Day: April 13, 2019

I have been in two minds whether to write about this subject. However, I think that I should talk about Probation services because, in my experience, they don’t seem to be working in reality. Recently, the Probation service is no longer in the locality where I live in the County because the council won’t allow them to rent the rooms in one of their buildings any longer. They used the same building as the Hinckley Times newspaper base. The venue can be hired out for weddings etc downstairs too. The Probation service hasn’t managed to secure a new venue in the local area so now I have to go to the city on my Probation appointments. I’m literally only at these appointments for 5 minutes at the most. That was fine when I was dropping into the local office but it takes me half an hour to drive to the city office and then a 20 minute walk from the Car. If I parked in one of the Car Parks it would probably cost me at least £2 (cheapest) plus petrol. They won’t even consider reimbursing travel expenses unless it’s bus fare. In my area I’ve known quite a few under the service not to even be reimbursed for bus fare.

I’ve had three Offender Managers in less than a year and nearly on my fourth because my current one is going off on maternity leave soon. The first one went to work in another area of the County, the second one also left after going on maternity leave. The current one still hasn’t put in the application to cancel the unpaid work requirement after it became apparent that there was certain things that made me uncomfortable due to my Autism. We weren’t allowed to leave the work placement even for Lunch. I need breaks but they couldn’t make allowances because of the unpaid work requirement rules. It made me very anxious and I discussed it with my offender manager. I wrote a statement for the court application and obtained the medical evidence required from the GP. I did all this back in January. Every time I go to meet with my offender manager I’m told that they’re going to make the application and write their report for it but she’s been saying that for the last 3 months. She goes on maternity next month. They have no idea who is taking on this member of staff’s cases yet. The new person that takes over won’t know me. This one doesn’t know me that well because I’ve been referred to groups and an employment/counselling service to do my rehabilitation activity requirement days.

I felt kind of sad this morning. I remembered that 7 years ago today I went into hospital to be induced. Then my Son was born on 16th April 2012. The fact that I went into hospital on Friday 13th was unsettling for me in itself. I just think of that time and feel like I’ve missed so much of my Son’s life since he has been adopted. I haven’t seen him since he was 14 months old. It doesn’t help that a royal baby may be born on my Son’s birthday. I just have a feeling that Megan and Harry’s baby will be born on that date. That will be hard for me. It makes me think of when I had my own baby and how I was looking forward to that life despite the fact that I got post natal depression which led to me failing in that department. I wish them and any others having a baby all the happiness in the world. I just won’t ever not feel sad or stop missing my own Son.