Here we have the latest mailout:-
Dear Xxxxxxxxxx
Covid Lockdown - Napo demands urgent action from all Employers
As you would expect Napo Officers and Officials have been in touch with senior management across all employers where we are recognised, to press for urgent action in light of yesterday’s announcements of further lockdown measures across the UK.
CRCs
Early indications across the CRC Estate are that a number of employers have already shut down Programmes and Unpaid Work or are scaling these activities back to the absolute minimum in an attempt to drastically reduce face to face contact within strict social distancing regimes. Officials are working with reps to seek urgent reviews of Risk Assessments and Operational Models. We understand that a number of pro-active announcements have today been made to staff in respect of these issues. Napo is also very concerned at the apparent pressure being exerted by Ministers via HMPPS Contract Management to deliver totally unrealistic targets which cannot be delivered safely. We will be raising this issue directly with the Director General Probation this week.
NPS
The NPS position is under review, and while we have received welcome news that Polygraph Testing is temporarily suspended and pending review following our representations, we expect more substantive news about the impact on services across Regions when we meet with the DG Probation. Our position is that while the NPS is legally required to deliver all aspects of probation services that are possible to do so remotely, (as was the case during the first lockdown in March last year), face to face appointments with service users must be reserved for exceptional cases, e.g. where public protection concerns cannot be managed or assessed solely through remote contact. This may include interviews with service users on release from custody, and cases where there are safeguarding or domestic abuse concerns. All other service users should receive their appointments remotely. Our priority is the safety and well-being of our members who while designated as key workers, rightly expect to receive the maximum possible protection during a Pandemic of which the Government has totally lost control. This is equally important for those staff working within the Approved Premises Estate and who are already facing significant risks.
PBNI
In Northern Ireland our local representatives will also be in touch with senior management to ensure that revised guidance is issued where necessary.
Extra Protection for the Extremely Clinically Vulnerable
We will also be demanding across all employers that all Extremely Clinically Vulnerable (ECV) staff and those staff who are living with an ECV person, should not be required to deliver a face to face service and must work from home.
Cafcass
In Cafcass, we are pleased that we have been already been able to have positive discussions with Senior Management about new guidance on face to face contact with Children and Families. Our Family Court Section will be issuing more news when it becomes available.
All of the Napo HQ team and Napo Officers are conscious that the new Lockdown announcements will be unsettling and create a worrying time for our members as you seek to respond to the changing rules and expectations. We will bring you more news as soon as we can, but meanwhile all members who are likely to be involved in face to face contact with service users are advised to seek a review of individual risk assessments with your line manager.
Specific enquiries about this bulletin should be directed to your Napo Link Officer or Official in the first instance please.
Ian Lawrence Katie Lomas
General Secretary National Chair
In US news - Democrat candidate for Georgia Senate seat Rev Warnock has just made victory statement on Youtube - leading with 50.4% of the count.
ReplyDeletePathetic from Napo. Has not checked each Division. NPS London Division pre-Lockdown self-rated as Amber. Remains self-rated as Amber. Business as usual. Similar in other Divisions. Unions silent.
ReplyDeleteIt took two of them to write that bunkem . They really have no role no influence credibility or idea. Napo ought to realise these poor quality low brow bulletins only reinforce the view of their incompetance . Try not to reassure staff it is patronising . Try not stating the obvious as you would expect. Try and talk straight what you mean is you have tried to consult only some CRCs who recognise unions. That means a few CRCs of the 21 .
Delete“This may include interviews with service users on release from custody, and cases where there are safeguarding or domestic abuse concerns.”
ReplyDeleteBasically all service users then!
repost of comment from late last night:
ReplyDelete"each CRC has had a new contract modification on 4/1/21 along the lines of:
"The authority has made variations to deal with the following two phases:
— Phase 1: The Covid transition period (from 31 August 2020 (being when the Covid relief period expired under the previous modification) until 4 December 2020. The initial previous modification was effective until 31 October 2020 with a right for the authority to change this date. The authority issued a notice to change the date to 4 December 2020 — during this phase the CRC shall have its service delivery obligations amended temporarily to reflect the continuing difficulties of delivering their obligations under pandemic restrictions (and the authority shall waive it remedies and rights under the agreement in whole or in part, as and where appropriate, in respect of such obligations). The CRC shall deliver the services to the extent provided for (from 1 September 2020) in the Transition EDM and transition plan and the CRC shall carry out all obligations on it as set out in the Transition EDM and transition plan. The Transition EDM and transition plan are integral to the CRC moving away from the EDM and achieving progress back to business as usual deliver of the services in line with the agreement prior to the impact of the pandemic;
— Phase 2: the recovery period (being the period from 5 December 2020 to 31 March 2021 (or such other date as may be notified by the authority to the CRC)) – during this period the CRC's shall operate in accordance with the Transition EDM and transition plan with associated contractual relief but with pricing and transparency on a cost plus basis as set out in a previous modification. The invoicing procedures are also updated for this period;"
Wonder what the third lockdown effect will be on transition plans & recovery periods...? Might Napo have a view?
After all of Johnson's weasel words about responding to the science & the data...
ReplyDelete"The UK government says it is considering requiring travellers to the UK from abroad to prove they have had a negative coronavirus test"
***considering*** - erm, you might be a bit late. Again.
Anyone entering the UK, be it returning citizens or visitors for ANY reason should already be REQUIRED to submit negative tests before being allowed entry.
Alongside every other fuck-up - plus the more recent pre-Xmas mass exodus from London, 24-hour-shop-til-you-drop, the Xmas hugfest - its yet another gaping hole left wide open in the so-called biosecure system by these idiots; and then they wonder how & why the virus has spread so far so fast?
Note the deafening silence about £22bn's worth of Track'n'Trace for the past few weeks. Wonder why...
Wonder why? It's so impolite to talk about money.
Deletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/business-55551314
Billions to track and trace could have solved all housing needs. Loads to hotels for the homeless not a penny in usual times. Johnson is no doubt a killer by incompetance but he he has been able to blame away on every new junction . All change is down to the fast spreader. Phew he says that a justification for all those u turns . He's guilty as trump this country needs to hold to him account then hang him over traitors gate please. I would buy a ticket for that all day long. Sorry gratuitous post . Hurrah for trump we now see him true inciting 4 deaths another monster and narcesssist of the worst sort.
Deletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.consultancy.uk/news/amp/26442/test-and-trace-to-phase-out-consulting-firms-for-inhouse-consultants
DeleteThe Government’s Test and Trace pandemic response programme is attempting to reduce its reliance on private sector giants after a public relations backlash. The news comes after it emerged that management consultants and trade bodies had recently been tasked with providing pro bono advice on plans to establish an in-house Crown Consultancy.
DeleteAfter a decade of austerity left the UK’s Civil Service spread thin, the coronavirus crisis saw the UK Government resort to massive outsourcing of its work – tapping consultants from many of the world’s largest professional services firms to help paper over the cracks. In August 2020, publicly available data collated by The Guardian and online journalism platform openDemocracy showed contracts worth a total of £56 million has been handed out to help with the national response to the first wave of Covid-19 – but by October, this bill was found to have spiralled to £175 million, an increase which was so large that UK Parliament announced a probe into the Government’s heightened use of management consultants amid the crisis.
The public response to the hefty amounts of tax-payers’ money has become increasingly hostile, meanwhile, particularly in regards to the floundering Test and Trace system the Government is using to detect Covid-19 and isolate those who test positive. The platform has leaned heavily on private sector providers since its inception earlier this year, with Serco and Sitel being contracted to deliver contact tracing call handling services, while consultancy giants including Deloitte and McKinsey & Company have also been used to manage testing sites and the programme as a whole.
As the troubled system continued to face claims that it is “barely functional,” Sky News revealed that some consultants were being paid £7,000 a day to work on the ‘Test and Trace’ system. At the same time, McKinsey reportedly charged the Government £14,000 a day for six weeks’ work in helping to define the “vision, purpose and narrative” of the new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP).
According to the journalistic platform, an email from a recruitment consultancy firm advertising 70 new roles in the Test and Trace programme states that daily renumeration peaks at £800 for nine of the most senior roles, gradually scaling down to £350 for the three most junior roles..."
£1,750 a week "for the three most junior roles" - they'll be the one's who graduated from Oxbridge last summer.
Our area still amber and open all week. Higher risk than March when we all went home computer kit in hands with do not come back! Offices in our LDU being run differently even before this latest removal of freedom. The staff are all so exhausted they don't complain and I learned today there have been some cases in our office with Napo staying quiet about it! It all stinks, rotten from the inside out!
ReplyDeleteThats cos offices werent COVID secure back in March but now they are. If you stay 2 meters from anyone else and keep washing your hands youll be fine pal
DeleteReally
DeleteMust be true as Napo have not disputed any staff protections now have they not 1.
DeleteTrump tweet just now:
ReplyDelete"These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!"
no words...
Glued to CNN - its better than owt else on't telly!!
ReplyDeleteI stayed glued for as long as possible but eventually had to surrender to sleep. This is history in the making and with the brilliant result from Georgia together with incitement for sedition from the President, the time of reckoning for the Republican Party has finally arrived. All will have to account for their behaviour whilst the Democrats get on with the serious business of governing and consolidating their power. I must say I'm particularly looking forward to seeing the odious Mitch McConnell become increasingly irrelevant.
DeleteBe careful what you wish for Jim
DeleteTrump is a disgrace, as are those in the Republican Party that have empowered him with his ridiculous claims about the election.
But the mainstream Republican party ie McConnell et al are pro Britain. Which can't be said for large swathes of the Democrats especially the left who were previously on the fringe and now increasingly make up their mainstream
As it happens the inevitability of the party in power losing seats in mid term elections means the Dems will probably lose the House and Senate in two years time
The Republican Party has become a disgrace as far as I can see riven with with barely-disguised racism that manifests itself in 'voter suppression' - mostly of black and other ethnic groups. Isn't it rather distasteful to want to associate with such and particularly if they are more 'pro-British'?
DeleteThe Republican Party will now be riven with recriminations, blame and possibly a split, so hardly likely tp be that effective. They have to decide what to do about Trump.
Some very 'lively' discussion on CNN today with no punches being pulled, interspersed with even more disturbing footage, presumably posted online by 'proud patriots' aka trump supporters, showing them breaking into the Capitol building, using riot shields to smash windows & attack police/security staff, and generally behaving like utter morons. At least the selfie culture will mean most are identified and can be prosecuted.
DeleteThe live reports last night showed 'oath-makers' (akin to proud boys & qanon) co-ordinating the crowds using mobile phones, directing the flag wavers, distracting the police lines. It was most certainly NOT an impromptu assault on the capitol building.
As for the malignant orange tumour, seems he's taken the act of taking-the-piss too far this time. By co-ordinating yesterday's event he's clearly assisted in enabling domestic terrorism. Maybe he'll be removed from office by Pence & co?
That would be a fitting end to his term of office; it would be even better if he faced criminal charges for yesterday's actions, and while he languished in federal custody for acts of insurrection & sedition, maybe they could go through his finances & tax records?
Serves as a warning to the lickspittles, the silent & the complicit in the UK who are too afraid to challenge Johnson & co. We have a similarly structured government of 'yes' people & willing enablers. Brexit was the non-violent version of yesterday's events in USA - an historical & gravely damaging event achieved through deception, coercion, silent compliance & misinformed crowds being told lies to secure support.
It's all about geopolitics though Jim. No doubt the Republican party do all sorts of distasteful things, but if they're better for Britain then geopolitically we should want them in power. It's no different to supporting the governments of Dubai and so on. They may treat their citizens badly but if the alternative is revolution, instability and international terrorism like Iran, Iraq and Libya then geopolitically we want them to remain in power.
DeleteAnon 10:48 No - things will be just fine with Democrats running things, you know sorting out Covid, climate change and not cosying up to tyrants like Putin.
DeleteAccording to a survey 45% of Republican voters support the storming of Congress. The very essence of US democracy is at stake unless the GOP implodes.
DeleteJim - but the point is the Republican leadership in Congress have never been cosying up to Russia. That was Trump - who acted in spite of the Republican Congressional leadership. Trump has never really been a Republican, he just used the party to serve his own narcissistic ends. He was a registered Democrat until 5 years before seeking the Republican nomination.
DeleteThe American party political system is much more complex than ours, primarily because the US is effectively a continent. There isn't even a national Republican Party or Democratic Party - just coalitions of 50 state parties. Consequently there is no one leader and so whilst Trump may have the national limelight now, the Republican Party will quickly move on.
Agreed - but the Republican Party almost completely signed up to Trump and must now either stick with him or ditch him - either way it's going to be judgement day and many including myself are more than happy to see them suffer turmoil and division whilst the Democrats run things for awhile. The test will start with either the 25th Amendment, or prosecution of Trump for crimes of sedition. Either will make sure he's not on any ticket for 2024.
DeleteJust hand him over to Iran.
DeleteTurmoil in the rp is not a good thing if they take a harder right turn and this tossers have guns as a social aspect of their tool kit oh and plenty of ammo. USA is on the brink of serious loss of political control.
DeleteFour dead to trump legacy enough blood already please.
DeleteBest account of yesterday's insurrection event yet, as given by a Trump fanatic on World Tonight, R4:
Delete"The whole thing was staged by the senior left leadership to discredit Donald Trump. They invited those people into the Capitol building and let them run riot. It had nothing to do with Donald Trump."
10.41, I largely agree with what you say but you're dead wrong to make that final comparison to Brexit.
ReplyDeleteBrexit was the equivalent of Congress yesterday fulfilling it's constitutional role and ensuring the will of the people was heard by certifying that Biden won the election.
The violence yesterday was the equivalent of the remainers after the referendum - trying to use any tactic to overturn the results of an election/referendum to remain in power/preserve the status quo.
@10:55 - I'm tired & angry about so many things that are the doings or lack-of-doings of right wing ideologues, e.g. piss-poor pandemic response, probation reforms, bailing out the bankers, enriching their chums; I'm certainly too tired to re-run the arguments about Brexit being built on lies, misdirections & the ideology of supremacy. We'll just have to agree to differ in our views.
Delete"Much of [Tory tolerance & indulgence of Trump] was due to Brexiteers seeing Trump’s and their own rise stemming from the same ideological well. Jacob Rees-Mogg wrote in the Times in 2018 ahead of one of Trump’s visits: “It is our national good fortune that the president with whom we will develop this new arrangement is Mr Trump. His election depended upon similar factors to those that led to Brexit. He appealed to voters left behind by the metropolitan elite and he exudes confidence about his own nation and a determination not to be a manager of decline, which also inspires the Brexiteers.” "
DeletePtarick Wintour, journalist
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55592161
Delete"trying to use any tactic to overturn the results of an election/referendum to remain in power"???
ReplyDeleteThe UK Conservative government's position when the referendum was called was to remain. That was the principle reason for Cameron stepping down.
Couldn't make it up!
ReplyDeletehttps://www.google.com/amp/s/www.irishtimes.com/business/technology/pro-brexit-campaign-leave-eu-relocates-to-waterford-1.4452308%3fmode=amp
Leave.EU, a pro-Brexit campaign bankrolled by UKIP backer Arron Banks, has migrated its registered office for its website to Waterford so that it can retain its ‘.eu’ internet address.
DeleteThe move, first reported by the Euractiv website, comes as more than 80,000 .eu domain suffixes belonging to British users were recently suspended following Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union.
Another pro-Brexit campaigner, Jacob Rees-Mogg, was also accused of hypocrisy when Somerset Capital Management, a hedge fund manager in which he owns a 15 per cent stake, set up two funds in Dublin to give it continued access to the EU after Britain’s exit.
Brexit is Strong in The North!! (Stockton on Tees, actually)
ReplyDelete"Some local patients have turned down an offer this weekend of getting a Covid vaccine when they found out it was the Pfizer one. 'I'll wait for the English one' they said."
The docro's reply: "The best vaccine as far as I can work out is the one that can be put into your arm soonest"
FFS!
BBC Inside Science discuss covid vaccine issues - fascinating, balanced & helpful.
DeleteTrump's new video puts him at serious risk from qanon, proud boys, oath-takers - in trying to save his skin he's now thrown some very serious, angry, armed & vicious thugs in front of a slow moving bus. They did as trump & trump junior commanded them to do. But for trump to now abandon them in their hour of triumph will be one of trump's last acts. The vile & vicious attack dogs have a strong code of allegiance & (albeit misplaced & twisted) honour. For trump to hand them in after using them for his personal gain will not be well received. Many of his 'troops' are aggrieved veterans who resent, hate &/or have issues with being used, being abandoned or being sold down the river. This might just lead to a very angry backlash & an extremely 'disappointed' footsoldier in a maga hat taking down trump in a fit of pique.
ReplyDeleteand now trump is desperately scrabbling to get them back on-side again on his restored twitter account:
Delete* "The 75,000,000 great American Patriots who voted for me, AMERICA FIRST, and MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN, will have a GIANT VOICE long into the future. They will not be disrespected or treated unfairly in any way, shape or form!!!"