The Demise of the Probation Service

In 2000 I joined the Probation Service as a young fresh faced Trainee Probation Officer with no idea what I was doing. As it turned out I stumbled across a profession I completely adore and believe in.

The Probation Service started out as a Christian organisation over 100 years ago and it's original motto was Advise Assist and Befriend. Whilst it may not be politically correct to suggest or admit that we do any such thing these days, the reality is, we do. And very proud I am of this too. Privatisation of the Probation Service is an utter tragedy and replacing an ethos of compassion with payment by results highlights the coalition's total lack of understanding of the needs of the people we work with. Human beings are complex creatures and for some of them whose problems run deep, offending throughout their lives is an inevitability. Do we not offer them support then, because they will not produce contractors the results they need to get paid? What happens when they reach a crisis and have to be re-referred back to the Probation Service to have their risk re-assessed by an officer who has no relationship and no knowledge of them anymore? When I was floundering with a complex case as a Trainee Probation Officer, one of the first lessons I learned from a very experienced officer, was that I was unable effect change until I had built a relationship with 'offender'. What will happen to this?

I completely accept that the 'bleeding heart liberal' (that's liberal with a small 'l' I hasten to add), is coming out in me, but if you do not care about these people who offend in your community, then think about these changes from your own insular point of view, because privatisation of the Probation Service will be a disaster for re-offending when the needs of the people we work with are not met. A truly sad day for such an amazing profession of which most people have no idea just how hard we work to help people change their lives.

In the meantime, I had a dentist appointment tonight and took this picture whilst I was waiting for it.