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CRC in the North East are pulling out of offices already, seeing service users in church halls, community centres in rooms next door to creches, exercise classes. Agile working, but we are not expected to work from home, but no-one except the senior managers and corporate staff will have workstations, not even disabled staff, so I will have little choice, I want to keep my home separate from work. I have learned that Napo and Unison are acting against this, thank goodness, but H&S regs are being ignored. I feel so sorry for the service users who have to be called participants, no confidentiality, no relationship and no opportunity to tell us what matters and help us manage risk. This blog should be about what really matters, it is not a gossip column or a tool to shoot us all in both feet.
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Jim, are the rumours that nobody, including elected reps and chairs is going to the AGM true? I'm appalled if this is true as people have no right to represent members if they cannot be bothered to attend the most important meeting of the year. Union officials are given relief time from work duties and should respect their position. Is it just an avenue to skive and get paid for it. Another scandal from NAPO officials and reps taking money for nothing. The hypocrisy is sick.
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Let me assist you because I have been a NAPO rep for years and am having to take a break because I am exhausted. I worked many evening and weekends (my own time you will note) because that was the only way I could do a decent job for my members. Facility time was given to me but only to attend the actual meetings where I was repping. No NAPO rep is given time to attend the AGM, that is something done be taking leave...so to put it plainly, you are simply wrong. In my opinion the work horses of the union are the reps....
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I won't go, you just cannot support the top table, they are a crock. Lawrence is appalling and the reason we have lost credibility. He got control of the union and yet has no real history of any achievement. The failure he blames on us members, yet he never had any strategy or appropriate action taken. If no one is going to AGM it's a vote of no confidence and less to do with time off. NPS are left parked with lack of local supports from Napo as they are all being restricted, while the CRC union members are virtually off the reservation now. Napo is split, opinion is divided, the checkoff might hopefully see them checkout.
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Sadly unions have no real power. I have colleagues working for a partnership agency who this month are earning 7k less than they did this time last yr. They either signed the new contract or were out of work. They wrote 'signed under duress' on the contract and were told to remove it. Their union is/was Unison who could do nothing.
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It is still almost impossible to hear any mention of probation and TR in the news or newspapers; nothing from Jeremy Corbyn or Lord Faulkner etc, and no empathy from Gove. The prisons and courts are the top kiddies, and the successes and principals and expertise of probation as it was, appear to have been air-brushed from history already. Gove's report above referred to the prisons not just having governors and (prison) officers, they have such as artists, cooks etc. Not one mention of a probation officer.
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My branch has gone from 37 CRC members to 21 out of 133. It feels less and less credible. NPS are haemorrhaging staff too. It's tragic.
Oops! re the comment above, second from the bottom, I meant to say 'successes, and PRINCIPLES and expertise'.
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad that the old Probation Service has been wiped out with only the staff mourning its passing.
One of the key things for me is the cavalier way in which experienced admin staff have been treated.....they were always the quiet group that greased the wheels, made reports ready for court, ensured that breaches were complete and knew how to get things done......now we have lots of short term temps with no committment to the service and who could blame them....surely they're just waiting for a full time job, trying to plug the gaps and do the job of experienced colleagues......
ReplyDeleteI agree to 1311 very strongly. I have previously posted comments here on how invaluable yet underpaid admin staff were (or clericals as they used to be called) - always there to help out officers as well as doing their own work. I always said I didn't know how they answered the phone, met clients at the window, frequently dealt with abuse from them, helped officers out with queries, helped with technology issues, supported them when stressed, reminded them of deadlines, shut their ears to officers coming in (to use the printer or get another pen,writing pad, tippex bottle etc, sign in, sign out, share a moan with other officers in the room etc), while doing all their own work and generally keeping the ship from sinking. I would often say I didn't know how they could deal with their own work while so much noise and disruption was happening around them. I can even recall one senior admin coming to my office and squeezing onto my chair to give me a cuddle during a particularly stressful period. And now I hear that in Nbria CRC they are being centralised, miles away from many offices. Had I not been retired I don't know how I would have coped without all admin, not just my own delegated officer. They were much undervalued heroes. Thank you all.
ReplyDeleteour admin are crap - wont do a thing for you - always set up orders wrong, jump on you for information when you've not had a chance to deal with it, they rule the roost in our office blabbing to the SPO. I and my colleagues will throwing a party when they're centralised and it cant come soon enough.
DeleteKeep thinking happy thoughts...
Deletehappy thought then did anyone see Napo at the Manchester march with Ian Lawrence leading and rubbing shoulders in solidarity with others. No course you didn't.
DeleteFROM TWITTER: -
Delete" Ian Lawrence @IlawrenceL
#probation #napo #@IlawrenceL Napo in Manchester Kill the TU Bil!
2:12 PM - 4 Oct 2015
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CQebjVsWcAAFl09.jpg
https://twitter.com/IlawrenceL/status/650659717199601664/photo/1 "
Good apologies well done Ian then and the other of Napo brass there too ?
DeleteI am vice chair of my local branch and I was there as was a friend of mine in the north. National vice chair chas berry was there too
Delete14:27 on 4 Oct - you sound like you're a real sweetheart & a joy to work with. Please keep me updated of any admin vacancies in your office, I'd love to apply.
DeleteThe Gove plan is designed to tackle what the out-going chief inspector of prisons called “the violence, squalor and idleness” endemic in the UK system, delegating greater power to governors over budgets to improve educational and vocational programs in prisons.
ReplyDelete“We are responsible for these people, we can determine what they do, who they see, what happens, to them 24 hours a day and we don’t devote nearly enough time to educating them,” he said in an interview with the Times.
• Michael Gove: Let criminals out of jail early if they promise to learn
Faced with soaring prison populations – and matching bills to maintain them – the Texas scheme has cut incarceration rates 12 per cent, enabling the closure of three entire prisons, saving millions of dollars.
In 2008, a year after the first major reforms were implemented, the government saved $444 million (£292.47 million), according to a Texas policy foundation report.
By investing in more probation officers, Texas has enabled more offenders who do not pose a threat to the public to serve their sentences within their own community. Those that do go to prison may gain early release if they complete certain vocational training courses.
“Until 2007, the de facto position was 'lock em' up and throw away the key,” said Derek Cohen, deputy director of the ‘Right On Crime’ campaign that recently entertained Mr Gove. “The Problem was it wasn't very good for public safety, as people were released a state that was bad or worse than when they went in.”
On his recent trip, Mr Gove met with the leaders of the Prison Entrepreneurship Programme, and watched a prison version of ‘The Apprentice’, where inmates are asked to come up with ideas for a business, and then taught how to put them into practice.
Another major focus of Mr Gove’s reforms will be dramatically cutting recidivism rates among young offenders, some 66.5 per cent of whom will be re-convicted within one year of release in the UK.
He's talking the talk, which is a start. And he has no vested interest in propping up Grayling's reputation, which would be silly anyway. But really! Revolving Door!
DeleteCompletely off topic, but I am going back to work after a very long stress related sick absence. My GP told me it was a rational response to the situation, and suggested I stay away for as long as possible. But I need to eat. Shitting it. Wish me luck.
ReplyDeleteWishing u luck.
DeleteTake ur time and don't rush. :-)
good luck - I hope it's a phased return. When I went back I had to work slightly over each day in order to catch up and when I asked SPO to sign my timesheet she passed it back to me and said I wasn't allowed to build toil up on phased return - I was blazing because she never told me and my workload was such that I had little choice and I lost about 5 hours.
DeleteOccupational Health involvement & assessment? Agreed phased return? My own GP insisted on seeing & approving these documents & had a conversation with the OH appointed GP before signing me as fit to return. She also wrote a strong letter to my employer. I'm grateful to her for her diligence. But this isn't a self-satisfied lecture, just observations from my own experience. Wish you good luck.
DeleteThinking of you on your phased return.
DeleteHope your day went okay.
DeletePhases return. You either back or not. Simples
DeleteCRC North East post above say unions are against community and agile working. I have seen no evidence of this and it is full steam ahead with participants being seen on mass in venues described. Perhaps someone from Napo and/or Unison can enlighten me on what they are doing to protect staff and indeed the individuals we are trying to work with.
ReplyDeleteNapo just need to protect members . They already fail our group so lets just focus on what they have to do not what you like them to do.
DeleteRegistered a joint dispute with Unison, what have the members done and the middle managers, rolled over and hoped they can go home as often as possible. SMT say no-one but the TU reps are complaining, they are fighting a losing battle when members don't go to branch meetings, don't respond to Napo e-mails, don't raise concerns, if you lose the reps who have defended countless members but can't shout about it the SMT will be laughing just as much as Grayling and Gove when this blog serves to villify the unions. It is going to get a lot worse so speak out yourself.
DeleteFROM THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: -
ReplyDelete" The Texas prison experiment that inspired Michael Gove
The British government has drawn inspiration for its most progressive shake up of its penal system from seemingly unlikely quarters.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11909309/The-Texas-prison-experiment-that-inspired-Michael-Gove.html "
Extract from Email from Napo Today: -
ReplyDelete" Lord Falconer confirms AGM attendance
The Shadow Lord Chancellor has now confirmed his attendance at Napo’s AGM this year. He will be addressing conference on Saturday at 9.30am.."
RRP SWM DLNR still havent released tom
ReplyDeleteHe must be furious!?
DeleteWho Lord Falconer? What's his business with probation
DeleteHe looks after the nation's falcons. Gove is considering using falcons fitted with gps cameras to monitor persistent & prolific offenders, hence he needs a falconer. "Simples" !!
DeleteSo who is paying for this? Y does this company want a piece of the TR PIE?
Delete20:57 understand TOM released tomorrow,Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteIt seems You can never trust hmp to get the dates right. Wonder if he'll be gate arrsted? Or better still, assessed & detained under MHAct. You don't want TOM released; but if he's due out you're going to need non-association licence conditions relating to his co-accused, PAM.
Delete