Tuesday 16 May 2017

Napo and Accountability

Regular readers will be aware that there have been long-standing concerns regarding the dysfunctionality of Napo at the top. Thanks go to the Napo member for forwarding details of an interesting report and motion to be discussed at the next London Branch meeting scheduled for Friday 26th May:-

NEC report to London Branch meeting 26/05/2017

I regret to inform the Branch that the NEC meeting scheduled for 23/03/2017 was cancelled by the National Officers and Officials group at the ‘eleventh hour’ due to ‘concerns around quoracy’.

Included in the notification was a ‘confidentiality agreement’ that NEC reps now have to sign, this is not in the Constitution and was not agreed by an NEC meeting nor is there an AGM policy permitting this. If there is a breach of confidentiality we already have a disciplinary process in place to deal with such events. We feel this is unacceptable to impose without following democratic process.

NEC reps were incensed that yet another NEC meeting has been cancelled and that democracy is being removed from this union which we feel is an unacceptable position.

Having NEC reps confirm attendance prior to a meeting is a new concept as previously you had to send apologies if you couldn’t attend. There is no policy altering this position.

The NEC reps called for an emergency NEC meeting which is going to be held on the 6th June. Although this is outside the time specified by the constitution when calling an emergency meeting we felt it was important to have this face to face meeting.

As your NEC reps we have major concerns about our ability to be able to hold the National Officers and Officials to account if they feel they can cancel NEC meetings almost at will. Please support the motion we are presenting in order to enable the membership to address what we perceive to be an erosion of democracy, accountability and transparency at the top of our union.

The ‘emergency’ NEC meeting will be held on the 6th June and the regular scheduled NEC meeting is on the 22nd June so hopefully we will have lots to report to the annual Branch AGM on Friday 21st July 2017.

London Branch NEC Co reps.


--oo00oo--

8. NEC Motion 

Motion to NEC re NEC meetings and accountability. 

This Branch believes that the NEC is vital in order to hold the National Officers and Officials to account and enable the Union to undertake its business. 

This Branch understands the last meeting of the NEC was cancelled due to a perceived lack of attendees and feel that scheduled NEC meetings should never be cancelled due to quoracy. 

This Branch further understands that the TUO committee is currently examining the way we organise NEC meetings and will be making recommendations to AGM. 

This Branch requests the TUO take the following considerations into account: 

1. Examine whether quoracy can be lowered in the same way AGM quoracy was lowered in order to expedite business. 

2. Examine Section 9 of the constitution and tighten it up to make it more difficult to cancel NEC meetings in future. 

3. Revisit returning to sending apologies for absence instead of confirmations of attendance.  

London Branch NEC Co reps.

17 comments:

  1. "...Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???"

    Maybe delete "press briefings" & insert 'NEC meetings' to this Trump tweet...

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  2. NAPO is finished! This must be the final straw. It is a Trade Union in name only. A zombie union that has no presence nationally and refuses to listen to members. It takes its members money and gives nothing back. With a heavy heart I left a year ago and joined a cheaper more effective union.

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    1. 14;30 a bleating whinger what did you actually do for your union then ask for more sir and do nothing to help. Your heavy heart is an emotional response to something that you may not understand. the unions operate on a process of tactics not emotional outbursts. Zombie may reflect on your own capacity than the collective presence of union activists. Napo takes a subscription for a range of activities not your selfish wants and one way or no way . It is a democracy and you have to adapt and adopt others points of views as that is the will of a majority. Want to change it then take an effective part in it. Want to whine and join the losers enclosure go join the other union by all means. Napo and its members way better off without your underlying attitude. Vile.

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    2. 12:59 A pompous, priggish, sanctimonious arsehole with little or no self awareness. I pity the probation client faced with this kind of attitude. Vile indeed.

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    3. Oh no 20:22 your comment applies to 14:30 the whinger is indefensible. Attacking the structures that are doing what they can and had not warranted the abuse. You join the same group a whinger doing nothing supporting no one but yourself and likely to vote tory in June. Yes your vile to.
      On topic though, well done to those London activists trying to ensure the NEC remain accountable. The NEC hardly met at all last year yet again it is the same lack of accountability that we see. Lets hope the motion gets support and that the errant top table take account of their role. The constitution as refrenced.

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    4. Are you about 12? Have a word with yourself mate, Jesus

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    5. You troll Napo not one intelligent comment? Age is not the issue here its IQ and you are lacking. Make commentary that warrants debate so we don't have to read your alarmists negative stance on a union. Focus on what your nonsense started. You are like many offenders deflecting in this way, than to take account of behaviour.

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    6. I rest my case

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    7. What case ? You have not made any intelligent observation coward.

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  3. Labour Manifesto 2017

    "The part-privatisation of probation services has already failed.
    Labour will review the role of Community Rehabilitation Companies.
    The Conservatives bulldozed changes to the probation service through despite warnings that they had not been tested and were founded on
    a weak evidence base."

    Not especially thrilling, but at least there's some recognition...

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    Replies
    1. LibDem manifesto 2017

      Not a single use of the word 'probation' nor any reference to the existence of the probation service.

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  4. Off topic - did anyone see the Daily Mail exposure 15.5.17 article

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  5. Yes - thanks for the pointer Anon at 12:54 -

    Another article where we told you so is accurate but hollow -

    An Extract

    "Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: ‘Failures in the new system mean innocent people are being left in danger. Unless the Government is willing to substantially invest in our prison and probation services then the crisis will only get worse.’
    Bob Neill, who was Tory chairman of the justice select committee in the last Parliament, said: ‘We need to look much more carefully at how we follow up on people who are on community supervision.’
    Ian Lawrence of Napo, the probation officers’ union, said thousands of staff had been laid off since the ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ shake-up. This meant staff increasingly supervising offenders remotely.
    He said: ‘Offenders are being phoned up and asked, “Have you committed a crime since I last spoke to you?” The lack of face-to-face meetings mean people fall back into their old cliques, and struggle to turn their lives around. The so-called rehabilitation revolution has been an abject failure.’
    Plaid Cymru’s Liz Saville Roberts, who unearthed the figures, said: ‘We are approaching an average of 100 Serious Further Offence reviews a month. The Government cannot seriously claim the system is working.’
    The statistics, which run from February 2015 to January 2017, were dragged out of the Ministry of Justice using Parliamentary questions.
    The Transforming Rehabilitation overhaul created a National Probation Service to deal with high-risk offenders, with the remainder assigned to 21 partly-privatised Community Rehabilitation Companies. The reforms saw all prisoners sentenced to a year or less having 12 months of supervision on release. The extra 50,000 individuals being supervised represent an increase of around 25 per cent.
    Under a payment-by-results scheme, the CRCs check whether criminals are complying with court requirements and help rehabilitate them.
    Justice Secretary Liz Truss has ordered a review of probation privatisation. A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: ‘Keeping the public safe remains our absolute priority.’


    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4508858/Ten-criminals-WEEK-commit-offence-probation.html#ixzz4hM5YtVwr
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

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  6. From Twitter #London #Probation's #CRC back in the news again - have they done a press release to tell the world how good #TransformingRehabilitation is turning out to be?

    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DADcyerXYAAftxw.jpg

    https://twitter.com/Andrew_S_Hatton/status/864933891227996166

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  7. Just read an interesting article in Private Eye about MC Novo.Well worth a read.Looks as if someone has tipped P.E. off.

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    Replies
    1. Would have been better if they'd got the company name right, i.e. MTCNovo, not MCTNovo.

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  8. Go here to see Liz Saville Roberts' questions & Sam Gymiah's answers:

    http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-questions-answers/?page=1&max=20&questiontype=AllQuestions&house=commons%2clords&member=4521&keywords=probation

    *** 1,021 SFO reviews in England (529NPS+435CRC) & Wales (33+24) over the two year period 1/2/15 to 31/1/17... that's about ten a week over 104 weeks ***

    Anyone able to provide contrasting figures for 2013-2015, 2011-2013, 2009-2013?

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