Dear All
Monday and Tuesday next week will see thousands of Napo members taking a public stand against privatisation. Grayling and the MoJ can be beaten with unified, collective action. TR is NOT a done deal.
We are part of a broad alliance who are proud of our world class justice system but it is disintegrating in the hands of the Coalition. We came into the Probation Service to help people. For every client we’ve advocated for, worked late for, worried about, gone on an emotional journey with, challenged, comforted, listened to and helped change, we need to take action for them.
Amidst the insane bureaucracy, the long hours and the crap IT we do our jobs and what we do is profound. At staff conferences up and down the country, service users, victims and partnership agencies (to name but a few) are falling over themselves to praise us. None of them understand why Grayling wants to rip us apart and flog us off. All of them are hoping we can stop it.
We’re not alone. Campaigners against legal aid cuts, the cruel bedroom tax, the ban on books, callous disability assessments and our wealth being taken from the poor and vulnerable and given to the rich are all watching out for our solidarity next week. We will be proud to stand with our Solicitor colleagues in defending what is right.
Chris Grayling, Jeremy Wright and the international outsourcers can be beaten but our most dangerous opponent is apathy: “I can’t be bothered, it’s a done deal, striking is pointless” etc. If that’s you, click on this link to see why Napo members across all branches are taking action.
Be the change.
Tom Rendon
National Chair
Chris Grayling, Jeremy Wright and the international outsourcers can be beaten but our most dangerous opponent is apathy: “I can’t be bothered, it’s a done deal, striking is pointless” etc. If that’s you, click on this link to see why Napo members across all branches are taking action.
Be the change.
Tom Rendon
National Chair
Dear All
campaigns @ napo Thank you to all those who have returned the questionnaires and sent emails in to the campaigns@napo.org.uk mail box. This is providing us with vital evidence with which to challenge TR. We’d be grateful if you could use the questionnaire format because this makes it easier for us to collate the information. We have identified a QC to meet with next week to discuss how we can advance our intention to mount legal challenges. Please keep the evidence coming in. Vacancies Reports we are getting from branches about vacancies are nothing short of scandalous. NPS vacancies being ring-fenced to those already assigned to the NPS is discriminatory. The NPS does not exist yet and has no legal status until the 1st of June 2014. Some senior staff are working for Trusts and the NPS/CRC in what amounts to a clear conflict of interest. Vacancies are being filled without fair and open competition. Please send in as many examples as you can and we will obtain legal advice on this as early as we can next week. This dodgy behaviour is a direct result of the chaos and disarray caused by the staff and case split. NOMS has no idea what it’s doing and as the wheels come off, our case gets stronger and stronger. The Justice Select Committee We were advised, quite late on the day before this weeks session, that Chris Grayling had written to the Justice Select Committee (JSC) giving a deliberately misleading impression of the TR programme. I refuted that in the strongest terms to the JSC and, along with Ben Priestley from Unison and David Walton from GMB, we have written a joint letter setting out our concerns directly to the Ministers demanding a meeting. Please find the correspondence attached. In appearing before the JSC, Jeremy Wright was still peddling the line that the unions had agreed to TR but was magnificently challenged by members of the Committee. While we withdrew local disputes pertaining strictly to the lack of a framework agreement in order to negotiate, many branches remained in dispute over the staff split and other issues. Jeremy Wright was embarrassed in front of the Committee as he was asserting that disputes simply did not exist. John McDonnell MP questioned the Minister saying, “What do you mean they’ve agreed? They’re all taking industrial action next week!”. Let’s have a great turn out and show the government that this isn’t over yet. Not by a long way.
JUSTICE03AaGovrnmentResponseCr
IAN LAWRENCE General Secretary |
Durham Tees Valley this afternoon, managers rushing round trying to catch staff to tell them where they will be located, one selection method being names in a hat if volunteers could not be found.......yes honestly. Someone who has given loyal service to the public sector treated this way, but that doesn't matter does it because it had to be done, didn't it? After all the Senior Management Team were only obeying orders.
ReplyDeleteThis is horrendous! They can't be allowed to get away with that craziness..names out of a hat!!! Please give details to campaigns@napo.org.uk. Hope Branch are pursuing this with management and supporting eachother. Grim times and important to fight back!
DeleteThis is very much a lie!!! The process took into account personal preferences as per their EOI, personal circumstances, grade and diversity issues. I can assure you that it was an equally painful process for those who had to choose where people were moving to, however, we are under direction of the Secretary of State and can do little about this.
DeleteNevertheless, we are only human and mistakes can, and will have been made. We have a grievance policy which people can use if they feel there are any special circumstances which may warrant either a relocation or remaining in situ. It's very painful process but equally unavoidable. At the risk of sounding blunt, we must now put this behind us and get on with our job.
No one in the probation service is coming out of this unaffected and it is turning colleague against colleague as we can see from above.The only choice really is to leave and regrettably some people are doing this .We have been dividing our building into NPS and CRC floors.People are struggling with the moving, changing caseloads and now we have the added task of data cleansing.Splitting up offendrr information into the " correct"directories.The above talks about putting it all behind us but those assigned to the CRCs have even yet more to come.Sad times for our service indeed.
DeleteI could respond as aggressively as Anon did at 21.58 about Anon at 21.28, but I won't because I recognise emotions are very high, and folk are absolutely exhausted and understandably likely to comment without being completely reflective, perhaps in ways they would NOT comment to an enraged client, who one does not want to get more enraged and respond dangerously.
DeleteNow, Anon at 21.58 can only know if what Anon at 21.28 writes is inaccurate if they know Anon at 21.28's situation in detail, which seems very unlikely to me.
I presume the second Anon does not have that knowledge and am very willing to accept that where Anon at 21.58 works the assignment has been done differently to where Anon at 21.28 works.
Now, Anon at 21.58 writes - "we must now put this behind us and get on with our job" - I question that anyone MUST ever do anything - I accept that if a person does not behave in a particular way the consequences will be probably be different to how they would be if the person DID behave in THAT particular way.
In my work with clients - I would try to help them understand that they had real choices for which they were responsible and those choices have real consequences even if they would rather not face them.
From what I read many folk disagree that they MUST get on with the job of probation and are simply leaving and finding a different job.
Were I still employed in probation, I think rather than engage in the reassignment process, which seems unfair to me, I would resign beforehand and deal with those consequences - at the very least I would endeavour to revert to a basic grade probation job - as I saw happen several times in my probation career, when SPOs decided they were happy to be practitioners but not managers - it seems there are many vacancies for basic grade jobs so, someone in management who is prepared to continue but does not want to face the animosity that perhaps, it seemed Anon at 21.28 is expressing - that is one solution - - perhaps not ideal but a solution nonetheless.
I personally, would not be prepared to work for NOMs the NPS or a CRC under any circumstances in any position - I understand the stuff about family responsibilities and such like - I did once after 13 years as a probation officer resign without another job to go to, when I felt I was not being fairly managed and denied any transfer to another job within the Probation Service I then worked. It was probably irresponsible - as far as my family was concerned as I resigned before I found another job, which took longer to arrange than I had anticipated - but I did not regret that decision it got me a change away from an intolerable situation, if I had stayed it would have been even worse for me. After about 8 months away, mostly working for a Local Authority I got a job with another probation service and continued for another 14 years.
So - I suggest before we say what someone MUST or must not do, we reflect a little - also before we call someone whose circumstances we do not know a liar.
I am anon at 21:58 and involved in the office relocation process for DTV. I repeat and stand by what I said previously. Sometimes there is a 'JFDI' moment and this was ours. It's not ideal, somewhat unedifying and probably demoralising for all involved. But, there is a process for appeal through our grievance procedure. If you are unhappy then use it. Otherwise just get on with your job which you are paid to do.
DeleteJust Fucking Do It - is presumably what is meant - I beg to differ - one has a choice of NOT doing it - whatever the consequences maybe.
DeleteI am reminded of a former CPO who got his managers in a room and said JFDI - his service was in crisis before he said it - saying it - did not help - as far as I could see - the crisis continued - I actually retired whilst it was in crisis - I was burnt-out(and disabled and ill) - it seems to have gradually got better after he moved on - from where I could tell, but it faced several major case work crises resulting in another CPO resigning after JFDI had gone - broken organisations take a lot of work to get fixed especially ones that do complex work like probation which it self is part of a bigger complex system like criminal justice that RIGHT NOW (tonight) has at least one prison in crisis(it was a different one a day or so ago) and almost no spare capacity - yet this Government is planning to introduce its new legislation - that in the last week it has announced how people will be given extra prison - just for two weeks at a time - we know it is those very short periods of custody that can be the most destructive - in terms of losing access to the means to pay rent and so on, and then needing to start again and wait weeks to get back in the routine of receiving regular benefit payments - it is daft and worse - dangerous!
As individuals we have choices, we do not have to take or continue in employment that we believe is impossible to do safely.
Anon 21:58 and 23:47 - the callousness in your posts here is appalling and enough for me to believe every word of anon 19:32.
DeleteTo characterise what is happening as 'not ideal' and 'unedifying' is an ugly and offensive minimisation of the turmoil this is causing people. There's no 'probably' about it, there are few things more demoralising than some officious type telling you you should be a good little automaton and JFDI. The processes you defend are corrupt, unfair, deceitful and poisonous and no poxy, tokenistic grievance or appeals process is going to make up for it. As for your JFDI, you know what you and the rest of Graylings minions can shove it.
Amen to the above. I was going to write a similar post but you beat me to it! I can honestly say how genuinely shocked I am to see how callous at 23:47 can be. It is evident that this poster has little awareness on the impact of TR on most, particularly front line, probation staff and there only concern appears to be about the extra work they have had to do in regards to the staff split which is apparently 'unedifying'. As for getting on with my job as I'm paid,as a CRC PO I'd love to know what this as despite me asking for a job description on more than one occasion I'm still none the wiser! But hey, at least I know what I can't do!
DeleteAnon@23.47. Hang your head in shame. 'Get on with your job which you are paid to do'. I wish I could. I've been stripped of my job. This is not demoralising or unedifying, it's destruction. You should be thoroughly ashamed of being part of this process.
DeleteYou can see how staff there are treated by the above posts can't you? Written in anger by someone clearly in management to respond to someone clearly in distress, the shutters are up and no-one is listening are they?
DeleteUnbelievable. If it wasn't for the work itself I would have been doing something else years ago. Unfortunately a number of times I have observed managers who equate bullying with 'leadership'. Well we know that bullies are essentially cowards and here we are with the consequences. Just get on and do the job you are paid to do? Appalling.
DeleteWell done Napo - I was giving up hope, resigned to being stuck in a job I no longer wanted to do and desperate to leave but Napo's recent communication and the utter chaos in my office has made me realise that we need to keep fighting. I will be on strike next week and I will not be papering over the cracks to make it look like this ridiculous shambles is working.
ReplyDeleteLink to justice committee minutes
ReplyDeletehttp://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmjust/uc94-ix/uc9401.htm
There are pickings throughout Jezza Wright's evidence, not least being the 'Jane Austen' quip, but towards the end Jezza's cage is well & truly rattled about timescales. He ends up protesting that he can't comment on a NAPO letter he feels he's been ambushed with, when the Committee make it clear its the Secretary of State's letter they are quoting from - possibly a letter Jezza wrote, or certainly had a hand in. This feels like a robust calling to account as opposed to whips bring out the bodies.
DeleteAs the dreaded day approaches, the flaws in the model become more and more obvious. The chaos being created by this debacle is a national disgrace and those at the MOM who are reading this need to answer this question. To proceed without evidence that this will work is reckless but how do you justify continuing with this process in light of extensive reports that provide evidence that it won't? The split is artificial and adds NOTHING to the ability of those involved to do the job required. In fact, it is making it harder, less sophisticated and increasingly farcical. The offenders are going to run rings around this circus and EVERYONE knows it.
ReplyDeleteCrates arrived in our office today. Seven out of eleven of us are packing up and leaving. They may as well have given us body bags. It's a total train crash.
ReplyDeleteim only crc in our building and so all NPS are moving out which is v upsetting as they're such a lovely bunch of colleagues - will have a new set of colleagues on 25th May. To top it off have been told I have to move from my desk to make way for new people coming and i'm being shifted to a dingiest room in the building. I am going to try and see if Occupational Health can support me in staying in my desk. I was actually told that I was going into that room as the CA there has loads of stuff and it'd be a pain for her to move!!! It's all causing animosity.
ReplyDeleteI'm giving you a tune it's how I feel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AkJHmLTiX78
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tyne-26795465
ReplyDeleteThis insecurity is happening in lots of jails, including those public sector prison service jails that have been benchmarked. A few hot days in the summer and all could go up.
DeleteI work in Northumbria and visit there on a regular basis. Since it was privatised it has been expressed by MANY staff in our trust that, to put it bluntly, it's a sh*t prison whee you do not feel safe at ANY time. People will be either maimed or killed in this prison; it makes Jokewood look like a Mormons club.
DeleteStill as long as Sodexo get their money, who cares if a few 'scummy criminals' get killed. Blood on their hands and not Chris Graylings!
Sodexo very quickly decided HMP Northumberland should be a 'free flow' prison. The internal gates are no longer locked and visitors are not given an escort to the wings/ OMU unless they insist. One of my colleagues was there recently and arranged with a seconded PO to meet and escort her. As they were crossing the grounds, he grabbed her hand and shouted 'run!' which she did. I don't condone any violent behaviour but I'm gald the inmates are making a stand. This prison is unsafe.
Deleteand in Northumberland Prison staff holding 140 cases including parolees to Offender Supervise, being told by management to deliver targets despite this. When are the legal reps of these prisoners going to realise? Or are the prisoners so satisfied with their easy regime....either way staff do not feel safe working or visiting given the reduction is staff there. Sodexo has cut staffing to the bone and so far is delivering savings and making profit...so far....
DeleteI hear all the words about fighting and how the strike is going to change things, but I don't believe it. I hear the union people and to be honest I don't think they believe it. This will happen on the first of June, I hope it doesn't but it will. Lots of people blaming managers for carry out their roles, fine go for it, it doesn't change anything, and of it helps you vent to blame someone you know I suppose you may feel better. But the average SPO isn't the issue or the instigator, and leave out the cracks about following orders, it's tiresome, really!...this is a train crash and believe it or not we are all on the same train....
ReplyDeleteI am not blaming anybody except The Government - not just Grayling, but every parliamentarian at Westminster - House of Commons and House of Lords who has not actively tried to stop TR happening.
ReplyDeleteBlame is however counterproductive - probation employees are indeed - on the "train" that is crashing - but some are trying to get themselves into better seats on the "train" - hoping they will be safe and some are even helping drive the train - colluding - (I say) - they have a choice - but blaming anyone is a waste of energy, reminding folk they have choices, maybe useful, if you know a train your on is crashing, you can at least strive to get off, if you feel it is running dangerously, unless you are physically prevented - no one is prevented from getting off, in my opinion, although it may not be possible to get off without experiencing at least some damage - but - by getting off now, reputations may be saved.
Andrew, I read your contributions with great interest and find them engaging and informative. You have the ability to take ownership of your comments from a position "on the platform", the ability to see the train crashing from the safety of a distance provides a confidence.
DeleteThere are many and I mean many people who are on the train but are perhaps not "colluding" but have less choice than they might hope for. They might not be able to get off , after all it is a strong position to be able to step away from a job you love - and get another job where?
Whether in first class , standard class , the conductor or catering EVERYONE is on the train, Driver Grayling is pushing the pedal harder and the train is going faster and it is true - everybody on that train will suffer as we approach the buffers......We have tried pulling the chord , complaining to the conductor and even burying ourselves in the catering car for solace but there is no stopping the train.
There has even been obstructions put on the line from friends who see the danger.....but again the train will not stop. Taking the analogy to a conclusion , you have to take out the driver .......who will/can do that?
I believe there is corruption at all levels in the TR programme and I seek out the proof every day ....whether it is the finances of at least £9m spent on consultants, the cost of the programme (£100m), the falsification of evaluation results , unwillingness to provide FOI, the willingness to have unqualified companies providing volume to the competition not quality , delivering hair brained systems that will fail the public,all from a Minister who , himself has form for fraud in the expenses row. I would love to be the person who finds the piece of information that takes the smirk off his face.
There are passengers in first class who might be able to get such information, and unfortunately that is the only way I see this train slowing.
Well said - I am truly fortunate.
DeleteI'm just a 'hard working' member of the public that owns a small flooring and carpet shop.
ReplyDeleteI also pay attention to the world around me.
I think it's time that the PM stepped in and asked just what the hell is going on at the MoJ?
Grayling is living out his own neolibral fantasies, Wright is kissing his masters arse, and as a member of the public this dangerous, untested transfer from public to private is NOT WHAT I WANT. So please don't keep saying your doing it in my name.
I see HMP Northumberland (run by Sodexo) has succumbed to cuts in staff by the private sector. Major riot as we speak. (Public) Police on stand by, and the Tornado teams preparing to go in are no doubt from the public prison estate. It's all over Mr Grayling. Please turn the lights off as you leave.
ReplyDeleteNah, he's going nowhere. Thatchers child through and through.
ReplyDeleteOne a milk snatcher, the other a book snatcher.
Prison riots, fraud, book banning, courts crumbling, Probation's continual warnings of shambles and increased risk to the public ... I believe there is someone reading this incredible blog in the public eye who has doubts and who is wrestling with their conscience right now . .. STAND UP and SAY now what you know to be true - this is causing public cost and damage to professionals beyond belief.. DO IT NOW yes you will lose friends and your seat at the banquet but with friends like that who needs enemies. .. You will be applauded and remembered for doing absolutely the right thing at the right time. Splitting cases? Cleasing data? Dragging desks and chairs from one floor to another... this is INSANE.
DeleteWe need to resist 'calling out' others; once ridiculed their reaction is defence then attack. (We mostly avoid doing that with probation clients, some who have caused very great social harm)
DeleteTo an extent, I have done that by accusing ALL who have accepted or continue in any management position in NOMS a prospective CRC or the NPS (which is already in (re)existence as colluding with the destruction of unified singular probation services. However, I make my accusations whilst acknowledging my own collusion in probation service practices since the CJA 1991 which changed the traditional basis of the probation system.
I and at least one other person, with whom I spoke in the aftermath of Napo ending its campaign against the CJA 1991, recognised that it probably would eventually impact destructively on the practice of probation. Nonetheless I did not campaign against it anymore and made the best of it in my own practice. I am ashamed.
However, many, perhaps most who are now colluding in establishing divided probation agencies, are doing it, trying and hoping they can hang on to their personal principles. They may hope to be part of a system that strives to simultaneously balance the best interests of each individual client and the wider society - that is the true task of 'probation' on a national or even universal scale. There comes a point when the system of operation, makes that impossible and in fact is worse for that balance than what has gone before. I believe it got worse from 1992 and it will get much worse after the implementation of the TR split but that can just about still be stopped. Privatisation is another matter, if private operators could put best practice above the drive for profit, it might work for the good but seeing as the companies are operating in a monopoly it does seem almost impossible.
Consider the created markets of utility services, particularly electricity, we have not had (yet) a scandal as bad as Enron – which is worth studying - but neither have we created a market that 'customers' can understand and all receive a fair deal from, even though there may be some cost advantages from competition compared with the former state run system.
In the past, I have suggested ALL in NOMS are colluding in the establishment of a worse probation system. Actually, that may not be completely true, as some in NOMS went into it to aid the management of what we had after the establishment of the first NPS, which could have been ethical. There are also all the support workers who do not actually implement policy, they are merely folk striving to earn a living. To earn a living was my primary aim when I applied to train as a probation officer in 1972, in more socially worthwhile ways than I had hitherto done as a bank clerk.
What we need now, is clear speaking - about identifying and not doing work that colludes – but mostly to strive for unity. It is because were I a practitioner in the NPS or a CRC, let alone a manager, I personally would feel I was colluding, I simply would hope to be able to avoid doing it, though I recognise some others may genuinely feel they can do that and retain their own integrity.
I now have the luxury of being retired; nonetheless some of my pensionable income derives being paid for work I did whist I colluded in the deterioration of probation after 1992!
Reaching unity right now is very hard, so perhaps at least we ought to strive to avoid disunity.
I cannot now recall or quickly find - the statement of the search for Unity that for a number of years (before 2008) was on the front page of every issue of the weekly Quaker magazine - "The Friend". It is that - striving - for unity, almost above all else that applaud - all be it - from a seat on the station platform not actually on the crashing train. However, I too have experiences - as I have written of before - of resigning jobs - once a probation job (in 1988) - without another job in place, when at that time, I was in debt and had a growing family dependent on my income.