tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52243776691641353292024-03-05T01:40:56.073-08:00Winston SmithWinston Smith-Working with the UnderclassWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.comBlogger62125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-49464297055270758832019-08-28T04:03:00.000-07:002019-08-28T04:07:31.699-07:00Training for CatburglarsOriginally posted May 2011
A few times now I have accompanied some prolific young offenders on the Intensive Supervision and Support Program to one of their daily leisure activities at an indoor rock climbing facility. If leisure is really an antidote to crime then surely instead of calling for more prisons to be built we should be lobbying politicians to construct amusement parks within the WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-13414604832577289712012-03-07T07:38:00.003-08:002014-09-25T19:43:07.293-07:00Farewell and a Few Final WordsSeveral followers of this blog have emailed me to ask why I haven't posted for a while. The truth is I no longer work in the social care or youth sector. In fact, I have left the UK and returned to Ireland where I am originally from.
Overall, I loved the six years I lived in England and came to see it as my adopted home for the time I was there. However, on account of valuing my mental health I WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com34tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-59652873400424611352011-08-17T06:07:00.000-07:002014-10-02T17:54:52.741-07:00Excuses For the Riots DebunkedSince the riots have subsided the excuse makers have been busy trying to find justification for the feral mobs that burned working and middle class families out of their homes as well as laying destruction to local businesses and people's workplaces. Wednesday's Guardian gives a few of them a platform in which to try and rationalise mob rule.
Last Thursday's edition of Young Voters Question TimeWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com49tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-78948009165208856402011-08-11T13:04:00.000-07:002011-08-11T13:20:03.906-07:00Riot Talk in Monotone on Radio 5 I was on BBC Radio 5 Live with Shelagh Fogarty yesterday talking about the riots in my monotone voice with a clued up lady from Manchester. I wish they had given me an hour after my rant to play some seventies soul and jazz to soothe my mind after talking about social breakdown and the urban underclass. Click on the show for the 10th August it's roughly an hour in to the programme. I am in the WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com42tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-43309653041727816172011-08-09T04:01:00.000-07:002016-09-12T18:08:11.463-07:00The Riots in London are a Culmination of Decades of Failed Social PoliciesThe underclass are rising up. No longer content with simply burglaring and mugging the decent law abiding working classes that have the misfortune to dwell amongst them, they have now decided to torch and terrorise the very communities they come from. What we are witnessing in London and in other cities across Britain at the moment is an attack upon the decent and law abiding citizenry of the WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com76tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-54445433783809168152011-07-21T11:09:00.000-07:002011-07-23T17:27:44.522-07:00He Don't Need No EducationA few months ago a female colleague at the Youth Offending Service, Chrissy, asked me to sit in with her and a young male offender of seventeen. She hoped I could be a positive male role model in getting him to do something constructive with his time rather than burgle his neighbours."Hi I'm Winston. You must be Noel. Nice to meet you."Chrissy then asked him what had he been doing since she last WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com64tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-16681333632667840892011-06-13T14:56:00.000-07:002016-12-14T21:07:12.949-08:00It's Just Like PrisonA few weeks ago I accompanied an assortment of teenage rogues to a youth club where we punished them by means of video games, snooker, take away food and supervising them in a music studio where they had access to records that extoled the virtues of misogyny, gangsterism and drug abuse. However, there was no structure to the activities and even in the DJ studio they were left to their own devicesWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com45tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-85558318863987081602011-06-02T09:52:00.000-07:002011-06-03T07:26:53.051-07:00Imparting Poetic DelusionsA few weeks ago at our local Youth Offending Office we hired an ex-offender to read poetry to our assorted crew of delinquents on the Intensive Surveillance and Supervision Programme (ISSP) before we took them out in the afternoon to play basketball. The reasoning behind this initiative was well intentioned. Here was an ex-convict who whilst in prison had learned to read and write and discovered WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-43246907766228967442011-04-26T07:27:00.000-07:002011-04-26T08:08:09.876-07:00The Offensive Youth ServiceLately, I have been working with the Offensive Youth Service or as they prefer to call themselves the Youth Offending Service. One of my duties is to escort male teenagers on Intensive Supervision and Support Programmes on their daily outings to gyms, boxing clubs, tennis courts, indoor football centres and to various other recreational activities. The ISSP is the most severe 'punishment' a youngWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-76044944684826883642011-03-31T12:39:00.000-07:002011-03-31T16:42:18.390-07:00Generation FWithin the next two weeks my book Generation F will be available in all good bookshops and will also be available as an e-book on Amazon.co.ukIt contains lots of material that I haven't published on the blog. A few friends said they found the snippets I showed them shocking and incredulous. There was a time I would have responded to its contents in a similar manner, but now I expect nothing shortWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com35tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-65631445347514566762011-03-11T14:37:00.000-08:002011-03-13T16:37:56.788-07:00More Pointless Pieces of Paper part 2When Gerry, the project manager, was informed of Jim’s attempted assault and verbal abuse of an elderly woman he decided to issue Jim with one week’s notice to vacate the premises. I would have also liked to have issued him with a size ten boot up the arse, but I bet if I checked with the policy department it would not be in line with our “anti-oppressive” policy. Gerry summoned Jim to the officeWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com46tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-11854991726578331002011-02-27T09:07:00.000-08:002011-02-27T12:01:07.896-08:00More Pointless Pieces of Paper part 1For every action there is a corresponding form seems to be the premise upon which many aspects of the public sector are founded. In the world of Supported Housing we deal with anti-social behaviour not by means of any real immediate consequences, but in the written form where as well as threatening you with future consequences we also advise you of your right to object, contest and appeal to the WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-63692370878286921062011-01-22T04:47:00.000-08:002011-10-03T14:36:00.587-07:00Harsh Deterrents for Violent Crime Needed-Not Community SentencingThe Con-Dem coalition's Justice secretary Ken Clarke has abandoned the traditional Conservative view that prison works in favour of adopting more community sentencing. Now, whilst it might not function effectively as a means of rehabilitation the one thing that it does ensure is that dangerous people are taken off the streets and away from the communities that they terrorise. Ken Clarke, of WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com22tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-84033087868033749782010-12-14T05:35:00.000-08:002010-12-17T08:41:36.477-08:00Rogue EncounterThe last Housing Association that I worked for has several projects of various sizes dotted in towns throughout the county. These projects house a variety of young people aged sixteen to twenty five. There are those who are under eighteen whose parents fraudulently claim to the local authority they are estranged from their offspring but that then visit regularly. One resident in particular went WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-23132514066917791872010-10-31T08:45:00.000-07:002010-11-13T07:07:07.218-08:00All these Foreigners...One of our residents, Mike, whom I have written about before, arrived the other day at the office door complete with gormless shuffle and his two hands placed firmly down the front of his tracksuit so as to remind the world that he has testicles and has already used them to pollute the planet with his gene pool. He has recently moved from the Housing Project in to a one bedroom flat provided by WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-43729591700296023792010-09-29T14:13:00.000-07:002010-09-29T14:29:17.835-07:00A Parent's Perspective of Our Shambolic Care SystemRecently I received an email from a committed and responsible parent who through circumstances beyond their control and despite their best efforts had to put their teenage stepson in to care. They have kindly allowed me to publish the email here which I have edited only very slightly. Here is their story and their assessment of the care system:Winston, I've just found your Blog and I wanted to WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com26tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-68202375791701111452010-09-19T09:16:00.000-07:002010-09-19T09:44:53.239-07:00Language Barriers: When Rules Are Not RulesThe Supported Housing Project that I have been placed with for the last few weeks is undergoing a lot of late night disturbances from drunken young people. To make matters even more disruptive for their fellow residents, who don't drink themselves stupid at every available opportunity, the drunken contingent bring back late night revellers and strays they have picked up whilst out on the town. WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-87296824998197121352010-08-24T05:05:00.000-07:002010-08-25T04:32:16.318-07:00An Open Door and A Bleeding HeartOne of the issues that I have had intense debate with other colleagues over is the issue of an open office door policy where a teenage resident can just walk in to the staff office uninvited to seek support, guidance or more often than not complain or make an unreasonable demand or hurl abuse at you if the mood takes them. The other day one of my colleagues, Nicola, decided to rebuke me for the WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-9822456460902183382010-08-05T05:27:00.000-07:002014-09-25T20:06:09.846-07:00Family Breakdown on the High SeasOne of the residents at the project I am currenty working at has just returned from a cruise around the Mediterranean with her family. Emily, 16, lives in Supported Housing and is therefore deemed to be both socially excluded and vulnerable to homelessness. Oh how times have changed, less than thirty years ago the socially excluded slept under newspapers in parks and lived off the generosity of WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-72471250507089073052010-07-16T03:30:00.000-07:002010-07-19T16:44:39.979-07:00A Brush with AuthorityOnce upon a time about a year ago at a care home for teenagers I had another run in with a disaffected youth or unsocialised brat as I prefer to call them. Which terminology you use will depend on where you live and what your life experience is. If you suffer from middle class guilt and live very far away from such youths in a nice neighbourhood you may probably make excuses for them based on theWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-28219381073872982952010-07-01T03:55:00.000-07:002010-07-01T07:18:48.728-07:00Up on the RoofOne day at the care home where I had the misfortune to be employed for a period of time, we were having another particularly difficult time with Liam the unfriendly giant.On this particular day, Liam was trying to climb out on to the roof of the three storey house in which he was being accomodated in and rewarded for his feral ways by the state. Allowing Liam to play on the roof was deemed to WinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-39539434624201248052010-06-15T10:25:00.000-07:002010-06-15T13:39:03.289-07:00An Inflammable SituationSome months back I ceased working in Children's care homes due to the stress and unsafe nature of the job (I still work in Supported Housing though). I also couldn't bear working in an environment where teenagers with no boundaries or ability to regulate their behaviour seemed to have more rights than the staff charged with caring for them. Its not that I believe adults are above reproach or thatWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com37tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-8837948879377296902010-05-28T09:23:00.000-07:002010-06-13T11:11:38.493-07:00Requiem for an ArmchairI have just returned to work in the Supported Housing project I currently work for after a few days away and have been informed that we need to do more work as a team to ensure that we can evidence that we are complying with the government’s Quality Assessment Framework. This explains the new posters around the building. One of which is trying to promote resident involvement in the running of theWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com44tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-83806840507320720802010-05-20T04:10:00.000-07:002010-05-20T05:14:51.938-07:00Lessons in PunctualityOne day a few months ago I was sitting in the office on the telephone enquiring after the status of one of our resident's housing benefit (they wont do it themselves) when Jerry, 19, decided to turn up ten minutes late for his support work meeting with me. I jestured to Jerry, who was standing at the window looking in to the office, that I would be another three or four minutes. He shook his headWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com47tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5224377669164135329.post-3442509952729145352010-05-09T06:11:00.000-07:002010-05-12T16:36:22.645-07:00The Danger of Imposing ValuesA few weeks back I was subjected to a day of training gobbledegook from one of our Senior Managers. I tried to get out of it by protesting to my immediate Manager (there are so many Managers)that as I am already well acquainted with the supported housing sector, having worked for years with other housing associations, that there was no need for me to go on a training day entitled "Introduction toWinstonSmith33http://www.blogger.com/profile/15780806194174659730noreply@blogger.com29