Monday 18 July 2016

Fighting Talk

I notice that the election for Napo National Chair starts in earnest now that ballot papers have been sent out. Here's Chas Berry's pitch as published on the Socialist Party website

Vote Chas Berry for Napo national chair
Bold leadership and austerity fight needed


Socialist Party member Chas Berry, currently vice-chair of Napo, the union for Probation and Family Court workers, is a candidate in the union's election for national chair. Ballot papers go out on 15 July and voting closes on 25 August. Chas outlines his election programme:

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.

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.

We cannot stop there, however. In the rapidly changing criminal justice and family courts sectors we can extend our influence by attracting new members with a recruitment strategy that does not limit itself to our traditional base of support.

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

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.

I will bring combativeness to the chair, recognising also the full range of views on the most effective ways of promoting our collective interests.

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

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.

23 comments:

  1. Vote for Dino, the only suitable candidate who will make NAPO strong and be what it needs to be.

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    1. Im usually pro napo you know the one pay my subs attend branch meetings go out on strike. Im disgusted with this lot. No vision no plan. I dont care if Yvonne worked for the NHS or what napo training she has done. Anyone in office at this time has failed. membership dwindles crcs do what they like to their staff nps will be privatised soon. Ian Lawrence and Dean Rogers are full of huff and puff but no blow. Admire Chaz but he is useless as well. Raising the red flag is alright but we need new blood I like the idea of protest voting. Deano always causes controversy at agm and never backs down. I agree everyone vote for Deano let him be Ian and Dean Rogers boss those dogs need leashing.

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    2. I am up for voting Dino to annoy and upset the apple cart

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    3. David shut up you wind bag. Your head is so up top tables back side I am surprised you can't tell us what Iain Lawrence had for dinner last night.

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    4. David shut up you wind bag. Your head is so up top tables back side I am surprised you can't tell us what Iain Lawrence had for dinner last night.

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  2. Not a chance!

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  3. I like Chas's idealism but he is ineffective. We actually need a smart strategist with the sills to transform NAPO into a modern union not drag it back to the 1970s. Dino has too many skeletons.

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    1. Presumably you are voting to keep the 2 silent, low profile compliant shared chairs then. Keep NAPO as it is, without passion, challenge and strong front characters and it will continue to decline and weaken further, whilst the employers laugh at us. Dino is the only candidate strong enough to turn the union round, and his behaviour is impeccable. His reputation is formidable which is what NAPO needs - wake up people.

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  4. Sounds like new napo! I seriously doubt that anything can be saved from the burning embers! A radical approach is required but suggesting a fight against austerity isn't it. People are not interested in global issues, just their own jobs and their immediate situation.

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    1. Spot on Gail. To be honest all our energy needs to be focused on the matter at hand and protecting members jobs. We certainly need to be smart proactive and strategic. I am concerned that Napos narrative appears to be somewhat dumbed down of late and needs to go up a few notches to lead the discussion not just react to what has already occurred or which we have little power to influence or change. I prefer to promote modernisation and preserving the probation profession moving forward but surprisingly when you stand up for those things and try to do the things that will strengthen our voice in political circles you do not always receive the support you might reasonably expect from the very people you are seeking to help. For some reason people prefer tub thumping and fighting talk followed by ineffectual inaction.

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    2. To 09:08,

      You want to protect members' jobs and also support 'modernisation' and preserve the probation profession – is this 'preserving' code for probation institute?

      As I see it, modernisation has always been rolled out to justify restructuring which always means job cuts. All the newfangled delivery models of the CRCs and the E3 of the NPS are all promoted as forms of modernisation, leading to improved efficiency and effectiveness – not forgetting freeing up staff to work innovatively.

      So, without you spelling out exactly what you mean by modernisation it's impossible to understand how you protect jobs and modernise simultaneously.

      In general all the talk of protecting jobs is akin to locking the proverbial stable door.

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    3. 14:39 I'm free to want whatever I like just as you are free to anonymously visualise your own version of modernisation based on your own understanding. Modernisation as I see it is a challenge for us now as probation as we knew it is currently fragmented and in a sorry state. I think it is however important to have some kind of progressive vision of how we would like it to be. I see a modernised service being very different from what it is and has been. There isn't space here to present all my thoughts.
      My own view is that the probation service should be reunited and returned to the public sector. The service should then be organised in such a way that each division is as far as possible coterminus with a police area. All divisions been to be highly integrated including, IT services procedures etc completely standardised across the whole service so that any member of probation staff can pitch up anywhere log in and start work. I would then like to see properly researched and evaluated OBP with greater input from universities and greater opportunities for practitioners to be involved in programme development and research. Regarding CP This needs to developed a lot more to become a national programme for skills training and education including the opportunity to study and complete hours through online study. In respect of electronic monitoring this should come under probations remit and used in a carefully measured and proportionate way to support rehabilitation as it is in some other jurisdictions. However, any new initiative would need to be carefully trialed and evaluated. Probations main mission needs to be rehabilitation and compliance with community orders not punishment with an emphasis on responsibility and as far as possible self-management and community reintegration. I'm not keen on prison and I only believe that dangerous and violent offenders need to be imprisoned. However proper provisions need to be developed in the community for those who need extra support so I would propose the establishment of more approved premises by qualified probation staff. None of these things would involved staff reductions but some would involve reduced funding for prisons, private contractors of electronic monitoring, expansion and investment in CP (maybe some money from jobcentres etc. Best I can do on the back of an envelope for you.

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    4. Makes sense! You need a job in noms/moj!

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    5. again I agree with Tonto (who agrees with David Raho). It's not a million miles away from what we had and what we strived for, until that CG monster added his poisonous ideas, privateers and penny pinching civil servants and watched the whole thing dissolve in a toxic brew, taking caring professional people with it.

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    6. privateer - a profiteer not a buccaneer!

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    7. David Raho gas bag galore. You are too cosy with mtcnovo for your opinion to matter. Look at the state of London under Pat Waterman et al.

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  5. Napo could start immediately appealing to new members in the nps by providing clarification of the E3 process and to challenge what is likely to see most of us again shit on the same as members moved into CRCs at the split.

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  6. NPS would make things easier for everyone if they made more effort to work in union with crc rather than against!stop rejecting breaches and be more helpful and considerate!

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    1. Just to clarify the position with rejected breaches.Breaches are rejected for a number of reasons. Usually it is a legal reason and please note that Prosecutors never want to reject but they cannot attend court with dubious prosecutions. What appears to be lacking in Crc is an enforcement advice centre. The NPS is not empowered to advise Crc on a continuous basis.Submit the correct paperwork and Prosecutors will present the case with confidence.

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    2. I think there is more to it than this! Nps and crc are at odds! It is not incorrect paperwork that is the problem!

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  7. For me NAPO needs to focus on protecting members against aggressive employers and seek to influence the future shape of Probation by working with others. That TR is a shambles is a given in my mind, that it can be other than that, a fudge at best, I very much doubt. Once the people we work with realise they are commodities for profit and the service that is offered to them and the public is second rate, a tokenistic sham then it will crumble. What replaces TR is where the new battle will emerge I think. It is a battle that I think will see the profession of Probation work refreshed or lost. I have a few ideas and I am sure others who read this blog do as well. It would be refreshing to see Probation professionals genuinely consulted on their ideas. The realisation of such ideas is next decade stuff I would suggest.

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  8. "What replaces TR is where the new battle will emerge I think. It is a battle that I think will see the profession of Probation work refreshed or lost. I have a few ideas and I am sure others who read this blog do as well. It would be refreshing to see Probation professionals genuinely consulted on their ideas."

    Excellent! Can I tempt you into possibly trying to kick-start such a discussion by means of a guest blog piece? Please get in touch if you would like to discuss things first.

    Cheers,
    Jim

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  9. Anyone here about the NPS manager pulling out the CRC IT cables as the new CRC server installed knocked NPS of visor? Apparently there was mayhem

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