Wednesday 9 March 2016

Latest From Napo 98

BR 16/2016
IL/AV

9th March 2016
To: Branch Chairs, Vice Chairs, Secretaries & Convenors - Probation
Cc: Napo Officers and Staff

Please ensure that this Briefing which provides you with important news on Napo’s response to the recent NPS E3 Job Evaluation process is circulated to members at the earliest opportunity.

Dear Colleague,

Job Evaluation and E3 - Napo expresses its concern over outcomes and subsequent communications

As previously reported, Napo has been engaged in regular dialogue with senior NOMS management over the intended implementation programme for the E3 project.

Unfortunately the communications that NOMS have issued in respect of the outcomes of recent Job Evaluation (JE) exercises which are being held to help inform negotiations have caused substantial confusion among some members especially those relating to the established appeals process within the National Negotiating Council (NNC) agreement.

This week Napo issued advice to members on the key aspects of the appeals process. At the same time we have made it clear to NOMS that we have a fundamental difficulty with the results of the JE exercises covering AP Area Managers, AP Managers, AP Residential Workers and Victim Liaison Officers (VLOs).

In light of the above the attached letter was sent to NOMS this morning which, as can be seen, makes it clear that Napo expects to be given an opportunity to explore how we, and the individual members fulfilling these roles, can most effectively challenge the outcomes.

We have asked that the normal period for lodging appeals be suspended while we engage in further talks with NOMS and we have asked that the issue be included for discussion at tomorrow’s scheduled NNC meeting.

Appreciation to Napo members

While we try to find common ground with the employer on these issues, it is appreciated that many members are angry and disappointed at the results of the JE process and we have tried to reflect that during our regular engagement meetings with NOMS.

Napo’s National Vice-Chair Katie Lomas has been working hard to field the many individual and collective enquiries that we have been receiving and both of us appreciate the efforts that many of you have made to convey the views of your colleagues.

Time to stick together

More news will follow as soon as possible but meanwhile we would want to take this opportunity to ask that all our members recognise that Napo and especially those individual members who have taken part in the JE panels and who have done so in accordance with the agreed processes (after having received appropriate training) are working to ensure that your interests are protected and that it is unreasonable to blame individuals for the disappointing outcomes which have been made on Job Descriptions that themselves are a continuing bone of contention. In addition, Napo members are facing a continuing Government inspired agenda to further erode professional standards and secure more for less from the NPS workforce.

This is why it is as good a time as any for probation staff to consider joining a trade union or maintaining your existing Napo membership by making the easy switch to paying your subscriptions by Direct Debit. Increased membership gives Napo a stronger voice in our negotiations on these and all the other major challenges that you face in the workplace.

Yours sincerely

IAN LAWRENCE      KATIE LOMAS
General Secretary    National Vice-Chair


--oo00oo--

IL/AV 29-16
Colin Allars, Director, National Probation Service (By e-mail)

9th March 2016
Dear Colin,

Job Evaluation and the E3 programme =Conflicting advice from NOMS on the appeals process

As you are aware, Napo, along with our sister trade unions have been in regular engagement with your Senior Management colleagues in NOMS about the intended direction of travel on the wider E3 programme which is meant to be informed by the current Job Evaluation (JE) exercise. My understanding is that the JE scheme is expected to be conducted in accordance with the agreed NNC process which allows for individual appeals and a route for requesting reviews of outcomes.

The probation unions have already expressed our rejection of the recently published results for the AP Area Managers, AP Managers, AP Residential workers and the VLO roles respectively and, as you would expect, we have been inundated with requests for assistance from members wishing to appeal and have issued preliminary advice on the appeals process based on the above NNC agreement.

The trade unions will be urgently discussing our collective approach to these JE outcomes and will make the necessary representations, but the purpose of this letter is firstly to request that the JE issue is included on the agenda for tomorrow’s meeting of the National Negotiating Council and prioritised for early discussion. Secondly, I have to express my serious disappointment at the advice which I am informed has been issued by NOMS to the effect that Divisional Directors are to soon be contacted about the possibility of a collective appeals process.

Given that the unions were advised at last week’s Engagement Meeting that there was no scope for such a remedy, I hope you will appreciate that the problems around the JE outcomes have now been exacerbated by a failure to advise the unions of your intentions which are directly contrary to our understanding.

Without wishing to pre-empt the wider discussion that we need to have at the NNC, I believe it is vital that an immediate halt is announced to the JE implementation programme and the 20 day appeal period until we have agreed a solution to this worrying situation.

I am, as always, available for a telephone discussion on the above if you are available today.

Yours sincerely,

IAN LAWRENCE
General Secretary

Cc: Michael Spurr, Jim Barton,
Jude Gray, Francis Stuart, Nick Jones


28 comments:

  1. Copied from earlier blog post:-

    I see there is an update of the JE process on the Napo website. One issue that I see here is the involvement of Napo on the JE panels which usually comprise two representatives from the management side and two from the trade union side. The 'disappointing outcomes' would therefore be the products of the panels' deliberations and represent the agreed view of the majority of the members of a panel. These outcomes have been agreed by the unions if my understanding of how the panels work is correct. This seems reminiscent of signing and agreement and then saying we do not agree with the 'split'. Given the doubts being expressed about job descriptions, Napo should have steered clear of participation on the panels until such issues were resolved. Because once you freely get involved in something and don't like the outcome, you are burdened with fait accomplis and post-hoc justifications. Napo should have thought more carefully beforehand especially when they knew Noms were working a cynical cost-cutting agenda.

    From Napo: 'More news will follow as soon as possible but meanwhile we would want to take this opportunity to ask that all our members recognise that Napo and especially those individual members who have taken part in the JE panels and who have done so in accordance with the agreed processes (after having received appropriate training) are working to ensure that your interests are protected and that it is unreasonable to blame individuals for the disappointing outcomes which have been made on Job Descriptions that themselves are a continuing bone of contention. In addition, Napo members are facing a continuing Government inspired agenda to further erode professional standards and secure more for less from the NPS workforce.'

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    1. If you sup with the devil you need a very long spoon. Napo is defending its involvement in the panels that have produced the outcomes it now deplores. Napo is now forced to back-pedal and say don't blame your local union representatives but who put them in invidious positions in the first place? The unions should have boycotted the panel until they were satisfied that the bones of contention with the devilish Noms had been addressed. It is whistling in the wind to believe that the appeals process will be any fairer than the biased evaluation process. The unions could have dug their heels in on JE and it may have resonated with the workforce and engendered some grassroots support. Now it just seems like another bewildering setback.

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  2. Katie Lomas. Did some training with her and wasn't impressed. Lawro summing up by saying "give me the money". I love seeing NAPOS demise as we've wrong people at the top table. Need to start all over. Start a new union.

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    1. Where does our monthly Union fees actually go??????
      Answers on the back of a postage stamp please.

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    2. Not there as they wont spend a dime on a member and write us properly look at the recruitment pre Christmas farce. Too little too late.

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    3. I agree with 18:33 we need a clear out at Napo if there's any chance of rebuilding the union it's such a shame to watch it make one mistake after another

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    4. Katie has been a great source of advice and guidance to me. She has explained the JE panel and the process as she would to any Napo member if they bothered to email. The TU representative is purely on the JE panel to ensure the process is followed correctly . Not to challenge what is being ticked etc. There is a questionnaire along with job description provided by employers and sections in JE questionnaire are ticked. Scores are added and dependent on score the banding is made

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  3. For those who were squeezd out & robbd blind by Sodexo under severance, what happens to their portion of their legally entitled 2015 increment?

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  4. Anyone with a second brain cell knows that NAPO have not played a straight game on this JE exercise as many questions were raised beforehand and they ignored their fee paying bosses. It is now going to bite them. Any of the NAPO job evaluators looking for an election outcome then ? I don't fancy your chances after this fiasco and who led you into this and they will let you down as we ask the questions and discover the sham. More to come more to come.

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  5. Probation Officer9 March 2016 at 20:11

    Why does every Napo communication have to include a paragraph on membership payments and direct debit?

    If Napo wants more members it needs to act as a better Union and improve its defence of probation. It should also drop its price to say £10 per month, and even this is too much to pay for nothing!

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  6. Seriously. Think long and hard about all the money you've paid into NAPO since you joined. Calculate it up and seriously reflect on what you've got out of NAPO for the costs you've incurred. I did this and left NAPO the next day especially as I honestly received nothing more than those not in NAPO

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    1. I don't think that is fair. Napo are in difficulty may well be a feeling amongst many they are poorly led or in my view not well supervised by the most ineffective and least able officers group ever bar a few. But the that is not what we need to focus on as the elections are coming and we have to get rid of all of them. The key to survival is still to join the union NOT UNISON. They are useless in they let poor old napo fund all the actions and would have heartily grabbed the credit as they always do and spend zero on their membership. Unison representation is worse than crap and their members are the shop stewards they term are small team of ineffectual people. Ok no love for do nothing at all unison. But NAPO try badly as it is sometimes the subs fund a range of good things and we won lots of issues in better days. Its not all NAPOs making we are in a second tory terms and the sad reality is that members elect leadership that has not demonstrated any political capacity. The sell off started by failed previous chairs who have skulked away and wont take any ownership of the decisions they made despite the warning they argued against. More than stupid . Anyway membership needs to be dense in number in teams and act solidly in rejections of what is happening. Blaming Napo however multiple is not the best thought process but foolishly napo blamed its members. It is apathy but it is also the failure to understand or be given the key messages on what we have to do in order not to have gotten here. Well look back the chairs elected have all been driven by a title and lack any union capacities and they got elected. This includes all the previous chairs who had no difficulty in making mistakes as they were ending their term and beset Ian Lawrence and replacements with a royal mess. If you want to have a better chance of surviving longer term its not leaving napo It is now time to join Napo swell the numbers re unite in the cauyse of solidarity and work as a collective so the unified power we have will give the leadership confidence to tell Unison the vultures to FO and then concentrate our collective voice on the NPS thieves and the despicable politics of crime for profits CRCs. Yes I know you wont like this but argue the merits . Join Napo

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    2. 21.44 Ian what your doing up this time of night

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    3. Well I thought I had better try and defend our appalling record and stick up for us a little did you like it?

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    4. Well said 21.44 I would never join unison . They never went on strike when Napo did. If they had done so things could have been different

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  7. Hi 21:44. Not keen on some of your rhetoric but support your message about staying the course with NAPO. Their will come a time, for many, when having a NAPO union representative at your side will be worth every single penny. But then being a part of a union such as NAPO is about more than 'what is in it for me' but using the power of our collective voices to have those ideas heard with a belief that we can make a positive difference. Priceless. I can say without hesitation that my local NAPO representation have made significant headway in representing members views and achieved some notable successes in very difficult times. Join NAPO, increase our representative power, make a difference.

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    1. Disagree. Pocket the savings and use the only to get a gym membership or something for you. Napo is a waste of money paying 79k for a GS who is ineffective.

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    2. C'mon 22:26. GS aside, don't take your ball home, have a kick around with the rest of us. With your attacking flare, who knows, we may score a few more goals.

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  8. There is nothing on the NAPO website about the payment of increments being paid nor about them being a year late. The news is given on the NOMs site as part of the prison service pay settlement. Probation is not mentioned!
    There is nothing for those already top of the scale .thats another pay cut!
    There is no comment about the 3% pay claim.whats happened to that.
    The questions are many, but the answers are few. NAPO, speak to your members!

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    1. If it's true it looks like the employers are keeping Napo out of the loop they seem to be running rings round the unions!

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  9. I view my union membership rather like my house insurance. I very much hope I will never need to make a claim but will continue to pay it for the safeguards it might provide. Bonus is, I have benefited from national negotiations over the years.

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    1. 22.40 get off one scaring people. Trust me your house insurance is different. You will actually get a payout. With local and national representation.... good luck with that.

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    2. My comment wasn't intended to scare anyone so I apologise if it worried you. It is simply how I rationalise my continued membership. I don't anticipate needing representation but, personally, I would prefer to have the choice about support and union membership gives me that.

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    3. Wish I had benefitted all I've seen is a steady erosion of our pay and conditions then the almighty destruction of the Probation Service. I'm not blaming the unions but I don't think Napo had been effective either

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    4. Union membership isn't about Insursnce and unfortunately this view has contributed to Napos downfall too many members sitting on the sidelines the ballots have proven that

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  10. The JE panels were made up of local management and union reps. The bandings that have resulted must have been agreed between the local management and unions. I don't see how it can now be all Nom's fault.

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    1. Totally agree with you . It has to be a time when we all realise co chair does not work for napo . It failed spectacularly once in their public incompetence's but this pair is something just as disastrous. Neither can make a decision without the other so the decision making process is weakened not strengthened. They do not have the right skills for what is required at this time and from what we are reading they are about to leave the Vice chair out to dry as the strength of the VLOs is overwhelming in their anger and the seek out the truth behind what is very obvious to many a real scandal. The NEC meet soon and this will be brushed away unless all the VLOs get a series of must answered questions in writing to the Chairs by second mail out as corrospondance. Send the same to the nec reps and ensure they ask and get the answers. A motion emergency might be a good place to nec because there is no way the two chair could have worked out for themselves and investigation is required to see exactly what has gone here and the spotlight has to be facing the general Secretary as it appears his prints are likely all over this charade.

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    2. What are you talking about 8.18 is this a riddle. What are you accusing the Ian Lawrence of?

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