Calling London

London is bar far the largest of the privatised CRC's and hence what happens there is extremely important to everyone, not least the MoJ and Napo, but particularly the future of the whole TR omnishambles. I don't think it's a coincidence that things seem to be moving rather quickly after the departure of London Napo's redoubtable chair Pat Waterman, together with other key people. 

The suspicion must be that the American owners are seeking to take advantage of a situation where they possibly feel there's a much-weakened union branch. Can we please continue to use this forum to share as much information as possible about what exactly is happening to probation in our capital city?  

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It's no longer a rumour about facility time being removed in London CRC. Napo confirmed it in an email yesterday saying it won't represent members anymore which is a breach of membership rights. This is the end of Napo and the start of the London CRC tyranny. If Napo wasn't the most bloody expensive Union in the country it'd probably have a lot more members to throw its weight around. Either way, members have paid their subs and are entitled to representation so Napo better start pulling its finger out and hire some reps.

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Share the email, as I doubt that Napo said any such thing as portrayed here.

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I can't share the whole thing as it means forwarding the email; they track these things!! The email was sent yesterday by Napo London and states;

"Regrettably, as things stand London CRC have decided to "cease" the facility time arrangement they had with London Napo pending a "review". With this new situation, it will be increasingly difficult to offer representation to members in the CRC, in all but the most urgent cases.". .... "However, it is important to note that a National Representative will be allocated to any case where there is a possible outcome of dismissal."

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The ending of a facility time agreement is not the ending of representation as this is a legal right. Any member required to attend a formal hearing has the right to representation and if this is a work colleague or trade union rep, these individuals have a legal right to paid time off to prepare and attend the meeting.

You can see the immediate logistical demands this places on the union and the challenges of negotiating workload relief on an ad hoc basis when representation is needed, hence Napo's line about prioritising representation to 'urgent' cases.

This is another CRC kick in the teeth and further underscores the weakness of the agreement that Napo signed prior to the split. It seems clear that some CRCs want to break union organisation at local level.

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Haven't the government stopped all unions from having 'paid'facility time, or facility time allocated during contracted working hours? I'm sure that was legislated on when they attacked the check off process. Maybe someone with more knowledge then me could put me right if I'm wrong, but if I am correct I'd assume that all workplaces will soon follow suit and 'paid' facility time will go across the board.

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The House of Lords voted down the attempt to reduce the facility time within the public sector. The Trade Union Act 2016 decrees that employers must collate info on how much facility time is taken and the cost to the organisation, but I can't see anything in the Act that erodes the original provision or quantifies it any way.

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The owners MTCnovo and the employer London CRC have no clue about employee relations as they already got rid of anyone in HR who knew anything. They want to appear as if they are consulting with recognised trade unions for appearances but are extremely guarded and understandably nervous given their precarious financial position and the game they are playing with the MoJ. They are certainly gearing up to make staff cuts in the last quarter of this year and believe they can call all the shots and keep getting work out of their managers right up until the point where it is obvious they are about to shaft them. 

The fact is there are very few union reps still employed and they are aiming to make it very difficult for those that remain to be released from their full-time jobs - unless it suits them. There are all sorts of agreements, understandings and legal requirements, but they depend on dealing with honourable employers, not the sharks and chancers, failed prison careerists etc now in charge in London. The majority of the senior management team are already planning their exits realising that the ship is well and truly on the rocks and there are very few lifeboats. Public sector requirements do not apply to public limited companies who put profit before people.

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It will be recalled that Pat Waterman's staff updates used to feature regularly on this blog, but I notice that I never got around to publishing a couple from earlier this year. So, lets rectify that, both as a reminder of her sterling work and because they probably contain still useful information. The first has been edited because it was concerned with a tax matter that only seemed to affect London staff:-

Meanwhile on 18th February staff in the CRC received an email from Donna Charles Vincent advising them that some temporary Probation Officers and Probation Service Officers would be leaving at the end of that month and some more would be leaving at the end of this month.

Although this may come as a shock and a surprise to some of you it is important to remember that the contract funding was always based on there being 347 Probation Officers and Probation Service Officers (Full Time Equivalents). The temporary staff were always surplus to requirements and were kept on to act as a “buffer” during the transition to the cohort model. Once the cohort model was established the work force would be reduced to the target on which the contract funding was based.

Out of a total of 107 temporary Probation Officers and Probation Service Officers, 32 were “let go” at the end of February and it is planned to let a further 40 go at the end of this month. These temporary staff represent about a quarter of all Offender Managers in the London CRC.

Although the intention is to have a fully permanent workforce, realistically there will always be a need to have some temporary staff of approximately 30 to cover for maternity leave and long term sickness absence.

The attainment of the 347 FTE operating number from April will not require any Probation Officer or Probation Service Officer redundancies. There will be some vacancies as a result of attrition but these will be available for the 32 PQF graduating in June/July.

As the services of temporary staff are dispensed with management will wish to engage in a process they are calling “smoothing”. This will involve moving staff around as some offices had more temporary staff than others.

This could be good news for those who wish to change their current location or cohort but it could present problems for those who have no wish to move from their present postings. We shall be fully engaged in consultation and negotiation with CRC management about what ever processes they propose to implement these changes in an attempt to protect the interests of all members.

Clearly these reductions in staffing levels will have implications for workloads and working practices. It was emphasised at the CRC JNCC that cohort ACO’s have always known about these planned reductions in the workforce and will have been organising their service delivery models accordingly.

We are presently engaged in discussions about the WMT in an attempt to ensure that it is an accurate reflection of the work being undertaken. But our advice is as always that you should only work your hours. Remember that you can only do so much and take of yourselves and each other.

Pat Waterman
Branch Chair

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A Message from Pat Waterman Chair of Napo London Branch

TO: NAPO MEMBERS

Members in the CRC will have received an email from Helga Swidenbank on Friday 4th March entitled: CRC Directive 102 - OASYS Initial Sentence Plan.

Below is an email that I have just sent to Helga.

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Helga

I am writing in response to the email you sent out to all CRC staff on Friday 4th March advising them that with effect from today "it is a requirement that all Offender Managers must complete a Sentence Plan in OASYS within 10 days of the Service User attending their first appointment on any order or licence".

Members have expressed concerns to me about the content and timing of this directive.

I note your appreciation of what you call "considerable challenges" with the new ICT in some locations. At the JNCC last week we were advised that there are four "stranded" sites (Wandle Road, Orpington, Kingston and Walthamstow) that could not be cabled and would be reliant on WiFi for at least the next four/five months. Reference was also made to three other locations that were referred to as "problematical" (Hounslow, Riverside House and Lewisham). I have reason to believe that this list is not exhaustive and that other offices continue to experience ICT difficulties.

Therefore your suggestion that staff "may have to make the time to work from a cabled office" could present some staff with more difficulties than others. It may also not be possible for them to simply "make time" within their contracted hours of employment.

I wish to bring to your attention that during the “split” of London Probation Trust into the NPS and the CRC performance targets in relation to OASYS were frequently suspended. Staff were told to prioritise offender management i.e. seeing cases, updating Delius and multi-agency working.

We have been advised by Paul Scarborough that in the WMT a full OASYS assessment (layer 3) is timed at 3-4 hours. The rise in average case loads that is likely to result from the decision to “let go” a significant number of temporary staff by the end of this month is also likely to result in unsustainable workloads. Cases are being transferred without any OASYS having been done previously.

Although for approximately the past year members in the NPS have been working towards a target of completing a Sentence Plan in OASYS within 10 days, previously this only applied to Tier 4 cases.

We will be raising issues at the next JNCC about the current WMT which makes no allowances for Office duties, UPW inductions, MARAC meetings and Safeguarding Children matters. This new directive is being implemented in what is already a very stretched, challenging and stressful time for members.

Pat Waterman
Chair Greater London Branch NAPO