A Celebration of Achievement

The last ever Probation Chief's conference was held recently and quite naturally it had the unmistakable air of a wake. According to twitter accounts, Sue Hall the Chair and out-going CEO of West Yorkshire received a standing ovation and unsurprisingly talked of 'dignity and professionalism'. This is nothing more than I would expect both of her and the Service as a whole, but I suspect it's partly the reason we won the argument but lost the battle with those bastard politicians of all parties. 

It is just so very, very sad that such a proud and distinguished public service has been destroyed in this way and by such mostly small-minded and undistinguished characters who have never really understood what we did and how we did it. 

Of course some of us will fight on and there's still the House of Lords who have always understood what we're about. It will all inevitably end in tears and chaos and I have no doubt we will be able to say 'we told you so'. But that's no consolation really. As many comments to this blog have demonstrated, the unique ethos this vocation nurtured and developed from day one is slowly ebbing away, to be replaced with one of bitter intransigence and cussedness.

It's not attractive and we feel guilty about the possible effect on clients, but it's changing as many excellent highly-skilled colleagues consider their future and increasing numbers up and leave a profession they loved. 

So, the PCA has had the wake and marked the occasion with a fitting book of reflections:-


      

It's quite a story and it's just such a shame we've never been that good about telling it.