#Reunification – A meeting with Bob Neill MP
I have just returned from Parliament having met Justice Select Committee Chair Bob Neill, along with our National Chair Katie Lomas. It’s one more in a series of important engagements that the team and I have been undertaking since AGM. These have included meetings with Lord Ramsbotham and the Labour Police and Crime Commissioners, members of the Labour Justice Team, the Justice and Family Court Unions Parliamentary Group, National Audit Office and various professionally focused seminars.
These activities, along with our regular interface with our media contacts provide us with major opportunities to promulgate the reunification campaign as we enter the next stage. This is specifically designed to help you get our message across more effectively to all MP’s at this critical time especially those who hold influential positions on Parliamentary Committees.
The more we engage with HMPPS/MoJ sources and the more we hear ‘off the record’ comments from senior CRC leads, the more confidence we have that the Governments plans to re-marketise Probation are another ill-considered and desperate ploy to save political face no matter what the cost to the taxpayer and community safety.
Even without the current political chaos it is hard to see how the timetable for designing, tendering and awarding new CRC contracts can be achieved especially as there is a growing tide of opposition to this folly.
#PayUnity
Members should hopefully have seen my letter to David Gauke that I sent across last week. This demanded that his Government make the necessary adjustments to current and prospective CRC contracts and agree to establish pay parity across the whole of Probation. I am about to write to CRC leads to encourage them to join the campaign too and we will publish these letters along with the responses
I expect our request to the SoSfJ will be seen as fanciful to say the least and will soon be at the bottom of his in tray while his attention and that of Rory Stewart remains focused on doing anything possible to avoid a General Election. I would be delighted to be proved wrong and hear that they are willing to meet with people who have a different perspective to their own.
Membership growing - so why not recruit a friend too?
Finally, it’s well worth mentioning that we have received a record number of applications to join Napo over the last month. While this has been boosted by new members from the NPS we have seen a notable rise from CRC staff, many of whom have told me that they have seen the value of joining a campaigning, principled union that speaks out with authority on the professional issues.
Look out for more news soon on the recruitment campaign and join our growing list of ‘Napo Activ8rs.’
Ian Lawrence
I wanted to post a picture of Pinnochio...
ReplyDeleteI wonder if membership is growing at record rates and if more members are becoming activists. If things are truly going so well, why not talk figures and percentages to show the evidence behind the assertions. Napo, though, never gives the raw numbers, so we'll have to wait until figures are published by the Certification Officer.
DeleteIL refers to 'demands' made in his earlier letter to Gauke, but I could not find examples of demands being made or of consequences that usually follows if demands are ignored.
http://www.cityam.com/269336/capita-and-other-outsourcers-write-living-protect-public
ReplyDeleteCapita, Serco and Sopra Steria have volunteered to draw up contingency plans after the Cabinet Office said it lacked “key organisational information” that could have helped in the aftermath of the Carillion collapse in January.
DeleteThe trio could complete their continuity plans within weeks and other key suppliers of public services could follow, the Cabinet Office said.
The “living wills” would give the government time to transfer services to a new supplier or take them in-house in the event of a company's failure.
Cabinet office minister David Lidington said: “Carillion was a complex business and when it failed it was left to government to step in – and it did.
“But we did not have the benefit of key organisational information that could have smoothed the management of the liquidation.”
“By ensuring contingency plans can be quickly put in place in the very rare event of supplier failure, we will be better prepared to maintain continuity of critical public services.”
Lidington also said the government would publish previously unavailable data on the performance of critical contracts.
Capita chief executive Jon Lewis said: "Capita’s leadership is committed to upholding the highest standards of service and working together with the Government to effectively deliver critical UK public services.
"Adopting ‘living wills’ underlines our values-based leadership and our determination to help protect the UK’s public services."
Serco, which provides UK public services in the justice, immigration, healthcare and defence sectors, was one of the first to sign up to the new government initiative.
Chief executive Rupert Soames said: “As a major government supplier, who has been quite vocal on issues around Government contracting, it’s pleasing to see industry and government coming together to develop a shared vision for the delivery of public services.
“We are now beginning to see progress being made in a number of areas – transparency, standards of behaviour, risk allocation, and ‘living wills’, which are designed to improve the resilience of government contracting.”