Roger and Out!

I'm grateful to Jonathan Ledger's NAPO blog for providing the news here of yet another disgraceful example of a senior NOMS manager jumping ship in order to feather their own nest in the private sector. Roger Hill has announced that he is 'proud' to be taking up employment with Sodexo, a company that just happens to be in the process of bidding for probation services. I think I'm right in saying that as the former Director of the National Probation Service and current DOM, he was the only senior manager within NOMS  who came from a probation background at all. It will be interesting to see if his replacement will either be a career civil servant or former prison governor like all the rest.

With Phil Wheatley now ensconced at G4S and who of course are in the process of bidding for prison contracts, at what point is this process going to be called into question? Are we really to believe that these former public servants have not imparted commercially sensitive information to their new employers? Have they really been giving their public sector responsibilities 100% whilst at the same time sounding out opportunities with the opposition or responding to their advances? As Private Eye would say, we need to be told. I notice from the NAPO discussion forum that at least one colleague has brought the matter to the attention of their MP in the following terms

Thank you for all your support both in the House and elswhere for the
Probation Service.

I am prompted to write again to raise a major concern. As you will no
doubt be aware, Probation is now under the greatest threat to its'
existance in 100 years. Unpaid Work and Approved Premises are about to
be put out to tender - on a less than level playing field. This will
place two major areas of our work into the hands of private companies
who will, by their nature be motivated by profit, not the quality of
their work and will, in my opinion jeopardise public safety as a
result.

Two high profile managers from NOMS HQ have recently left to join
private providers - Phil Weatley, formerly head of NOMS has gone to G4S
and within the last week, Roger Hill has joined Sodexo. Both these
organisations will be at the forefront of the privatisation agenda.

In my view, there is a clear conflict of interest in these
appointments. G4S and Sodexo will have an unfair competitive
advantage in the bidding processes which are about to start - with
inside knowledge brought by Messrs Hill and Weatley. Further, these
two individuals have been closely involved with the reorganisation of
this Service in recent years. It would be interesting to see if their
recent appointments had any influence on their decision making within
that process.

I would be grateful if you could raise this matter with Mr Blunt on the
behalf of myself and my colleagues, all of whom are extremely
concerned about our future in the Service and, indeed the future of the
Service as a whole."

It seems like a good idea to me to let MP's know.