Dear Xxxxxx Xxxxxxxxxxxx MP,
Can I please ask you why you voted against a pay rise for public sector workers?
As a member of your constituency and a public sector worker (probation officer) I really need a valid reason from you as to why you voted for the pay freeze on hard working public sector workers to remain. I am baffled beyond belief.
I spent 3 years working hard to obtain the relevant degree at university to learn about my profession and adopt the required skills to deliver an excellent and value for money service. I am a front line worker working for the National Probation Service. I deliver rehabilitation and public protection on an hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis. I very often work beyond my contracted hours as it is simply a job that you cannot walk away from at 5.15 pm if the risk is so great and someone is at harm.
At the moment, myself and colleagues go into work, under disgraceful office environment conditions (which I am happy to discuss with you in a separate issue). I have to, have to be able to protect you and members of your community from harm and high risk offenders. I, along with colleagues, deal with abusive and the most violent offenders. I am one of the many probation officers who are on our knees and at breaking point due to the level of stress faced and ridiculously high workloads, something that TR totally predicted wrong.
This week I have been called every single name under the sun. In the last few months I have had to undergo clinical supervision to address trauma I have faced through my job, dealing with the most heinous crimes. This has had a huge emotional impact on me at times. I am after all, only human.
I don't want to go into work at the moment because I am struggling with the work load I have (we all are). The NPS cannot recruit probation officers as there is a shortage after thousands were made redundant after TR. It's hitting a crisis, yet expectations from NOMS, HMPPS, whatever we are called at the moment, remain high.
I am over worked. I am a parent of several children under 16. I am full time. I work above my contracted hours to ensure that the public are safe, and often to the detriment to my family. I have numerous prison releases in a 2 month period, they are all very high or high risk offenders that have the propensity to cause significant harm to the community. With most I have to try and accommodate them to ensure they are managed safely or quite often they are released from custody NFA.
I complete risk assessments and ensure that victims are protected. Most offenders are highly damaged individuals with hugely complex needs that require multi agency input. I often cry because there is a lack of local resources to do my job, assist my cases or protect individuals from possible harm. I have often spent a weekend worrying about cases and the public. I am human.
Everyday I go into work wondering if one of my cases has committed a serious offence over night. If they have, I am investigated and held to account of my actions and subjected to worry "what more could I have done?"
The job entails to recall people to custody, I face intense scrutiny by Parole Boards and MAPPA. I attend child protection meetings. I am legally challenged in court and at oral hearings, often battling with legal representatives who challenge every risk assessment and decision made. I am expected to hit every single, often unrealistic targets to simply "tick a box".
I have completed home visits and faced victims of rape and supported them to report it or go with them to see their GP. I have walked the streets trying to locate vulnerable people. I have visited schools and talked to children about the impact of crime. I can go on and on and on. After 18 years in a job I love and have put my all into, I am left feeling I am worth nothing to this community or government.
I would like a reason as to why you think that someone like me does not deserve a pay rise after 6 years? This job is my passion and I do it to make positive changes to offenders and protect the public. It is a highly skilled job now managed under the civil service. I feel let down and so exhausted by the job that I am seriously considering resigning. I earn less than £30k a year. That's the bottom of my my scale after 18 years in service.
I don't understand why you voted against a pay rise for public sector workers. I would like an explanation as to why MPs voted against this.
Regards,
(some details have been changed)
Can I please ask you why you voted against a pay rise for public sector workers?
As a member of your constituency and a public sector worker (probation officer) I really need a valid reason from you as to why you voted for the pay freeze on hard working public sector workers to remain. I am baffled beyond belief.
I spent 3 years working hard to obtain the relevant degree at university to learn about my profession and adopt the required skills to deliver an excellent and value for money service. I am a front line worker working for the National Probation Service. I deliver rehabilitation and public protection on an hourly, daily, weekly and monthly basis. I very often work beyond my contracted hours as it is simply a job that you cannot walk away from at 5.15 pm if the risk is so great and someone is at harm.
At the moment, myself and colleagues go into work, under disgraceful office environment conditions (which I am happy to discuss with you in a separate issue). I have to, have to be able to protect you and members of your community from harm and high risk offenders. I, along with colleagues, deal with abusive and the most violent offenders. I am one of the many probation officers who are on our knees and at breaking point due to the level of stress faced and ridiculously high workloads, something that TR totally predicted wrong.
This week I have been called every single name under the sun. In the last few months I have had to undergo clinical supervision to address trauma I have faced through my job, dealing with the most heinous crimes. This has had a huge emotional impact on me at times. I am after all, only human.
I don't want to go into work at the moment because I am struggling with the work load I have (we all are). The NPS cannot recruit probation officers as there is a shortage after thousands were made redundant after TR. It's hitting a crisis, yet expectations from NOMS, HMPPS, whatever we are called at the moment, remain high.
I am over worked. I am a parent of several children under 16. I am full time. I work above my contracted hours to ensure that the public are safe, and often to the detriment to my family. I have numerous prison releases in a 2 month period, they are all very high or high risk offenders that have the propensity to cause significant harm to the community. With most I have to try and accommodate them to ensure they are managed safely or quite often they are released from custody NFA.
I complete risk assessments and ensure that victims are protected. Most offenders are highly damaged individuals with hugely complex needs that require multi agency input. I often cry because there is a lack of local resources to do my job, assist my cases or protect individuals from possible harm. I have often spent a weekend worrying about cases and the public. I am human.
Everyday I go into work wondering if one of my cases has committed a serious offence over night. If they have, I am investigated and held to account of my actions and subjected to worry "what more could I have done?"
The job entails to recall people to custody, I face intense scrutiny by Parole Boards and MAPPA. I attend child protection meetings. I am legally challenged in court and at oral hearings, often battling with legal representatives who challenge every risk assessment and decision made. I am expected to hit every single, often unrealistic targets to simply "tick a box".
I have completed home visits and faced victims of rape and supported them to report it or go with them to see their GP. I have walked the streets trying to locate vulnerable people. I have visited schools and talked to children about the impact of crime. I can go on and on and on. After 18 years in a job I love and have put my all into, I am left feeling I am worth nothing to this community or government.
I would like a reason as to why you think that someone like me does not deserve a pay rise after 6 years? This job is my passion and I do it to make positive changes to offenders and protect the public. It is a highly skilled job now managed under the civil service. I feel let down and so exhausted by the job that I am seriously considering resigning. I earn less than £30k a year. That's the bottom of my my scale after 18 years in service.
I don't understand why you voted against a pay rise for public sector workers. I would like an explanation as to why MPs voted against this.
Regards,
(some details have been changed)
Well said! This is the situation for so many of us in CRC or NPS. Poor pay, massive responsibility, poor working conditions? Undervalued and often stressed and traumatised by what we deal with. We deserve better and a reasonable pay rise would be a start. With a national shortage of qualified probation officers the government really need to step.in quickly. By the way,can someone explain why when I risk escalate an offender from CRC to NPS they are allocated to a PSO with a few years experience when I am a PO with 14 years experience which includes managing high risk, lifers, sex offenders, rapists and mentally disordered offenders!
ReplyDeleteGood point, crazy that we are risk escalating to someone unqualified and less experience.
DeleteThe truth is that this should not happen. PSO's only should run with medium risk cases within the NPS once they have reduced from high. I know it probably does happen though. Cannot understand the role of the PSO in NPS and vice-versa the PO in CRC.
DeleteI think it's really worth highlighting how completely screwed over we in Probation have been, compared to other workers in the public sector, e.g. NHS and teachers, yet it is they who are line to benefit the post from an easing of the pay cap. For instance, a band 7 NHS worker at the bottom of the salary scale would have earned £30764 in 2010. That same worker would now be on £40428, thanks to incremental rise each year on top of a 1% cost of living increase each year as part of the salary cap. A teacher earning £24243 in 2010 would now be on £38250, again thanks to incremental rises and the 1% cost of living increases. And yet both NHS workers and teachers are forever bleating on about the financial hardship they face!! I am very concerned that the removal of the pay cap will lead to even bigger increases for the NHS and teachers and nothing additional for us Probation staff.
ReplyDeleteMPs had an 11% pay rise. The Queen has just got £6 million extra. The DUP another £billion. Hundreds if millions are being spent on refurbishing Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament.
ReplyDeleteYet public sector workers continue with a 1% pay rise with inflation more then double that. More cuts to welfare and your just as likely to see a public sector workers at a food bank as someone that's unemployed. Social tenants can burn as a result of cost cutting and deeper and deeper cuts to local authorities.
We have a dirty government, that would quite happily oversee a system of serfdom for all but the most elite.
Calling them the nasty party is just to kind. They're much worse then that.
'Getafix
WHISTLEBLOWER HERE: please forward to Probation inspectorate.
ReplyDeleteEMERGENCY situation at Working links CRC'S. PLease can inspectors do am emergency inspection of staffing situation, staff losses post redundancy/ voluntary severance/ use of agency staff to plug the gaps, staff morale, working conditions, offender management. Offenders are being shunted from one OM to another as they resign or go off sick, offenders not being seen for months, PO's with caseloads at 85 including many DV cases. PSO's with caseloads up to 100 who have had no training, staff encouraged to falsify figures to meet targets. Puplic are at risk of significant harm. Please can someone forward this to the probstion inspectorate as I have now resigned and don't have the energy to fight anymore
Hopefully NAPO read this now and again. This is not malicious, it is the truth.
If this genuine forward yourself. Probably spell check it first though.
DeleteI think this is a fair assessment - one office has taken on 3 x temps due to staff sickness and OMs just having enough and leaving (after they were passed over for redundancy). The case loads described are about the same.
Deleteit's an absolute disgrace - btw on the PSO scale I am fairly confident that there is no band 3 increment valued at more than £350 and that begs the question why am I being kicked for being a newer member of the grade (9yrs) and i'm still 3k a year worse off than longer serving.
DeleteFrom Ian Mulholland , Interserve 'Director of Justice' :
ReplyDelete'Dear Colleagues,
As you are aware this is the first year that probation pay awards are not being determined by the National Negotiating Committee for probation, because all parties withdrew from the NNC earlier this year.
One of the reasons for withdrawing from such a mechanism was to give us more creativity to consider how to implement more innovative and holistic reward packages that recognise the effort you put into your work. The aim is to reward you appropriately for the work you achieve . indeed, this aim forms a fundamental part of our longer-term people plan which is being led by colleagues from our HR and Finance Teams.
Rather than wait for this reward work to be done, we will be awarding a pay increase of one pay point to eligible CRC staff with effect from 1 April 2017. A non-consolidated pensionable lump sum of £350 will be paid to eligible staff on the maximum of their pay band range. These payments will be made in your July 2017 salary payments.
We recognise that pay plays an important part in staff motivation and engagement and we remain committed to working with you and our union colleagues in developing an appropriate reward strategy for Interserve's justice business in the coming months.
Thank you all once again for your hard work and continued commitment to reducing re-offending.
Ian Mullholland
Director of Justice'
"innovative and holistic reward packages" - expect a £10 Love2Shop voucher in the run up to Christmas then.
DeleteWhy the fudge does everything have to be "innovative" these days? "Fair and reasonable" appear to be beyond them at the moment.
i got that email and it has transpireed that it is not an additional increment for 'all our hard work' but the one we should automatically get as per our terms & conditions of employment until we reach the top point of thescale. It was a poorly worded email that many interpreted to mean we'd be getting an increment 'for all our hard work'. For me, this will mean I get an extra £12 p/m takehome pay which is abysmal.
DeleteMr Mulholland if you read this you need to shorten the salary band, a new recruit recently has advised he'll be leaving asap as whilst he knew the scale was 22,500 - 27,200 he had absolutely no idea that it would take approx 15 years to reach the top of the scale and he feels cheated. BTW this isnt Interserve's fault, they have inherited NOMS payscales but,now that they are aware, I expect, at the very least, Interserve make itquicker to rise to the top of the scale.
BTW I don't agree on colleagues already at the top of the scale getting a pensionable lump sum cos in July theyll get a takehome lumpsum of over £200 and i'll be lucky to get £25. It's a poor show.
Shorten the pay scales? Not a chance. It's no mistake that Mulholland has set out to hoodwink staff into believing the contractual increment is a pay rise Interserve has generously awarded. He wants it to look like a favour as it's plainly his intention that this be the last time they pay an annual increment at all, with future 'rises' to be dependent upon performance. Interserve may have inherited NOMS pay scales but far from being likely to address the shortcomings they consider the entitlements to be too generous and are set on trying to keep our money for theirselves and their shareholders.
Deleteit wasn't a 'poorly worded' email it was a deliberately misleading email . Mulholland deliberately misrepresents the payment of this year's increment as a pay award, and tries to make future plans to link pay to performance / 'achievement' look like something positive when its plain that the real intention is actually to steal our money wherever possible rather than offer anything more
Deleteif Mulholland was that mean surely he'd not give those at the top of the scale a £350 pensionable lumpsum? I'm concerned about the insinuation about being 'creative' with pay awards - i'm only here for the hard cash and not discounts on other Interserve projects.
DeleteThose at the top of the pay scale have received similar lump sums for the last few years, both under the new mercenary owners and under what the travesty that the trusts had become in preparation for the sell off / give away - that is to say, there is a history to trying to pass off contractual entitlements to increments as pay awards. The real issues here, though, are 1. The (clumsily, clunkingly) 'disguised' message that automatic increments will stop after this year if Interserve get their way, and 2. As you point out, the notion of 'creative', 'innovative' or 'holistic' 'Reward' packages - i.e. most likely anything and everything other than money! As an organisation who seem to think we're dumb enough to be excited at the thought of being part of what they grotesquely try to call the 'Interserve family' they also apparently think we're stupid enough to swallow this shit too
DeleteA pay 'increase' of one lousy pay point (it would be two or three ten years or more ago) , which we're automatically entitled to under the terms and conditions of our employment anyway. Meanwhile it would take a pay increase of at lease 22% just to catch up with what we were paid SEVEN YEARS AGO in real terms. That's right, since 2011 our wages have dropped by 22% in real terms - so if you were wondering why you never seem to have any money THIS IS WHY! ( https://www.napo.org.uk/sites/default/files/Median%20wages.pdf). And now Interserve want to pay you LESS! Sure they're talking about 'rewards' for performance but can you imagine being able to reach any performance target when your work load is twice as high as it should be? They're not going to give you more money - not that they mention money anyway, what with the 'innovative' and 'holistic' and 'bullshit' alternatives they're 'creatively' thinking of - they're going to tell you that your performance wasn't good enough, and you're not even going to get your increment.
DeleteAnd now the worst thing of all is that the lousy NHS staff and the workshy teachers (constantly complaining about having to work more than 6 hours a day) are going to be rewarded with more money whilst we continue to be subjected to a pay cap.
DeleteIs that an attempt at humour or are you really stupid and unpleasant enough to believe you're making some sort of point? I guess the Interserve ethos suits you quite well
DeleteI can assure you it is not an attempt at humour and I'm not sure what you mean by Interserve as I don't work for an Interserve CRC. What I am is a Probation Officer proud of our profession and fed up of the way we have fallen massively behind the NHS and schools when it comes to pay. I guess you're somebody that's happy to miss out on pay rises for Probation staff in order to free up more money for the already overpaid NHS and teachers?
DeleteIf you really think Teachers and NHS staff are overpaid, well - you're an arsehole and there's not much point continuing the conversation really. It's just a shame that people with your kind of outlook can get anywhere near the vulnerable people we work with. You should leave.
DeleteBecause Tory MP's don't give a shite about public sector workers, and probation officers are at the bottom of the "who are they again?" radar.
ReplyDelete'The aim is to reward you appropriately for the work you achieve'? So they're going to triple our wages then ?!? Oh wait, no - they're going to keep giving us impossible amounts work and then keep our increments because we can't possibly get it all done aren't they. I guess a 22% real term reduction in our wages in 6 years (https://www.napo.org.uk/blogs/pay-data-proves-probation-staff-well-behind-other-professions) just isn't reduction enough for caring, sharing Interserve
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that the work as been de professionalised so much pay will stay poor as being a PO does not attract the brightest and talented .Look at the current training whilst comparable professions such as social work have increased entry requirements we have dumbed down .
ReplyDelete