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Message |
    
Pippin
Member
Username: Pippinpuss
Post Number: 8
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Monday, September 28, 2009 - 06:17 pm: | |
I did once put the litter of kittens to similar use when talking to an offender for the first time about the abuse he had receieved as a child - he still sees me from time to time - I usually get some (VERY) loud and friendly greeting from two streets away.
I did have a colleague who had a large dog - she would lead some unsuspecting person up the corridor saying "you don't mind dogs ,do you?"He wuld growl menancingly if an interviewee raised their voice - that was enough for conversation to resume to normal volumne. |
Dodo
Member
Username: Dodo
Post Number: 39
Registered: 01-2006
| | Posted on Friday, September 25, 2009 - 08:12 pm: | |
Dogs in the office were an excellent aid to getting some clients to relax enough to be able to begin to talk.(They were also pretty handy when someone 'off their head' decided that they would begin to address the inequalities within the Criminal Justice system by trying to assault the whole office!) |
Pippin
Member
Username: Pippinpuss
Post Number: 7
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - 05:12 pm: | |
Ah yes - I do remember writing those reports and trying to bring about changes in format so it was less about "born on a windy night" and more about their behaviour,offending or otherwise. Lazy solictors did not like that at all as they had to do their part of the job. I do regret the demise of the home visit generally as it was so telling and you gained more information in ten minutes than you could from hours in office interview - it is interesting that if has been retained for PPO and high risk work. |
Pulp fiction
Member
Username: Pulp_fiction
Post Number: 110
Registered: 03-2009
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 16, 2009 - 02:41 pm: | |
Pippin and Devonboy, remember them reports that would state ' He/she was dropped on his head when he was a child'? and that pretty much summed up all they had done, ti wasnt because they were nasty people that had many problems, it was simply because they had been dropped on their heads when they were young.
Alcohol in the office, naughty get togethers in the office...... some things dont change? |
Pippin
Member
Username: Pippinpuss
Post Number: 6
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 - 06:02 pm: | |
Depends if you had to pick up a case where someone had not done the Part B!!! I do miss not having a secretary but dictating records was a bit tedious and hit and miss - we have lost status but we are not alone - we have a political class who think they can teach,perform operations,police our streets and confront offenders about their offending behaviour better than any professionals in post. It has been the steady and deliberate erosion of confidence in the public sector since 1979. They then realise - oops we needs social workers/teachers etc cos bright young people find easier ways to earn a living - and so you get some campaign with a few ads - until something goes "wrong" again.
So you were one of them who brought their dog into work - it used to be like Crufts at our office at times - mind you I did have a litter of kittens in my office for a time. Alcohol in the workplace -- hmm... was never a good idea in my experience!!!!!!! |
devonboy
Member
Username: Morgan144
Post Number: 51
Registered: 02-2009
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 - 04:34 pm: | |
Excellent post, Pippin. Wow, what a lot of years!
The thing was, even with huge caseloads, you seemed to have so much more time in those days. The mixture of cases kept it interesting, the fairly simple processes enabled us to spend sometimes hours with one individual without then having to spend as long again typing it all up. I had my own personal secretary who did all my letters, reports and filing. Our SPO (for it was SHE)would give us a tot of Single Malt on a Friday to say well done! We would have tea and biscuits with the magistrates during court recesses. Social Inquiry Reports were more interested in the individual than in what they had done (perhaps too much, sometimes but we were a welfare agency in those days) and it was possible to do everything for everyone, mainly because there was no-one else to do it! I knew a collegue who kept his home brew in the cupboard in his office! I could also take my dog into work!
The thing I miss the most though I think, is the recognition that we were all professionals, trained to a high level who had the integrity and expertise to make decisions without having them countersigned or approved by anyone. All that has been eroded and buried under a mountain of policies, strategies and instructions from NOMS. We now spend our time measuring pointless targets, filling in pointless forms (yes - I do mean Oasys)and attending pointless mandatory training aimed at filling in another pointless bloody form! Ah, nostalgia! It ain't what it used to be! |
Pippin
Member
Username: Pippinpuss
Post Number: 5
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 - 02:17 pm: | |
I hope I wear it well. Working life has changed dramatically generally - the look of the police station in Life on Mars tallies with my memories of the local station then - working with Police colleagues is not that new - as far as the Probation Service was concerned you were expected to deliver all the services to those on your caseload - as a newly qualified PO I had a caseload 70 plus with everything from teenage glue sniffers to lifers to what were called divorce court welfare cases. You were expected to cope/know with it all with the minimum of supervision,no health and safety worth a candle along with court duty,office duty,numerous PSRs etc. Interviews were done in your own office (think about all those possible breaches of confidentiality)- you smoked,those you supervised smoked so your lungs were knackered as well and a number of your colleagues were probably hitting the bottle whilst at work. We did have fun but I think that was because we were all young together (the service had a huge increase in staff),risky behaviour that would not be tolerated now happened and we had tons of energy being healthy baby boomers raised on meat and 3 veg with cod liver oil and fresh air!!!!!!!! |
Pulp fiction
Member
Username: Pulp_fiction
Post Number: 109
Registered: 03-2009
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 15, 2009 - 10:23 am: | |
Wow Pippin that is early with a capital E.A.R.L and Y.
That is so early to be honest with you I was still in school my friend.
Hey gotta ask was it like a Probation version of ' Life on Mars'. |
Pippin
Member
Username: Pippinpuss
Post Number: 4
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Monday, September 14, 2009 - 12:26 pm: | |
Good morning -- in answer to your query I joined the service as an ancillary worker in 1976 working on one of the pilot CS schemes. |
Pulp fiction
Member
Username: Pulp_fiction
Post Number: 108
Registered: 03-2009
| | Posted on Monday, September 14, 2009 - 12:12 pm: | |
Dodo thats a brill pots, very funny.
And Pippin, will be interesting to know how long youve been in the job, as trust me it was LOADS better my friend.
Give Dods post a read for some brill examples. |
Pippin
Member
Username: Pippinpuss
Post Number: 3
Registered: 09-2007
| | Posted on Friday, September 11, 2009 - 02:50 pm: | |
I have been in post a long time and my memories are not so benign - some changes are not always improvements but many are - we expect the people we supervise to change ,what about us?
What I miss from the good old days ?- well,casual sexism and racisim amongst staff,the lack of equal opp policies - not just the right to say the word"blind" but stuff that assists working parents for start - there was a REAL lack of protection for staff because you were expected to be self sufficient in everything. If you spoke to an SPO once a week you were seen as bothering him (it was usually a him.) A complete lack of workload management meant caseloads were cronically high - they are now but at least it is recognised that that is the case- wasn't then- you were told to get on with it - and so on . I know it is not brillaint now but please do not prestend that all in the past was great. |
Dodo
Member
Username: Dodo
Post Number: 38
Registered: 01-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 09:17 pm: | |
Oh for the days when the first thought wasn't 'I must do this to protect my back because no one is going to protect it for me.'(In fact, they'll be looking to stick a knife in it.)
Oh for the days when when you gave advise to a Court based upon your professional opinion as opposed to what the current target is or what resource has dried up but you're not allowed to say so.
Oh for the days when home visits were accepted as a necessary part understanding your client better in order to assist them better.
Oh for the days when an offender was called a client.
Oh for the days when supervision actually helped you supervise a case.
Oh for the days when you when you could say that someone was blind to a particular issue without being accused of being 'sight-ist.'
etc. etc.................
The list is endless. |
devonboy
Member
Username: Morgan144
Post Number: 50
Registered: 02-2009
| | Posted on Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 01:40 pm: | |
Pulp, I feel a song coming on………but not yet! Anyway this is my 50th post, so I’m having a party!
Anyway, I don’t want to take credit for the thread, it was Positive (who was feeling distinctly Negative) who started it. Poor thing – 2 years and fed up already!
Ah, the good old days – Post confirmation in a hotel at Lytham St Annes where we drank the bar dry – but that’s another story. What happened to Advise, Assist and Befriend? Where are the Hill walking trips with groups in the Lake District, Orienteering on Dartmoor, deep sea fishing, sailing, camping and all the other activities that we used to provide which gave our clients positive, life affirming and otherwise unobtainable experiences and which have now been driven out by the Punish, Enforce and Punish Again brigade. No wonder offenders resent us so much.
Like you, one of my long term colleagues has decided to jump before he is pushed. Lucky for him, he has somewhere to go, me – I’m stuck for a bit so I have to get my motivation from the occasional successes (sadly fewer and further between than they used to be.) The real problem is I have lots of transferable skills but not much of a transferable pension, so here I am and here I’ll stay.
21 years is a long time (so is 17) and I think I have done well to get away with just one period of stress related leave (so far!) There have been so many changes, it’s a bit like Groundhog Day – 1 years experience, 21 times over! There is so much to complain about – it’s probably better not to get started, so I’ll stop. And it’s lunchtime – which is a recent innovation in my daily routine I would urge you all to take on! |
Pulp fiction
Member
Username: Pulp_fiction
Post Number: 107
Registered: 03-2009
| | Posted on Thursday, September 10, 2009 - 09:54 am: | |
Devonboy started a thred about being fed up with Probation, and being shackled to a computer.
More and more people are sadly feeling that way nowadays.
One of my colleagues simply threw in the towel the other day. Simply wrote a note that they had had enough and werent going to work their notice, and off they went.
The job had changed too much since they had joined, and they didnt like the job as it was now.
The thing was, they had only been in the job a very short while, imagine being in as long as Devonboy or others who have got 20+ years in and the changes they have had to endure.
Can we have a trip down memory lane, and have a few threds of the good old days, and an idea as to how long people have been in the job.
Myself a mere 17 years, before computers, Oasys, and big chunky mobile phones that we didnt want to use as the call costs were so much, we couldnt afford mobiles for all offices and so there was only 1 between 30 staff in each office.
We went on courses that were fun,Team building, music workshops, groupwork without a flipchart courses, post confirmation residential courses less said what happend on these courses the better.
On yes my friends those were the days. |
