Probation services officer

[Poppytoms]

Hi . Just cleared interview and in process of pre employment checks . Wanted to find out whats the possibility of hybrid or remote working when i start. And how long is the training (if any) .

Wouldn’t it vary by area?

So is this as a Probation Officer (so the degree course etc) or a support role?

@PinkFootstool Its a pso role . Same as probation officer but handling low risk offenders . I can qualify for pqip training after 6 months .

My husband is a PSO. He was 100% office based when he was an offender manager. He met with his service users face to face in the ps offices, plus would have to do home visits. Now he's in the court team he has one day per week as a WFH day, the other days are court/office based.

@WonkyBricks Aah .. ok.. thanks very much for explaining.

It's at least 50% in the office where I am so most do 3 days in and 2 wfh.

I’m a PSO and we can do 60:40 so in the office 3 days a week and at home 2. Some people stick to that religiously but I find I end up doing 1 to 1/2 days at home. For example I was meant to be WFH today but 3 of my people on probation who hadn’t turned up earlier in the week asked to come in today so I went in this afternoon. One of them still managed to not turn up 🙈. TBH I prefer being in the office as I work with some absolutely lovely people and it’s really social. When I’m at home, I’m just tapping away on the computer. There is a lot of training which is good because it’s not really like any other job but it’s really spread out and it could do with being done right at the start. I started in January and my last bit of my initial training isn’t til 1st June! By this point, I’ve already figured it out/ been taught by other people in the office so it will be a massive waste of time but it has to be done.

It’s a fab job, I love it! My advice is to get stuck in and offer to help existing PSOs and POs wherever you can. Ask them to take you on home visits and prison visits etc and try to visit court. Offer to complete referral forms etc and if your office will allow it (ours does but some don’t) complete logs etc on the systems, the existing member of staff can always check it before you finalise it. Ask to sit in on any appointments you can and ask questions to anyone and everyone. Don’t wait for opportunities to come to you or before you know it you’ll have a caseload and not know what to do.

One question I had before I started was what to wear and you can be quite casual. You can wear trainers, jeans, t shirts, summer dresses etc but don’t wear anything too low cut, tight or short as you will be coming into contact with sex offender etc even though you won’t hold them on your caseload. Also you’d look very out of place!

if you have any other questions ask away, as I’m fairly new to the job myself so it’s all fresh in my mind.

@Idratherbepaddleboarding oh thanks so much . You are a gem. You have answered all the questions i had both in my conscious and subconscious mind 😁. Just wanted to confirm if the hybrid thing would be offered at the time of starting (if it’s available ) or is it something which will be agreed between me and my manager at a later stage? I understand it depends on what office I’ll be working in etc . But i would love to go hybrid if offered due to my current circumstances. But thanks again for clarifying each and every bit . I’ll keep pinging you on here if anything else comes to my mind . 😁

@Poppytoms no problem 😊. It was confirmed on my first day (I didn’t know beforehand) but it was strongly suggested that we spend as much time as possible in the office as possible at first so we can learn from others and then after about a month we kind of naturally swayed towards more WFH time. I’d say that’s true as one of he other new starters lives further away and WFH 2 days a week straight away but ended up not being involved in half as much so when she got a caseload, she felt like she wasn’t ready whereas the rest of us were itching to get going properly!

@Idratherbepaddleboarding thanks so much for your suggestion . Going with what you’ve suggested, ill spend all 5 days in office for first three months and when i think i am ok to take wfh only then I’ll go for it . Also I’ve got to know that most probation offices are open until 9 pm . So are we supposed to work 9-5 or is it flexible working hours ? Sorry to bother you again with my questions but its just
that I am super curious at this point and just want to prepare my self beforehand 😀.

@Poppytoms 9pm?! 😵 ours is open 9-5 but there is flexitime. I don’t think you’ll even need to work from the office full time for 3 months, just a month or so, plus most of your training will be over Teams and it’s best to do that from home as it’s quiter.

Ps don’t worry about asking questions, I don’t mind at all!

We offer late night reporting for those who are working in the week and can't get in earlier though there aren't many this late. Often 6pm ish or sometimes up to 7pm. There are a couple of evenings this can be facilitated as the office is open later for programmes such as BBR that run 6-8pm.

Oh yes we offer late night reporting once a week but I don’t have any that need it at the moment. We don’t have any programmes at our office as we’re only small, they have to travel to the next city to do them.

@Idratherbepaddleboarding @orangesnotlemons Perfect. Thanks so much for your replies. 🤗

@Idratherbepaddleboarding can’t thank you enough for your guidance. I am already in my third week of pre employment checks. Another question which came to my mind is how long do they take to send you an offer after pre employment checks have been completed. Also did you get your choice of location ?

Hi all. Please share your insights. Received provisional offer for pso. 6 weeks have already completed as part of pre employment checks process. How long is it currently taking to hear anything back from them?

@Poppytoms Hello, I know it was a while ago , but could you tell me anything about the online interview for this role, what type of questions? Was it "can you give an example of when you...." or "What would you do to de-escalate a stressful situation?" i have an interview next week and am preparing for it.

This sounds like an interesting job. <looking for career change>