Saturday 10 June 2017

Latest From Napo 151

Edited highlights from the latest blog by Napo General Secretary, Ian Lawrence:-

Napo's future

While we await what is likely to be a lively summer for national politics, I hope that all of our members across Probation, Cafcass, the CRC estate and Probation Board Northern Ireland can involve themselves in what I believe will be the most important consultative process that Napo has ever held with our membership at any time in our proud history.

This week’s reconvened meeting of your National Executive Committee received a presentation on a potential recovery strategy which is designed to reestablish engagement with our members and open up involvement opportunities for new members and activists that will bring the union closer to your workplace and allow us to be more visible in demonstrating the tremendous amount of work that your reps and national officers and Napo staff put in to help protect and promote your interests. The initial debate on the draft strategy was full and frank and it reinforced the point that Napo's options for survival and regeneration are still very much in our hands, but that ultimately our members will decide the future of their union.

The NEC meet again on the 22nd of this month to undertake a fuller debate about Napo's future direction of travel, and whatever the outcomes are from that gathering it’s pretty certain that there will be important recommendations for our members to consider right through to what will undoubtedly be a critical Annual General Meeting in Nottingham 13/14 October.

Essentially, and as nearly every trade union in Britain (except perhaps RMT and ASLEF who are in perpetual struggle with a despicable employer) is also finding, we have lost more members than is comfortable over the last three years. That is a huge debating point in itself and might be seen as grist to the mill for our detractors, but the plain fact (because facts are always pretty important) is that it’s largely as a result of two major factors, the first being the massive CRC job cuts following Transforming Rehabilitation, and the second being the negative impact following the cynical removal of Napo subs being paid direct from pay roll ( 'Check off').

As I have said before, both situations were predicated on the basis that weakening Napo was very much in the employers’ interest, yet we are still here, still trying to do what we have always done and still getting results for individual members at local level and through our excellent panel of National Representatives, and wherever we can collectively; such as the no redundancy agreement in the NPS and the recent result on Maternity Pay and Harmonisation. You will by now have hopefully had a look at our PAY STRATEGY and we are entering a critical period of negotiation on this.

Let me also say that there is no complacency about the task we face to offer you direct support in the face of issues such as workload pressures (across all of the 24 employers we engage with), Health & Safety, E3, and Assistive Technology to name a few things, but in order to be more effective we need to take a look at what we do and how we do it as the demands on our time and resources are much greater than before TR was implemented.

The NEC will be receiving further material from the Officers and myself next week which will further inform their next discussions and I expect that they will need to meet again as an Executive before the final date for the submission of motions and constitutional amendments which is Friday 18th August. Please look out for more news in the coming weeks.

United Britain

One thing that Theresa May spoke of earlier today was her (or is that the) government’s intention to do everything necessary to combat the threat from Islamic terrorism. Aside from the fact that terrorism has the same result irrespective of the perpetrator, it seems pretty likely that we will see some proposals emerge that will themselves test the relationships in and between communities in the wake of the recent atrocities in Westminster, Manchester and last week in South London.

Our members involved with the 'Prevent' strategy had plenty to say about it at the Napo Black Members gathering a few months back and little did we know then how this and other initiatives would soon be the subject of a new political focus.

As always, our members will carry out their duties to the letter in response to new instructions affecting practice but I hope that before we see the emergence of knee jerk populist solutions designed to protect us from harm, some serious discussions are held with our practitioner experts about the feasibility of any new policies. Needless to say, I am sure the Police Federation would welcome some dialogue about reductions in Officers (armed and unarmed) and their capacity to act upon vital intelligence in the face of the claim that there are potentially 23,000 people out there in the UK who have been recognised as having the potential to do us harm.

29 comments:

  1. May be the worst General Secretary should be put at the top of the 'strategy list', or rather how to remove him and put I place someone who actually fights its members' corner rather than colludes with the employer! Its about this joker dud the walk of shame. The reason there are so few members is because we have been shafted Big Time, several times and Napo have let it happen!!

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  2. Whatever the case I am with NAPO because from where I am sat things are looking very unsteady and may need them to fight my corner. We all need to stick together and put in a united grievance through the courts across all CRC's. Most CRC's are failing in their duty of care to staff and they know it. Duty of care is a legal obligation so if you are suffering work related stress, your work situation is unsafe, provision not being made for a disability etc then this needs to be fed back to NAPO. Better to unite and be strong than fragment and be weakened.

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    1. You do not appear to understand the real world processes. The bottom lines are so obvious to many but perhaps not to you. Napo is in dire straits Not really membership absences or leaver and CRC sackings but because of the obvious weak and incompetent offerings from the leadership who we can refuse to elect this year or next. The hiding away of the NEC structure so they have become the voice of the Napo leadership and not their respective branches has been destructive to member involvement full stop. The central napo take over of London branch as we have seen with the Raho Rogers combo. Yet without national collective bargaining given away as I saw by the incredibly sub standard chairs at the AGM means that napo and the staff have no real role or negotiable function with any audience. Instead they will likely try and absorb the branch functions to maintain some duties but really they will become irrelevant and as soon as they finish spending the sales money of NAPO HQ on lavish redundancy deals they will just disappear. That might be a good thing.

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    2. What do you think started this decline then as I understand the situation all the top elected officer are NPS and they cannot understand why Napo does not represent members in the CRCs. We have no idea on the membership demographics so who is Napo relevant for and what can that group from NPS do for any of us. NOTHING.

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  3. 11.09 there is no alternative from where I am sitting, in a truly shambolic CRC. We either get off our arses and pull together or the service goes complete meltdown. Ok, it has already done the latter but we now need to fight for a better deal and to force the providers to invest and halt the cuts. We need to keep raising this with MP's etc. Anyone with some influence here please speak out. Truss may be gone in the next hour or so, I certainly hope so but who will replace her? Corbyn is aware of the shambles of probation..he has voiced his opinion to several Napo members and retired probation officers so we need to kerp the pressure on because whatever happens Labour will win the next election.

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  4. Interesting call here on government to intervene with the number of recalls to custody.
    I'm not quite sure the impact would have on probation services, but I think it would have a very positive impact on the prison service.

    http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/24054

    'Getafix

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    1. The recalls for people on licence who "disappear" still go on. An alternative way of motivating licencees to attend probation was if we could offer people something useful when they arrive. But we have nowhere to house people and no services on our premises to help them find jobs or training. We can offer a listening ear and access to a few free phone calls, a food bank voucher and about 10 minutes of our time. This is not enough. The powers that be would rather spend millions banging people up than making them welcome in the community. I say it at work till I'm blue in the face. I try not to take part in all the unhelpful patterns. But inevitably I end up helping to prop up this disgusting system.

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  5. Liz Truss. Pack your bags!

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  6. Weakest Links...pack your bags!

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  7. Liz Truss..'say cheese!!

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  8. This is a difficult one! I have been a NAPO member for many years, but decided to withdraw 2 years ago due to the TR omnishambles and feeling unsupported. That said, the local union rep I had when I was forced to move from a seconded placement because my job description no longer fitted into a box when there was no mobility policy and secondment policy in place to support such a move, I cannot praise my local rep enough. Since then, the rot is much deeper and is well engrained now. Nationally, I cant help but think that NAPO has not been supportive of us and we have walked unsupported into the current mess. Its a shame, local reps do a tough job and we are were we are. The strength I have been witness to from a local rep has not been extended on a national level. For that reason "I'm out!"

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  9. Try Prospect. Brilliant track record for fighting for their members... And winning

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  10. Steve Sturgess11 June 2017 at 15:48

    Dizzy Lizzy just been summoned to Downing Street. Does the Maybot feel strong and stable enough to get rid?

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    1. Truss gone.

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    2. The long grass hiding the Probation Review just got longer and thicker...

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    3. David Lidlington justice Secretary.

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    4. Shame, I was looking forward to Grayling being rewarded for his loyalty and coming back to face up to his messes

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    5. Another tory crook he robs the expenses and expected to do what for public service he will make it worse here is his accommodating record self accommodating.

      In May 2009, the Daily Telegraph revealed Lidington had claimed nearly £1,300 for his dry cleaning and had also claimed for toothpaste, shower gel, body spray and vitamin supplements on his second home allowance.[2] Lidington decided to repay the claims for the toiletries, saying: "I accept that many people would see them as over-generous."

      Lidington was also criticised by local newspaper the Bucks Herald for claiming £115,891 in expenses in one year, almost double his salary.[3]

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    6. Steve Sturgess11 June 2017 at 16:59

      Another non qualified Minister for Justice. Unless he's counting a degree in history.

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    7. Another well-connected rat groomed through the usual channels of the "right schools", university (Sidney Sussex College) & immoral industrial greats:

      "Lidington's early jobs involved work for BP and Rio Tinto Group before being appointed in 1987 as special adviser to the then Home Secretary Douglas Hurd. He moved to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1989 when Mr Hurd was appointed Foreign Secretary."

      Don't expect any genius or startlingly radical change. In fact, just more of the same old '"lock 'em up, they ain't worth it" bullshit.

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    8. If he brings the work/thinking done by Douglas Hurd's Home Secretary (when he was his under-secretary, I see on Wiki) to the job, that would be a great improvememnt

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    9. He knows a thing or two about fishing and farming, that'll see him in good stead as minister of justice and something in common with a Greyling. He can't be worse than we've had suppose thats a positive.

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  11. Probation Officer11 June 2017 at 20:13

    David Lidington has an Honours degree in History and a PhD in 1988 entitled "The enforcement of the penal statutes at the court of the Exchequer c.1558-c.1576" on Elizabethan history.

    I'm liking the sound of this guy. Although, we may soon be recommending in Pre Sentence Reports use of stocks, thumbscrew, transportation, burning at the stake and hung, drawn and quartering.

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  12. Steve Sturgess11 June 2017 at 20:17

    It wasn't so much a reshuffle more like nudging one or two deck chairs. Never mind. Onwards and upwards to that iceberg.

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  13. Has his views on pork and cheese been fully investigated prior to his appointment?

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    1. Truss was the only one demoted. Wonder if she's the vengeful type?

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  14. Some people just want to use democracy as a way of staying in office mmmmmm May and Lawrence have something in common there then. Lawrence wants to restructure NAPO, will he seek members views and mess with the ballot results like he did with the ballot on collective bargaining ? he needs to galvanise his seat into the next election year. Be interesting to see what the new plans will be and where it really positions NAPO officials. Has he been talking with Mrs May ?

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  15. What a great read this is.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40245800

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  16. The networked individual and solidarity.



    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/commentisfree/2017/jun/12/paul-mason-jeremy-corbyn-defeat-ruling-elite-antonio-gramsci

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