Time For Action

There's a petition to sign which is supported by the Economics Foundation, GMB, Unison and Napo:-



Our probation service is incredibly important.

Without probation staff, it’s easier to fall back into a life of crime. Communities are less safe than they should be. Unfortunately, probation is in danger thanks to one of Chris Grayling’s hare-brained privatisation schemes.

What happened?

In 2015, Grayling, who was then Justice Secretary, sold off 70% of our probation service to private companies. 35 publicly owned, local probation services were split up and sold off, turned into Community Rehabilitation Companies. The private companies cut costs to make a profit – and standards are falling. They’re now failing to meet 2/3rds of their targets

Ex-offenders are finding it harder to reintegrate back into society, and more of them are reoffending. Since privatisation, the number of people committing a serious further offence while under probation supervision has risen 20%. And now, Working Links, who owned three of the companies, has collapsed, leaving staff and service users in the lurch.

What can we do?

We need to bring privatisation to an end, and bring the CRCs back into public ownership. The contracts are ending in 2020 - two years earlier than planned. This is a perfect opportunity for the current Justice Minister David Gauke to bring them in house.

Sign the petition above to tell the government to bring probation into public ownership.

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There's a free conference to go to:- 

Let’s Get Active - Time for Change

The 2019 Women in Napo Conference will take place on Friday 5th April in the NEU Head Office, Hamilton House, Mabledon Place, London, WC1H 9BD (just five minutes from Euston and Kings Cross/St Pancras mainline stations)

Confirmed speakers include:

• Sonia Crozier, Executive Director and Board Lead on Women
• Amy Rees, Director General HMPPS Probation
• Nicola Smith, Joint Head of Equality and Strategy at the TUC
• Diane Abbott MP, Shadow Home Secretary
• Sophie Linden, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime in London

Invited speakers include:

• Claudia Webbe, former chair of Operation Trident, Islington Councillor, Labour Party National Executive Committee.

Workshops:

• Women’s Occupational Stress at Work run by visiting TUC Tutor, Susan Murray
• “Let’s get Active!”, Napo ACTIV8R campaign run by Napo Officers
• Nicola Harding, criminologist and feminist academic researching the impact of TR on women on probation.

Refreshments provided

Now FREE to members! Get your registration in early to avoid disappointment. Non-members can attend for a fee of £50. In the event of oversubscription priority will be given to members. 

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Finally, there's a policy document from the Labour Party to read:-

Building an effective criminal justice system