Latest From Napo 117

N 26/2016
TO: All Napo NPS members (by mail out)

CC: Napo CRC members (for information)
Branch Chairs, Vice-Chairs, Secretaries and Convenors
National Executive Committee
Family Court SEC (for information)
Napo Officers and Staff

Dear Member,

E3 Job Evaluation Appeal Results

Napo Officers and Officials share the disappointment that members will have about the outcome of the Job Evaluation Appeal panels for the posts of AP Managers (Band 5), AP Residential Workers (Band 2) and Victim Liaison Officers (VLOs) (Band 3).

Napo's involvement in the process

In order to avoid any confusion it may help to be explicit about the process used for the appeals on each of the grades involved. For example, in respect of the VLO role, this was not an evaluation appeal of the job that VLOs have been doing; it was an evaluation of the job that E3 says VLOs will be doing. This means that many of the vital tasks that VLO colleagues have been undertaking with victims and families of victims will no longer be part of the future job description.The same applies to the AP Residential Worker and AP Manager roles. This speaks volumes about the consequences of this Government’s continuing austerity policies and their desire to cut costs and offer the minimum possible service by cutting out job functions that they see as unnecessary. We continue to challenge this approach at every opportunity with Ministers and senior NPS management.

As is the case for all the job evaluation outcomes, the new job roles are part of the changes being brought in by E3 and anyone currently being paid at a higher band will be covered by the protections agreed in the E3 implementation Agreement which we secured before the process began.

When the original evaluation results of these grades were published many members were unhappy about them but so was the employer (in respect of the AP Manager outcome) and it was agreed by the parties that we should have a process of appeal.

This was not the familiar individual process of job evaluation appeal and, given the numbers of potential appeals, the Unions prepared collective appeals to be re-evaluated. For Napo, Katie Lomas (National Vice-Chair) worked with specialist practitioner Napo members to prepare appeals and make suggested amendments to the Job Descriptions and Job Description Questionnaires. We then met with the Employers to go through a process of discussion for each of the roles and every amendment that we had proposed.

It is useful at this point to note that this is not an individual process where the employee's account of what their role is or will be in the future is automatically accepted. This is an employer led process and under the scheme rules it is for the employer to dictate which duties and responsibilities they want to include in a new job description. This means that if they want a job to have a lower grade, they can remove duties and responsibilities from the role. We of course sought to challenge this during the appeal process where we and the practitioners that attended the discussions with us, worked very hard to ensure that we challenged each area where duties and responsibilities were, in the opinion of our members, missing; however it is the employers’ prerogative to remove these.

This work, especially in respect of the VLO role was done in conjunction with practicing members and took into account the wealth of information and the considerable amount of time that members had contributed in their work alongside Katie.

Where do we go from here?

Napo will work with all of our members involved to ensure that no one is expected to carry out any duties and responsibilities that have now been removed from the job description in order to achieve the new E3 specific grading. We will liaise with members impacted by the new grading to ensure that the E3 agreement is adhered to and that where applicable, members currently graded above the appeal outcomes are offered support to seek alternative roles at the appropriate grade during the three years of pay protection.

We will also work with members to ensure that we continue to raise the issues you have highlighted around new operating models and concerns about service delivery and the public safety considerations. We will of course need ongoing input from members to do this effectively, feeding back to branches, officers and officials. We will also be holding a fringe meeting at AGM specifically to allow members to meet and discuss issues relating to E3 implementation.

Napo will work with all members involved to review the situation after 6 months of working to the new E3 job descriptions so that if, in practice, there are elements of the role that were not included in the job evaluation appeal we will apply for a re-evaluation as per the NNC policy.

We fully appreciate that this news will not be well received by our members in each of the grades that were appealed. Be assured that Napo has done all it can to try and secure a different outcome and we have received personal testimony from members who worked with us closely during this exercise to confirm this position.

Napo will continue to challenge the operational rationale for the E3 programme and feedback through Napo branches, about its impact on members is encouraged.

Yours sincerely

CHRIS WINTERS & YVONNE PATTISON        KATIE LOMAS            IAN LAWRENCE
National Co-Chairs                                            National Vice-Chair     General Secretary

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A comment from yesterday - (I think I'd like to know who sat on the original JE panels and what their experience and qualifications were?)

I just heard today that the GS and the NAPO TOP team of who exactly have agreed the VLO outcome with an excuse as long as your arm. This GS earns approximately £75k Per year or £6250 per month or £1562 per week or £312 per day. So any job he is doing I would want to be assured he is the best that this money can buy. On current performance and management apologies, a union in decline, what are we paying for? Plus his pension.