rehabilitation policy (see Deering & Feilzer, 2015) are considered. Su and Ella both left probation as a result of this policy. Su later rejoined and Ella has moved into academia. Traditional values and principles in probation based on its originating ethos of ‘advise, assist, and befriend’ are thought to have come under significant pressures over the past few decades as part of numerous reforms to probation structures, changes in its overarching purpose, departures from its traditional social work training, and a dramatic staff turnover and change in staff composition. 

Reflecting on values and principles 

Martina: [Transforming Rehabilitation - TR] was quite tragic for the service, because a lot of people who'd been in probation for a long time, just left. That loss of experience was really quite marked. 

Su: I still feel it now. There's lots of young people [in the service now], very few old lifers like me. That loss of experience was huge and the oral history of the service before TR is fading fast. 

Ella: I was just thinking about people joining the previous probation service and thinking of those people that are now joining into the Civil Service…I wonder if there's a difference between the values and principles of these groups regarding joining probation. Are civil service probation values something different?

Su: I think they're different. Previously I think people joined with the same loose set of values that I had in 1986, although without thinking it through very much: ‘do good, mend people’. I worked in community service when I started, and the chief administrator of the service I worked for criticised me and my lot. He said I can't tell you apart from your clientele, you all look the same. You all drive dodgy cars, and you dress badly, and we took this as an absolute badge of honour: that we were so on side with our clientele. I sense an ‘us and them’ now, a much stronger sense of there being a staff group who do something to another person. 

The new mantra of ‘assess, protect and change' are all things that you do to people. So we assess, 'we're going to do this to you. We are going to protect everyone else from you because we're deeply worried and scared of you and perceive you as a threat. And we're going to change you.’ I think that's sort of absorbed somehow into the way people approach the work.

John: The new mantra was at least a change from the previous 20 years which was not about even imagining that you could change people, and that assessment was purely a narrow assessment of risk. We’re ‘just going to manage you.’ 

This is not just a job. You've got to enjoy it in some basic ways that are about how you view the world and how you treat people. I asked the trainees in 2010 - the government is telling you that probation is about punishing people and protecting the public. So why did you join? Nobody said I'm here to punish people. And that remained consistent throughout their training (Deering, 2010). But it's interesting to hear you say now that since it's become a civil service that maybe it's different?

Martina: It would be interesting, but I wonder whether it makes a difference? Listening to our students who express an interest in probation, they are saying ‘I'm doing this because I care about people, I care about the community I live in’. [But they] have no idea what they’re walking into as a profession, and people should be quite open about that. They've got certain ideas about the job, but then join and people tell you what to do, and that influences what you think about the job and how you do it. I still think we underestimate the amount of time that is spent in front of the computer trying to fill in a form and fighting with that and how all that can influence your practice?

Su: We keep using the word profession. One of the definitions of a profession is the thing that you do for life, if you're a lawyer, or a surgeon, or whatever that's something you do for your working life, and that is not the case anymore in probation. You get your long service medal at 5 years these days, and a huge round of applause. So that is a challenge in itself.

Ella: Often professions will have some sort of values framework. In probation ethics, principles and values have been quite changeable and wishy-washy over the years without a clear framework. I know that Napo had clear views on this and the Probation Institute has produced a list of values for practice and of course lots has been done in Europe. How important is it to have these things? I don't think people look at organisational buzzwords and fundamentally change [their values]. They might change elements of practice due to different strategies and policies, but do they change their deep rooted values? I know we've tried to state some of these things within our publication. Do you think it is important to put a marker in the sand? Say, well, this is the sort of probation that we want with these sorts of values.

John: I suppose it's about what you think probation is about. In my view, if it's not about trying to help people change and improve their lives, then there's no point to it. You could just fine all the people who don't go to prison or give them hours of unpaid work. But if you believe that things can change for people, then you have to think that you can work with people, that you can be empathic and believe in their ability to change.

Martina: In our survey (Deering & Feilzer, 2015), respondents referred to public sector values and a core belief that people can change. And that the role of the probation officer is to assist in that change. However, in research since I've noticed that there isn't a lot of ‘profession for life’ anymore, and in probation you seem to have a criminal justice professional, where people move between different services, from police to probation and back again, including to the private and charitable sectors. However, the ethos of these sectors are very different. You can see some similarities between the public and charitable sectors, but some people move between both the private and public sectors and I don't think we have a full grasp of those individuals yet in terms of their values.

Su: I think we're offering what we think, a view of what values and ethics of a probation service should be. People make individual decisions based on their own skills and understanding all the time with reference to their training and to a set of values and ethics. So you need to have a set of values and ethics to refer to, and the profession can resist calls to work in ways that conflict with its agreed values and ethics.

Ella: Agreed, but there is something about the interpretation of the words, isn't there? Earlier we talked about ‘assess, protect and change’, and it being potentially negative where we do the change to the people, we make them change - or positive if we enable and support them to change. How does this relate to the training, the development, the support of practitioners? So they can discuss and consider what some of these things mean and how they can be interpreted.

Martina: The point Su was making is important. It's about the organisation as much as the individuals within it. However, the Civil Service has no history or culture as a probation organisation, and neither does being part of HMPPS promote a probation-specific ethos. When we say ‘challenge the individual’, we also need to say ‘challenge the organisation’ to support individuals to deliver some of this work.

Ella: It almost mirrors what we do with working with people on probation, isn't it? We challenge them as individuals. But we should be going back to the system that created the circumstances that put them in that place.

John: Ever since probation became a punishment, a sentence of the court in the 1991 Criminal Justice Act, governments have tried to change the ethics and values of the organisation. Government was saying probation was about punishment in the community. With the arrival of National Standards, the government set about trying to redefine the organisational culture: “We are an enforcement agency, it's who we are, it's what we do”. They knew how important it was in order to change the organisation.

Ella: That's when I started. But because I was working with the old guard, I guess, who would be like ‘forget about that’…This is how we do probation. There was a mixture of this conflicting policy, guidance and people, saying, this is what we are, and then other people go, ‘no, this is what we are.

John: Until the last 30 years 'advise, assist and befriend’ was a requirement for probation. It was all a bit vague, but it represented the values of the organisation that people within it were supposed to try and work towards, so in some sense you were able to hold them to account. I think we're quite right to argue that Probation needs to go back to an idea that it is working to engage people in a humanistic and empathic way, because we know what is potentially effective is based on those sorts of things. It's about having a proper relationship with somebody and professional work.

Su: When I first joined probation I used to laugh, if a week went by when I hadn't spent an hour discussing our values base in a meeting or other, it was a weird week. Sometimes it would go down a bit of a rabbit hole, but actually, values and ethics were talked about all the time. That social work reflective thing. It was just a naturally occurring feature in any staff meeting or conversation. 

So, if we were to persuade a probation service in Wales to adopt our set of values and ethics, we should probably suggest these are discussed at team meetings, or that should be very much part of the training.

Ella: Yes indeed, Su. Probation spearheaded anti-discriminatory practice, probation officers would bring these important issues up, and I think you might get back to that place where probation officers can lead on these important issues around respecting people as people first. That would be great for the future.

Martina: I think the point is that values and principles are only worth something, if people know how to use them in their day to day work, and can buy into them. It needs to be something that is real, and whether people agree with all of the bits it doesn't matter. That’s all part of the discussion. It must go both ways so that individuals don't feel that only they are monitored or held to account for their values, but also that they can hold the organisation to account. I've been mulling over how important it is that you have organisations that represent different views in the criminal justice system. So that opposition to a law enforcement punishment narrative exists, and that probation should hold that line. Does it sound wrong to be on the side of the person who has committed a crime? But it used to be that position, didn’t it? It’s about regaining that ground because the argument is that you will protect communities in the long run if you do that.

John: I think we've got to emphasise that this is not just a theoretical debate. It's about something that you need to make this organisation work in a certain way. So, it's absolutely integral. We need to tie it in with the evidence about effectiveness in practice and say these things are intertwined.

Su: Once we finish this conversation, I'm off to have a very final session with a woman on the very last day of 2 consecutive, suspended sentence orders, and she's been absolutely brilliant. So, we're just going to have tea and cakes, and that’ll be great. Keeps me going. The thing for me about the values and ethics is, it should make us very distinctly different from other organisations in the criminal justice system. We shouldn't be part of the prison system. Their job is to keep people in, and our absolute job is to keep them out.

Fancy Being a Probation Officer? 4

Remember when initial allocation of a case was followed by a groan, then to be informed “they are in custody” - gave a sigh of relief and respite. However, under the ever-changing ECSL tectonic plates, release dates of prisoners now calculated in something akin to an FA Cup draw or ‘Wheel of Fortune’ format, rather than being something planned and embedded. The pressures and chaos this creates, along with an already substantial and sustained level of change, is leaving staff utterly bewildered. I am now of the opinion that if a custody case is allocated it will now be met with a groan.

****
As much as early release of prisoners will cause significant problems for probation, probation itself is part of the problem. There are many thousands in prison on recall, not because they have re-offended, but for non compliance. It's penal ping pong. Prisons release and probation recall. Prisons are full because there's too many routes into them. Is there really any need to have everyone leaving prison subjected to at least 12mths probation supervision?

****

With all this going on we’ve been told we must fill in weekly timesheets to explain our hours. Our SPO then told us from Monday she’s coming into the office 5 days a week “to model it to you all”. Not sure what’s going to be modelled. This SPO sits in her office with the door closed firing off emails and gossiping to her cronies all day. Ask her about a case she’s like a cat caught in the headlights.

****

If we are all due to be called back into the office five days a week, watch the sickness rates increase exponentially! Flexible working prior to Covid was a joke and you needed a letter from your mam and the local priest to be granted a work from home day. We also do not have the infrastructure for it. They have changed most if not all offices to only hold 60% of the work force in the buildings.

****
I’ve just received a call from my SPO. They are releasing a very high risk case on 2nd April and apparently there’s lot more of them. POP is on a standard recall but his sentence is less that 12 months custody so those cases are all being altered to fixed term recalls and being released, regardless of risk or MAPPA. Ive asked if this was national and he said he was but this is the first I’ve heard about it. I’ve been told not to share this with my colleagues because the legislation is not yet finalised. They also don’t want all staff seeing the list of names on there and they said this is because it’s confidential data but they don’t normally have a problem when we can see each others POP’s names on PP Dashboard, daily performance reports or when we need to cover another PP’s case on delius. Maybe they don’t want my colleagues to see the list for other reasons.

****

"I’ve been told not to share this with my colleagues because the legislation is not yet finalised. They also don’t want all staff seeing the list of names on there and they said this is because it’s confidential". This is an absolute shitshow. Back awhile the term Omnishambles was coined. This is on a whole new level: Omnishambles on Amphet. Ministry: doing what exactly? Doubling down on failed strategy. Ministers presumably hiding under their temporary desks,
Civil Service: doubling down on failed strategy and waiting for eviction of Ministers, so they can advise the New Boss to be Just Like the Old Boss.

Professional Leadership 1 HMPPS: that leader is a prisons leader. Number one priority get some space in the prisons, probation - whatever that is - will have to cope

Professional Leadership 2 Probation: (where is the Chief?) No idea

Local Management: Fractured coms, headless chickens, rabbits in headlights

Frontline: not enough staff, and being churned out of training into the frontline on a wing and a prayer.

...in the trenches, at all levels actually, good decent people are trying to get the best done for people, living and breathing human beings who should be entitled to a competent service. In every place, a knackered stressed person coming out of prison is faced with a knackered stressed person in a probation office and neither of them have much options. Omnishambles squared.

****

I am more than qualified for PQiP - at level 7 already - but I won't make that transition from PSO because of what I read about from current NQO's and RQO's, who criticise the excessive caseload, stress that creates due to the extra free time put in to meet deadlines - and there is the fear of SFO's which is more likely to come from a PO caseload than a PSO's. What is the point of working hours free of charge only to paid per hour the equivalent of a much less stressed specialist PSO?

****
The academic side of the PQIP is somewhat easier now the 8,000 word dissertation requirement has been removed. Caseloads are not in the mid-20s/30s before qualifying because of the high profile tragic and horrific cases that have caused Probation to reflect rather than the daft conceit of piling work on as a trainee in preparation for the high caseload to come. This never tackles the caseload, but further puts the emphasis on the NQO/PQIP- this is a 'get out of jail free' card for Probation to continue to culturally emphasise that it's the NQO's fault of how they manage cases not the caseload itself. PQiPs don't have to do duty if they're doing a PAROM - when the kitchen sink was thrown at me when I did my training. But will they be prepared to undertake high risk on their own without co-working? 

Cases all start with proper work made in the courts or prisons with meaningful work to prepare them for community testing - not the attitude that most offenders have when they believe that when they leave prison that's the 'end of their sentence'. Much more has to be done at the Court or prison end of the system so as to make the COM's job just slightly less arduous. In addition, cases are often more or not a success if the allocation is made as well as it can be. This comes from risk literacy and making sure that an NQO doesn't have a case of abiding magnitude that they feel overwhelmed and this may turn into an SFO.

****
The ads for the job are basically lies. A lot of the trainees that join would make brilliant probation officers. But they’ve been lied to, they’re disillusioned, and they want a better working life. Nobody can blame them for that. They may lack life experience, but they don’t lack intelligence. They value themselves. The younger generation would rather walk out of a job that makes them unhappy, and find jobs that pay less, if it means they’re happy, and not burned out every moment of every day. I respect them for that. They’re being honest with themselves. They’re valuing their worth and their mental health.

Maybe it’s not the trainees that should be criticised, but the recruiters. Recruiters know how pressurised the job is. The high staff turnover is a clear indication of that. Recruiting for numbers doesn’t work. There needs to be a re-examination of the recruitment process. Having hundreds of people join only to have hundreds of people leave again is a waste of time and resources. All it does is add to the pressure the existing staff are already under. It’s an optical illusion so the powers-that-be can say they’re recruiting X number of people to help ease the pressure, when in reality they’re just making it worse, through being dishonest about the leave-rate. Criticise the right people, and not those who try.

****

I qualified 18 months ago and have never felt so undervalued in a job. My WMT is 175% and my anxiety is through the roof for fear of an SFO. I do not feel supported. I cannot manage risk when I do not have the time to spend with the people I manage. I'm ready to quit.

On Training PO's

I deliver the training in a university and used to be a practice tutor assessor. I was surprised to be appointed as a Senior Lecturer causing resentment in the university amongst those who were jumping through hoops but money talks in privatised HE. I was glad to get out of probation as they are not good employers. 

None of the comments on here surprise me. Some of the students are very young and not life experienced at all. They are still at the living at home/partying and personal experimentation stage. They are good at doing online learning when they are up in time but find face to face interaction with colleagues and service users challenging and less fun than debating gender issues and dyeing their hair green. 

We hear many stories of unprofessional behaviour towards them but much is as a result of a lack of people skills or respect for expertise. They are often very young people who have led sheltered middle class lives. They feel very hurt when they are criticised for knowing little and lacking experience. Most are terrified of service users who they simply cannot relate to and appear to them gross.

They were attracted to probation because of watching true crime tv. The dirty messy reality of frontline work is for many simply overwhelming and they retreat into their computers for safety and try to shut out the realities of the real world. Perhaps they will come up to speed eventually if their weaknesses go unnoticed but as the staff to case ratio slowly decreases they will have nowhere to hide.

The news today about a new probation officer messing up will be seen as devastating as it throws an unwelcome spotlight on a serious problem well illustrated by other contributors. Most new qualified officers will be entirely out of depth with a case like that and not personally equipped to deal with the fall out. 

An experienced colleague may well have read the signs but these days staff are under so much pressure. There is no recovery time or time to reflect. No time for supportive debriefs and lessons learned. A very awful sort of job nowadays but someone has to do it. I wonder if it is not time for root and branch change?

Napo and Early Release Fiasco

Here we have Napo's take on it all, published yesterday:- 

ECSL - Napo's Position

The Ministerial announcements on Prison capacity are in the news regularly. From the outset we want to make it clear that Napo’s starting point for any discussion on prison overcrowding is that it is a tragedy.

Too often the focus is on one part of the unfolding crisis, but we believe it’s important to first acknowledge the sheer scale of what is happening. This is beyond even the terrible and degrading conditions individuals are imprisoned in while being denied the opportunity of rehabilitation, the impact on victims denied what they believed justice would be, as well as being placed at risk by this policy and the unbearable anxiety caused to the families of both prisoner and victim.

It's about something greater than the increased risks of physical violence to Prison staff or the levels of psychological harm caused to Probation staff pushed too far by the excessive workload they are subjected to by an employer that consistently fails us on even the most basic of their responsibilities – to not harm its workforce by their actions or inactions. And it’s also more than the evaporation of what little confidence members of the public must have in the criminal justice system, contributed to in no small part in this crisis as the reputational damage to the Probation and Prison Services that Politicians, through senior leaders in HMPPS inflict with each mis-step they take on this, as with so many other matters.

Time for a completely new approach to the problem

The crisis of prison overcrowding is one that’s been decades in the making, and for which previous Tory, Tory/Lib-Dem Coalition and Labour Governments all bear some level of responsibility. For too long, politicians have traded in simplistic arguments that misled the public, and not challenging the lies perpetrated by the media and have sought a quick fix to deeply complex problems. The failure of so many of the political class of one of the richest countries in the world over all this time to demonstrate sufficient courage and leadership to commit adequate resources to Probation and Prison Services over decade after decade has been truly shameful to witness.

Unfortunately, the most recent comments of the current Shadow Justice Secretary announcing an intention to attempt to ‘prison-build’ their way out of this abhorrent mess suggests that honest political leadership, evidence-based (or even reality-based) policymaking and a commitment to make generational changes for the good of the country aren’t seemingly going to be a feature of a likely incoming new Government, at least in terms of this policy.

Napo’s efforts to influence Early Release Schemes

The End of Custody Supervised Licence (ECSL) was introduced in October 2023. It has been apparent to us from the outset that the Government has chosen to prioritise the crisis of prison overcrowding over that of excessive Probation workloads. Nothing that has been done by HMPPS since that time has caused us to change our view. As it was a legislative change being driven forward by an elected Government our role has been limited to one of consultation rather than any form of negotiation with HMPPS. It is fair to reflect, and we’ve made these points clearly at every opportunity, that HMPPS have not consulted as often or in as sufficient detail as we would have expected. Through all this we’ve been informed and guided by the experiences of practitioners across a range of Probation work which is impacted by the ECSL scheme, and we want to take this opportunity to thank all the members who have raised this in their Branches or to Napo HQ for their contributions to this point. At the end of this message, we’ll say more on how we see this moving forward from this point.

Napo have been consistent in representing member’s interests and Probation’s identity by repeatedly raising concerns over the increased workload, assault on professional judgement and the obvious increased risks to the public, and individuals (including some of the most vulnerable in our society), that the ECSL scheme represents. We’ve done this in numerous face-to-face meetings with HMPPS senior leaders as well as written communications. Our view remains that in too many cases it is simply neither feasible or safe to bring forward many of the Risk Management Plans that will be in place – and will have been for some time – for the individuals involved at such short notice.

The problems around ECSL

Napo have set out a range of practical issues faced by you as practitioners when forced to do this which, by way of only a few illustrative examples, include: a lack of Approved Premises bed spaces, or other accommodation, available for the revised release date; an inability to rearrange substance misuse, health (especially mental health) and other appointments (e.g. state benefits) previously arranged for day of release; the increased likelihood that a supervising officer will be unavailable to conduct the post-release induction appointment due to other pre-existing work commitment on the revised release date; an inability to make alternative arrangements for transport between releasing prisons and the home area, meaning more risky modes of transport are required on the revised release date than would have been used otherwise. Napo have made clear the ultimate responsibility which HMPPS hold for this scheme, including the consequences that they obviously failed to anticipate, such as: where the demand for rapid action to release an individual increases the likelihood of HMPPS breaching the part of the Victim’s Code relating to pre-release notification of information to some victims.

Napo have also pressed HMPPS to produce evidence for the feasibility and safety of this policy while stressing our member’s opposition to it. For example, we’ve asked for data on the amounts of ECSL releases to each Region and Probation Delivery Unit or on the numbers of recalls, Serious Further Offences and deaths of people subject to ECSL as well as a range of information on applications for exemptions made by practitioners. HMPPS initially denied holding such data but have since claimed that what they might have is subject to a lengthy verification process which would mean that information would be released much later, potentially annually (i.e., October 2024). Napo understands this was in line with an earlier comment made by a Minister in Parliament. Very recently we have received information that at least some of this data has in fact been shared with senior regional leaders and we will be following this up urgently with HMPPS to request access to this, using data protection legislation if needed.

Media activity

In addition to the internal work Napo has undertaken, we’ve also sought to publicise the flawed ECSL scheme in the media, and it’s clear that over the last three weeks this has seen significantly increased interest. A number of interviews for various media outlets – television, print, radio and online – have been undertaken by Napo Officials to follow up on our earlier contacts with journalists where our position on this scheme, and our range of concerns, have been shared. While we cannot control the decisions of media outlets to then run these interviews, or publish articles, we’ve also been active on social media to stress our opposition to ECSL and the reasons for this.

In Parliament

Napo also work particularly closely with a cross-party group of politicians who form the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group (Justice Unions Parliamentary Group (@JusticeUnions) / X (twitter.com)) and we’d encourage members to view their work to see the results of this collaboration. Here is an example of some of the exchanges that took place this week: https://x.com/justiceunions/status/1767570456108826632 these following the Lord Chancellors Written Statement https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2024-03-11/hcws332

In our close working with the JUPG, Napo can make significant contributions on how the Government is held to account in Parliament, putting forward issues for public debate on the criminal justice system and promoting the interests of members. As you would expect, we’ve been sharing our concerns about ECSL with the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group since October 2023 and our work with them has only increased as the scheme has been expanded.

Other developments around ‘early release’

In terms of other ‘early release’ matters, members can be assured that Napo have also made clear to HMPPS our concerns about the impact on both members as well as the public from the imminent introduction of an expansion to eligibility for the Home Detention Curfew (HDC) scheme and the increased use of Fixed Term Recalls for those people serving custodial sentences of less than 12 months. Following a similar approach as ECSL we’ve set out how these changes will negatively impact on practitioners and your ability to do your jobs effectively (providing examples of this to support our arguments); requested data such as forecasts and equality assessments of the proposals; and offered practical suggestions as to how the full force of this additional work on members could be mitigated, for instance by suspending ESCL for periods of time in those Regions where an increased number of people are being released on HDC.

Operation Protect

Napo also want to stress that the months long work we have been completing with HMPPS in relation to the joint union’s workload campaign – Operation Protect – should be about to produce the first results in terms of what HMPPS are referring to as a ‘Probation Reset’. Discussions remain ongoing and more information will follow from us very soon, but we want to make clear that, for us as well as our sister trade unions, this is only the beginning of the substantive workload relief we hope to see for workers in many roles across the Probation Service.

How members can help

As we continue our work on your behalf on ECSL, as well as the other ‘early release’ schemes, we continue to need your support and contributions to inform our response to HMPPS. For that reason, and to attempt to provide a single point of contact for any experiences you might wish to share, can members please contact your Link Officials or use the following email address if they want to share any of these with us as your trade union representatives info@napo.org.uk

You may also want to make clear in the subject line of your email that this relates to ‘ECSL’, ‘HDC’ or Fixed Term Recall’ (or a combination of these). Members should share their specific experiences of these schemes, and how this has impacted on them and others, do not include the personal details, or identifiers, of any of those you are working with. We hope, after ensuring all are properly anonymised and cannot be traced to a particular individual or location, to use these experiences in discussions with the employer and others to better publicise the huge challenges faced by many of our members.

We need to stress that members must not, under any circumstances, breach the rules issued by the employer on data protection, confidentiality or information sharing.

Please look out for further news on the key issues being faced by our members. Meanwhile, thank you for taking the time to read this detailed commentary on our work so far on ECSL.   

Ian Lawrence          Ben Cockburn
General Secretary  Acting National Chair

13th March 2024

--oo00oo--

Postscript

Thanks go to the reader for pointing me in the direction of this from Wales Online:-

The 'horrendous' reality of being a probation officer

'The pressure on staff is unbearable some days. Morale is horrendous at the moment. I don't know a single person here who works the 37.5 hours a week they're meant to'

A furious whistleblower says changes to the crisis-hit probation service will make the public less safe as well as "insulting" victims of crime. WalesOnline can reveal that offenders under suspended sentences and community orders will no longer need to see probation officers during the last third of their orders – the latest cutback to a service that for years has been stretched almost to the point of breaking.

Justice secretary Alex Chalk announced this week that some prisoners could be released up to two months early due to jail overcrowding in England and Wales but this will mean a heavier burden on the probation officers monitoring them in the community. In an attempt to reduce pressure on the chronically understaffed service a new policy was announced on Monday in an internal video meeting. Staff were told the UK Government had signed off on offenders in England and Wales no longer needing to see probation officers during the last third of their suspended sentences or community orders, which are up to three years long.

An experienced probation officer in south Wales told us: "This will outrage courts and victims of crime, especially domestic violence victims. They will feel even more let down by the system. People are placed on orders of certain lengths for a reason." He pointed out domestic violence offenders are meant to have two years of programme work. The new approach, he fears, will mean issues around drugs, mental health, and housing advocacy are not fully addressed. The government says the change will not affect "the most serious offenders" but the whistleblower told us that offenders labelled 'medium risk' – who are already supervised less – account for most of the serious offences committed while under an order.

The whistleblower works in a south Wales team that is little more than half the size it was in 2007. "The pressure on staff is unbearable some days," he said. "Morale is horrendous at the moment. I don't know a single person here who works the 37.5 hours a week they're meant to. Staff take their work home with them, they work on evenings and weekends. Until about 2012 you couldn't work with a sex offender until you had two years' experience. Now newly-qualified trainees are given sex offender cases."

The increased pressure has been accompanied by worse pay leading to "woeful" recruitment and retention problems. Recently our source learned that more than a third of staff in his team were looking for new jobs. He said: "In the past 15 years of wage freezes and below-inflation pay settlements staff have seen their pay devalued by over 25% in real terms. I didn’t have a pay rise for over 10 years. If someone can work in Aldi for £38,000 a year they are not going to train for a year to work with the most dangerous people in society for £32,000."

While under an order high-risk offenders tend to be seen by probation officers weekly, medium-risk offenders fortnightly, and low-risk offenders monthly. If they are involved in a "reportable incident" – very often domestic violence – the probation service would call the offender and decide whether the next face-to-face meeting should be brought forward. The whistleblower says it is unclear what will now happen in those circumstances when offenders are in the last third of their order.

When courts impose community orders and suspended sentences they often include a certain number of rehabilitation sessions. How will the new policy affect those sentences? "I think it's likely to mean those sessions are front-ended to the first two-thirds of the order, putting even more pressure on staff," said the whistleblower, adding that they already "regularly" find themselves terminating orders without all of the rehab sessions being completed. Offenders often miss appointments but if more than half of sessions have been carried out the order can be ended. The whistleblower fears the final-third policy will only add to the number of incomplete programmes.

According to figures from last year the probation service was 1,700 officers short of its target of 6,160. In 2014 many senior staff left after the then-justice secretary Chris Grayling's disastrous part-privatisation of the service. It was renationalised seven years later following a series of damning reports by parliamentary committees and watchdogs.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "We recognise the pressures facing our hardworking probation staff which is why we are making changes to make sure they can continue to deliver high-quality supervision in the community. These measures, alongside our £155m investment in the Probation Service each year, will reduce caseloads and mean staff can maximise supervision of the most serious offenders."

Fancy Being a Probation Officer? 3

As a prison crisis necessitates emergency early release of prisoners up to 60 days early, it rapidly turns into a probation crisis, thus making a terrible situation even worse:-

Tragedy and my condolences to the victims of these horrific crimes.... We should contrast the significant time and resources available to the Probation Inspectorate to produce this report with that of the frontline Probation Workers who have to deal with terrifyingly high caseloads with no time and little experience of how to do so.

*****
I note that the HMIP report concerning this tragic SFO references the lack of experienced staff due to them leaving the Probation Service. I am one of them, having retired early after 3 months shy of 41 years as a probation officer (CQSW trained). Having given some months notice of my desire to retire early, I repeatedly raised with senior managers in the area in which I worked, that nothing was being done to retain staff. I left due to the impossibility of being able to work reasonable hours as an OMU PO.

On another point, I am aware that other posters have referenced more experienced probation officers being unwilling to offer support to trainees and less experienced probation officers. As an experienced probation officer, I did my level best to help others and to offer opportunities for learning but I was very aware that my own workload considerably reduced my capacity to assist less experienced staff and this was something that did not sit well with me as I previously supervised students as a practice teacher via their attendance on CQSW/Diploma in Social Work courses.

*****
Interesting comments regarding APs. Where I worked, we were encouraged to spend as much time with the 'Residents' . But things changed. No longer were we to spend time with them, just observe via CCTV. The amount of useful 'Int' gathered over a coffee and smoke was more useful than any structured meeting, just glad I'm out of it all now.

****
APs are shockingly under resourced. The same number of Residential Workers in each AP regardless of whether it accommodates 10 or 40 residents. One manager, who is normally the only qualified officer in the building, but their brief is to manage the building and the staff. One part time admin staff for the whole AP!

APs are now part of a separate directorate so don't routinely get sent the comms that go to PDUs so miss out on what changes are taking place. APs are the forgotten section of a forgotten service. The new referral process is horrific, with many managers now having limited overview of who is sent to their AP. The focus is on filling beds rather than appropriate placements. Gone are the days where you'd leave a few days between one resident leaving, before placing someone else in that room, just in case accommodation isn't sourced in time and they need an extension.

More and more leaving APs homeless, shocking given that most referrals state they need an AP as the alternative is being released homeless or it will increase risk. Indeed, CRU will often allocate with a note to say the AP manager will need to reduce another residents stay in order to fit them in. We won't start on the leadership in the CRU but there is no support for AP staff there. The Early Release Scheme is placing more pressure throughout. APs are getting more and more emergency referrals, with no time to do pre-arrival work - the bedrock to a successful stay. APs are an invaluable intervention but are more and more being treated like B&Bs. But no one cares and no-one listens.

****
Lots of panic about in HMPPS right now. Early release scheme being increased from 18 to 35 days. Announcements also coming around not supervising PSS or those in the final 1/3 of their orders - to try and ease pressures.

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You’d be lucky to find a genuine J-Cloth these days. It is a bit of a Cinderella service and convenient punch bag for vile Tory blamists. We used to complain about not being recognised or noticed but now we are front page news as if we actually have any control or influence over anyone these days. It is common to blame the unions for not doing enough but the Chief Probation Officer seems missing in action. Kim Thornton wotsit was MIA. Why wasn’t she doing the rounds explaining crushing workloads, the necessity of binging in young inexperienced staff because experienced staff won’t put up with the crap. Let’s ask what the heck she is doing first then ask whether the unions have also asked her to act. Don’t put it all on the unions. She needs to earn her title otherwise she is just another fat cat civil servant.

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I'm unconvinced that the early release scheme will reduce the prison population. In fact it may have the reverse effect. They will fill any empty spaces with new prisoners, and there will be a significantly greater number on licence that will be subject to recall. I'm guessing that many that are released early will be from the 12mth and under cohort, and in my view, they are the very cohort that are most likely to get recalled.

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The ECSL has reduced some of my colleagues to tears this week. It was already stressful and only getting 24-48 hours notice of release is a joke. Escalating to try and get gold command to look at it impossible. No duty of care given to individuals being released early with no accommodation and the only support being probation. Experienced staff will continue to leave while this is happening and ministers make decisions on a sector they have no experience or knowledge about. It’s going to end up with more overcrowding due to recalls and then the SFO’s. AP’s are at breaking point and there is so little accommodation that the early released will be street homeless or residing in unapproved addresses. This is not the service I came into and I really don’t know how long I will last with a caseload of over 150% and the added pressures of ECSL.

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Probation relies on a fully functioning well resourced welfare state and fully functioning local authorities with local services to be effective. Probation cannot compensate for years of neglect and lack of services. Levelling up was a huge con job perpetrated against the north. The Red Wall was feared by the Tories with its erosion the Tories have been able to get a foothold and attack Labour strongholds. This will mean less investment not more.

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High risk cases are already being released under ECSL. They have from the start. Soon all non-high risk recalls will be released after 14 days. Probation officers expected to arrange housing, drug service, mental health support at short notice and blamed when they can’t. It’s a joke.

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Very vulnerable young person released homeless on ESCL. We tried to plead with the powers that homelessness would increase his vulnerability in relation to required health medication. The powers that be released him anyway. Tearful and scared he wandered to his licence induction. A reception member took pity and gave him a tent and a sleeping bag. Reception member received a verbal warning after the local council complained to senior management about ‘how that made the local town centre look’. Suffice to say, his sleeping bag and tent were removed and the whole PDU were given strict instructions not to help homeless people in this way.

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Here we go again. Another recall yesterday as another high risk had successfully completed 8 weeks in an AP. The problem was there’s no move on accommodation that would support the 4 months he had left on HDC. We congratulated him by allowing the HDC to recall him. An awful way to treat a human life. We do try to negotiate with the HDC escalations team as to why we try and avoid early releases for this reason but it falls on deaf ears. I agree we should not keep them longer in custody than absolutely necessary but we desperately need move on accommodation, mental health support and adult social care. Housing stock is barely existent. MH and ASC have been all but decimated. We simply don’t have what we need to support the reintegration of people in society, so we send our successful clients back to prison instead. We all cry at night.

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If staff are crying at night, they should visit their GP for support ASAP instead of trying to soldier on. Do not destroy your mental health by attempting to function in a system which is broken.

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Interesting comments about ‘what happens to caseloads when officers are off sick’. One of the other offices in my PDU is short staffed due to a lot of them being off sick with burnout. They’ve decided the SPO over there should manage the cases himself. I think he has about 200 of them now but it looks like he is still managing what’s left of his team as well. They send ISP’s to our office to complete for him. There’s still a lot more cases just dangling in the names of officers who are off long term.

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There are many young people and young women who have life experiences. When I joined probation I had been in detention centres, in gangs. I failed at school and had been on the streets for a long time. I knew what it was like to have nothing and to fend for myself. I work many dead end jobs, put myself through university and later joined probation.

The difference back then was the variety of life experiences and personalities when I joined. This included younger and older people who did and did not have a clue. Length of service rarely equated to mean good probation officer. Burnout was a thing back then too. Sometimes the longer serving the probation officer the more they were best avoided. The exception were the ones that went above and beyond for everyone. The ones we all learned from.

Probation offices could be just as toxic and discriminating as when I joined, but everywhere I worked we were a team. Over the years the pressure of the lack of staffing and resources has stripped away staff resilience and camaraderie. Trainees are expected to learn from managers who never properly learnt to be probation officers and from ‘elders’ who are too fed up or busy to be probation officers. This won’t change until probation offices cease being run on shoestring budgets with skeleton staff.

Probation must reset and decide what a probation officer should be. Put the relevant degree or social work training back in place, require prior relevant work experience and work out how to bring in the young, old, life experienced and life inexperienced alike. Until then, my advice to those thinking about probation is that it’s a job, but there are better paid and more rewarding careers out there.

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I trained new officers for ten years or more and it was always a two way exchange of ideas. Then one morning my SPO sent me a message saying that they were no longer going down the mentor route , and I was no longer to do it, by lunchtime I had two new cases…..the osmosis style of learning is now king….i would suggest that the attrition rate has increased accordingly as new officers don’t have a named mentor, least not in my corner of the probation universe……..

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Senior and line management obsession with performance management and so-called quality assurance has condemned the workforce to a life of unbearable stress and a laptop probation service. Result: exit experienced and newly-qualified staff under demoralised mega-stress. NAPO must build a fight back and show campaigning leadership as opposed to simply turning up to negotiations knowing they are paper tigers.

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I have never accessed the EAP stuff. The trust between me and the employer is zero, so why would I in any state of vulnerability and distress dial in to their shitty and doubtless cheap and outsourced EAP? Would I feel safe? Be safe? It's there to tick a box. And box ticking does nothing for anyone other than the bean-counter and the manager blissfully thinking they're more powerful than the counter of beans.