What will Probation Practice Look Like in 2020?
| Author | Jane Dominey, Lol Burke |
In this short comment piece the authors attempt to visualise what probation practice might look like in the year 2020 through an account of a typical working day in the life of a CRC and NPS worker respectively.
CRC Day in the Life
Monday 10th February 2020
7.30am: I begin the week by checking messages on my work tablet while eating breakfast. The messages bring the news that Joe was arrested on Saturday, charged with an assault on his partner and will be in court this morning. There is also an urgent appeal for someone to cover for sickness absence and staff the report centre this evening. I skim through the report detailing our team’s performance against our January re-offending targets. Back in January my tablet was broken and I couldn’t check messages from home – that was better.
8.30am: Arrive at the office. I phone the NPS court office. No answer. I spent some time on Sunday evening checking my email, but still have 37 messages that have arrived since Friday afternoon. These are mostly updates from partner agencies about people on my caseload: referrals acknowledged, appointments made, appointments kept and missed. My colleague working in the local prison has emailed to let me know that, following a re-calculation of her sentence dates, Ella will be released from her 4 month prison sentence on Thursday morning. Our local hostel is not able to accommodate her – they have no empty bed spaces for women and, anyway, they are reluctant to have her stay again after the problems she caused there at the end of last year. I phone the NPS court officer’s mobile and leave a message asking to be called back.
10.30am: I spend two hours every other Monday morning at the community drugs team drop-in. This might be the best bit of my job. There are definite advantages in this ‘agile’ working as it gets me out and about in the local community although I do miss the fact that there is less opportunity to meet with my colleagues and discuss our cases, etc. It is also about the only time when I feel as though I’m building useful relationships with service users and I think that they benefit from having a range of services in one place. I miss a call back from the NPS court officer while I’m in a session with Steve who is just ready to think about getting back into work. I have heard that our owners are taking on casual staff in their cleaning division and have a target to provide employment for 5% of our service users. I tell Steve that I will make enquiries to confirm if this is true.
1.00pm: Back at the office eating a sandwich in front of the computer. I find out that I’ve missed a visit to the office from our CRC big boss. Apparently he brought a message congratulating us on the 5th birthday of the CRC but raised concern that our team’s reoffending rates are higher than expected. No doubt there will be threats of further job losses but I’m not sure how they can cut us back any further. He had indicated that Version 7 of their operating plan, Desistance Interface Model, is nearly ready. There are also...
To continue reading
Request your trial