Probation Voices 3

Seen on Facebook:-

Sometimes when I really think about what's happened.. I verge between anger despair and disbelief.

Yep! And sad x

I just feel so very very sad, frustrated and a bit lost in it all. I keep thinking it can't get worse. Then it does.

Yeah for me this week has been a bad one. But not as bad as my workmates in Working Links CRC.

Been tearing my hair out all week just to be told that today, as a PSO, my job in West Yorkshire CRC is safe but admin and POs and managers still have to apply for their own jobs by 4th April. Sickening. xx

Flaming hell.

Makes me so damn angry. We went though about 6 months of not knowing if we had jobs or not. Really feel for everyone going through what we went through some months back.

This time yesterday I was in tears trying to get my head around how to write 2000 words to demonstrate why I can do my job after 8 year's service. They've now decided that they need all PSOs due to workloads. A relief for me but still so much unnecessary stress and anxiety. And still feel for people in other roles who still have to do it. I don't understand why, if workloads are so high, that they don't need the same ratios of other staff. x

No offence but PSO's are doing the job they said you had to be a PO to do a few years back....Just at a cheaper rate without as much investment and training. Don't get me wrong, some PSO's are very capable and can do just as good a job, it's just the fact they keep changing the goal posts for cheaper labour. X

That's what it's all about isn't it? Getting people to do more for less money and expecting people to do stuff that previously they were told they couldn't.

Yep it's true. I work with high risk people on my groups. Even though I'm supposed to only work with low to medium risk. I've done my degree and worked with offenders for years but yep it's still work that they have previously said POs should do. x

The goal posts get changed to suit what's happening at the time.

CAs in our CRC are the first to be at risk.

I think it's an absolute disgrace the way staff are being treated. It's an insult.

It really is. I deliver Accredited Programmes and was today told I'd got a high score (in treatment management) in my team for delivering TSP. But at that point I still thought I had to apply for my job. Our admin colleagues are fantastic and we need them. All of them. I feel so bad for them. We're working with society's most risky people but we're just numbers. xx

I know I'd be lost without my CA. Yes we are just numbers. CRC owners just thinking about profit. NPS it still seems to be about reducing costs too.

We have no admin support in our new office. Everything is through our lovely Hub colleagues. One centralised office that deals with all admin for 4 counties.......

Is that even with the IOM?

Yep

We lost our dedicated IOM admin about 2 years ago....

CRC in Devon Cornwall and Dorset are going into Admin hubs I've heard.

It's very reliant on automated processes via ndelius. Hmmmmm say no more.

Actually IOM admin has had to go back to main office. As I'm NPS my CA at main office has always had to do my IOM admin

Our admin are going into 2 hubs too. To cover the whole of the North (Liverpool to Hull). And we're meant to be getting a whole new computer system....still no idea what it looks like!

Or if it will work!!

IOM. Don't make me laugh. If l was a CRC being paid by results l would put absolutely nothing into prolific offenders. What is the point they will very likely offend. No first time drink drivers is where its at. They will provide a return on my investment.

Hmmmm... most drink drivers are prolific. ..they just didn't get caught til now!

I recall a business analyst interviewed on the radio when CRCs were first starting up - he said it made no business sense to aim for high quality outcomes and the performance related pay element of these contracts as you'd put a lot of resources in for very limited likelihood of success. The trick is to do the basics with as cheap labour and overheads as possible, collect the basic funding and still make a profit.

And yep makes total sense. Supermarket probation. Stack it high and sell it cheap.

Sadly, so true. Glad I am out.

Hang on in there. (not that I did...)

--oo00oo--

Funniest thing ever was seeing an NPS admin colleague storm upstairs and rip out a toner from a CRC printer, as the NPS had lost all printing abilities. Somebody actually shouted 'Theft'....this actually got reported!

I imagine that it's all down to frustration with the mess we're all in. We're lucky that we don't have that in our office. That said, we have 5 printers in our small building and we're lucky if even one of them works.....

CRC staff at KPO and WPO can't print at mo though, can they? Due to the IT switchover? X

I didn't know that x

That's what I've heard. X

Oh we can. Most of us are still using lotus notes!!

Can't print from laptops but given that we are reliant on poor wifi or our 'hotspot' (which fails if someone calls you) to log in I tend to give up and use the old system!

ohhhhhh

Our "wifi" is shit! And yep, have that problem with the hotspot. Really useful if you get a call which usually involves looking something up but connection gets lost due to the call interrupting the signal which then causes laptop to freeze and you can't access anything.

Oh I thought you had the wires there? Not seen these but heard these act as a direct connection? What a load of old..

Yes, we do but the iPhone hotspot thingy is pants if remote working (from CRI, etc). Also, if I am sat wired up but need to move laptop, when you disconnect, it loses the connection so you have to log off in order to change to wireless connection.

You've just got to laugh eh!! you couldn't make this up!!

Good grief what farce.

We ran out of paper the other day....!

You couldn't make it up could you? X

I think Office Depot ran out of paper lol!!

Ours hadn't been ordered! 😯

Oh dear! We did but were told they had none

Sounds familiar?

ffs...

Our CRC colleagues moved out of our office a couple of weeks ago - D-Day was the Thurs - so Fri night we ALL (even our cleaners came) went out for food & drinks. Safe to say it was a sad - but great night... they won't beat us if we stick together :-)

Lets Look at E3 (9)

Chapter 8 Management Structures

8.1 What does the model look like now? 

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) oversees the entire NPS delivery structure. The Director of Probation and the Director of NOMS in Wales report to the NOMS CEO. 

Across the NPS as a whole there are 69 Clusters of Local Delivery Units (LDUs) covering 152 Local Authority areas. This is in line with the expectations of the Transforming Rehabilitation Target Operating Model that LDUs would be aligned with local authority areas and map to other partnership arrangements including Criminal Justice (Police Force) Areas and Community Safety Partnerships. There are some core areas of business that are managed outside of the LDU Cluster Structure such as Approved Premises, Victims Services and NPS seconded prison staff. 

As with other parts of the NPS business, there is a variety of management structures across the country. There are inconsistencies in relation to the tiers of management and in some instances the grades and pay bands of staff undertaking similar roles. In addition, the proposed new models of delivery include changes to existing management structures. This Blueprint addresses some of these with others to be considered in the next phase of the E3 Programme.

At the LDU Cluster level, there is some consistency throughout England and Wales in that there is a Head of each Cluster of LDUs. Within that, however, 26 Clusters have Deputy Heads while 43 do not. This variation is partly due to the different arrangements in former Probation Trusts and subsequently internal Divisional decisions. A review by the NPS Senior Leadership Team has concluded that, when looked at nationally, taking into account caseloads, staff numbers and partnership responsibilities, there is not equity in the provision of Deputy Heads across LDU Clusters. 

In both Offender Management and Approved Premises we currently have middle managers performing similar jobs in different pay bands. E3 provides an opportunity for these to be harmonised through the revision of Job Descriptions and the job evaluation process. 

With regards to the management structure for operational administration, there is a mixture of line management arrangements for Case Administrators. In some parts of the country they are line managed by Senior Probation Officers (SPOs) and in others by Senior Case Administrators (SCAs). E3 has enabled us to review and we propose a common line management structure for Case Administrators. 

8.2 What do we want the future model to look like? 

We want the NPS to have a management structure that provides the clear and effective leadership required to meet our objectives. The management structure must be one that reinforces accountability and enables the implementation of the new operating model. Staff will be supported in continual professional development. 

To achieve this, we propose that the high level NPS Divisional structure will remain unchanged with Deputy Directors leading each Division and reporting directly to the National Directors for England and Wales.

At the LDU Cluster level we want a resource model and management structure that takes into account the local variations in workload and complexities. We want to ensure that there is consistency in relation to pay bands and grading throughout England and Wales where managers are fulfilling similar roles. 

Middle managers play a vital role in probation through supporting and enabling frontline staff to undertake good quality work with service users. Crucially they ensure that national policies are translated into action in local settings. We want middle managers to continue to provide this leadership. In particular we envisage a change in emphasis from a routine countersigning role to more structured quality assurance activities, with the aim that we consistently get things right first time and that there are clear lines of accountability. 

To support operational managers in concentrating on core tasks, we see administrative staff as key to the delivery of the future operating model so it is critical that we have in place a management structure that supports and leads them most effectively. 

8.3 End State Proposals 

The line management structure in Clusters will be that Heads of Clusters directly line manage SPOs. This will ensure clarity of line management and accountability structures across the country.

Heads of Clusters will retain both operational and strategic responsibility for their LDU Clusters. There are a number of partnerships to which the NPS has a statutory duty, which require attendance at Boards and resources to be made available. Nationally there is variation in the grade of staff that attend such meetings. National partnership frameworks are being produced to specify which grade of staff will be required to attend meetings. Of the partnerships that have been reviewed so far, the early indication is that Safeguarding Boards and MAPPA SMBs will require the attendance of Heads of LDU clusters. YOS management boards will be attended by SPO grade. MASH and MARAC are likely to sit at Probation Officer level. The other key partnerships will also be reviewed. 

We acknowledge that there is considerable variation between LDU Clusters in relation to the volume and complexity of cases, geography, partnership and court responsibilities. There is a strategic commitment to maintaining the LDU Cluster alignment with Local Authorities which means that it is not possible to equalise the workloads of LDU Clusters. To mitigate against this a tool has been developed to identify the most complex LDU Clusters. It is proposed that the most complex LDU Clusters should have additional support. The type of additional support that is being considered is twofold: the provision of additional administrative support for ACO/Heads to manage a variety of processes and interfaces, and additional management resource to support performance and quality as well as partnership working. 

As part of the Approved Premises model we propose that an Area Manager with devolved budgetary responsibility will manage clusters of AP. We anticipate clusters will consist of seven or eight Approved Premises. 

Our proposal is that Case Administrators will be line managed by Senior Case Administrators. This will provide specialist administrative oversight while also allowing SPOs to focus on line management of Probation Officers and Probation Service Officers. 

There are a number of options under consideration for the line management of SCAs. We are clear that they will be within the operational line but are still considering who should best line manage them. We are exploring the possibility of establishing a Quality Development Officer role across the NPS as an effective way of supporting managers and front line staff in improving practice. 

8.4 Impact on Service Delivery 

The revised LDU Cluster model will in, some cases, change the responsibilities of LDU Cluster Heads where there are currently Deputy Heads in place. It should be noted, however that not all Clusters have Deputies and therefore this model will bring more consistency. The introduction of a tool to identify the most complex Clusters and the provision of additional resource to support them will mean that there is a more effective and equitable distribution of resources. 

The proposed case administration management model is intended to have a wider positive impact on the quality of case administration which will support improved quality of service delivery overall.

8.5 Impact on staff 

With regards to the proposal to have Heads of LDU Clusters directly line managing SPOs we acknowledge that this will mean that existing Deputy Heads of LDU clusters will cease to undertake this. The process of moving from the current position to the new model will be carefully managed and the staff involved will be consulted appropriately. As already stated compulsory redundancies will not be necessary. 

The Case Administration line management model is intended to positively support CAs in undertaking their role by providing specialist administrative management. It also widens career and professional development opportunities for administrative staff. It will also support more effective line management of POs and PSOs.

(more to follow)