Tuesday 19 July 2016

Fighting Talk 2

Here we have the pitch from what might be termed the 'continuity' candidates for Napo chair:-

Candidate's Statement Section (a)

Yvonne Pattison 


l started working for the Probation Service in 2002 and previously spent 11years in the NHS within the mental health field. Whilst in post I have gained experience in a variety of roles, including Court Duty and Reports, Victim Liaison, Programmes facilitation and Treatment Management and Offender Management. l also spent a period of time working in a specialist development role looking at accommodation provision and was the probation link to a multi-agency project providing accommodation for perpetrators of domestic abuse. This project, named 'Making Safe' went on to win the Butler Trust Award for Public Protection in 2008.

l am a trained and experienced facilitator in a number of Accredited Programmes, both general offending behaviour and the more specialised risk programmes, for example sex offender and domestic abuse.

In addition, l am trained to deliver training in respect of Safeguarding Children and have previously been responsible for this throughout the York and North Yorkshire Area and North Yorkshire Safeguarding children Board. l am also Train the Trainer qualified for RM 2000 and LlAP and have undertaken SARN training too.

In Trade Union terms I have been a Napo member for a number of years and was active at a Branch level for around 7 years, holding posts within the branch as a ULR initially and became Branch Secretary and then Branch Chair, a position l held for around 4/5 years. l am an experienced staff side and LJNCC negotiator and was also NEC rep for a time. l have represented a number of members on a variety of issues, including return to work following maternity, Ieaving employment due to sickness, discrimination, reasonable adjustments, capability, grievance and more. Whilst still the Branch Chair of North Yorkshire Branch l was involved in the merger of my branch with two others, however, l have not held a Branch post since our local AGM in July 2014.

l was a member of the local Trades Council branch, in Scarborough, and took part in local activities pertaining to issues across the wider Trade Union Movement.

On a National level I was a member of Training Committee for 2 years between 2011 and 2013 and was also Chair of Campaigning Committee for the same period. I have spoken at Napo's lobby of Parliament and l have spoken to motions at our own AGM and at TUC and at Women's TUC.

l have attended the Family Court Section conference in both 2013 and 2014 as Women in Napo link to Family Court Section and as National Vice-Chair respectively.

l was elected as National Vice-Chair in the 2013 elections and took up post in October that year. I had particular responsibility for London Branch as their link officer. My link committees were Equal Rights Committee and Professional Committee. Additionally, following the resignation of the National Chair, the Officers' group have taken a collective approach to covering the role and its responsibilities which has resulted in me becoming Link Officer to the South East Regional Branches as well as link to Steering Committee, AGM planning and the info@napo mailbox.

Chris Winters and l were elected as National Co-Chair in 2014 and have held that post since then.

For the Napo year 2012-2013 l formed part of the Employees Selection and Recruitment Committee and was part of the panel for Acting GS, Substantive GS and AGS posts.

I have completed a number of Trade Union/Napo training courses including ULR, Discrimination and Harassment, Representing Members, TUPE and Public Speaking for Women.

l have also completed the TUC Employment Law Diploma and the TUC Equalities Diploma.

Since taking up post in 2014 I have remained link to London Branch and additionally our Northern lreland Branch. I remain link to Steering Committee and AGM planning group.

I also sit on the executive committee of the GFTU.

l attend TUC Congress alongside the General Secretary and I have attended a number of different events representing Napo including being part of a panel debate on Justice in Meltdown.

l have been involved in the fight against TR in the High Court liaising with the legal team and attending hearings. At the inception of TR l was involved in meeting with a number of CRC owners alongside the GS.

Post TR l have been part of a regular team from Napo HQ which have met with senior NOMS officials on a variety of issues such as lT, JE and E3. Currently attend the Probation Consultative Forum and the TU engagement meetings on a regular basis.

Chris Winters

l joined Napo in 1988 and have been activist for over 25 years. Having initially held a number of branch posts including Branch Secretary, NEC rep and Branch Chair/lead negotiator, subsequently become involved on a national level. This has included:-

  • Co-Chair of Equal Rights Committee.
  • l have been a member of Negotiating Committee on three separate occasions most recently in early 2014, including attendance at the National Negotiating Council meetings with national employers.
  • l was a National Vice-Chair between 2000 and 2003 which included being the link officer to Campaigning Committee and Equal Rights Committee. In addition l undertook the full range of employer responsibilities on behalf of Napo.
  • Chair of Training Committee
  • l was the Branch Chair of the former Humberside Branch for the 3.5 years prior to taking up my current roles which involved a redundancy risk situation due to budget issues in the former Humberside Probation Trust as well as all of the consultation linked to the early local implementation of Transforming Rehabilitation.
In February 2014 l was elected as an Interim Vice-Chair by the National Executive Committee. I was the link officer to Health and Safety Committee and Training Committee, as well as being link officer for North East Region.

ln October 2014 Yvonne Pattison and l were elected as National Co-Chair following a contested election. During this period we were involved in the decision making in relation to the Judicial Review. This involved regular meetings with both solicitors and leading Queens Counsel and attendance at the Royal Court of Justice.

As a Co-Chair of Napo I have been involved in representing Napo with senior NOMS officials including Michael Spurr, Colin Allars as well as lan Mulholland from Public Sector Prisons. ln addition I have also been with meeting with the Secretary of State and the Minister of State. l have also been involved in rallies and lobby of Parliament, TUC anti austerity events as well as attending the occasional Justice Union Parliamentary Group meeting at Westminster.

As a national officer l have also contributed to Napo's responses to Probation Instructions as well as both Napo's response to both the E3 blueprint and the Consultation Document.

Another of my role as co-Chair has been to chair Napo's Probation Negotiating Committee and act as Vice-Chair of the National Negotiating Council meeting with senior representatives of NOMS HR, CRC employer representatives and fellow trade unionists.

I am the link Officer to Napo Cymru branch.

As Co-Chair one of my areas of responsibilities is to work with colleagues on the preparation of meetings such as NECs and the AGM as well as chairing them to ensure business is managed and participants are able to participate. 

In addition l undertake the role as the lead employer side representative in relation to Napo's internal negotiating machinery with the recognised trade union. I am also a member of the NEC's finance subcommittee responsible for putting together a draft budget alongside the Finance Officer and colleagues and reviewing it during the year.

l qualified as a Probation officer in 1989 having completed a post graduate social work qualification. My professional career spans nearly 27 years has been a varied one with a conscious decision to remain a practitioner. I have worked within case management on a number of occasions in the Hull area as well as working in both the Magistrates and Crown Court for a number of years. l was subsequently seconded to the Prison Service for five years before becoming involved in setting up a lCCP pilot project (and early pre-cursor to loM). I was actlvely involved in the supervision, development and assessment of Probation staff for approximately 20 years. Initially as a social work Practice Teacher and then as a Practice Development Assessor and NVQ assessor for both Trainee Probation officers and PSO colleagues undertaking NVQ level 3 awards.

l have been based at HMP Humber in East Yorkshire for the last 4 years, working as a seconded probation officer/offender supervisor. This has been on a 50% basis combined with Trade Union facility time.

Section (b)

ln 2014 we originally chose to stand as co-chairs because we believed that collectively we bring a wider range of skills, knowledge and both professional and trade union experience. We believe this has worked effectively over the Iast two years and has fostered good team working within Napo. We especially value working with a high number of women colleagues at a senior level.

The last two years has seen very significant challenges for members and Napo as an organisation and we have endeavoured to deal with these challenges in a calm, inclusive
und strategic manner.

We remain totally committed to representing Napo as evidenced by our regular lengthy working days in London.

In our view the priorities for Napo moving forward should be as follows:
  • Protect members pay, codes and conditions in an ever changing negotiating framework. 
  • The continued promotion of professional values, training and practice in all sectors of the Family and Criminal Justice systems by our interaction with national employers taking account of members contributions. 
  • Ensure that Napo is a supportive and inclusive union for all members whoever they are employed by and in what ever role.
  • Ensure that Napo not only retains our existing members but also find ways to grow our membership by exploring other options for recruitment.
  • Ensure the promotion of equality and diversity is fundamental to everything which Napo does.
  • Support branches/sections and members and ensure that Napo is responsive to the external challenges but also meets the union and member's needs.

40 comments:

  1. Sorry, their pasts, not much to shout about, i.e how we got here! More interested in what the future looks like!

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    1. Agree 100%. They have not set out a single proposal for what they'd do over the next 2 years or why we should vote for them. If I wanted their career history then I'd have looked at their LinkedIn profiles!

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    2. They have simply set out six priorities, along the lines of protect, promote, support and some 'ensures' – it's all boilerplate language. They will do the majority without breaking into a sweat. Where they will fail is in protecting members' conditions of service. They must be in denial of all the job losses thus far and if not then they know that their ability to negotiate effectively is empty talk. They cannot spell out what they are going to do over the next two years, because there is no solidarity amongst the membership. What is the point of spouting fighting talk when there is no fight in the docile membership.

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    3. Useless all of them.

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  2. Their commitment to trade unionism shines through and they have been very busy. And I would say they are as deserving as anyone else for the chair's mantle.

    Reading their manifesto you get no sense of the upheavals of the past two years, the inability of the unions to protect jobs and the general weakness of the unions to influence events. You get no sense of a crisis in recruitment or of the poor engagement of the membership – in the last elections for chair in 2014 the turnout was a mere 15%.

    Yesterday there was bold talk by others of modernisation, but when defined it turned out to be a nostalgic wish to return to pre-TR days, which is plainly unrealistic.

    All the candidates stand for the same things and shares similar values. They are probably all equally qualified – but none of them can actually make a real difference, because the unions are powerless and are hostages to fortune. None of the candidates can therefore say what they are actually going to do if elected.

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    1. 'Yesterday there was bold talk by others of modernisation, but when defined it turned out to be a nostalgic wish to return to pre-TR days, which is plainly unrealistic.' And yet you offer no ideas just negatives. A nostalgic wish is sometimes the basis of a new beginning building on the best aspects of the past but learning from experience. What would your vision of a modernised probation service be?

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  3. Why don't all Probation staff NPS and CRC have a democratic vote whether to stay in TR or get out!!
    I could take the outcome and hand it over to our Minister personally. NAPO and all the other Unions can keep doing whatever they do and we can have a referendum of our own.
    Just a thought?

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  4. I have had enough of this lot. All NPS all smothered with facility time yet Napo still feels empty and lack lustre. I will vote Deano just to annoy Napo's ivory tower. Everyone should vote Deano get rid of the dead wood and mix things up what have we to lose?

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  5. Where are the CRC reps. It is like Tom Rendon all over again. Napo looking out for themselves. How did this happen. Hang your heads in shame.

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  6. Yvonne Pattison link to London and Northern Ireland. Never seen you and I go to every branch meeting. Spoke to my colleague in NI said the same.

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  7. Chairs are toothless - its the GS that makes a difference and Napo the union lost its mojo whilst Benny Hill (aka Jonathan Ledger) was in charge. Since then its been a dizzying spiralling descent (cue music & speeded-up footage) into the gutter & utter pointlessness. TR was hatched while Benny was gurning & groping, eyes off the political ball & firmly fixed on the nearest set of warm globes. NOMS & MoJ will have been in seventh heaven. Nothing's been right since - role boundaries have faded into history, pay has been deep frozen, t&c's handed back on a plate, EVR agreed for a priveleged few in clumsy incompetent negotiations whilst members are robbed of careers & payments, & wholesale privatisation more or less embraced.

    Listen... Hear how quiet its been? That's the sound of Napo PR & top table hard at work.

    Vote for a chair; a table; a doormat; a kettle. It won't matter. The May Queen won't care & La Truss simply loves opening new pork or cheese markets, or any kind of market-driven economy. TR will be manna to Elizabeth.

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    1. Quiet? I'm going deaf at the sound of tumble weed. Too busy with his press secretary

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    2. Too right last couple of AGMs were something out of What the Butler Saw

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  8. Wow got my voting papers today. Oh dear god it is that time of year we will be inundated with nonsense from this lot begging pleading and promising things they can ever achieve all for a vote.

    Steering Committee

    Keith Stokeld wow he done such a grand job in finances why not give him another chance. NOT. Just look at our financial situation sorry he wont get my vote. Hed sink the titanic hitting a icebube

    Tony Mercer mediocre at best.

    Iqbal Bhoqal done f all for diversity. Look how disabled staff are being screwed over and over again and again time and time.

    Vice Chair

    Tina Williams mediocre at best.

    Keith Stokeld AGAIN now that is what i call edging your bets. wow desperate for facility time he must be.

    Katie Lomas failed to wow me.

    Dino Peros everyone seems to hate him. For that reason i like him. He will get my vote if only to p*ss off Ian (total failure) Lawrence and Dean (useless as a chocolate mantel piece) Rogers.

    Yvonne Pattison and Chris Winters again failed to wow and instead of guiding Ian Lawrence and Dean Rogers they just follow him. Yes women.

    Chas Berry the boring socialist.

    If this is the best we got im joining unison. We are doomed.

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    1. I don't feel we should do personal assassinations. But I really relate to your discourse. Napo is in a mess and we need to sort it. No good attacking top table as weak as they are. How do we constitutionally get rid of Ian Lawrence and Dean Rogers? This may be our last agm and we need to as members organise. I would like to see a vote of no confidence in Ian and Dean, hopefully they would resign without benefits and we could get some fresh fighting blood to fight noms, MOJ and crc. Because I am not feeling any fight from them nor are our colleagues.

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    2. I would second any motion of no confidence in Ian and Dean. What ever happened to Tania Bassett she gone quiet to

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    3. If you want Ian and Dean gone voting Dino would be a good start.

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    4. None of the above

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    5. @15:54 May i suggest that when making personal attacks, one simply must signs ones name.
      Feel free to stand, its open to any NAPO member

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    6. Nope love hiding and telling the truth who could I be? Close friend or distant enemy

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  9. I read Chas' thing. Decided to translate it.

    Chas said
    "Our challenge is how to stay relevant to our established members while appealing to the broader, more diverse and generally younger group of staff likely to enter the workforce in future".

    Translated it says "screw old staff and old school staff, forgive employers for employing white young females over everyone and anyone else".

    Chas says "Decent pay, quick progression 'up the scale' and manageable workloads are what members tell me they want, and these are the priorities around which we can unite and re-build our union. This starts with defending national collective bargaining and increasing our membership density in existing workplaces".

    Translated "we do nothing whislt we remain in pat freezes and office close around us". Maybe he does not have to hot desk or kiosk interview service users in Chivalry Road.

    Chas says
    "This will be tough but I think our union is uniquely placed to achieve it".

    Translated Chas lives in Egypt (in denial).

    Chas says "As national vice-chair for the past two years I have the knowledge and experience to lead the officers group and provide some continuity while we make the changes necessary to adapt to the new environments. Many activists recognise me as a socialist and anti-austerity campaigner".

    Translated "Napo and I achieved nothing".

    Chas says
    "Confidence will be restored when members start to see improvements they can measure".

    Translated. "When Napo goes bankrupt and there is no union left maybe members will appreciate what they had. Free lanyards for £30 plus pounds a month and a useless journal".

    Chas says "This requires bold leadership and a willingness to link our day to day struggles with the wider trade union movement in the fight against austerity. I believe I can provide that leadership".

    Translated "fire Ian Lawrence and his minion smarmy Dean" because we have no real leadership.

    I think the translated version is better. Vote for Dino, Chas and his cronies will never challenge Ian and Dean.

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  10. If you want someone who is passionate and committed to what he does, who is currently demonstrating his mettle and abilities by taking on Working Links management as they attempt to ride roughshod over the Members rights, who is knowledgeable,tenacious and Teflon coated (that US, unfazed by management attempts to wrongfoot him), who will be 100% ON YOUR SIDE then vote for Dino. If you want more of what's been on offer the last 2 years; choose from the others.
    Deb

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  11. 'ThAt is' not 'ThAt US'

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  12. The thing that really upsets me is that we have a right bunch of useless yes people. They could not stop TR they cannot fight for workers rights and as a result staff are off sick, being disciplined and bullied by management and most of this bunch running for various posts have nothing to offer.

    Probation officers make the worse chairs look at Tom Rendon, went for a job in senior management the day before he called us out on strike. Lissa Robinson (the least said the better) Yvonne Pattison, useless, Chris Winters invisible door mouse, at least a door mouse squeaks. We need real leadership. Sorry Chas I used to respect you but you have done nothing at all since in post.

    I think we need someone new maybe a PSO such as Dino could swing things. I will be voting for Dino becuase the rest have failed, not even sure if they tried. I also agree we need to get rid of Ian GS. Napo needs a shake up top down but membership need to also wake up and stop putting up with this rubbish. Sack Ian who has a propensity towards blondes and red heads. Don't vote Chas, Yvonne or Chris in for christ sake. Lets fight and get our dignity back.

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    1. Dino has been there before and did f...all self serving hot air

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    2. I agree he is lazy and self serving seems to be the theme to take napo office these days.

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    3. I can not agree with that. What is Dino going to get out of it? Explain what you mean by self serving. In DDC CRC he is fighting to protect jobs. He is the driver behind the current dispute. He is certainly NOT lazy.

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  13. I urge everyone who is pissed off with napo and wants to turn the union around vote Dino.

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    1. Your joking?

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    2. Not at all. He continues to fight for his members.

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  14. Replies

    Anonymous19 July 2016 at 19:35
    Your joking?

    OK who would you vote for? Chas, Yvonne or door mouse

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  15. What a sorry state of affairs not the people running for office but the comments on here. I am ashamed to be a PO. Personal attacks, swearing and immature mud flinging. Grow up the lot of you. Ian is an honourable leader and true fighter he has real grit. Dean Rogers is intelligent his intelligence is second to none. Tania Basett has been the best press officer napo has ever had much better then sticky fingered harry fletcher.

    Yvonne and Chris are hard working and care about napo. We have an A-Team so grow up and get behind us

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    1. I am still trying to figure out if this post is genuine or satire?

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    2. Got to be satire ...Tania Bassett on £40,000 + a year best press officer ever......I don't think so!

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  16. Okay trying to change the tone here slightly how do you think Yvonne/Chris, Chas or Dino could do and should do to steer our beloved ship right?

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  17. Sorry HMSNAPOTitanic sank when Failing Grayling stopped failing and succeded in destroying probation and napo. Nothing we can do now to save ourselves do what I did quit napo and join unison

    https://join.unison.org.uk/

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    1. Why unison did nothing.

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    2. In my area probation staff who are unison members get absolutely nothing from their reps. It's a disgrace to be honest they can't even get hold of them. Don't get me started on their lack of support for Napo during strike action totally undermined our action and then were quite happy to hide behind Napo who took the flak for allowing TR.

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  18. What did anyone expect NAPO to do re TR. Small Union that gave it a go, tried to fight TR. It's like blaming the weak for the financial crisis. We were rammed good and proper. Who really said no, fight TR to the last, not NAPO members on the whole, Unison ducked big style. My mates went on strike for near a year, they lost but still hold their heads high. We went on strike for a day or two. Don't blame NAPO they are only as strong as the resolve of their members. Hope NAPO survive, times change though not always for the better and losing NAPO would feel like one of those times.

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