Bleak Futures Week 16

Aside from the 'poison pill' clauses in the 10-year contracts which would incur penalties of £3-400m payable to the contractor for cancellation, there is no political will in the Labour Party to end the contracts early.

At a Progress conference in May last year, Lord Wood, a Miliband aide, said "more imagination" was required to improve public services when there was little spare money. He said politicians should not "fight ideological battles" over public sector services and there was a role for private companies.

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Probation staff might be interested in how the Prison Service is getting on with their annual pay review. Up to 5% for some staff. I have no objection to rising wages, but it seems we are playing Cinderella....again!

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I love the notion that prisoners' property can be confiscated on the governor's say-so, then sold and the proceeds given to Nacro. Maybe the payment formula for Sodexo's bed-fellows isn't that lucrative after all? Oh, hang on, might there be a case for Nacro being charged with receiving stolen goods if the prisoner wins their appeal? Or a conflict of interest, seeing as Nacro is now a private sector provider for the MoJ, who run the prisons yet is being handed the profits from a rather dodgy prison policy?

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It is a pity that the prisons cannot use all this energy and effort being spent on obsessive and overweening security and convert it into rehabilitative actions.

The use of a telephone in prison should not have a profit element. It has long been recognised that maintaining family and community ties assists in successful resettlement's. The language of 'privileges' towards what should be seen as necessities and the commonplace accoutrement's of life in the 21st century, really harks back to the 19th century when prisoners were virtually in solitary confinement from each other, when even conversations were forbidden and daily conditions were punitive and vengeful, and the only reading material was the bible.

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Am hearing stories regarding the training of TTG staff employed by some of these legendary VCS providers. Originally they were talking about 5 days training but this has apparently been reduced to 1. When the CRC trainers presented them with the list of things the training needed to contain, said providers balked at the depth and detail. They didn't realise how complicated it all was. Oops!!

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TTG in our area are training staff going into these positions for 6 full days. Not sure what other areas are training prison TTG staff but to only train staff for a day!!!! Some CRC's are standing up to their new providers and not letting them dictate to us and surprisingly they are actually allowing us to do this. Might not seem much, but the power balance is not all in their favour.

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TTG staff in a northern town are being trained to deliver programmes, with schedules already being drawn up for them to work alongside CRC PO & PSO staff.

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A woman arrived at the office this week accompanied by a CRC staff member. Apparently (again this is rumour and may not be totally accurate) she was from a US based "professional services firm" (one of the supposed big four) who, among other services, assess enterprise risk. Her company had been commissioned by the CRC, who shall remain nameless, to report back on the workings of the company in the brave new world. It was suggested that at the bidding stage, the Govt had not been fully up front about the complexities of what the CRC's were taking on and this one had bitten off more than it could chew. Now if this is true, I don't know how big business works, but would it have been wise to have employed said professional services firm before making the bid or did the Govt block this?

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We've been managing fine but are now beginning to creak under the volume of new cases. Not heard anything from our new owners PF - even their twitterfeed has stalled. Hand the poison chalice back I say!!

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It seems that a lot of Sodexo/Nacro staff are holding out for enhanced voluntary redundancy. I just don't know if they are going to get it. Even without it, nobody wants the NPS jobs out there, people have had enough and want out completely.

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A lot of Sodexo/Nacro staff ARE wanting out. And with the double-whammy bullshit of (1) being shafted to CRC in the first instance & (2) losing any chance of carrying T&C's across post 1 Feb'15, then why would they want to join NPS?

In our CRC office of 10 POs & 10 PSOs (Fte), 8 POs & 5 PSOs want out. And they are prepared to fight for it. No-one wants to be associated with the crass corporate shite. Those prepared to stay are either (a) financially hamstrung or (b) relatively new to the role, have no sadness about the historical stuff and are okay with simply being employed. Other CRCs must be in similar positions with staff?

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Yes. My CRC is similarly full of people who have no confidence in the operating model and are just waiting to see if they can get a package to ease their departure.

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It's all gone very, very quiet - lull before the storm? CRC mgmt have gone to ground; promised visits by CRC owners abandoned/postponed; middle managers' doors remain firmly shut; allocations by email only, no discussion.

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Cumbria & Lancs have effectively given notice of redundancies with consultations kicking off by end April/start of May. No doubt full email will be available to JB. (Not yet). Level of severance pay not available.

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Cumbria & Lancs, like BeNCH, have notified office managers and other corporate service staff of their imminent demise. Some grumbles have drifted down from up in Cumbria, saying that the Sodexo plan is to focus all admin in & around Salford (where they have an expensive fancy-pants IT centre in Media City) & Lancs, leaving Cumbrian staff high & dry. Who fancies commuting from Carlisle to Salford or Preston?

Still no news about how much redundancy payments will be. Rumours in our local boozer are that Sodexo (no other names mentioned as yet) are "Raging" & putting pressure on MoJ staff over the their claim that enhanced payments were NOT on the table for anyone post 1st Feb 2015, i.e. their modern 'clearances' program.

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Everything about TR is flawed massively. CRC CEOs are doing their best to minimise political embarrassment to remain in favour with NOMs and damage to operational staff is irrelevant.

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The robber barons have fallen out over the spoils. It's the oldest story in the book.

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Front line PSOs in Wales CRC being seconded to prison for TTG ready for 1st May. Who will take on their caseload?

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I thought CRC Staff wouldn't be working with high risk offenders?

'Dear Colleagues,

Delivery of Resettlement Services.
Earlier this week we wrote to you to explain how Wales Community Rehabilitation are preparing for the delivery of resettlement services for offenders from May 1st 2015. Under the new service, which forms part of our Through The Gate (TTG) plan, all offenders, including those with a prison sentence of 12 months or under, will be provided with support to address their resettlement needs prior to release from custody. To avoid any potential confusion, we would like to point out that Wales CRC will be responsible for providing these resettlement services for all prisoners, not just those at low to medium risk of causing harm.

Yours sincerely,
Liz Rijnenberg
Chief Executive'

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It was always the case that CRCs would provide TTG services to all prisoners in the prisons in their areas. This has been in the documents from the start. It doesn't mean that the CRCs will be doing offender supervision tasks for all prisoners, probably just delivering basic workshops on accommodation, employment etc.

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Not only in Wales. BeNCH CRC staff was advised that the Sodexo partnership contracted for TTG may not be able to recruit sufficient staff by 1st May to deliver. CRC staff was asked if they had current clearance and/or if they were interested in a temporary secondment for this purpose. A further notice indicated the enquiry was aimed at PSOs; tasks would include completion of the Basic Custody Screening. My understanding is that this would constitute an offender supervisor type role. No further news since.

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BCS was initially meant to be conducted by Band 4 officers in the prison but a couple of months in some prisons are missing targets because of staff shortages so guess what? The PSOs they decided they didn't want any more have now been told that they can do the interviews as well!

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TTG will consist of referrals to benefits, housing and job centre, nothing more or less. It will, However, be enough for CRC's to eventually claim they are as able of managing high risk as the NPS despite the fact the most experienced and qualifies staff could well be lost to them by then.

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Some Wales CRC Staff also have a secondment to TTG. 1 wk training next week then start in the prison on May 1st. Pretty intensive training! I think they may be filling in while the new St Giles staff await prison clearance.

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It felt like a breath of fresh air: the unions' threat to ballot for strike action. It's the only language the MoJ and the predators understand. They always prefer to 'consult', but they respect a threat. A threat: a capacity to do something and the means to carry it out. The membership of the unions could tick both these boxes.

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It's early days but there is potential here for probation staff nationally to support probation staff in local difficulties. I am thinking here of strike funds, tactical support to colleagues who are fighting on a particular front. The biggest worry for any striker is financial hardship and the more this can be militated the more those affected can focus on fighting their corner. The vanguard supported by national solidarity - and financial support. Because: but for the grace of God go I. Whatever, the threat of a ballot for strike action is a welcome step towards facing up to Sodexo.

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I am frustrated by today's joint statement. Unison all of a sudden are waking up and threatening strike action. They did this before and bottled it. NOW is the time for NAPO, UNISON and any other involved UNION to really stand shoulder to should. This time co-ordinate your ballots, co-ordinate your action and deliver together - if UNISON had taken strike action with NAPO before the sell off - I remain convinced this have been a total different situation. UNISON failed its members - don't fail them now.

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In response I can only talk for myself at this stage. I am in NPS and would stand and be counted in support of my colleagues in the CRC - we must remain united. I would vote to strike. You are right, the only language these people understand is direct action. As I see it none of us is "sitting pretty" far from it we are ALL in the target range. I went out on strike, lobbied parliament, walked the streets and distributed leaflets to the public in our area on the day of the strikes. It would make me personally feel a whole lot better to get up and do something about this. Be strong colleagues and stand together on this one - otherwise the future will be bleaker than we can imagine.

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If this does not include all CRCs we are on a hiding to nothing. While Sodexo are the only ones to have come out and announced these job losses - there is time for other providers to do so. Some areas may not have threatened job cuts but perhaps because staff are being spread so thinly, the overall same public safety concerns exist. What worries me is more and more staff are becoming subservient, and won't fight against what is not just morally wrong but dangerous.

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You will only be allowed to strike if it is your CRC as NPS and other CRCS are run by different companies/organisations. You may not agree but that is the law.

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Golden share is owned by MOJ and therefore technically still employed by MOJ and only managed by private sector provider. We should have right to strike against the job losses proposed and EVEN IF WE DON'T we should anyway. As NAPO and/or UNISON Members - WE SHOULD STAND TOGETHER.

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I will pay financial support if I am not allowed to strike as am NPS I suggest sharing the pain by donating half a days pay to a CRC colleague that way we are equal again both striker and the person unable to strike loses half a day pay. It could be done!

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I have been on this forum before and stated publicly (as possible being Anon) that I would pay money to NAPO legal fund to fight TR. I will now repeat this and state that I will pay money - up front - into a hardship fund or similar to assist my colleagues in Sodexo CRCs.
We must stand together whether we can strike (as NOMS/NPS) or not. The unions need to act stronger than they have ever done and stand up together NOW.

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I will support a hardship fund and strike action - if we fail to do this now - those of us who see the writing on the wall - may as well walk away now.

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Veiled threats from Seetec about losing jobs if targets not met. Lots of new staff in the CRCs who would not strike and will be enough to keep offices ticking over whilst people lose money. I'm not against striking but I think we lost our chance and are now even more split.