Written evidence from C B McGown (PB 02)
A BRIEF PEN
PICTURE OF
MYSELF
27 years in the Prison Service (retired), 13 years
in the Probation Service (retired), 12 years as local Councillor
including a term as Mayor.
From the above I am confident in my commenting on
the Justice System, of which part will be the Probation Service.
1. Over the years I have witnessed the change
of the prison service, then the gradual deterioration of probation.
As a coal face worker, views such as mine and colleagues are not
welcomed by management and only lip service paid to criticisms.
2. When the National Offenders Management System
(NOMS) was created, it became apparent to many that this was a
tier of management that there was no justification for.
3. Firstly. NOMS take a large slice of the cake
leaving less for the real work with offenders to progress in a
way to uphold the Core Practice of the service. The real reason
for this creation was (as suspected) to gather statistics for
the then Labour government.
4. The loading upon staff has become more onerous
and targets are the sacred cow. An example of this is the rolling
OASYS system which is constantly screened to check targets. Link
that with a disastrous and costly I.T system that has to be continually
tweaked it has become a burden for staff to bear. These systems
are continually upgraded but other work has to suffer, eg face
to face work with offenders (an integral work tool to reduce re
offending).
5. There is little doubt on the shop floor that
NOMS has caused more stress and fatigue than is normally imagined.
In other words, NOMS has become a Behemoth. only concerned with
it's own survival driven by the priority to perpetuate itself.
6. This in itself has created a serious problem
with middle and higher management in the newly formed Trusts.
It seems that these layers (some of them over staffed) tend to
vie with each other to gain merit and be recognised for it by
NOMS and eventually be welcomed into its' folds (some already
have). The view of many is that what we have here is a vehicle
of self gratification without much thought of what Probation was
set up to do.
7. The new government has started well in its
quest to curb the Quango's (NOMS is considered to be one) but,
unless more note is taken on the viability of them they will continue
to flourish, they know they are under scrutiny and will act accordingly
to survive. With the new committee set up to review the M of J,
to allow NOMS to take the lead in this review will not lead the
committee to the correct decision as a top down scrutiny never
works.
8. Staff in situ are now afraid to voice their
opinion as they know it will result in them being targeted by
management as non compliant. The result of this is that there
is a danger of mistakes being made as more staff are becoming
more insular to protect themselves (who can blame them, it's survival).
9. Putting staff at the sharp end with all this
hanging over them is not only improper and immoral it is very
dangerous. It seems that it is now less dangerous to deal with
offenders than to take on management.
10. This is a brief outlay of what is a very
deep and prolific problem within the service. There is a limit
to what staff can achieve on the ground. There is not enough resources,
management have lost their way and commitment to the profession
is waning fast. Already results of this is shown by offenders
not being supervised in the manner that enables the public to
be protected and if not stopped will get worse.
September 2010
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