Trouble At Approved Premises

The following came in over night and left as comments on yesterday's blog. It's not signed or dated and if from a document, it may not be complete or the sections might not be in the right order. However, as submitted, it clearly sheds some light on the vexed issue of night waking-cover of Approved Premises (Probation Hostels in old money) and therefore in view of its importance, I've decided to publish it here for discussion and comment.

PRIVATISATION OF DOUBLE WAKING NIGHTS COVER (DWNC) IN PROBATION APPROVED PREMISES

Sodexo and OCS are FM contractors, but as part of their FM contracts to provide cleaning and catering in APs, they are also going to run DWNC in APs. UNISON has campaigned against this dangerous privatisation since it was first proposed three years ago. We believe that the MOJ breached EU procurement legislation in allowing residential services into a facilities management contract, but MOJ Ministers refused to answer our questions on the legal process. This issue has not gone away and we continue to campaign on this.

The NPS realised in January that neither Sodexo, nor OCS, was ready to take over the DWNC contract on the original ‘go live’ date of 22 January. As a result the start date was put back to 1 March, mainly to allow the 1-2-1 meetings to take place between the company and the NPS staff due to transfer to the private companies. The NPS has confirmed that the contract is going to start on 1 March even though Sodexo and OCS are not able to staff up all the APs on this date!!

The NPS is going to cover for them. This is obviously how privatisation works these days. UNISON has written to the Secretary of State for Justice and to Sonia Crozier to ask that the contracts are deferred again, on health and safety grounds. Our pleas have been ignored. NPS cannot say it was not warned.

ADVICE TO NPS STAFF TRANSFERRING TO SODEXO OR OCS

Sodexo and OCS have confirmed that they will recognise UNISON for the purposes of collective bargaining for TUPE transferees going forward. So UNISON will continue to look after your interests and represent you after you have transferred to Sodexo, or OCS. All of your contractual terms and conditions transfer unchanged to Sodexo, or OCS. Your pension remains unchanged. If you are in the Local Government Pension Scheme, this will continue.

There is no requirement for you to sign any new contract with Sodexo, or OCS. Do not sign any document you are given by Sodexo, or OCS, without first taking advice from UNISON. Your hours of work are protected. You cannot be required to work more hours than you do at present. You can agree to work additional hours/overtime, but this is your choice. If your contract states that you only work at one AP, you cannot be required to work at any other AP (unless you agree).

Sodexo and OCS cannot change any of your terms and conditions without your agreement, or the agreement of UNISON on your behalf. If you have any questions on what Sodexo or OCS ask you to do after the transfer, please speak to your local UNISON representative in the first instance.

REQUIREMENTS FOR PRIVATE RESIDENTIAL ASSISTANTS

UNISON asked for the start date for the privatised DWNC contracts to be deferred again post 1 March. This is because there is little evidence that the contractual requirements around the recruitment, shadow shifts and vetting of the privatised Residential Assistants, (who will work alongside a single NPS member of staff on every night shift), are anywhere close to being put in place in time for 1 March.  On the face of it, the Justice Secretary and HMPPS don’t care and are going ahead regardless. This is a major safe-guarding risk for AP staff, AP residents and communities, and we have warned both Ministers and Sonia Crozier about the dangers of going ahead unprepared. As we know, this is a government which cannot admit it has got things wrong.

The MOJ contract for the private DWNC requires that the following are put in place before any private residential assistant can work a shift alongside an NPS employee:

• All private Residential Assistants must be SIA licensed. 
• All personnel will have to display their SIA licence in a card holder on a lanyard at all times whilst on duty.
• The private Residential Assistant must be recruited only for work in APs (i.e. they cannot have been recruited for general security work for Sodexo/OCS anywhere else). 
• The private Residential Assistant must be interviewed for the job in the actual AP in which he/she is due to work. 
• The NPS AP manager in every AP has the right to attend each interview for private residential assistants, and will have the right to veto any appointment by Sodexo/OCS.
• As part of the appointment process the private Residential Assistant must provide an enhanced CRB check, proof of right to work in the UK, a verified employment history and satisfactory references.
• This will include a Security Guard Licence and Public Space Surveillance (operation of CCTV). 
• If at any time Key Holding is required, this SIA licence will also be required. 

All new private Residential Assistants will be required to work a minimum of three probationary ‘shadow’ shifts, alongside an experienced member of Sodexo/OCS staff, before undertaking his/her own shift. This means that for three night shifts, two Sodexo staff will have to work alongside the NPS DWNC member of staff to deliver the ‘shadow shifts’.

It is not acceptable for the NPS DWNC employee, or the AP Manager, to supervise the trainee private residential assistant on these ‘shadow shifts’, this must be done by an ‘experienced’ member of Sodexo or OCS staff. These training shifts will be at the expense of Sodexo/OCS.

NPS reserves the right to request the replacement of any private Residential Assistant should they fail to meet the standard required in the contract and the terms agreed as part of the interview process between the parties.

Approved Premises Managers will be responsible for arranging a site-specific building induction with each private Residential Assistant new to that AP which will include health and safety, use of panic alarms and action to alarm activations, fire and emergency evacuation procedure and other aspects of the local business.

It will be clear to most AP members that the above conditions are unlikely to be delivered in most APs in what is left of February. All of the above requirements are necessary for public protection and for the health and safety of AP residents and staff.

UNISON will not be prepared to accept any departure from these safety provisions. If you believe that any of these provisions is being flouted, please contact your UNISON representative immediately.

UNISON has written to each Divisional Head of Public Protection to ask about what plans are being put in place in each AP to deliver all of the above requirements prior to any private Residential Assistants being employed, and to seek the necessary reassurances regarding the health, safety and welfare of our AP members. At least one Head of Public Protection has written back to admit that the safeguards will not be in place on 1 March in his Division. This is on the record.

KEEP A LOG OF THINGS THAT GO WRONG as UNISON is putting a national appeal together, which we are entitled to do under the National Negotiating Council Job Evaluation Scheme.

However, there is a REAL DANGER that the NPS will ask Sodexo and OCS to back fill the vacant NPS Residential Worker posts!!!!!!!!, as there is the facility in the small print of the DWNC contract to ask the private companies to provide cover during the day. The thin end of the wedge if ever there was one! If you find Sodexo or OCS staff filling in on day shifts, please let UNISON know.

In all probability, HMPPS really wants to privatise the entire AP function and could be tempted to exploit its recruitment crisis in APs to bring this in through the back door. UNISON will fight this all the way. HMPPS to account on any problems that arise because the health, safety and wellbeing of our members, residents and communities is at risk and UNISON is not prepared to stand by and allow this. More information on where to send your logs will be sent out soon.

NPS STRUGGLES TO RECRUIT RESIDENTIAL WORKERS

UNISON has discovered that the NPS is struggling to recruit its own AP Residential Workers in at least two Divisions: South West and London. There are at least 20 AP residential worker vacancies in each Division. This is hardly surprising as NPS cut the salary for AP Residential Workers from a Band 3 to a Band 2 as part of its E3 cost cutting measures. Once applicants find out just how demanding a role the Residential Worker job is, they are less keen to join.

UNISON appealed against the down-banding in 2016, but NPS forced it through, not thinking ahead to the problems that this would lead to in recruitment. UNISON is therefore calling on NPS to review the salary of NPS Residential Workers again in 2018, and we will be asking for AP members’ assistance in this. UNISON asks all AP members to start keeping a written log of any problems and deficiencies which you witness from 1 March in the running of the privatised DWNC contracts. We will ask you to submit these logs to us on a monthly basis. It is really important that we hold the private companies to account!!!!!!

JOIN UNISON NOW. CALL FREE ON 0800 171 2193 OR VISIT JOIN UNISON.ORG

Next time you're supervising somebody's release from HMP and back into the community, perhaps after they have served a long sentence for what was a particularly nasty offence. There are recorded concerns and evidence of potential harm and you feel it would benefit all if there was a period of enhanced supervision during that early period of release......Well sorry to inform you but the AP system has turned to shit and soon will have a staffing model directly imported and inspired by such luminaries as G4S and their running of Brook House.