Napo AGM Motions

The Napo AGM is fast approaching and there's only a week left for members to express a view as to the respective priorities for debate from a line-up of 35 ordinary motions. Given the stifling nature of the Civil Service, not surprisingly there are a number of themes about breaking free of their stranglehold, but nothing much that looks particularly contentious, apart that is number 34. I don't know what others think, but this particular motion strikes me as quite extraordinary and has all the hallmarks of some serious disquiet amongst the ranks in appearing to tell Granny how to suck eggs. Anyway, these are the ones that particularly caught my attention:-

1. Serious Further Offences and workload 

This AGM moves that an officer’s Workload Management Tool (WMT) must be a mitigating factor when in a Serious Further Offence investigation. WMT must be discussed during the Serious Further Offence process and be included in any official documentation or report on the findings of the Serious Further Offence. 
Proposer: Napo Cymru

2. Workload 

Probation Officers and Probation Service Officers are increasingly working above capacity on the Workload Management Tool and for prolonged periods of time. The over-allocation in case management has resulted in officers feeling their workloads are impossible and unachievable, yet they are still expected to meet all targets and achieve best practice standards. Working over-capacity naturally reduces the quality and timeliness of assessments, reports and recording, and the ability to provide the level of supervision needed to manage complex cases. The current system of over-allocation puts the responsibility on managing an over-capacity situation with individual officers and not with the organisation that systematically over-allocates cases. This AGM moves that officers should not, in any circumstances, be allocated over 100% for any length of time. 
Proposer: Napo Cymru

5. Workload Measurement and Management 

South Yorkshire Branch welcomes the development of Workload Measurement Tools in the CRC, the NPS SPO Project and Probation Review but results have been slow in coming or are patently overdue. It is crucial that workload measurement is as accurate as possible and covers all grades and roles vulnerable to excessive workloads, furthermore, that workload is not only measured but managed. Situations impacting on members’ wellbeing include: 

• no national measurement or management of prison workloads or for certain grades of staff; 
• ad hoc and retrospective arrangements within the CRCs; 
• the regular additions of court tasks without a corresponding increase in time allowance;
• SPOs being pulled away from supervision and staff support because of time consuming HR tasks; 
• weightings for new cases not being sufficient to reflect the Integrated Offender Management (IOM) and the front-loading of work. 

Underpinning all of this should be an understanding that 100% capacity is the maximum work an employee should be asked to do. This AGM calls on Napo to:

• continue to press the employers to improve workload arrangements across all areas of work and report back to the November NEC;
• register a national workload dispute; 
• encourage and support individual members to submit foreseeability notices to their employer. 
Proposer: South Yorkshire Branch

6. Pay and pension parity 

AGM will be aware that, since Transforming Rehabilitation (TR), we have seen a huge disparity in the pay and terms and conditions of probation staff. This has caused a great deal of anxiety amongst staff and lack of job security, disproportionately affecting women. In turn, this destabilises the workforce and undermines performance and public safety. Conference believes that, in order to resolve these issues and rebuild public confidence, pay parity and the harmonisation of critical terms and conditions such as maternity and paternity leave is crucial to achieving this. This AGM calls for a campaign to make this a top priority. This includes the endeavours of paid Officials, Officers and critically, all members working to achieve this through, for example, letter writing and lobbying MPs. 
Proposer: Campaigning Committee

7. Serious Further Offences 

This AGM understands that the ’early look’ process puts members into possible disciplinary action before the Serious Further Offences (SFO) investigation has taken place. This AGM believes the current SFO process places our members in highly stressful situations and possible double jeopardy, if the ‘early look’ has resulted in a disciplinary and the full investigation results in further punitive action whereby dismissal would be hastened. This AGM calls upon National Officers and Officials to negotiate a new SFO process which is less punitive and supported and take into consideration factors such as workloads. 
Proposer: Patricia Johnson Seconder: Peter Halsall

11. Replace OASys 

This AGM is conscious of the requirement for an assessment tool that captures information about an individual that relates to risk, need and responsivity. However there have been longstanding concerns around the time spent in administrative tasks, one of the most time consuming of these is completing OASys assessments, over 50% of practitioners expressed their concern in an MoJ study (Moore 2015) that there were not enough working hours to complete assessments. OASys atomises an individual into component parts, leaving a reader/assessor unsure of who this person actually is (Aas 2004). Significant time is spent by workers in probation completing assessments due to the length and repetitious nature of the OASys, but the utility of this information to anyone outside of the MoJ is unclear, particularly as it draws practitioners away from developing relationship with their clients. AGM therefore calls on Napo nationally to pressure HMPPS over the need to review the relevance of OASys given that a tool developed in 2001 in response to ‘What Works’ is now out of date, and to develop a streamlined assessment tool relates to the current desistance and strengths-based research. 
Proposer: South Yorkshire Branch

13. Training that is fit for the job 

Staffing shortages in the NPS are widespread and negatively impacting on workloads and staff wellbeing. Despite the attempts of HMPPS to recruit new staff, some are leaving after just three years. This AGM believes that the current training programme is inadequate and does not properly prepare learners for the role or profession. The reduced amount of time the qualification takes means learners are only able to cover the basics, with little or no time for reflective practice. Those learning in the NPS are expected to cut their teeth on high and very high risk of harm cases, while those in the CRC get very little time to experience the full role of a probation officer with Courts etc. HMPPS’ own research shows that newly qualified staff do not feel adequately trained to do the role and are overwhelmed. This is a risk to staff, clients and the public. This AGM calls on the Professional & Training Committee to challenge HMPPS on this, to campaign for a full review of the training and to demand that HMPPS take this issue seriously. It also asks branches to actively recruit new learners and newly qualified officers so they can be better supported by Napo. 
Proposer: Professional & Training Committee

14. Group Work Programmes 

This AGM believes that group work programmes play a vital role in the process of change and personal development – making a significant contribution to the work of the probation service and the lives of clients. However, we are alarmed by the BBC report published on 4th June 2019 which shows that both short duration, non-accredited and accredited programmes have not been evaluated for years. In essence there is no current outcome based evidence to show that programmes work. This is clearly unacceptable for clients and for our members who deliver programmes. It is also not acceptable for members of the public. It is another example of the failure of all probation providers and indicative of the mess made by TR. This is further proof that programmes should be an integral part of a unified and locally accountable probation service. This AGM therefore calls upon Napo nationally to insist that programmes are delivered to best practice and agreed group work standards and are evaluated as a matter of extreme urgency. Napo will insist that outcome based evidence is published publicly by the MoJ by May 2020. 
Proposer: South Yorkshire Branch

15. Protect our role boundaries, before it’s too late 

For too long now we have witnessed diminishing boundaries that define the roles of Probation and Probation Services Officers. Whilst PSO roles are increasing in responsibility without any true correlation in pay, the role of the PO is threatened by what are fast becoming POs on the cheap. The time is now to stop the drift before offender management is reunified in two years’ time. Failure to act now may allow the Civil Service to take advantage of the current vague guidelines that are continually exploited by management to use poorly trained and sometimes untrained staff to cover for the lack of qualified POs. The current move in the NPS towards PSOs completing reports on sex offenders and domestic abuse perpetrators is not the thin end of the wedge, but the culmination of years of slippage that has been allowed to evolve. This AGM instructs Officers and Officials to take action now to stop the constant drift and blurring of role boundaries and ensure that clearly defined boundaries to protect both grades are in place before we move towards reunification of Offender Management as a department of the Civil Service. 
Proposer: Staffordshire and West Midlands Branch

20. Integrated service 

Napo welcomes the move by the MoJ to bring “offender management” back into the public sector. Napo however rejects the separation of “offender management” and rehabilitation. This is a false distinction made by the MoJ. Napo believes that Unpaid Work and Interventions are an integral part of the probation service. This AGM calls for a fully integrated, united service with all core functions, including Unpaid Work and Interventions, delivered from a single organisation. This AGM therefore calls upon all members, Officers and Officials to campaign both nationally and locally to raise awareness of this flawed model and to work alongside stakeholders to achieve 100% reunification to restore confidence of both the Courts and the public. 
Proposer: Campaigning Committee

21. TR2: Full reunification 

Unpaid Work and Programmes are core Probation functions. In Wales, Offender Management staff will transfer to NPS in December this year. The language used to justify the re-marketisation of Unpaid Work and Programmes has drawn an erroneous distinction between “Offender Management” and “Rehabilitation”. TR2 will not be completed, even in Wales, until the contracts with CRCs are terminated in 2021. Therefore, December 2019 is not a “cutoff” in terms of this campaign, nor the deadline by which this fight must be won. We will not rest until Probation is reunified in its entirety in the public sector and we call on Napo to continue its fight for the full reunification of Probation. 
Proposer: Napo Cymru

26. In the public sector and never for profit but out of the civil service and released from prison 

The delivery of probation services belongs in the public sector. However, the move to the Civil Service as a result of TR has meant that the National Probation Service is now overly bureaucratic and follows a top down “command and control” culture. Probation Officers are encouraged to think critically about the work that they are doing and how. This is almost impossible from within the Civil Service where criticism of the establishment is forbidden. Although we recognise the advantages of working closely with our colleagues in the Prison Service, we are not an adjunct to that service. While the senior roles in HMPPS are predominantly held by those with a background in the Prison Service and while the second ‘P’ in HMPPS is generally silent it is difficult for the Probation Service to focus on developing its own culture and values. This AGM calls on Napo to campaign for all probation services to exist outside of the Civil Service but in the public sector, as a nondepartmental government body in the same way as organisations like Cafcass and many others. 
Proposer: Campaigning Committee

27. Give us back our Probation Identity 

Throughout the reforms of Probation, from Jack Straw’s concept of a National Probation Service through NOMS to the current format of HMPPS, the Probation identity, once held up as a beacon of excellence, has continued to be consumed and marginalised. In the continued barrage of instructions and policies, the identity of Probation continues to be expunged or at best seen as an afterthought. In some cases, there is barely an effort to disguise the fact these are churned out with the word Prison changed for Probation. The staff transfer is the ideal opportunity to assert the values and true identity of Probation as a standalone and vibrant organisation, whose contribution to protecting and serving the community, is not recognised by renaming us as justice workers. Probation requires its own structure and champion and where its achievements and unique contribution can be nurtured and recognised. Where training and development is linked to the professionalism that already exists rather than being treated as an afterthought. This AGM, as part of the Licence to Practice debate, asks the Professional & Training, Campaigning and Negotiating Committees to collaborate on advancing the basis for a separate Probation Service with its own director. 
Proposer: Keith Stokeld Seconder: Maureen Vernon

30. The shame is with the leadership not the professionals who deliver 

This AGM is ashamed to find the leadership of the services we work for is prepared to blame the staff for failed inspections in CRCs and more lately over a high profile SFO in the Midlands. The Chief Probation Officer, rather than acknowledging the impact of the high caseloads the staff were working under, chose to express her shame for their practice. It is time to acknowledge that, no matter how many times the organisation seeks to reintroduce the latest version of quality assurance or a regurgitated version of desistance, staff are sinking under the pressure. It is not for the lack of professionalism or the desire to develop and deliver effective practice, it is simply the weight of work that increases the risk of failure. This AGM calls on Campaigning Committee to campaign to redress the blame game on staff and focus on reducing workloads. For the Professional & Training Committee to develop a toolkit of reforms on which staff are able to resist the relentless pressure of high risk cases. To support the measures being undertaken to remove the blame game from staff in preference to focusing on the systemic failures of the services we work for. 
Proposer: Staffordshire and West Midlands Branch

31. The Future of the Probation Service 

Having considered the government’s proposals for a future probation service, as set out in “The proposed future model of probation - a draft operating blue print” this Conference calls upon Napo’s Campaigning Committee to make clear that:

• it believes the future service, while providing national coverage, should cease to be either a part of the Civil Service or the Prison Service and should seek alternative arrangements for its governance based on shared responsibility between local authorities and the Ministry of Justice; it rejects the distinction between “offender management” and “interventions” as designed to promote a market for services that ought to be united and delivered as one, free of market interference; 
• it discards the phrases “protecting the public” and “preventing reoffending”, for which the evidence is slender, in favour of “advise, assist and befriend” which should seek to enable desistance from offending; 
• insists the term Probation Court staff designated to Court are appropriately trained to oversee the delivery of the court’s supervisory orders and to otherwise assist in the fair delivery of justice. 
Proposer: Chris Hignett Seconder: Mike Guilfoyle

33. It always was ‘Foreseeable’ 

AGM notes the reports from members working for Interserve Justice of the significant impact of work-related stress, created by the lack of capacity and support, to undertake meaningful rehabilitative work with clients. This has been shown to lead to increased risk of serious harm posed to the public as a direct result of an inadequately resourced operational model. Workloads are consistently well above the agreed threshold, resulting in unacceptably high stress levels and a staff group which is told that there is nowhere for the work to go, leaving it dejected, completing tasks outside of paid working hours and at risk of disciplinary processes. This AGM also notes that an ever-decreasing staff group, combined with increasing workloads, can only increase the likelihood of Serious Further Offences. This AGM instructs Napo Officials to work with the employer to address the issues, to support the use of Foreseeability Notices and ensure that the appropriate remedial action is taken by the organisation on receipt of such notices. If this is not forthcoming, a dispute should be raised to ensure that the health, safety and well-being of members is protected so that risks of harm to the public are minimised. 
Proposer: West Yorkshire Branch

34. It’s not reunification until it’s reunified 

Conference welcomes the emergency resolution submitted by West Yorkshire Branch and passed by the NEC at its June meeting (reproduced below). This AGM calls on the National Officers and Officials to provide the membership with an update on the progress that has been made with this critical campaign. In addition, this AGM instructs Napo National Officers and Officials to request a copy of the risk register relating to the reorganisation, as part of a campaign to highlight the dangers of leaving this section of the workforce outside of the statutory sector. Napo must increase the profile of this important campaign to ensure the failings of TR are not replicated, to protect those members currently outside of the reunification, increase the morale of current members and illustrate the importance of Napo to a layer of employees not currently organised by the union. ‘Napo notes and welcomes the decision to unify the offender management section of the CRC’s with the NPS. We also note with concern the decision to leave interventions, unpaid work and ITTG in the private and non-statutory sector. Napo recognises the anxiety this has caused for members working in these sectors and is aware of the dangers of demoralisation and membership loss. Napo will prioritise a high profile campaign to bring all sectors of the CRCs into the NPS by:- 

1) Convening a meeting of representatives from all the CRCs to discuss and develop the strategy. 
2) Produce written material for members to use in lobbying MPs and other key stakeholders 
3) Lobby Parliament regarding the inherent risks to the public and service provision should interventions and UPW remain in the private and non-statutory sector. 
4) Produce a regular bulletin for members to update them on the progress of the campaign.' 
Proposer: West Yorkshire Branch