Action Required

Regular readers will be aware that about this time of year I highlight some selected motions that are being entered for the Napo AGM ballot, but this year I don't intend to, extremely worthy though many of them are. The reason is quite simple in my view. Probation as part of HMPPS and the civil service has been an unmitigated disaster; will not and cannot be fixed  and therefore with a general election only a year away, the only sensible option is to go all out for devolution. 

Fortunately Napo Cymru has provided the roadmap in the form of their Motion 18 and thanks must go to the reader in Wales for sending me the following, recently circulated to all Napo members in Wales:-

This is for Wales, but it is about the whole of Probation in England and Wales. Devolution away from Westminster can be and should be achieved in England too. I plead with my English Napo colleagues to get this motion well up the order paper for conference: solidarity with your Welsh comrades, who have a route map out of the nightmare that is Probation in HMPPS, and who might well then pave the way for the rest of the service, so two good reasons for English Napo members to vote for this motion to be heard at AGM.

Members can vote for 7 motions, so this doesn't have to eclipse other important debates, but this really ought to be one of them.

The motion itself is a short history of a heck of a lot of campaigning: the text is below and we could write a chapter on each of the bullet points about the work done, over years, under each heading.

So please, Napo members in England and Wales, get on the Napo website, go to the AGM page and when you vote for motions to be heard at AGM, put an x in the box for Motion number 18 as one of your choices:-

18. Out of Westminster, out of the Civil Service, separate from Prisons: Probation in Wales can show a better way

Conference notes:

• the Thomas Report (Commission on Justice in Wales) recommends the devolution of justice;
• the Gordon Brown Report to UK Labour “A New Britain” specifically recommends the devolution of Probation and Youth Justice;
• First Minister Mark Drakeford, addressing Napo Cymru recently, said “this is for real”: concrete practical planning is underway, but the necessary legislation must be passed by a UK government;
• the insistence of Welsh Ministers Mark Drakeford, Jane Hutt, Mick Antoniw on collaboration with Justice Unions;
• the work of the Welsh Centre for Crime and Social Justice (WCCSJ), specifically its Probation Development Group, and its collaboration with Napo Cymru;
• Napo Cymru has worked with WCCSJ, Justice Unions and Welsh Minsters to establish the need to remove Probation from the Civil Service and uncouple Probation from the Prison Service;
• the argument for the devolution of Probation has been won in Wales, but must be passed by a UK government to proceed.

Napo will actively, urgently and persistently campaign for the devolution of Probation in Wales, focussing these efforts on the Westminster Labour Party, demanding that the devolution of Wales Probation is included in the UK Labour manifesto for the next General Election.

Proposer: Napo Cymru

--oo00oo--

It's worth noting that the campaign to influence an incoming Labour Administration at the general election is assisted by the following composited motion endorsed at the TUC conference last week:- 

C19 A royal commission into the government failures on the probation service and criminal justice system

Received from: NAPO, POA
Motion 66 with amendment and 67

Congress recognises that in society there needs to be a criminal justice system that is fair, accessible and decent for all the public. Since 2010 the whole criminal justice system has fallen into disrepute whether it be access to legal aid, or a right to a fair trial. Congress also notes that for 13 years there has been major cuts to the Prison service, Policing, and Courts system

Congress is seriously alarmed at the continuing lack of effective investment in the Probation Service since its reunification into state control in 2021.

There is increasing evidence to demonstrate the disastrous impact of this scandalous situation by way of:

• Unsustainable workloads and unfilled vacancy rates, meaning that it is not uncommon for practitioners to be holding case allocations of anywhere between 101-200% against recognised capacity.
• Service delivery, as evidenced by the cancellation of specialised programmes for those convicted of sexual offences and a huge backlog of clients awaiting placement on Community Service projects.
• Public safety, where numerous reports from His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation have been critical of Probation Senior Management for not implementing past lessons and failing to develop systems that will create safe workloads and assist practitioners in protecting our communities to the standards expected.

This threatens the integrity and professionalism of Probation, before the service has been given time to recover from the egregious damage that has been visited upon it by incompetent politicians.

Closures of courts throughout England and Wales has seen a major backlog of trials; Wales has seen a major backlog of trials; cuts to the Prison Service has seen a demise in rehabilitation with overcrowding now the norm and we are still seeing unacceptably high levels of assaults on prison officers and staff across the justice, immigration and custodial sector – with well over seven thousand incidents in the last twelve months.

The above issues, which are the subject of a joint probation unions campaign known as ‘Operation Protect’, are compounded by the proposed One HMPPS’ restructuring programme and its threats to jobs.

Congress seeks public support from the General Council for ‘Operation Protect’, and for the GC to lobby the Official HM Opposition to clearly map out their future plans to restore Probation into a gold standard service within the wider Criminal Justice System.

Congress recognises that there is an urgent need for a root and branch review of the whole criminal justice system from policing to prisons our court system and probation service with emphasis on creating a justice system that is fully funded with improved terms and conditions so that we have a system that is fair, accessible and decent for all.

Conference therefore instructs the general council to campaign for a Royal Commission with all political parties so that these aims and objectives can be met.

Mover: POA
Seconder: NAPO
Supporter: Community