Dear Sodexo,
The Sodexo Public Service Pledge reads: ‘We are eager to demonstrate the many positive examples of superb private sector provision of public services and how private sector companies can bring unbeatable value and outcomes to clients.’ Who would have thought this meant at the cost of the livelihood of staff, the quality of the service and the passion of the poor few who remain.
The Pledge states in the first commitment: ‘Fully committed to consistent delivery of our promises…’ yet the current ongoing discussion around Enhanced Voluntary Redundancy suggests only deceptive, underhanded tactics on Sodexo’s part. It also states in the second commitment ‘Transparent and truly ethical in how we deliver, in our use of public money, and in our conduct’ yet your conduct so far has been disappointing at best, absolutely disgraceful at worst.
You take into account nothing in terms of the staff who have given their time, their passion and their energy into providing for a Service that works to provide support, guidance and encouragement to the Service User. You fail to realise - or perhaps you just don’t care - on a consistent basis that you hurt not only the people who will have to leave because of your underhanded ways, but the people who remain behind that have to work for a company that cares more about the £££’s than about them.
The best thing about the Service as it was, was that staff were cared for, valued for their experience, their diversity and their potential - the best thing about the Service as it is now, I struggle to even identify. ‘We pledge through our Business Integrity Code that we will not tolerate any practice that is not born of honesty, integrity and fairness, anywhere in the world where we do business.’ I find this humorous; so far, all I have seen of Sodexo’s conduct is avoidance tactics, consistent ‘snippets’ of information but never the full picture, lies, no clear time scales or ones that keep getting pushed back. Despite your third commitment, there is nothing socially conscientious about you at all and I know that I am not the only one who is angered, hurt and betrayed by the way in which you have so far handled yourselves.
You made so many promises during the bids, and like a Service User who plays Yes Man in a Pre-Sentence Report, you have more often than not failed to live up to your promises now that you’re actually committed.
From a very disappointed, but still optimistic PSO.
The best thing about the Service as it was, was that staff were cared for, valued for their experience, their diversity and their potential - the best thing about the Service as it is now, I struggle to even identify. ‘We pledge through our Business Integrity Code that we will not tolerate any practice that is not born of honesty, integrity and fairness, anywhere in the world where we do business.’ I find this humorous; so far, all I have seen of Sodexo’s conduct is avoidance tactics, consistent ‘snippets’ of information but never the full picture, lies, no clear time scales or ones that keep getting pushed back. Despite your third commitment, there is nothing socially conscientious about you at all and I know that I am not the only one who is angered, hurt and betrayed by the way in which you have so far handled yourselves.
You made so many promises during the bids, and like a Service User who plays Yes Man in a Pre-Sentence Report, you have more often than not failed to live up to your promises now that you’re actually committed.
From a very disappointed, but still optimistic PSO.
Even if Sodexo claim the contract monies (pbr etc) is not public money but fairly won competitive reward, they cannot say the same of the £Millions handed over by MoJ for the EVR scheme.
ReplyDelete"Transparent and truly ethical in how we deliver, in our use of public money"
Sodexo, if you truly believe you're being transparent & that the cuts in staffing are necessary, then be ethical enough to use the EVR money as was agreed in the nationally agreed contract and pay the people at the agreed rate.
"It will be cost effective in the long run, getting shot of the nay sayers, the awkward squad and those who can't or won't adapt to the new ways of working. Think how much more quickly the organisation can develop without that lot holding us back, questioning everything. And it was free money anyway."
Happy Birthday Christopher.
Aye, its a canny tactic. Threaten massive change, pay the requisite pieces of silver to the decision-makers (Its a good investment), scare everyone daft as the changes begin. Promise a pot of gold, a jackpot bonanza to those who want to bale out - then completely withdraw that offer, make 'em sweat, make 'em drool. The greed will overwhelm them and they'll accept far less than you initially offered - and think they've won!!
ReplyDeleteDon't forget, this is the workforce who've accepted no pay rise for six years, and only 3% in ten years. This is the workforce who voted to hand back annual leave and essential car user for cash-in-hand settlements. They're easy-peasy. Look how readily their leaders snapped your hand off for those cash incentives, how the glint of gold distracted them, how easily they were persuaded to hand over the service.
Greed IS good.
Anon @ 10.25 says probation staff are practised in the recognition of oppressive and controlling behaviours and we often hear how good probation staff are at challenging rationalisations that are used by some to justify/excuse criminal behaviour. The subtext is don't mess with such smart cookies. Ah, if only it was true, or if it is, then why it has proved so difficult to transfer and deploy these skills against TR and before that, to the erosion of terms and conditions and steady decline in salaries.
DeleteYou hear stories about how passionate they are about their work and its values. And yet when it came to collectively standing and resisting TR, the ones who were truly passionate and challenging to the dismemberment of probation were in the minority. But this is raking over old coals and some voices think it's wrong to look back and play a blame game. We got rid of one myth about Napo punching above it's weight and we need to get rid of another one: in the absence of unity amongst a workforce, employers know they can do pretty much as they wish. It is easy peasy. If you want to be a great practitioner then in the current climate you have to be a committed trade unionist.
There are those who join unions for reasons of personal insurance and who think that the union exists independent of them. But as we see with the decline and fall of probation, unions wither without unity while the employers become more confident in their strides. When they see a workforce running away from a fight they know they are onto a winner. I hope there is resistance to compulsory redundancies, I hope if there is a call to support industrial action, this time the call is answered. If Sodexo and others are allowed to get their way without facing stiff resistance then all the talk about probation being challenging and so forth will be mythical talk. Save such talk for the probation institute as it will have no place in the real world of enfeebled probation, enfeebled through pay, and job insecurity.
It only takes one whistle blower to put Sodexo and their kiosks on page 3 of The Guardian. That will effect their share price. THAT is what I mean by proceeding with caution. Mice can roar too.
DeleteIntroducing an automated element into the reporting process seems radical on the face of it, but it does have aspects in common with the reporting centre concept, where clients merely had to sign a register managed by a receptionist which itself stretched the meaning of supervision. It was nominal supervision. Whether manual or automated, such arrangements recognise that there are too many under supervision who don't need it. Kiosks grab headlines but they will not be game changers.
DeleteResponse to comment by Anon at 15.06.
DeleteAt least if a Receptionist (the MOST important member of Probation teams on a day to day basis) is involved some assessment will take place.
I was helped numerous times by receptionists - he looks ill - or better not see so & so he is very wound up and threatening or, so many scenarios, that summary not possible.
For me the 'game changer' was The Split - ATM style booths are unworthy of what probation is about.
I am glad I do not have to decide whether it is a step too far for me, but I would try to avoid working for a probation employer that used them with my clients, except in emergency & individually assessed situations.
No-one believes that there weren't imperfections in the Trusts and there has been poor practice in place for some time (PSOs working w.sex offenders/DV perpetrators etc). Nevertheless, selling poor practice as a justification for the introduction of the amateur sector brings new meaning to the expression 'race to the bottom '. We are at serious risk of losing all credibility with sentencers, something which the Prison management at NOMS has never given due consideration.
DeleteUnfortunately, probation, like social work, has always had a credibility gap with the public, often portrayed as too soft and lacking good old common-sense – that metaphysics of the barbarians who have been all too ready to blame probation when things go wrong. Instead of probation being promoted as the hallmark of a civilised society through its rehabilitative work, in recent years it was forced by politicians to tack to the right, to become obsessed with risk and show punitive teeth to those who most needed help, support and direction. The majority of clients are themselves victims: of the care system, disadvantage, poverty and discrimination. But this truth has no traction in reactionary minds.
DeleteTR is a race to the bottom. Probation staff, especially in CRCs, will see wages and benefits fall, but will clients be any worse off in the future than they are now?
With regards EVR sodexo are behaving like petulant children: 'what's yours is mine and what's mine's my own too'.
ReplyDelete"Probation Staff to be replaced by machines. Sodexo who now own probation services in 6 out of 21 areas are to make Probation Staff Redundant and Replace them with Call Centres and Biometric Reporting Kiosks."
ReplyDeleteHahahahaha - April Fool !! (Ed - it isn't, its actually true).
I was in a Sodexo prison for over a year and it was a truly dysfunctional environment where the staff generally got treated pretty appallingly so none of what is happening to staff in Sodexo owned CRC's in any way surprises me. Sodexo are no different in terms of morals, ethics and business practices to Serco, G4S, A4E and all those other companies beloved by the Tory party
ReplyDeleteTheir PR bullshit doesn't work on probation staff. We are practiced in the recognition of oppressive and controlling behaviours. I suggest Sodexo proceed with caution.
DeleteWhilst I am no defender of these outsourcing shysters, I am of the firm opinion that the current sh*tstorm remains the fault of the MoJ and the birthday boy. The recklessly managed procurement process meant that information was poor, inadequate and a massive misrepresentation of reality. Sodexo have already admitted that they didn't know what they were getting themselves into and the chaos they are faced with is indicative of the poor preparation, lack of proper piloting and weak leadership from the ministry. The fact is Sodexo were never allowed to talk to the staff in the areas they were bidding for and the five star hotel they thought they were buying is a caravan in Skegness. Buyer beware. You have been compromised by more MoJ procurement fiascos.
ReplyDeleteThe responsibility is FULLY that of every Member of Parliament, in the House of Lords and House of Commons, especially those who voted as instructed by the current and still continuing Liberal Democrat and Conservative Government.
DeleteThey had ample opportunity to prevent what is happening by NOT rejecting amendments that were finally abandoned by parliament in February 2014.
Those amendments to the Offender Rehabilitation Bill (now Act 2014) could have put the detailed implementation of any probation reforms into the hands of parliament who could have, for example, proceeded by firstly implementing pilot projects that could not be made permanent before parliament approved the next step. They chose to leave it to the Liberal Democrat and Conservative Government Members to collectively make those decisions.
Please remember if you can vote for a representative to the next parliament that the next parliament can STILL still get hold of the situation, and even buy out those recent contracts let on 1st February.
Skegness - The Last Resort
DeleteLeave Skeggy alone.
DeleteI do.
Happy Birthday Mr Flailing - as in 'thrashing' your staff, or waving your arms about in an uncontrolled manner.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity we didn't repeat last year's effort and send him a batch of books - '50 Shades of Frailing Failing Grayling' - giving him something different to concentrate his masochistic propensities on.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/01/chris-grayling-justice-policy-absconders-open-prisons-unlawful
ReplyDeleteIn amongst the shitty Sodexo/Nacro stuff, an interesting prog on R4 about a professional practice issue, namely the use of polygraphs with sex offenders and others. "Beating the Detector" is probably on iplayer or some such platform. One view expressed being its about allaying public fear through techno-tokenism rather than the polygraph having a meaningful role in managing real risk.
ReplyDeleteOne of the famous 'Super' injunctions was by a Polygraph manufacturer against a scientist who wrote a paper postulating that their effectiveness was not what it is cracked up to be.
DeleteThe truth will out - unless you diss a lie-detector company!.
Polygraph testing is just phrenology in modern clothing - no study yet has proved that there are any physiological responses at all that can be demonstrably linked to deceptive behavior. Their value only lies in what people think they rte capable of, and are therefore more likely to tell the truth when hooked up to the machine as they think it will catch them out.
DeleteA recent(ish) study showed that the very latest machines, coupled with the use of top professional questioners/result interpreters, managed to correctly discern a falsehood 55% percent of the time - almost the same odds as flipping a coin to decide if the person was lying!
NPS, aided by Prof Grubin, have invested a huge chunk of resources into the polygraph. We had a puff piece by some NOMS numpty about the availability of NPS's own specially trained lie detectorors - coming to interrogate a sex offender near you!!!!
DeleteCEO of Merseyside's put out a notice to say Purple Futures do not appear to be taking the same angle as Sodexo. There's no news as to exactly what they plan to do but I thought it was good of her to at least acknowledge she was aware of what was going on in other areas and make attempts to calm the fears of her own staff.
ReplyDeletelets hope other contract areas do the same. We need to back our colleagues who fall into the Sodexo areas though and give what ever support we can to protect them - and no I am thankfully not in sodexo area - but this could be any of us at any point now or in the future.
DeleteWhat `angle' will Purple Futures be taking or will there be no job losses at all ?
ReplyDeleteit's all still a mystery - there was a Q&A attachment but I was too busy to look at it - afaik no news is good news!!
DeleteI also work for Purple what ever, and am too concerned. What I noticed today whilst entering a delius contact was that on the drop down list, there is a lot more codes put on one being "Biometric Reporting Contact", this is both for NPS and CRC, so it looks what ever these ££££ companies maybe saying, there will be job losses and the MOJ have colluded with them, its all planned out we only get to hear it when they need to tell us. Have a look at delius.
DeletePf has no involvement in new codes on ndelius. The position on restructuring is in the FAQs on their website.
DeleteThe availability of mobile phones in HMP Forest Bank..........according to prisoner today is why so many want to go there.......Sodexo run prison....what does this say about how to run a business?
ReplyDeleteI doubt your source is a reliable source of information!
DeleteThe tragedy is that, until recently, we only had to worry about offenders telling porkies. Now it's coming from all sides.
DeleteIts apparently exactly the same in HMP Northumberland (also Sodexo run prison). Drugs are an issue always. To be fair some of our public run prisons also have similar issues, also down to cut in staff (like HMP Durham). I drug tested a release who tested positive - admitted used two days before his release.
DeleteThere is a lot of negativity towards sodexo on here. I understand why. However, all this negativity is not giving a balanced view of what they can do and I feel for those staff wanting to stay and have a career within those CRCs.
ReplyDeleteNegativity.......... Shut up.
DeleteYeah - I am gonna resign from the NPS and look for a vacancy in Sodexo CRCs..
Deleteoh, hang on....
Anon 18:59 what planet are you on. Have we not had enough from the powers that be telling us we must be positive. Where has that got us.
Deleteso - what CAN they do?
ReplyDeleteWhatever they want, apparently
DeleteYou tell us as many have focused what they can't do. Surely they can do something as they were successful in being awarded a number of CRCs. ..
ReplyDeleteRESPONSE to Anon at 19:15
DeleteBy Bidding to run a CRC NACRO (I expect some NADPAS folk are spinning in their graves) & SODEXO OR ANYONE ELSE including so called mutuals are colluding in the split of Probation agencies at the local level which all my experience, going back to the 1970s and an understanding of some earlier social work failures, screams at me is MORE DANGEROUS than ever a local and unified Probation service can be,
So - if those behind SODEXO had the integrity they try to infer from their PR they would have said to the MOJ something like - we will will not bid to run a probation contract in these circumstances - if however, you do not have a national probation service but divide the whole lot up - like it was on 31st May 2014 we will consider bidding to run one or several areas!
GS has updated the blog - refers to a pay offer that members are to vote on but he doesn't actually tell us what the derisory offer is. Does anyone know?
ReplyDeleteGuardian Letters Today - Helen Schofield Past Napo Chair - current Greater London Napo Chair - Pat Waterman and two emeritus professors all have letters published about different aspects of the Sodexo/Nacro staff cuts news
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/01/sodexo-prison-kiosks?CMP=share_btn_tw
BBC2 now - the story of the Strangeways riot years ago - horrendous. Could it happen again?...
ReplyDeletei'm very surprised it hasn't - maybe the fact prisoners are allegedly too stoned/pissed out their brains renders them unmotivated to do anything like that again.
Deletei agree but who controls how the prisoners get drugs. If they are stoned out of their head are they really likely to cause any resistance?
DeleteActive population management strategy in many Locals, esp on remand wings.
DeleteWhoever makes Quetiapine seems to be making a profit..the current liquid cosh ??
DeleteA trip down memory lane with Marcel Berlins, Guardian 2009:
ReplyDelete"I feel a little sorry for the probation service. They took most of the blame for the fact that Dano Sonnex was at liberty to perpetrate the horrific murder of two French students in their London flat in June 2008. It is accepted that there were failures at every step of the criminal justice system, but too much has been attributed to probation errors.
This raises an important issue: by starving the probation service of the funding needed to do its job, how much is the government responsible?
Somewhere along the way, for reasons not necessarily the probation service's fault, Sonnex was classified as a medium risk rather than the obviously high risk he was. That undervaluation of his dangerousness led to his file being dealt with by a low-level, inexperienced, very overworked offender manager rather than by experienced specialists.
Other mistakes followed, many the result of admittedly poor management in the London probation area handling the case. In addition, magistrates, through a misunderstanding, released Sonnex on bail even though they knew that steps were being taken to recall him to prison. Finally, the police took two weeks to go to Sonnex's family home to get him. He had committed the murders a few hours before.
However the blame is apportioned, the government's treatment of the probation service is once again in question. Probation officers feel strongly that they are being asked to perform a difficult and sensitive job - aimed at the safety and protection of the public - without the resources and funding needed.
Yet when an offender under supervision commits a serious crime, the probation service gets the flak. With more and more freed prisoners being subject to probation, as well as more offenders being sentenced to community punishments entailing supervision, the workload on probation officers is increasing, without a commensurate growth in their numbers or other resources. Jack Straw, speaking after the Sonnex trial and revealing the findings of two independent inquiries into what had gone wrong, rejected that argument. "Probation spending has increased 70% in real terms in the past 12 years. The fundamental problems - as the independent reports emphasise - were managerial."
That last may have been so in the particular circumstances of the Sonnex case (and the chief of probation of London paid the price by resigning) but Straw's broader point is disputed. Napo, the probation union, claims that much of the extra money allocated to probation was wasted on an IT system that didn't work. Moreover, the government has announced savage cuts in probation expenditure, says Napo. The government says the cuts will be modest.
Whatever the detailed validity of the financial complaints, the probation service feels frustrated, undervalued, under-respected and inadequately funded. Everything I have heard and been told recently suggests there is good reason for dissatisfaction. Probation is a hugely important part of our criminal justice system, especially as it is so closely tied to public safety. It deserves greater appreciation - and proper funding."
No coincidence that the conservatives were in power at the time of the Strangeways riot.
ReplyDeleteThere's not been a meaningful Labour government since 1979, and the only prospect of such died with John Smith.
DeleteI agree with you about John Smith but the tories have done nothing for the people on the ground.
Deleteand so it continues 22:27. IT that hinders and detracts rather than assists and actively contributes if not directly causes inefficiency; Over worked , experienced and inexperienced staff. Courts releasing people before recall action is completed and cell staff legally unable to detain people. Law and expectations changed with little if any notice; amendments following fast behind due to error. Committed and concerned people desperately trying to keep it going as the systems and processes fracture . Those responsible for managing the whole thing ...well does it need to be said.
ReplyDeleteThe uk will go off on one this summer. All the ingredients are there - anger, resentment, people feeling ignored, the bleating of ovine politicians desperate to get elected, overcrowded jails, inexperienced agencies trying to cope with the disenfranchised in the community...
Delete... Be prepared. Check you're up to date with your insurance, fire extinguishers are working & cultivate a friend who lives in the countryside with a spare room or two and who thinks folks from the city are cool.
The criminal damage done to the service, as predicted by many, has created a situation where risk assessments are being skewed leading to arguments across the divide. With eyes now firmly off the ball, the chances of further sonnex-like situations increase. TR is tearing down the previous infrastructure of public protection.
ReplyDelete