Latest From Napo 9

First is this email from Pat Waterman, Chair of Greater London Napo:- 

TO NAPO MEMBERS

Dazed and Confused 
Many of you who write to me with your queries and concerns start by apologising for bothering me when you know I must be very busy. 

Please don’t apologise. 
I am here to try to answer your questions as best I can and I will always make time to do so because, one of the things that is becoming ever more apparent as the Staff Transfer Process starts to bite, is the lack of information. This is because LPT’s Senior Management and Board have chosen to implement the half-baked plans dreamt up by the MOJ to serve the Secretary of State’s purposes. 

Also, as I have said before, as the communications you receive from LPT start to sound ever more like propaganda on behalf of the MOJ, I would expect you to turn to your union for advice. 

The alacrity with which LPT welcomed the developments in the national negotiations just before Xmas should have sounded alarm bells. Although concessions were achieved in relation to continuity of service arrangements, and in relation to Enhanced Voluntary Redundancy Arrangements (which will primarily apply to Senior Management and Corporate Support Staff), there are still many “measures” which remain the subject of national negotiations. NAPO’s acceptance of the National Framework Agreement will be qualified and will be given only on assurances that negotiations will continue on many other things that will have a material impact on you all. 

With our Chief Executive on leave, her blog this week was turned over to Nick Smart and Sara Robinson. What is evident from both their blogs is the extent to which everyone is still working in the dark. As Nick says: 

“It remains to be seen how Friday's announcement about the extension of the notice periods for Trusts will impact on this but I will be discussing this with NOMS, and with Heather and Caroline Corby, LPT Board Chair, in the next few days”. 

I note also that Nick also refers to backfilling arrangements in his present trust which will enable him to spend more time on the CRC plans for London. The outcome of sifting and sorting process in relation to ACO’s has just been announced. Will similar backfilling arrangements be put in place to enable them to “develop” their new roles and I wonder what  will be the impact on the rest of you? 

As LPT gears itself up for transfer of both staff and cases, I have received several enquiries from members asking if they have to participate in case validation and caseload transfer exercises. My advice to you is to use our current industrial action to your best advantage. If you are asked to spend a day engaged on these additional tasks  make sure that appropriate and adequate work load relief is granted. If you are still working over capacity make sure that your manager addresses this issue before you are willing to engage in any additional tasks. You should not have to do "additional" tasks. So, if asked to do so, you should request what you should leave "undone". 

These are very stressful times for us all and in recognition of this I wrote to our Chief Executive expressing my concerns about the conduct and progress of employment matters over the next few months. I suggested that proceedings which could not, or were unlikely, to be concluded within the lifetime of LPT (which at the time I wrote was less than three months) should only be commenced in the most serious cases. In essence I was asking SMT to cut you some slack in recognition of how hard it is to keep doing “business as usual”. I have yet to receive a response but I was advised by the outgoing Head of HR that all outstanding employment relations matters will transfer over with you as part of your continuing terms and conditions. 

Senior Management cannot be unaware of how low morale is amongst its staff and how stressful this all is. But they have little to offer you apart from the opportunity to take advantage of their arrangements for individual counselling. 

The officers of this branch will continue to offer you as much help and support as we can but in return we ask  that you follow the guidance that has been issued nationally and locally:

• Work your hours

•  Register a grievance against the implementation of the Staff Transfer Process

Remember also that whatever you are being told about the “opportunities” in the CRC these are only interim arrangements. The purpose of all these plans is to sell a significant part of existing probation services to private contractors. Innovations will only continue to the extent that they lead to profits for shareholders. 

STOP PRESS: Academics from around the country gave evidence to a  Justice Select Committee meeting today looking at crime reduction. There was broad agreement among them that there is no evidence to suggest that Grayling’s TR proposals will work and no one seemed to have anything very positive to say about them. For a full report go to: http://www.facebook.com/napoukglb 

I hope to see as many of you as possible at the branch meeting this Friday. 

Pat Waterman 
Branch Chair

And then this news item concerning the delayed TR timetable:-

OFFICIAL - TR Split Put Back By Two Months

The Ministry of Justice have announced further delays to the Secretary of States plans to privatise the Probation Service. Chris Grayling had said that on 31st March the existing Probation Trusts would be abolished and on 1st April 2014 all staff would be transferred to the new National Probation Service or the new Community Rehabilitation Companies. He has made it clear since the original announcement of his plans in January last year that this timetable was non negotiable. However, today, the MOJ said that they are not able  to meet this timetable and the abolition of Trusts would be put back until the 1st June. This is further evidence that Graylings dangerous plans to privatise the Probation Service are being rushed through on an unrealistic timetable.

Ian Lawrence General Secretary of Napo said "we have said all along that these ill thought through plans are not only dangerous to the public but are even riskier given the governments unrealistic timetable. We will continue to tell the public and the MOJ that such huge changes to the criminal justice system cannot be achieved safely in such a short space of time. It is clear that it is driven by ideology and an election timetable rather than public safety and the rehabilitation of offenders."

The new delays to the plans could see the intended share sale of the Community Rehabilitation Companies being pushed back into 2015. This will raise questions as to whether Mr Graylings plans can be achieved at all prior to the general election. Any further delays may well leave potential bidders concerned about the future plans to privatise the Probation Service and whether the new CRC's will be functioning or manageable by the time the government plans to sell them.