VISOR vetting - some clarification about what is going on
NPS members will be as concerned as Officers and Officials about the potential impact of the intended expansion of VISOR vetting as part of E3 phase 2. At the recent Trade Union Engagement Meeting the plan is for all CA, PSO, PO and SPO staff working in offender management and MAPPA to be vetted and to have access to VISOR.
For clarity this is a police owned record system and for NPS staff to access it they must pass a higher than usual level of vetting which includes giving details of family, household and finances. In the past members could effectively opt out of this by choosing not to move to a role requiring this level of vetting but the expectation that the majority of staff will be vetted changes this.
There are some obvious and quite understandable privacy and dignity concerns in relation to disclosure of such a level of personal information and we are concerned to hear some early reports of divisions expecting highly personal details to be passed through several layers of staff before reaching the vetting contact. If this is suggested in any division it should be brought to the Divisional JCC HR lead initially and if a resolution cannot be found referred to the Link Officer/official to escalate.
Napo highlighted the concerns around vetting in our response to the E3 phase 2 blueprint. As you will see from the branch circular issued shortly after the election when implementation began, we secured some helpful assurances from the employers.
Vetting failure
This means that, unless the reason for failure of vetting is such that a disciplinary case is warranted then no member of staff will lose their employment as a result of vetting failure. Anyone failing the vetting process would be redeployed or have a restricted caseload or other adjustments to allow them to continue to work. If any Divisions are giving a different message about this, reference should first be made to the circular mentioned above and the letter to Napo from the employers giving the assurances and if necessary the matter can be escalated initially to the Divisional Director and if necessary nationally via the Link Officer and Official.
The facts
We are awaiting further responses from the VISOR HMPP leads following our representations at TU engagement and we will issue more information as soon as we can. It’s becoming tiresome to have to repeat this yet again but anyone who says that Napo is happy to go along with this or that an agreement has been reached, are to say the least being somewhat economical with the truth.
Further E3 Job evaluation appeals
We have been contacted by a number of members in regards to all of the MAPPA roles (MAPPA Administrator, MAPPA Deputy Co-ordinator and MAPPA Co-Ordinator) and also the Review and Investigations Team Manager. We are appealing all of these results and will be working with our practitioner members to ensure that we have expert input into the process which is being Co-ordinated by National Vice-Chair Katie Lomas.
News on the Community Prisons for Women project
The project is part of the wider Prison Estate Transformation Project to build 5 new community prisons for women with 60 beds in each. This is a huge change in the way that women's custody is planned, designed and managed. The aims are for improved conditions and outcomes for women and a trauma informed model has been produced with women's needs in mind from the start of the design process.
Yvonne Pattison and Katie Lomas tell me that there is an acknowledgement that this is the first time an establishment for women has been designed in this way as all other women's prisons were either built as men’s prisons, or then converted.
Closeness to home is a key consideration and priority has been given to locations where there is the highest demand aligned to the CRC Contract Package Areas. It is acknowledged that there is a need for many more than 5 units but this is the first stage in the process. The broad geographical areas are London (2 sites), Wales, North West and the Midlands. All of the units will be on land adjacent to current or new prisons but the units for women will run independently with a separate staff group. There will be some sharing of services with the neighbouring prison however. The Governor from the nearest Women’s prison will have oversight of the unit. The units will be for women towards the end of their sentence, in their last 12 months and all women will need to be eligible for ROTL. The ideal is that all 60 residents will be out on ROTL at least 50% of the time. The residents will have a self-cook scheme with assistance given if needed and there will be a far lower level of physical security, in common with other women’s open prisons.
--oo00oo--
The Branch Circular referred to above:-
Dear Member
NPS Launches its 2017 Operational Plan
Now that the General Election has taken place, the National Probation Service has advised us that they intend to publish their Operational Plan for 2017.
Napo has ensured that our input was taken into consideration, and the following is a report of what we have said following contributions from Napo Branches and members and the elected National Officer Group.
In addition to the following summary of Napo’s views we have appended the formal response by the NPS.
E3 1-1 meeting issues
The employers have requested further engagement on this matter with Napo, as they accept that there were difficulties in the initial phase and this is a process that is vital for our members. We will continue to push for proper support for Line Managers who are carrying out 1-1 meetings, for meetings to be held only when the Line Manager has the information that will be needed, and for 1-1 meetings to be revisited when new information comes to light or circumstances change.
Chapter 1 - MAPPA
The employers have given the reassurance that there will be no change to MAPPA resourcing and that any changes to job descriptions will follow the agreed process.
Chapter 2 - ViSOR
The employers have offered a reassurance that additional workloads relating to ViSOR use will be taken into account. It will be vital for us to hold them to this. Additionally it is envisaged that (subject to IT constraints) nDelius entries will be able to be copied to ViSOR. The employers have also repeated the commitment to offering an additional time allowance for ARMS assessments (after many months of Napo representations). There is an assurance that ViSOR use won't be rolled out until the new IT project (TTP) comes in and an agreement reached that AT users will be involved in the testing of all IT applications including ViSOR on the new system.
The employers have also agreed that proper training is required for the roll out of ViSOR as opposed to the briefings that were offered when it was originally introduced. The employers have accepted that the additional vetting required for ViSOR use is likely to create additional stress for some staff. The NPS has repeated the reassurance that no one will lose their employment simply because of a vetting issue, unless the information uncovered is so serious that the code of conduct is breached.
The employers have denied that the ViSOR administrator role requires a new job description and job evaluation, this will need to be monitored carefully to ensure that no members are doing work that they are not being remunerated for.
Chapter 3 - Sex Offender Interventions
The employers have assured Napo that the resource model takes into account the new programmes. They deny that merging the Treatment Manager and Team Manager roles causes difficulty and we will need to work with members to monitor the roll out to ensure that any difficulties are addressed. There is however a reassurance that our comments about workloads have been taken into account, with the ratios of TM to staff being reduced in these teams to take into account the additional duties. There will be no new job description for this role and again Napo will work with members to monitor the implementation to ensure that duties being undertaken are appropriately covered by the job descriptions and job evaluation process.
There is an agreement with Napo's representations about making sensible decisions relating to movement of facilitator staff after five years, especially where there are specific circumstances to be considered. Frustratingly the employers still have not given any detail about the mysterious "VQ4 qualification" referred to in terms of non-PO qualified facilitators, despite Napo asking direct questions about it. We will continue to work on this during implementation to get the answers to simple questions that our members need. The employers do make assurances that pay protections will apply to anyone being redeployed and that any redeployment will be done in a way that adheres to agreed processes.
Chapter 4 - Administration
The employers have re-stated that decisions about the use of admin hubs will be made divisionally dependent on need. We need to ensure that Napo reps work locally with the NPS divisional leads to ensure that any decisions are made in consultation and that the proper process is followed in terms of redeployment.
Chapter 5 - Complaints
The employers have noted our suggestions for implementation of the plans; we now need to continue to make the case for the SPOs recruited to the team to have a variety of recent management experience.
Chapter 6 - Job Role Harmonisation
The employers have confirmed that there will not be a new job description for Polygraph examiners; it is simply the line management arrangements that will change.
The employers have re-stated their commitment to providing training that is individually tailored for any staff moving from a specialist role to a more generic one.
It is hoped that our members working within the NPS will find this narrative helpful. Any enquiries should be channeled through your Link Officer but where this is not possible then please contact Katie Lomas who will respond as soon as possible.
Please ensure that you bring this briefing to the attention of any of your colleagues at your workplace whom you happen to know are not a Napo member.
Napo - The Trade Union of Choice for Probation Workers.
Ian Lawrence
General Secretary
Katie Lomas
National Vice-Chair
The project is part of the wider Prison Estate Transformation Project to build 5 new community prisons for women with 60 beds in each. This is a huge change in the way that women's custody is planned, designed and managed. The aims are for improved conditions and outcomes for women and a trauma informed model has been produced with women's needs in mind from the start of the design process.
Yvonne Pattison and Katie Lomas tell me that there is an acknowledgement that this is the first time an establishment for women has been designed in this way as all other women's prisons were either built as men’s prisons, or then converted.
Closeness to home is a key consideration and priority has been given to locations where there is the highest demand aligned to the CRC Contract Package Areas. It is acknowledged that there is a need for many more than 5 units but this is the first stage in the process. The broad geographical areas are London (2 sites), Wales, North West and the Midlands. All of the units will be on land adjacent to current or new prisons but the units for women will run independently with a separate staff group. There will be some sharing of services with the neighbouring prison however. The Governor from the nearest Women’s prison will have oversight of the unit. The units will be for women towards the end of their sentence, in their last 12 months and all women will need to be eligible for ROTL. The ideal is that all 60 residents will be out on ROTL at least 50% of the time. The residents will have a self-cook scheme with assistance given if needed and there will be a far lower level of physical security, in common with other women’s open prisons.
--oo00oo--
The Branch Circular referred to above:-
Dear Member
NPS Launches its 2017 Operational Plan
Now that the General Election has taken place, the National Probation Service has advised us that they intend to publish their Operational Plan for 2017.
Napo has ensured that our input was taken into consideration, and the following is a report of what we have said following contributions from Napo Branches and members and the elected National Officer Group.
In addition to the following summary of Napo’s views we have appended the formal response by the NPS.
E3 1-1 meeting issues
The employers have requested further engagement on this matter with Napo, as they accept that there were difficulties in the initial phase and this is a process that is vital for our members. We will continue to push for proper support for Line Managers who are carrying out 1-1 meetings, for meetings to be held only when the Line Manager has the information that will be needed, and for 1-1 meetings to be revisited when new information comes to light or circumstances change.
Chapter 1 - MAPPA
The employers have given the reassurance that there will be no change to MAPPA resourcing and that any changes to job descriptions will follow the agreed process.
Chapter 2 - ViSOR
The employers have offered a reassurance that additional workloads relating to ViSOR use will be taken into account. It will be vital for us to hold them to this. Additionally it is envisaged that (subject to IT constraints) nDelius entries will be able to be copied to ViSOR. The employers have also repeated the commitment to offering an additional time allowance for ARMS assessments (after many months of Napo representations). There is an assurance that ViSOR use won't be rolled out until the new IT project (TTP) comes in and an agreement reached that AT users will be involved in the testing of all IT applications including ViSOR on the new system.
The employers have also agreed that proper training is required for the roll out of ViSOR as opposed to the briefings that were offered when it was originally introduced. The employers have accepted that the additional vetting required for ViSOR use is likely to create additional stress for some staff. The NPS has repeated the reassurance that no one will lose their employment simply because of a vetting issue, unless the information uncovered is so serious that the code of conduct is breached.
The employers have denied that the ViSOR administrator role requires a new job description and job evaluation, this will need to be monitored carefully to ensure that no members are doing work that they are not being remunerated for.
Chapter 3 - Sex Offender Interventions
The employers have assured Napo that the resource model takes into account the new programmes. They deny that merging the Treatment Manager and Team Manager roles causes difficulty and we will need to work with members to monitor the roll out to ensure that any difficulties are addressed. There is however a reassurance that our comments about workloads have been taken into account, with the ratios of TM to staff being reduced in these teams to take into account the additional duties. There will be no new job description for this role and again Napo will work with members to monitor the implementation to ensure that duties being undertaken are appropriately covered by the job descriptions and job evaluation process.
There is an agreement with Napo's representations about making sensible decisions relating to movement of facilitator staff after five years, especially where there are specific circumstances to be considered. Frustratingly the employers still have not given any detail about the mysterious "VQ4 qualification" referred to in terms of non-PO qualified facilitators, despite Napo asking direct questions about it. We will continue to work on this during implementation to get the answers to simple questions that our members need. The employers do make assurances that pay protections will apply to anyone being redeployed and that any redeployment will be done in a way that adheres to agreed processes.
Chapter 4 - Administration
The employers have re-stated that decisions about the use of admin hubs will be made divisionally dependent on need. We need to ensure that Napo reps work locally with the NPS divisional leads to ensure that any decisions are made in consultation and that the proper process is followed in terms of redeployment.
Chapter 5 - Complaints
The employers have noted our suggestions for implementation of the plans; we now need to continue to make the case for the SPOs recruited to the team to have a variety of recent management experience.
Chapter 6 - Job Role Harmonisation
The employers have confirmed that there will not be a new job description for Polygraph examiners; it is simply the line management arrangements that will change.
The employers have re-stated their commitment to providing training that is individually tailored for any staff moving from a specialist role to a more generic one.
It is hoped that our members working within the NPS will find this narrative helpful. Any enquiries should be channeled through your Link Officer but where this is not possible then please contact Katie Lomas who will respond as soon as possible.
Please ensure that you bring this briefing to the attention of any of your colleagues at your workplace whom you happen to know are not a Napo member.
Napo - The Trade Union of Choice for Probation Workers.
Ian Lawrence
General Secretary
Katie Lomas
National Vice-Chair
http://www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk/news/business/mad-management-quality-and-productivity-or-privatisation-and-waste-1-8710701
ReplyDeletePlease never let it be said again that staff in NPS are better off than colleagues in CRCs. The employer changes staff roles, scrutinising individuals personal life looking for anything to reduce numbers and withhold pensions, it is a disgusting situation to be trapped in without even the prospect of redundancy
DeleteHaven't seen many nps moving into crc.
DeleteCopy here of the vetting form.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.northants.police.uk/files/documents/Vetting%20Forms/np%5ENPPV%20Level%202%20Application%20Form.pdf
So what would happen if your spouse declined to let you pass his details on? I'm assuming that you'd 'fail' the vetting.
ReplyDelete