Thursday 28 January 2016

In Gove We Must Trust

Listening and watching Michael Gove perform yesterday during the opening stages of the Opposition debate on the prison and probation service, I was struck just how different he is to his psychopathic predecessor Chris Grayling. Speaking knowledgeably, fluently and passionately 'off the cuff' about the state of the prison system and his plans for greater prison governor autonomy, I found there was much to feel reassured about.

I know he comes with a very bad reputation for having done damage to education, nevertheless he confirmed his limited knowledge of the justice brief and was anxious to remain in listening and learning mode. I know politicians say this sort of stuff regularly, but the difference with Gove is I think it's genuine. He strikes me as a decent guy and I have to say impeccable politeness is something refreshing to behold in a politician. 

In essence I can well understand how he was able to win early and favourable comment from Frances Crook of the Howard League basically because he is so obviously not an unpleasant bully and of course has undone much of the Grayling legacy that proved so very damaging to our criminal justice system. His honest remarks regarding the problems within our prisons I think bodes well and even the deeply cynical must be impressed that he has been willing to appoint the out-going and outspoken Chief Inspector of Prisons to be the new Chair of the Parole Board.

But lets not get too carried away. For whatever reason, Gove still seems unable to acknowledge the disaster we all know TR to be and felt obliged to trot out all that '£46 in their pocket' nonsense spouted by his predecessor. He was also very naughty in claiming '500 new frontline probation officers', rather disingenuously ignoring all those who have exited:- 
"... but we are just 12 months into the transforming rehabilitation programme initiated by my predecessor, and it is only appropriate that we acknowledge that that programme has already seen an increase in the number of frontline probation officers, again of more than 500."
I'd like to think this is just him swallowing his NOMS briefing on the matter with little thought or analysis. I'm sure I've read somewhere that he's deeply suspicious of the prison-dominated NOMS and their take on things - for very sound reasons - we just have to convince him to be just as sceptical in relation to what he's told about probation.

The dreadful utterly uninspiring junior minister Selous even had trouble reading from his NOMS script and trotted out all the usual guff.
But according to Selous, all is rosy in the garden:
"Reoffending has been too high for too long. That is why we have brought together the best of the voluntary, charitable and private sectors to join our excellent public service probation workers in bringing in our probation reforms. That has meant that we have extended probation supervision to some 40,000 short-sentence offenders who did not get it before. We have also introduced a through-the-gate service, joining up probation from prison into the community.
We have created the National Probation Service, and I should tell Members that 19 of the 22 CRCs are being run with a staff mutual or a voluntary, charitable or social enterprise sector body alongside their owners. We monitor their performance very carefully indeed, and the October 2015 performance figures showed that we are advancing in performance in almost all areas. South Yorkshire CRC has developed an action plan to deal with the issues it faces, but I can tell the House that no CRC is in a formal remedial plan. I can also tell the House that there are 560 more probation officers than there were 12 months ago. That is the largest intake of newly qualified probation officers for some considerable period."
By a strange coincidence, as Gove was on his feet on the floor of the House, Michael Spurr was on his addressing the Clinks AGM. Whatever the minister was saying, a few snippets via twitter from Rob Allen I think give an indication of tensions within the department and problems with TR:-
Spurr says Governor autonomy proposals don't fit easily with other developments (CRCs, PCCs) so a lot of questions 
Spurr confident TR will get better. Sensible NOMS engagement with CRCs about quality and interim measures. Not all about PBR 
Spurr bullish about TR but admits contracts got the estimated volumes wrong . Offenders more serious than anticipated. 
Spurr asked abt market stewardship in TR Says there are limits to what government can do to make contractors work with 3rd sectr
I wasn't able to watch the whole debate, but not surprisingly it would seem probation hardly got a mention. This situation cannot go on though and eventually Gove must get around to addressing the crisis TR has created. At some point he will realise what a thorough mess NOMS have made and a fragmented probation service will do absolutely nothing to help with his laudable aims for prison reform.   
At least Liz McInnes tried to put a case for probation: 
"The probation service, however, suffers from a staffing crisis as a result of cuts and reforms. The Government have split the service in two, outsourcing the least complex work to privately run groups known as community rehabilitation companies or CRCs. In 2015, at least 1,200 staff left the probation service as a result of planned redundancy, retirement and career changes due to disillusionment. I should like to quote a senior probation officer, who has chosen to remain anonymous:
“Collectively the service is having a nervous breakdown and my guess is that at least 80% of staff are just looking to get out by any means. The damage is done; there’s worse to come and there’s absolutely nothing that can stop it. I’m pessimistic about the future and it will take a couple of serious murders, prison riots or similar for politicians and the public to take the slightest notice”.

Those are the words of someone working in the probation service, and I truly hope that they do not come true. I hope that we can address the crisis in the probation service. The staff and the work that they do are valued, but they are struggling with an excessive workload and loss of expertise, which has had a detrimental effect on complex cases, including those involving sexual and domestic violence."  
--oo00oo--

It's quite obvious to many that Gove is much better news for criminal justice policy and here is much-respected Joshua Rozenberg writing on the BBC website. Probation and TR don't get a mention, but I simply refuse to believe that it too will not ultimately succumb to pragmatism and commonsense as well:-

Gove's actions 'give hope' for justice policy

A debate on prison policy in the House of Lords last week "showed how much goodwill there is for the new justice secretary", according to the Conservative backbench peer who initiated the discussion. Lord Fowler said policies being introduced by Michael Gove, who also holds the post of Lord Chancellor, "give more hope for advance in prison policy than anything I have heard for many years".

From the Labour front bench, Lord Beecham said: "It would be churlish not to welcome Mr Gove's appointment as Lord Chancellor, although almost anyone would have been an improvement on his predecessor".

Chris Grayling was Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor from September 2012 to May 2015, the first non-lawyer to hold the post for more than four centuries. As such, he was never going to have an easy ride from the legal profession in his first cabinet post. He was also required to save large sums of money from the Ministry of Justice budget, leading to cuts in legal aid and colourful protest meetings by lawyers.

Some lawyers also objected to his planned human rights changes, although in this he was merely seeking to do the prime minister's bidding and these were never implemented.

But some of Mr Grayling's less well-known policies, such as restructuring of the courts in England and Wales, are being carried through by his successor.


Pragmatism before ideology

One reason Mr Gove has earned the respect of his political opponents is his willingness to reverse many of Mr Grayling's least effective decisions. 
There is speculation the next policy to be abandoned will involve the award of criminal legal aid duty contracts.

These contracts, under which solicitors agree to cover police stations and magistrates' courts in England and Wales, are the gateway to legal aid work for law firms. To make up for cutting solicitors' fees by 17.5% over two years, the number of contracts was to be reduced from 1,600 to 527 - making each contract much more valuable.

But the Ministry of Justice had to postpone the new contracts - which were meant to take effect this month - after solicitors launched legal action alleging the allocation process had been unlawful. If Mr Gove does decide to put pragmatism ahead of ideology, it won't be the first time.

A couple of months after his appointment last May, the former education secretary lifted restrictions on the number of books that prisoners could keep in their cells. Also last July, Mr Gove scrapped plans to spend an estimated £85m building a huge prison in Leicestershire for 320 young offenders.


Judges' pay rise

Risking a clash with the Foreign Office, the justice secretary pulled out of a £5.9m prisons deal with Saudi Arabia. This had been set up under a commercial arm of the Ministry of Justice established by Mr Grayling and scrapped by Mr Gove.

Last month, the justice secretary abolished the much-criticised criminal courts charge, which Mr Grayling had insisted would make criminals "pay their way". And, this month, Mr Gove supported a 3% pay rise for high court judges, to be funded by increasing salaries for the most junior judges by less than the 1% they would otherwise have received.

One reason, he said, was it had not been possible to fill a vacancy in the high court family division last year - at a time when Mr Grayling was insisting that implementing changes recommended four years earlier would have increased the total pay bill by an unacceptable 2%.


Improved relations

Despite praise for his prison policy, Mr Gove was criticised by a former law lord last week for continuing to detain 4,500 prisoners given indefinite terms of imprisonment for public protection (IPP) under a schemed abolished in 2012. About 3,500 of these IPP prisoners have already served the minimum punishment periods set by the courts.

But the biggest difference between the two secretaries of state is the one that is the least obvious: Mr Gove has managed to establish much better relations than Mr Grayling ever had with what the Ministry of Justice regards as its stakeholder groups, notably the judiciary.

While well aware they can no longer rely on the lord chancellor being a lawyer, the judges are relieved to find the minister responsible for the legal system in England and Wales is now someone they can do business with.

40 comments:

  1. I wonder how many of the 500 newly qualified po's will be seconded, without any consultation into the failing crcs-after their culling of staff? Already happening in South Yorkshire!

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    1. Yes I've heard several reports about NPS staff being directed to support a failing CRC and wonder how this can possibly be allowed? Civil servants propping up a commercial concern? We need some explanation I think.

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  2. For those who want to catch up, here's the link to minutes of yesterday's debate. Jo Stevens also made some good points about probation towards the end, just before Selous rounded things up:

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/hansard/commons/todays-commons-debates/read/unknown/682/

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    1. Jo Stevens: "What was predicted by probation professionals, outside experts, Napo and service users has happened: chaos; huge numbers of redundancies—up to 40% of staff in some community rehabilitation companies—and IT systems not fit for purpose; cases falling through the cracks; and service in South Yorkshire, which the Government gave to a French catering company to run, under threat of renationalisation. Will the Minister tell the House whether the rumours of renationalisation of the South Yorkshire CRC are correct? Decisions on the supervision of dangerous offenders should be determined by public safety rather than profit.

      I believe the Justice Secretary is trying his best, and I almost have some sympathy for him. It cannot be easy having to take up his role equipped with a shovel to clear up what I will politely call the residue that his predecessor, now Leader of the House, left him. Perhaps when he has finished shovelling that up—which will obviously take some time—we will see more than just an acknowledgement of the problems or references to prison reform strategy, and instead see concrete steps taken to address the scale of the crisis. This is the third time the Conservatives have promised a rehabilitation revolution. I look forward to hearing soon the Justice Secretary’s explanation of what went wrong last time and what will be different this time round on his watch..."

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  3. If Gove told me the sky was blue, I would have to go to the window to check! A mealy-mouthed, self serving IdealogueIf who caused untold damage to the Education sector and will do the same to the Criminal Justice sector.

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    1. Skies have been grey here for some considerable time.

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    2. Frustrated PO - CRC28 January 2016 at 23:11

      That's the Tories for you. You get ideologies and policies pushed on you quickly scribbled on the back of a fag packet. They did not..and would not listen to so called research that did not back TR and yet proceeded. Grayling or Gove it makes no odds they would sell their grannies rather than retain responsibity. I am now working for a CRC that 18 months later have yet to show that they have a clue what they are doing and morale appears to be ebbing away.TR...they've Transformed it alright. But they have nothing to be proud of.

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  4. I don't work I'm probation but why do we give £46 to criminals when they leave prison. That's so we wrong. Rewarding bad behaviour

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    1. I assume you are attempting to be funny? Must try harder...

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    2. It's not a reward. The discharge grant is meant to meet living expenses for the first week after release. £46 doesn't go very far, especially for those that have nothing which is the majority. They get a travel warrant too.

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    3. The first week? ...and then some. Some of the discharged prisoners I work with have had to wait weeks (at least 8 in one case) before benefits have been paid. Add to this the hurdles of having to claim online, get a bank account with insufficient ID, trying to get proof to back up ESA claims etc..some of mine have been really near the edge and 'I wish I was back inside' has been voiced by more than one person. The risk of reoffending is heightened over this period as once the thrill of release is over people are confronted with all of these problems at a time when they are feeling vulnerable anyway after being in prison. Instead of getting on with offending based work everything focusses on food parcels and charity grants to keep people fed and warm.

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    4. Exactly! I despair at the worsening situation one of my clients got sanctioned at his first appointment at job Center one week after release how on earth can we expect newly released prisoners to get a job in their first week out alongside finding somewhere to live all on £46 !

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  5. I am in the SWSC division and have finally been informed today what the process is upon qualification which is imminent

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    1. Please elaborate

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    2. In short, a paper exercise. No interviews. Selections based purely on an application form. A single form. Gob smacked.

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    3. As ever, assume The Probation Position - head down, grab ankles & brace yourself!!

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    4. Also, no probationary period once in post.

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    5. If you don't get offered a job or don't want the one you do get offered, you can take a PSO job instead.

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    6. I wish it were a joke 20:49

      :-(

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    7. A crying shame that those that have worked their bollocks off, including in roles for probation before the training will not have this recognized and they will simply be judged on a few answers to some questions.

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    8. And please be aware I recognize no recruitment is ideal and has its flaws, but this is pretty astonishing.

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    9. Unfortunately this is a continuous process since the implementation of TR. Fairness and transparency never entered into the equation.

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    10. Yes you're right anonymous 21:18. The service has become faceless. I'm gutted.

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  6. Lions led by Donkeys.

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    1. U elected them.

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    2. We didn't elect NOMS, or senior management. Is your reply knee-jerk Napo defensiveness?

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  7. Has the Criminal Court Charge been abolished? Since when, I have clients seeking to challenge those dished out before Govie came in! Obviously, abolished for good reason and therefore open to challenge now me thinks!

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  8. Had Napo & associated unions been (1) aware, (2) not complicit & (3) had the confidence & courage of their conviction right from the start then legal challenges may have prevented the TRain leaving Westminster Station. Sentencers challenged the courts charge, its gone. Lawyers challenged the Legal Aid reviews and today that too has been abandoned. Sadly probation unions did nowt but play the victim & consequently got royally shafted. Careers have been destroyed. A thoroughly professional service has been decimated.

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    1. And many Chief Officers left with a 100K+

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  9. "I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
    Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
    Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
    Cry 'Gove for PM, England, and Saint George!"

    I bloomin' well hope not! Don't get too enamoured of the man who messed up our education. There's a pragmatic streak in this Tory crew; they're a lot slicker than we're used to but the raw bile is bubbling away just below the facade, viz-Cameron's bitter & inhumane language at PMQs. We need to keep scratching at the veneer & not be dazzled by the shiny surface.

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    1. The writer & performer Jeremy Hardy likens the Tories to the aliens in the V sci-fi series whereby their true reptilian nature is disguised by the wearing of a human skin. Hmmm, wonder if...?

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  10. Off topic if permitted...

    Government minister (Tobias Ellwood) today said about UN report regarding Saudi military strikes in Yemen "We should however recognise, as I know from having been able to glance at the report, that the people who wrote it did not visit Yemen. They did not actually go there, but based the report on satellite technology."

    Would that be the same satellite technology that the UK, the US & all recipients of UK manufactured weapons of war rely upon to identify & destroy "targets" (which the UN report says includes hospitals & civilians)?

    The obscenity of this government's casual duplicity is beyond comprehension.

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    1. In respect of the above post, this was just one of Hilary Benn's questions to the Govt yesterday:

      "As the House knows, there is a humanitarian catastrophe in Yemen as a result of the civil war, in which more than 7,000 people have been killed, 2.5 million displaced, and millions more left without food. We all want to see the return of a legitimate Government to Yemen, but non-governmental organisations, including Médecins Sans Frontières, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have reported serious potential breaches of international humanitarian law by all sides, and the UN has spoken out about what is happening.

      Yesterday, it came to light that the final report of the UN panel of experts has “documented that the coalition had conducted airstrikes targeting civilians and civilian objects, in violation of international humanitarian law.” It refers to weddings, civilian vehicles, residential areas, schools, mosques, markets and factories. I understand that the Government received the report on Monday. Will the Minister set out what specific action, if any, has been taken since receiving it?

      The panel documented 119 coalition sorties relating to violations of international humanitarian law, and we know that UK armaments and planes sold to Saudi Arabia are legitimately being used in this conflict. However, our arms export licensing criteria state clearly that

      “the Government will...not grant a licence if there is a clear risk that the items might be used in the commission of a serious violation of international humanitarian law.”

      Will the Minister explain how many of these incidents have been examined, and why he is satisfied that IHL has not been breached? How many of the 119 Saudi-led coalition sorties have the British personnel on the ground provided a “quick check” on given that the Foreign Secretary told the House that “our people on the ground have reported that there is no evidence of deliberate breaches of international humanitarian law.”—[Official Report, 12 January 2016; Vol. 604, c. 697.]"

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    2. - So I don't think we can or should trust Gove, the current Gov't or any of the Tories' deceitful spin. They have been consistent in one respect only, and that is to mislead everyone - the electorate, Parliament, Europe - in order to pursue their ideological aims.

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    3. Absolutely. Govt wants to undermine independence of the judiciary, commercial interests over justice and a nation of debt slaves serving the whole twisted, obscene ideology. Dark days ahead.

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    4. Why go 'off topic'. It's SOOO irritating! This site is about PROBATION. Set up your own site to deal with your 'off topic' issues.

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    5. Take a moment and you'll find the connections

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    6. Seems to me the stray off-topic was for a valid purpose, i.e. to highlight the lack of trust issues with this government & ultimately to challenge the topic headline about placing trust in Gove. The world - like 'probation' - is not a simple, narrow channel and I find that the ebb & flow of discussion here is stimulating.

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