Omnishambles Update 46

I notice from Facebook that Pat Waterman, Chair of Napo Greater London Branch, has been busy writing to her membership on a number of topics including potential bidders and that thorny old chestnut that refuses to go away, the Probation Institute:-

Let’s Look at the Bidders

We have been taking a great deal of interest in the bidders for London. Some of you may even have started to see them around your offices as part of the corporate client courting process, taking stock of our work, seeing a snapshot of what we do, and no doubt also forming ideas as to how they might go about making their bid more attractive than their competitors. In order to make a profit whatever bidder is selected will no doubt set about trying to make substantial savings somewhere as soon as they can. 

Let’s look at one of the MoJ preferred bidders for London - Capita

They seem to have their fingers in a lot of pies from mismanaging the Disclosure and Barring Service (leading to children being placed at risk as teachers were not having proper checks) to more than a few communication difficulties supplying interpreting services to the courts (resulting in delays in trials and lots of wasted money). So it seems that wherever they go and whatever they are involved in trouble doesn’t seem to be very far behind.

Of course those of you who may have had one or two problems with eOASys might have your own personal issues with Capita, as they are the company responsible for this particular software and they have a contract with the MoJ for £2,759,000.00 to make it work. So when you have a problem with eOASys you now have a name to associate with your pain and remember they have had a large amount of taxpayers money already and aim to turn as much of the money they get into profit rather than providing quality services and improving pay and conditions for their workers.

Do you think their record so far stands them in good stead? 

You be the judge.

Shadow Phase

LPT, in what we are referring to as the ‘shadow phase’, seem to be busying itself with a succession of, leadership conferences, end of Trust parties, and goodbyes to various senior members of staff. Napo Greater London Branch officers prefer to spend their time and energy supporting our members as best we can during what we fully understand to be a difficult and stressful period.

We read with interest feedback from the LPT Leadership Conference that took place in March. As part of a workshop participants had to think of 3 words to define the CRC. Words such as credible, creative, efficient, innovative were apparently the most commonly used words. Perhaps staff at the front-line assigned to the CRC would like to think up their own 3 words to define the CRC.

We will be conducting a series of office visits over the next couple of months and consequently we won’t have time to attend the Probation Institute Professional Conferences scheduled for London on 13/06 and York on 20/06. We understand that these events will form part of the process of courting corporate clients that are needed to finance the Institute.

Pat Waterman

That LPT 'Leadership Conference' sounds to have been quite a surreal experience, judging by the glossy 15 page electronic brochure that has resulted. But be warned, I'm told reading it can induce nausea and vomiting in those of a nervous disposition or any with long memories. Here's some snippets:-

"In the following pages you’ll read about the London Probation Trust (LPT) Leadership Conference that was held on 13 March 2014. The conference brought together line managers from across the organisation to talk about the transition from LPT to the new National Probation Service (NPS) and Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC). 

The theme of the event was ‘Moving Forward. Always Learning. Stronger Together.’ A series of presentations on these themes allowed us to focus on how the NPS and CRC can:

• Build on LPT’s achievements as we move towards the new structures
• Continue a culture of learning, quality and excellence 
• Work together to ensure a continued focus on the best outcomes for service users.

In the afternoon, attendees got actively involved in shaping the future of the new organisations they are moving into by participating in workshops hosted by the heads of the NPS (Sara Robinson, Deputy Director) and CRC (Nick Smart, Chief Executive and Iain Anderson, Head of Operations). During these sessions they shared their thoughts and ideas about how we can continue to deliver a first-class service in the new structures. 

As we approach 1 June when you will all start working in your new organisations, I thought it as important to share the key messages from the conference with you. Sara, Nick and Iain will be building on the workshop outputs as they develop strategies and objectives for the NPS and CRC in the coming weeks, and you will hear more in due course. In the meantime, I hope you will take time to read this ezine and get more of a sense of how we can embrace this time of change for London Probation Trust by building on our great legacy."

Heather Munro, CEO

WHAT TO TAKE:

Collaboration with CRC colleagues
Multi-agency working
Service user engagement
Staff engagement
LPT values: respect, diversity, integrity
Innovation
Probation as a profession: training and development
Best practice approaches to offender management

WHAT TO LEAVE BEHIND:

Negativity about the change
Organisational modesty
Duplication of work
Bureaucratic systems
Information overload

THE FOLLOWING ARE THE MOST COMMONLY USED WORDS ACROSS THE GROUPS:

Excellence
Quality
Aspirational
Innovative
Creative
Outcome focused
Efficient
Professional
Credible.

The rationale behind creating a Memory Wall at the conference was to produce a powerful display of pictures and words to capture our rich history. Conference participants added both their own content and items provided by their teams. The result was a series of photographs and news items about LPT that each told their own story. 

 

Of note was a picture of Heather and Sonia as Cagney and Lacey created in Photoshop. During her presentation, Sonia had compared her relationship with Heather to that of the 80s cop heroines: a strong partnership and “just part of the LPT team leaving a legacy of relationships which help reduce reoffending in the capital”.

It's quite clear from heart-rending comments posted on here over recent days that many colleagues are finding it near-impossible to cope with the numerous demands being placed upon them at the present time. As a result, I've been prompted to highlight the contents of WPEC the Workload Priority and Employee Care Agreement which contains at its core the following 6 criterions:-

CRITERION 1

It is management’s responsibility to match resources to demands and ensure that staff do not carry excessive workloads and

Some existing tasks carried out by Probation staff may well have to be “set aside”

CRITERION 2

A mechanism for monitoring the workload of individual members of staff as well as the demands placed upon them.

CRITERION 3

A mechanism to ensure that where the assessed workload of a member of staff exceeds an acceptable level, his or her manager will set aside specific tasks to reduce the workload to an acceptable level

CRITERION 4

A mechanism whereby individual members of staff can approach their managers should their workload become excessive, and a guarantee that their concerns will be addressed appropriately and acted upon accordingly.

CRITERION 5

A list of tasks that can be set aside in circumstances where an individual’s workload is identified as being excessive

CRITERION 6

Confirmation that if new tasks are to be assigned to individual members of staff, clear designation and amount of time to be allocated to those tasks and clarity as to the demands that will be relinquished to accommodate those new tasks will be provided in advance of their implementation

I'll end this roundup of bits and pieces with the latest from Napo emailed out yesterday to all members:-

Dear All
 
Combatting Disingenuous Government PR
Please find a letter attached which was presented for the minutes at the Transforming Rehabilitation Consultative Forum. The letter,  as well as the forceful verbal representations from Napo yesterday, makes it absolutely clear that we are appalled by the delusional Ministry of Justice propaganda that everything in TR is fine, and the evidence that you are sending in strengthens our case.  As we have said in previous messages, the faster the government proceeds with TR the more mistakes arise and the more concrete evidence we have to challenge it.  Over this week we are providing witness statements to our lawyers and we are referring all relevant information you have sent in to us via the campaigns@napo.org.uk mail box.

We know that Chris Grayling has a summer schedule of public relations events to promote TR.  He has been saying that the tests that the Trusts are undertaking are all going swimmingly.  Of course he would.  It needs to be confronted with hard evidence.  Please feel free to use this letter to challenge your local senior managers or any bidders or politicians that might visit your offices. They need to know the real story
 
Action Short of Strike Action
Working to rule, albeit difficult in a field like ours, is evidencing that the system is collapsing under the strain.  We know that Trusts are desperately trying to paper over the cracks.  The backlogs in OASys assessments and PSRs, programme waiting lists, numbers of vacancies, increased use of temporary staff, the grievances, disputes, stress risk assessments, high levels of sickness, accident and incident forms etc. all evidence of the very real stress that members are under.  This is gruelling and we really appreciate all the efforts that members are making.

Action Short of Strike Action is legally protected under law.  We have a legal trade dispute and mandate not to work over our hours or do overtime.  If we simply absorb the work, at a massive cost to our own health and wellbeing, NOMS and the bidders will think they can just run our service on a skeleton staff.  We have to make absolutely clear that they can’t.
 
IL 46-2014 Amy Rees - next TRCF meeting 10 April - statement Napo 
 
Best Wishes
 
TOM RENDON                  IAN LAWRENCE   
National Chair                 General Secretary

The letter:-

Next TRCF meeting - 10^th April 2014

Given the time limitations and the agenda items to be discussed I would appreciate the following statement from Napo being recorded into the minutes for tomorrow please.

‘Ever since the announcement of the Secretary of States so called Transforming Rehabilitation agenda, Napo and the probation unions have warned that this change programme is operationally flawed and represents a real risk to community safety.

Since recently launching a specific conduit for our members to notify of us of their concerns following the imposed staff assignment process, Napo has been inundated with hundreds of examples which indicate that our predictions have unfortunately been vindicated.

Napo will now be seeking to publicise a range of public interest issues concerning:

The cost of consultants and the hidden costs of the overall TR programme

The risk of harm to staff and members of the public which is directly attributable to an unfair and un-agreed staff assignment process

A failure by Ministers and their Officials to adhere to the Public Equality duty

Potential discrimination cases for failing to make sufficient provision in the areas of disability, maternity and provision for part time workers.

Potential breaches of employment law in terms of fair and open competition for vacancies, the arbitrary ‘ring fencing’ of posts and potential conflicts of interest involving senior managers undertaking a dual role within two organisations

The emotional breakdown and high sickness rates being suffered by many staff who have been left in total chaos by the inept and unnecessary rush to split the probation service into two separate strands in advance of the intended ‘go live’ date.

Staff being induced to ‘sell’ their annual leave to mask serious operational deficiencies

Inappropriate allocation of cases in breach of the original EOI guidance issued by the Trust

Withdrawal of SDR facilities to Magistrates Courts and reductions in Court Reports due to increased case handling times and staff shortages

Non allocation of cases due to ICT difficulties (NDelius)

Estates relocations causing difficult journeys for clients which will probably result in appointments not being kept

You may already be aware that Napo has registered its concern at the proposals within the Target Operating Model in relation to Probation Staff in Prisons.

The above list is by no means exhaustive, but Napo wishes to formally record its serious concern at the grave operational situation. Even at this late stage we call on Ministers to halt the programme or at the very least extend the lead in time to the creation of the NPS and CRC environment.’

Yours sincerely,