Monday 3 November 2014

The 70% Inspector

Would any PO get paid 100% salary for a 70% role? I think not.

A reader has kindly supplied a copy of their letter to Sir Alan Beith MP, Chair of the Justice Affairs Committee:-

Sir,

I am writing to you in your capacity as Chairman of the Justice Select Committee to highlight what could be a conflict of interest with regards to Paul McDowell. You will notice that I have also copied in Sadiq Khan who I feel has a vested interest in the matter. At this stage I must declare that I am a currently employed as a Probation Officer.

Mr McDowell is the incumbent HM Chief Inspector of Probation and he is married to Janine McDowell who currently works for Sodexo Justice services. Until recently, Mr McDowell was the former Chief Executive of Nacro. In partnership, both Sodexo and Nacro have won six of the twenty one contracts to manage the newly formed Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRC's).

Mr McDowell went on record stating that he has declared his previous roles and any conflict of interest to Chris Grayling MP when he applied for the role. My concern is that Mr Grayling has not acted in the best interests of the electorate and is at times acting surreptitiously; this not being an act I would correlate with his current position. I qualify this statement by highlighting his recent actions to the National Association of Probation Officers (NAPO) who, when seeking to bring a judicial review against his actions in forming the CRC's, were asked by Mr Grayling for additional time to prepare evidence requested by NAPO, and whilst doing so appeared to use this time to announce the prepared bidders for the CRC's. To date, I still have no confirmation that he provided the requested information that he asked for time to collate the evidence they requested. Mr Grayling has also stated (in Hansard) that Probation Officers were not allocated to either the National Probation Service or the CRC by their names being picked out of a hat. We now know this to be untrue.

Whilst Mr McDowell's actions may be benign, I would draw your attention to a statement made by Simon Hughes on Today Programme on Thursday 30th October. Mr Hughes stated that the independent inspector (Paul McDowell) had not warned of any risks [with regards to the break up of the Probation Service]. This is somewhat pertinent given that Mr McDowell's report is not due to be publish until December 2014; one would be right to ask if the report has already been written, and by whom given the assertions made by Mr Hughes

Given the links between Mr and Mrs McDowell, the fact that the Justice Secretary was aware but did not inform yourself or indeed your committee and the claims made by Mr Hughes that there are no problems at present, despite the lack of any official report and growing evidence to the contrary, I would ask that, if possible and as a matter of urgency, you and your committee look into this matter further to ensure that no extralegal acts have taken place, and the public, who will be the ones affected by this matter, can be assured that all parties have acted in their interests and without prejudice. I fear that those who did not win any bids may also lodge legal challenges due to possible impropriety, this potentially impacting on the public purse

Furthermore, should you have the time, I would request that you view this blog, ran and contributed to by serving Probation Officers. They remain anonymous to prevent any repercussions due to the notification that Probation Officers are prevented from doing or saying anything which would undermine the position of the Secretary of State.

http://probationmatters.blogspot.co.uk/

Yours,


The matter of the '70% Inspector' is gaining considerable attention, such as the following blog that's been brought to my notice:-

At the point at which Mr McDowell was being considered for his new job by the JSC and Mr Grayling, one of the issues that may have been shared with Mr Grayling but was certainly not known by the JSC was the existence of Mrs McDowell and her work. Janine McDowell works for a private sector company, used to winning Government contracts called Sodexo, she is the deputy Managing Director of Sodexo Justice Services and that company partnered with NACRO in its bids and so for as long as Mrs McDowell remains in her post, we cannot reasonably ask Mr McDowell to inspect these 6 CRCs. That much is clear, because he has explained how he excluded himself from negotiations between Sodexo and NACRO because he knew there was a conflict of interest.

However Mr McDowells judgement may be affected on other matters. On Thursday Simon Hughes MP, Minister of State for Justice and Civil Liberties was interviewed on the Radio 4 Today programme. He was challenged that the transition of Probation handing over 70% of its work to 21 CRCs was in chaos. I recall Hughes defending the situation and pointing out “The independent inspector of probation has alerted us to no concerns that the system isn’t moving across.” The integrity of Mr McDowell is something none of us can judge, however I am Trustee of a charity that is a minnow compared to NACRO and we were not formally part of any bids, although listed as a delivery partner on some of those in one region that unfortunately did not succeed. I have friends who work for another Charity who are perhaps more like NACRO in scope and part of several CRCs across the country. My knowledge of this process is superficial, but I am interested in how it has been progressing. If I was put on the spot like Hughes was last week, I hope I would have been honest enough to admit with integrity that indeed there are many challenges in what has been a poorly thought through, and at times appallingly executed process. However caring for ex-offenders is too important to be allowed to fail. Mr Hughes did not say that and with the benefit of hindsight knowing that he IOP was unlikely to throw 71% of the bathwater out with 29% of the baby makes his comments at best needing to be tested a bit further.


We learn via twitter this afternoon:-
Jenny Chapman MP is submitting urgent notice question TODAY for Minister of Justice to come to Chamber of House of Commons and answer. Depends on Speaker allowing it - so I think it will be touch and go - justifying it as an emergency!
Unfortunately Urgent Question request was declined on this occasion
My feeling is that this matter is not going away...... 

Postscript

It hasn't. Alan Travis in the Guardian tonight:-
Labour demands inquiry into chief probation inspector
Labour has demanded an immediate inquiry into allegations of a conflict of interest involving the chief inspector of probation.The Guardian reported on Saturday that Paul McDowell faced questions after Sodexo Justice Services, where his wife is deputy managing director, was named as preferred bidder for six out of 21 regional contracts to take over parts of the probation service in England and Wales next year. 
The shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan, has written to the Commons justice select committee asking them to summon McDowell and the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, to question them about McDowell’s suitability for the watchdog role.Khan said the Guardian’s disclosure was “of such importance that you [should] consider an immediate inquiry into any conflicts of interest, and the process that led to the appointment of the chief inspector of probation.” 
Khan said he was alarmed at reports that the justice ministry failed to mention the link to Sodexo before the committee endorsed McDowell after a scrutiny hearing last autumn.“It is possible that had the justice select committee been made aware of the full facts, the pre-appointment scrutiny might have reached a different conclusion. I therefore feel strongly that the secretary of state should also be summoned to appear before your committee to fully explain the process,” he wrote to the committee chairman, Sir Alan Beith.

51 comments:

  1. Well done PO - a very good letter which I am certain will be endorsed by all operational probation staff. It is no surprise that Jenny Chapman MP had her urgent question declined but I am sure Jenny Chapman MP will not allow this matter to be continually ignored. I doubt that the Justice Affairs Commitee will allow this to be ignored either. I endorse fully the letter submitted above.

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  2. Sometimes things happen as a result of the law of unintended consequences and sometimes there is "being economical with the actualitie" and sometimes there is misconduct in public office....

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  3. http://www.alliance4usefulevidence.org/a-professional-probation-workforce-the-role-for-the-probation-institute/

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  4. It is quite bizarre: the 70% Inspector. I thought the whole idea with inspectorates was independence. If you have only 70% of independence, you don't have independence, you have someone who is 30% compromised. And this is how public institutions become diminished and public trust lost - just to satisfy and enrich personal egos.

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  5. Please read this-it'll cheer you up for sure.
    Your right Jim, its going to go away.

    http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/03/labour-inquiry-chief-inspector-probation

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    1. I ment 'NOT' going to go away- sorry!

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    2. Apart from the issue of a conflict of interest, isn't it appropriate to ask the question, that because of the huge potential of financial gain that Sodexo stood to gain from winning a TR bid, that concerns and problems that the TR process was/is causing within the probation service have not been brought to wider attention by the inspectorate?

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    3. The PM should be asked to explain why his SOS for justice neglected to disclose this potential conflict to the committee in the first place.

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    4. Labour demands inquiry into chief probation inspector
      Labour has demanded an immediate inquiry into allegations of a conflict of interest involving the chief inspector of probation.The Guardian reported on Saturday that Paul McDowell faced questions after Sodexo Justice Services, where his wife is deputy managing director, was named as preferred bidder for six out of 21 regional contracts to take over parts of the probation service in England and Wales next year.
      The shadow justice secretary, Sadiq Khan, has written to the Commons justice select committee asking them to summon McDowell and the justice secretary, Chris Grayling, to question them about McDowell’s suitability for the watchdog role.Khan said the Guardian’s disclosure was “of such importance that you [should] consider an immediate inquiry into any conflicts of interest, and the process that led to the appointment of the chief inspector of probation.”
      Khan said he was alarmed at reports that the justice ministry failed to mention the link to Sodexo before the committee endorsed McDowell after a scrutiny hearing last autumn.“It is possible that had the justice select committee been made aware of the full facts, the pre-appointment scrutiny might have reached a different conclusion. I therefore feel strongly that the secretary of state should also be summoned to appear before your committee to fully explain the process,” he wrote to the committee chairman, Sir Alan Beith.

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  6. Here in Derby CRC there will be introductory meeting on the 17th Nov between Bidders and management then a mobilisation and Transition and Operating Model presentation on the 1st Dec where the preferred bidder will provide an overview of the proposed operating model and transition plans.

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  7. Place your bets: -

    What odds do you want that Paul McDowell will not be Chief Inspector of Probation when he speaks at this Probation Institute publicity even on the 10th December? - I presume the fact that they also give the date as 10th November just reveals they are as bad at proof reading as me!

    http://www.alliance4usefulevidence.org/event/centre-of-excellence-conference/

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    1. Andrew, now we have traction with this, what we need to do is to highlight the issue to as many people as possible. It's no good parking our tanks on their lawn if we're not prepared to load the turrets. Can I ask you (and as many others who can/will take the time) to retweet this specific part of Jim's blog to as many influencial people as possible? The more that are aware of this the less likely it is to go away!

      Apologies for landing this on you but I feel it's time to now land the coupe de grace for Grayling and hopefully (as this will be very pertinent to the JR) the whole TR ohmishambles!

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    2. Me again. Can you use #probation so it's picked up by those who follow this trend?

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    3. I rarely choose to direct a Tweet at a particular person - unless I am engaged in a definite communication such as responding to a message that has been sent by them.

      Anyway - I do not want to publicise this event I hope they have an empty hall!

      I was just struck by the fact that I doubt McDowell will still be in office then unless Sodexo & NACRO alternatively withdraw their bid.

      Though I hope by December that the whole TR sheebang has been shunted off past the General Election.

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    4. My apologies Andrew for not making myself clear. What I meant was for you and others to tweet both the letter to Alan Beith and this blog rather than the upcoming PI Jolly Boys Outing. I hope you and others can do this.

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  8. Off topic but does anyone know anything about these plans for basic custody screening and new/amended oays and ndelius for CRCs and Through The Gate work that has been a entioned on Twitter today?

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    1. do you have a link?

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    2. there is no link as such it is just a colleague announcing that their CRC has announced that an updated version of Oasys & Delius is being launched shortly to accommodate custody screening for those U12mth who will be released and subject to a period of statutory supervision

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    3. Some very different Start Custody Oasys are already showing up

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    4. So we have NPS staff in Prison doing CRC Oasys?

      This just gets stranger and stranger!

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    5. No, the screening for the 12 month and under will be done by existing/newly recruited staff of the companies that are taking over in the CRC's. There are already recruitment drives for this, if you look at the web pages of some of the smaller companies involved.

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    6. And will the screening be for all less than 12mth regardless of risk? ie cases that might go to NPS? If so this will further complicate communication across the split what with different Oays and Ndelius being mentioned here!

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    7. I think there's going to be a terrible shock in store when the RSR tool diverts most of the under 12 month custodials to NPS. In my experience it takes an awful lot of bad behaviour to get yourself sent to prison for a short sentence.

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    8. From my days as a recent OS at a local prison, we were undertaking Basic Custody Screening OASys on every u12m case - that was two years ago and am sure they are still doing it. The questions are few and are brief. It's not well designed but does OK for screening short sentences. The Sentence plan is just a few lines to enable people to refer to different services. Quite neat in that respect. I can imagine there may be some future in expanding its use. Anything is better than a full OASys.

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    9. Unless you're a PO on the receiving end of that OASys. You have to do a full assessment when all the previous information has been wiped out by a happy OS. I spend far too much time copying and pasting my old assessments into Word before I can repaste them into the assessment. It is totally mad.

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  9. A CRC Sickness plan; -

    http://www.napo2.org.uk/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=854

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  10. being honest Andrew, and I hate to admit it, there's nothing threatening or untoward about it from my point of view? What in particular do you object to about it?

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    1. In my opinion it amounts to an addmission that things aren't going as smoothly as the MoJ are trying to make the public believe.
      It should also be taken as evidence of the unacceptable pressures and workloads that staff are being asked to cope with.

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    2. I merely post what I was asked to post - I'll leaving serving probation practitioners to make whatever observations they think appropriate or not as they choose.

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    3. It's a shame to give Sodexo all the negative press.... lets look at Interserve. Debbie Ryan is the Director of Interserve. In 2007 she joined Working Links before rising to become the Director of their Justice Division responsible for all justice preparations and the realisation of the vision to support the governments justice reform agenda. 2012-1013 She became Director of G4S Rehabilitation and Resettlement. When G4S were barred from bidding it is said that Interserve swallowed up the G4S justice Team . While at Working Links Debbie was the boss of Max Chambers who joined from being a senior research fellow in the Policy Exchange who drove the policy to privatise probation. He returned to the Policy exchange in 2012 as the research director again pushing the privatisation agenda and is now as of May 2014, a Special Advisor to the Prime Minister. It's all very cosy n Transforming Rehabilitation World.

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    4. I think you're quite right. Focusing on HMIP and Sedoxo only means the other companies have time to sweep things under their carpets.

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    5. Interserve have got the keys to all the buildings in Northumbria....

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    6. Why? They may be prefered bidders, but they have no contract, and may still not get one.

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    7. They have the contract for building management. They do the cleaning and alarm services. We are actually a Sodexo preferred bidder area in Northumbria. Interserve meanwhile can come in whenever they want to and wander around at will when no one is there.

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    8. Hmmm, I think Interserve has the same deal for all Probation Approved Premises certainly they have in my area....so they appear to have a lot of NPS work too. I also think they do some of the NPS buildings....

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    9. 23 days average for sickness is evidence of the chaos. I recall the tolerable average being set at 9 days.

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  11. It must have been such a lovely surprise for the McDowells to find out how successful their organisations had been. After all, they never talk about work at home...

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  12. But remember, if contracts aren't going well in the future they can all sell their contracts to G4S and Serco.

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  13. http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/nov/03/dwp-benefits-electrician-work-placement-labour

    Graylings legacy in the DWP

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    1. A man who was let go at the end of a temporary job has been ordered by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) to work for the same firm for six months without pay.

      Electronics specialist John McArthur, now unemployed, says he is living off 16p tins of spaghetti and without heating after being sanctioned by a jobcentre for refusing to work unpaid for LAMH Recycle in Motherwell, a Scottish social enterprise.

      He says he was happy to work for LAMH under the now-defunct future jobs fund for the minimum wage in 2010-2011, but refuses on principle to do the same job unpaid.

      McArthur, 59, says he is surviving on a monthly pension of £149 after the DWP stopped his unemployment benefit until January as punishment for his refusal to go on the 26-week community work placement (CWP).

      For almost three months, McArthur has spent two hours each weekday morning parading outside the plant wearing a placard reading: “Say no to slave labour”.

      “It was simply a case of: ‘Go here, work for nothing and if you don’t we’ll stop your subsistence level benefit,’” he said.

      McArthur, who says he has been applying for 50 jobs a week without joy, said the CWP programme was “entirely exploitative” and came at the “expense of poor people who’ve got absolutely no choice”. He added: “They [the government] deny it’s forced labour, that you can say no, but forced doesn’t always mean physical, it can be psychological or economic.

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  14. Seems they are all in bed with each other, both literally and figuratively!!

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  15. Grayling loses another Judicsl Review.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11206513/Judge-attacks-Chris-Grayling-for-failing-to-provide-prisoners-with-healthy-sex-courses.html

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    1. A High Court judge has criticised Chris Grayling, the Justice Secretary, for breaching his duty to provide resources for jailed sex offenders who want to attend ''healthy sex'' courses.
      Mr Justice Dingemans, sitting in London, allowed legal challenges brought by three inmates serving indeterminate sentences who face long delays before they can get on the programme.

      The judge said progress towards release from prison was ''effectively impossible'' without attending the courses, and over 140 other inmates were immediately affected by the problem.
      The judge said the cases raised an important issue about the extent to which the Justice Secretary's public law duty could be modified by the level of resources he made available for offenders still serving indeterminate sentences for public protection (IPPs).
      He ruled: ''The secretary of state is not entitled to overlook the public law duty by pointing to inadequate resources ...

      ''If Parliament retains sentences of IPPs for these claimants, as it has done and is entitled to do so, the secretary of state has a duty to provide resources to discharge the public law duty.''
      The heavily criticised IPP system was abolished in 2012 but many inmates sentenced earlier are still caught up in the IPP regime.

      Under the IPP system courts imposed a minimum period which had to be served before offenders became eligible for consideration for release.

      The judge said the Justice Secretary was under a duty to provide resources to allow IPP inmates to demonstrate to the Parole Board by the time their prison tariffs expired that it was no longer necessary to keep them locked up for public protection.

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  16. Having read the Torygraph article quoted above the biggest scandal is what is happening with Sex Offender Treatment. I have lost count of the number of cases I worked with where SOTP was the main sentence planning target and men were relocated to other prison establishments just so they could access this. Then, even though OASys assessed them as High Risk of Serious Harm, the prison decided to assess them by Risk Matrix 2000 only so for many men without multiple offences they would score 'low'. This was then used to "prioritise" other men over them! Leaving Probation Officers to manage them upon release as untreated sex offenders, so much more risky. That is one example of why Prisons should never ever interfere in probation - because they do not understand what probation does and in effect, fiddled the figures as a means of not delivering expensive courses. Of course,they would argue they did not have the resources to meet the needs of so many sex offenders...which leads us back to the Secretary of State then!!!

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    1. The Programmes team at NOMS HQ set the crietria for SOTP in custody, not HMPS. RM2000 is the sole criteria regardless of OASys risk levels/dynamic risks. They also decommissioned the Rolling SOTP programme for prisoners who score Low on RM2000 as they claimed to have evidence that it wasn't effective. Apprantly doing bugger all/warehousing 1000s of them as we do now/releasing them completely untreated is equally as effective as R-SOTP....

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  17. Any of this sound familiar? Let them know.

    http://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2014/nov/04/civil-service-morale-bullying-stress-targets-job-cuts

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    1. Many of us have got in to spats with Ms Ryan of G4S on Twitter..is Interserve simply a front for G4S ?

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    2. Job cuts and a two-year pay freeze followed by a 1% pay rise cap have demoralised civil servants. Deteriorating job security has particularly enraged members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) who went on strike two weeks ago, but these aren’t the only reasons employees have been left feeling disparaged.

      According to surveys published by the union, 65% of civil servants have become ill due to stress at work and 60% did not think their employer helped them cope with the causes of stress. Almost three-quarters of those asked said that their workload has increased, while 6% said they work more than 48 hours a week on average.

      We asked civil servants to tell us why morale is so low. Poor pay and unreliable job security are the most obvious causes but other issues, such as discouragement, bullying and harassment, were also mentioned in interviews. It is hard for civil servants to be openly critical; those we have spoken to all wish to remain anonymous – concerned that going on the record could cost them their jobs, and potentially affect other members of the family working for the public sector.

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    3. One of the most unpopular aspects of working within the civil service has been the introduction of performance rankings and widespread concern that the ranking process itself is opaque and unfair.

      “They have to find 10% of people at the bottom who aren’t performing,” says the Home Office official. “Your managers go into a room and have a secret meeting whereby they decide who’s going to be in the top, middle and bottom percentiles.”

      Insult was added to injury for this civil servant when he found performance ranking feedback carelessly left on top of a photocopier. “The management find people and single them out,” he continues. “At the moment, they’re trying to find more and more people to shove into that bottom bracket. They want people out the door, in a way that isn’t going to cost them redundancies. It feels like a move towards casualisation of the workforce – but they aren’t being particularly honest about it.”

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    4. Although very distressing, bullying is too often going unnoticed or disregarded in the workplace, according to the civil servants we spoke to. A PCS survey in 2013 found that one in six respondents said they are “always, often or sometimes bullied” – this increased to one in five working in the Department for Transport and its executive agencies.

      Civil servants expressed concern about unfair dismissal and harassment of those who speak up, particularly those with links to unions. Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has made it a specific target to cut down on the number of trade union representatives in the civil service, with controls that limit how much time union reps can spend on trade union business.

      But what is the root of this kind of behaviour? One former civil servant has experienced what he believes was unfair dismissal after nine years in the service – and thinks that this decision was swayed by his link to the PCS union.

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  18. Thanks for finding this
    I would urge any NPS staff to read the above article, I understand that the performance scheme is coming to a probation office near you soon. I can imagine our managers eagerly grasping the opportunity to rank staff, look at the way they have been so silent on TR! Bet they can't wait.
    Oh and those assigned to CRC I suggest you read this article too - you will soon realise we have ALL been shafted.

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