Working Links Latest

As always, thanks go to the several readers for forwarding the following regarding today's failure of Working Links:-

Dear all

Today, the Ministry of Justice has appointed Seetec to manage probation services in the south-west and Wales. This comes after the existing provider, Working Links, and its three community rehabilitation companies currently delivering the services, entered administration.

Under the agreement, we will transfer the contract for probation services in Bristol, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire (BGSW), Dorset, Devon and Cornwall (DDC) and Wales into Kent, Surrey and Sussex Community Rehabilitation Company (KSS CRC). All staff and the current caseload will transfer with immediate effect.

As part of the organisation of services, I will take on responsibility for all Seetec probation areas, including KSS CRC. Manjinder Purewal will continue as chief probation officer for KSS CRC. BGSW and Wales will be managed by Dawn Blower and DDC will be managed by John Wiseman. Dawn and John both join us as part of the transfer. The remit of the excellence and effectiveness directorate, led by Graham Wines, will expand to include every region.

We can take some pride that the Ministry of Justice has appointed Seetec as the new parent company in the south-west and Wales. Every single member of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex team has worked relentlessly in recent years to build a reputation for high-quality service delivery. We protected our probation values, invested in interventions and ensured that building strong face-to-face relationships with the people we support remains at the heart of what we do.

We were the first region the Ministry of Justice took out of enhanced oversight following the transfer to the private sector. And in 2017, HM Inspectorate of Probation said in their annual report that we were one of the three CRCs judged to be “performing well”.

This news is a vote of confidence in your work. But we also recognise that there is no room for complacency as we approach our annual inspection in February. We can expect even greater scrutiny from the inspecting team and our other statutory partners.

The reforms which brought in the private sector in 2015 remain controversial. Many of you will know that I had my own concerns about how the move would affect us. Fortunately, in my view, we have been able to protect our values and ways of working, while benefiting from private sector investment that would not have been forthcoming under public sector ownership.

Now, as a bigger provider, supporting people in some of the most deprived areas of the country, we have an even greater responsibility to uphold high standards and advocate for our probation values, which have served us well to date. I am confident that you will continue to represent the very best of yourselves, your colleagues and the CRC.

If you are approached by the media or other stakeholder who wants to know more about this announcement, please refer them to media@seetec.co.uk.

I will keep you updated on the progress of the transfer of services in the south-west and Wales. Thank-you for your continued professionalism and expertise in the weeks and months ahead.

Yours sincerely

Suki Binning
Chief Executive for KSS CRC

--oo00oo--

Napo Branch report 29 update

Dear Napo members 

Many of you have been reporting the news that the employability staff of Working Links have been told they are to end their roles. Staff in Working Links were reporting last night that their information is that the company is now insolvent. The news from a Unison publication makes things a little clearer. There is also the IT helpdesk going down, giving clear indications that things are not going well. 

We have been told not to publish key facts by our GS and as such I cannot confirm what is quite clearly already well known and as usual is up on media sites and those personal media groups which are familiar to many staff. There are also some publications that have the fuller details on the reported collapse. 

The news on the probation sectors is yet to be confirmed by MOJ and as we wait the speculation is focused on the Seetec group now owning the CRCs in the Working Links Contract areas. As yet we are keeping an eye on Companies House to see when, and indeed if, the insolvency is registered today as it just becomes a public issue at that point.

Whenever, the news is confirmed at last by the MOJ, it is a singular example of just how not to do things these days with the speed of media coverage. In conversation with other chairs and reps who feel angry at the way we have been kept out of the important updates is another example of why no one in a union should be tying themselves to any confidentiality nonsense claiming it to be a commercially sensitive issue. If a company is bust it is bust and there is nothing commercially sensitive about that. The impact on the staff, partners and colleagues is immense, and many of us are saddened at the plight of other workers losing jobs and not as yet clear whether their entitlements to redundancies is yet to be managed properly. I won’t continue this aspect except to remind readers that it was as recent as December when Working links put in its accounts, to be ratified by Aurelius, that the company had funds to be termed a going concern. Less than 3 months on and they are in the position of insolvency. If that is the case where were these accounts genuinely assessed? Who undertook them, and by what appropriate process? Lets us hope the Parliamentary Finance Committee give this some scrutiny. 

What this means for staff in DDC is that we do not yet know formally what Seetec’s plans are but whatever it is they have a huge mess to try and fix when they actually take over. We will be looking closely at the ARSA documents to determine exactly how members stand as for giving our consent for the possible changes and that as yet we have no consultative talks on any protections arising from the staff transfer and protections arrangements. It may be that Seetec are not of the genuine opinion these are to be honoured which would not read well for a starting point. 

With the likely departure of Working Links, the damage they leave behind is immense;
A disastrous working model that was never agreed or consulted properly;
The appalling abuses of overwork of all staff from the incredibly poor workload indicator tool farce.

An urgent need to rapidly change the way some senior management have failed to engage the unions in both HR of terms and conditions policies, and respect for any or meaningful dialogue since day 1 of the unfortunate Working Links way. We have no doubt that much of the controls on senior management had been directed by the appalling inabilities to do anything properly from the working links way but we have to see this approach terminated immediately. This will no doubt be a feature of our renewed efforts to protect staff. 

Last week at the branch meeting a motion was passed to direct the Napo JNCC branch to issue the existing workloads agreement under the protective STAP arrangement and to advise all staff on how to hand back work or reject new work. This is ongoing and re issuing the foreseeability papers has been done this week for members. The re-issue of the WPEC agreement, with advice is to be brought together shortly. Before we get this out however there is a planned Trades Union Pan area meeting on Monday which I understand includes the Chief Officer of Seetec so we will post out an update immediately after that meeting, with the confirmed facts and details of what NAPO SSW branch put to Seetec in that meeting. Also to engage on the over workloads and measurement tool failures you have endured to date. 

For our part NAPO SSW branch are sorry to understand the loss of peoples’ roles and jobs in the employability side of Working links. However we are not able to advise non members of unions except to say they have rights and access to information to make reclaims on any redundancies they may be due and a process to claim. I would be looking at the signing off of the accounts as there was NO indication they might be insolvent within 12 weeks. 

In relation to our members, we have a duty to ensure your continued protection under your terms. If you’re not in Napo now, then join. NAPO SSW branch initiated a dispute with Working Links that has run for 3 years and we continue with the details of that dispute until whoever provides the appropriate reassurances that our members need. We need a working model that is genuinely fit for purpose. A real workloads negotiation and a genuine commitment to protect and discharge the duty to care for staff properly under the health and safety legislation and agreements. 

Once we are assured of the critical issues we will again take on the fair pay for work campaign and work with NAPO to continue to seek to fight for the reunification of probation and the end to privatisation in a false market. That said it remains incumbent upon any trade unionist and officials to keep dialogue going. Something the Working Links way failed at brilliantly. 

However, we have to start afresh and look to see where there is common ground. Seetec will inherit the worst example of the failed privatised areas ever. They learned nothing from HMIP reports and yet today we see the latest DDC HMIP report released what a coincidence ( I doubt that). The scandalous grasp on an MOJ contract that has seen some behind the scenes goings on that we shall just have to wonder at. While we think on about that, we also have to look to restore our branches and our local negotiation forums to something more respectable, and re generate the appropriate mechanism for local JNCC. 

I hope to hear on Monday the restoration local bargaining so that branches can resume the sort of engagement on protecting staff terms and conditions that we are supposed to have had already protected. You will recall this branch took the whole dispute through the failing and weakened national joint dispute procedures in London whereby the joint secretaries offered mere advisories and hopefuls than actually demonstrate any teeth for errant and failing contractors. The proverbial toothless Tiger does exist. What a pity they all seemed to miss every red warning they could have. They should have taken steps mid dispute and challenges to the contractor. From there we have the ACAS avoidance, the Aurelius cash lifting experts and now their own calamitous implosion and failure. The not so secret Seetec take over which may well be better news. Oh well so much for open and transparent. 

As of this afternoon there has been a circular from the CPO of DDC and whilst I am happy to read the pledge of terms and conditions being protected we now have that in writing and it is welcome. What a pity there was no such commitment on these said terms when in the same role in Working Links control. That said I expect he is speaking on behalf of Seetec and we will not see any “U” turns on that stated position. This means a harmonisation agenda for all areas and the best of the policies to be agreed. We welcome the commitment to our redundancy agreements and the working terms under national negotiating council rules. Moving forwards then let us all hope we don’t see any repeats which gets us embroiled in the absolute failures of what we have suffered to date along with the destruction of probation services. 

Finally after such mixed views and news we are confirmed as workers under Seetec and we shall continue to put right many of the failings, this is a long road back to something we can all sustain with such drastic staff cuts. That said I can confidently say at last now that the king is dead. We can all be assured that farce of the section 188a redundancy at risk notices has now fallen. Ironically they failed to indicate the same courtesy and legal requirements to their own staff. What sort of people has probation been entrusted to? Long live the new king? Lets fight for the reunification of public service as soon as we can. 

The local news Plymouth Herald reporter Carl Eve has published the story today and we salute his sterling efforts to expose Working Links fiasco over the period a true friend of probation. Latest news Urgent remedial action is required in this CRC. Without it, public confidence in the delivery of probation services in Dorset, Devon and Cornwall will be yet further diminished and professional staff further compromised, and thousands of individuals who deserve decent probation services will continue to be let down. We have recommended that Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service intervenes in this CRC. In my view, this organisation will not deliver the urgent improvements needed without intervention.

Clearly as I predicted in the last few branch reports a sad sorry state of affairs and at last those responsible be gotten rid of JUST IN Time Too late having compromised public safety and ignoring NAPO SSW calls to fix the problems. We are now vindicated. 

https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/inspections/ddccrc/

Dino Peros

Napo SSW branch chair.