To try to raise awareness of the shocking state of the Probation Service?

[ScaryTimes]

I’ve name changed for this for fear of being sacked, so that tells you a lot about the Probation Service already.

In June (or possibly July) a Probation Officer was stabbed at an office near to me. She was very lucky to have survived and is not recovered, as far as she will ever be able to. A “full review” was due in August which was released in October and NOTHING has changed. We work with some of the most dangerous people in the country and I think most people would be shocked to hear we have NO security guards, NO metal detectors, NO bag searches, NO training in how to respond to a situation like this. All we have is CCTV and panic alarms. I’ve just received an email that the inevitable has happened and another Probation Officer has been stabbed at work.

Like the previous incident, I’m sure this will be played down and ignored. The first incident barely made the news.

At the same time, the endless prison release schemes are adding unmanageable pressure to the Probation Service. Everyone I know is beyond stressed and burnt out, we’re running on fumes. We are also 10000 out of 17000 officers short and staff retention is impossible. Many staff have a 160% caseload!! We are regularly working at night and weekends to try to meet targets as we get in trouble if we don’t.

Of course all other services are struggling so we are not able to help with things like housing, mental health support, drug and alcohol services, which is making the people we supervise angry and when they have nothing to lose, they don’t care if they go to prison.

To top it all off, our annual pay deal ran out this year and the unions have been trying to sort a new one for 11 months but the government and HMPPS are ignoring them completely. We should have had an annual pay rise in October, backdated to April but we’ve had nothing and no sign of anything. Some support staff will be on minimum wage, if that (obviously if that’s the case something will have to be done) once the new minimum wage starts.

So yeah, it’s all a very big mess and there is very little media interest in it.

@RosaLeah123 we do seem to have gone through a lot of them! Every time a new one pops up they send out an email thanking us for all our hard work and they know how difficult it is etc and how valuable we are. Don’t thank us, pay us!! And at the very least, keep us safe!

I am horrified to read this.
I would say write to the papers and also to Private Eye.

I worked for the probation service 2005-7 and it was exactly as the OP describes then, so the blame doesn’t only lie with the Tories.

The pressure is terrible and it’s just ridiculous situation that there is so little security

it’s hitting all the services connected with working with offenders, the pressure, the time it’s tacking to do anything, we are all overworked, underpaid and constantly having new incentives put into place that just adds more work

we know the reasons why it’s got so bad but now the government has to make some serious decisions that are not going to be popular and that is about raising the money to put back into these services not realising prisoners early that is just more work for those working with offenders outside of prison and they just don’t have the capacity

The press are not unaware it just doesn’t make interesting reading until the worse happens

I worked closely with my respected colleagues in Probation all the years I was a Social Worker and agree with everything the OP points out.
My heart sank when I read the news about all the early releases to relieve pressure on the prisons, because you can bet there will be absolutely no extra resources or the hard pressed POs.

For

I do worry about my db who works as a probation officer in a prison. he is glad he only has a few years left until retirement.

I've wondered this for a while. I walk past our local probation office most days. Sometimes there's groups of men hanging around to be picked up or just having been dropped off. I've never been entirely confident that it's running a tight ship.

Probation are stretched and under pressure - agree. But a lot of them are useless idle idiots. I work adjacent to them on a daily basis and some (not all) are shocking

@HRTQueen I have left a contract job because I realised it was putting in the kind of incentives that actually demotivate people

And it was an extremely well paid role attached to a government department

They tried to dress it up as being for a quango, but really it was to design an implement an incentive structure on a service that was already stretched to limit

I think in the wider world, it's maybe unclear how much of these problems are management related. This kind of culture is so embedded in all workplaces, I don't know how we get rid of it.

YANBU - it’s such an important service but is hugely underfunded and undervalued (alongside the criminal court system in general).

I think it’s not politically popular to put resources into the probation service and generally gets little media attention and is outside of the public consciousness. But it is so shortsighted to deprioritise it.

My mum was a child protection social worker and had similar issues with having to go into difficult situations with difficult people who could be very volatile with no security.

Not sure this is a useful comment tbh. It's also not relevant to the issue of probation security.

Your plight is unforgivable.

@catin8oot5 of course, like any profession there are good and bad but please try to keep in mind that what looks like laziness may actually be a PO juggling over 60 cases while being at breaking point. None of us deserve to be stabbed in any case.

@Circe7 yes it is just as bad in social work and care work, which my mum does and other professions. The powers that be do have the ability to keep us safe(er) though, they just CBA (or can’t afford the changes needed).

Probation staff in Approved Premises are equally not protected. Residents are now being placed for 4 weeks instead of 6 months. We have the same as the front offices cctv, a panic alarm and a not so secure, supposed secure staff area. We are being allocated up to 5 arrivals in one day with in some cases less than 24 hours notice with no time to read up on risk. Gang members with knives or firearms on their persons - you ca

Name changed as well

I am a Senior Probation Officer with over 20 years experience. I've never known it this bad in terms of pressure on staff to do more and more, under increasing scrutiny. The levels of staff sickness and turnover are very high, which puts even more pressure on those that remain. Any ability we have to manage our own caseloads and use professional judgement is being quickly eroded by constant expectations that specific performance targets are met.

The recent serious assaults of officers is very worrying and yes, we also have no real security in our offices and are expected to have very challenging conversations with very dangerous people face to face on a daily basis. There is better security in the tesco over the road than in my office.

It’s horrifying.
The other thing that I find amazing about the probation service is how reliant the system is on charities to be effective. Charities that have had their funding cut to the bone.

You’re right there should be metal detectors and better security.

@TheLemonLurker yes you’re right and AP staff are the most forgotten of all! I believe you guys weren’t even invited to the all staff call about the first stabbing.

@SlipperySausage you’ve put it better than I could and isn’t it awful that we both feel we have to name change just to be honest?

@Tvslumper everything is cut to the bone, literally everything, it’s scary!

Working in a youth offending team coming from working in psychiatry, I'm stunned at the lack of security and awareness of basic safety.

The fact I developed PTSD after being attacked during a home visit several years ago seems to make people think that I'm overreacting or thinking too much when I point out obvious risks. Or they seem to think it's being mean to the poor kids and stigmatising.

Sadly, it usually takes a serious incident before people sit up and take notice.

@FirmOliveReader that’s awful! I agree that even some colleagues are downplaying the whole thing.

Around 10 years ago perhaps a bit more some bright spark from the last government decided to privatise the probation service, since then it’s not been fit for purpose. My friend was head of probation where I lived, she wasn’t kept on by the contractor and her successor had only a few years service compared to her 20.

It's a weird thing that I've observed in the public sector when people are day to day working with potentially dangerous individuals.

People become desensitised and martyrs and have a 'too busy to think about serious stuff like that, oh I wish I had time and headspace to worry about that' attitude. 'If I expected them to come to see me in an office instead of taking them out then I'd never get to see them and would spend all my time taking them back to court for not complying with their order'.

Well in my view that's what should happen regardless of whether it takes up time or not.

Far better to be in an office even if they're not checking for weapons if someone kicks off, than in your car or their home.

I know from experience sadly. In an office at least you've got people around. Being attacked in someone's home when I knew no-one could hear and it was me that would have to somehow get out and call 999 was fucking terrifying.

Most of my colleagues don't even use the lone worker system designed to alert someone if they don't return from a visit.

OP you're absolutely right and its incredibly scary. I work in a big city in the midlands, and only a few weeks ago a woman was killed in public by someone who was known to the services. The new government changes including FTR48 do not help - only a teeny amount of people can be recalled on a standard now. Predominantly those serving very long sentences, those who are MAPPA levels 2 or 3, and if they've been charged with a new offence. The state of the courts doesn't help - whereby a fraudster is given a prison term but someone who has intentionally strangled their partner gets a community order

Reality is, if it wasn't for FTR48, if the courts were in a better position, if the NHS was not fucked ... that person may well still be alive

Yet nothing is said. Because we are too scared. I know I am, and my colleagues. We are told you can say what you want - but you'd best make sure its not bringing the service into disrepute. When that stabbing happened to the trainee this week, the first email reminded us not to discuss things with the press. Ive a close friend who I offload to in general terms, she's said before the public ought to know. But they won't until something horrendous (although how much more horrendous can it get?) Happens

I qualified in January this year so close on a year qualified now. Since moving to my new office in January we have had

A staff member punched in the head
Staff members threatened to end up on Facebook
A staff member chased by a very high risk offender, who is a risk to staff. She only just made it into the staff area. He was banging on the doors and screaming
Two staff and two security guards assaulted (including biting, punching, kicking to the private area, spitting and racist language) by an offender

One staff member in that last incident was a member of my team. It was horrible to watch on the screen. All I could think afterwards was what if the offender had a knife? What if he had had HIV or similar?

None of these incidents merited a response from the head of my area saying they were aware. Actually in response to the preston attack we were given helpful tips to avoid being attacked - such as ensuring we are on time for appts so offenders dont get annoyed, completing home visit risk assessments. Which was actually quite offensive, given the incident happened within an appt. It smacks of victim blaming. If anyone suggested women ensure dinner was on the table at the time not to 'escalate matters', there would be outcry and rightly so. But clearly if we get attacked its our own doing,there must be something we haven't done!

Very much business as usual after the attacks. My colleague saw his appts later that same day.

We have asked about scanners. Apparently it isnt that simple, its logistics and money. Someone has suggested we buy portable scanners off amazon using the wellbeing budget. Why should we have to?! Wellbeing should be for quizzes and lunches and that. Scanners should be treated in the exact same way as desks and monitors. A necessary expense.

Amongst that its targets, targets, targets. We have a briefing next week, 2hours on promoting positivity! Everyone i know is stressed, overwhelmed, burnt out and struggling. Im intending on having a conversation with manager in supervision tomorrow. Im 'only' on 118% (lowest ive been for ages) but thats with very complex cases and due to us getting new staff, im actually one of the highest in the office now. Im not willing to let my MH suffer. I had a friend round for a cuppa last night and said I was anxious , and she said she can tell

The jobs interesting and its lovely when you do see brief glimmers of change. For all my moaning I do enjoy it most of the time.

But currently, its broken. I dont feel safe going into work, not really. Our job is to challenge yet I know many who don't, to avoid the kick offs.

We're being asked to do the job with a hand tied behind our back and all the tools we have are subpar and out of date. The entire system needs a overhaul because at present it isn't working. Freeing up prisons isnt a good thing. Not when all that leads to is a recall and release misery go round whereby offenders have barely enough time to detox and get stable ish on a script, never mind actually address their issues