Judy McKnight's Napolog

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Web log of Napo's general secretary

February 27, 2008

Speaking out for Probation

The Guardian published my letter today, along with good letters from David Scott on behalf the newly formed, and much welcome ACECOP, and Frances Crook of the Howard League.

The paper also contains the more detailed interview with Jack Straw where he praises our work.

We are still awaiting a formal announcement on the extra money that is supposed to be on the way, so the publication of these letters is timely.

Posted by jmcknight at 08:06 AM | Comments (0)

February 25, 2008

Money, Money, Money!

Looks like we have more money. Its £40m next year we understand, which if true, will reverse the cuts.

It may not be enough and we may still have workload problems, but if it means TPOs get jobs, fills vacancies and stops redundancies - its a good start!

Here is my circular to branches today.

Download file

Continue reading "Money, Money, Money!"

Posted by jmcknight at 06:36 PM | Comments (0)

February 22, 2008

Probation in Crisis

Prisons are full so Jack Straw is encouraging magistrates to impose community sentences.

We have written to Jack Straw and the Guardian to point out the resource implications of this and the fact that the Probation Service is also full.

Below is a copy of my letter to Jack Straw and a link to today’s edition of the Radio 4 World at One, where there some good interviews, including with our Harry Fletcher and Cindy Barnett, Chair of the Magistrates Association, who recognises the Probation Crisis; even Jack Straw is not too bad in responding to Harry’s points.

Download file

PS See also today's Observer.

Continue reading "Probation in Crisis"

Posted by jmcknight at 06:24 PM | Comments (0)

February 15, 2008

Annual Increments

The Probation Service Employers have indicated that at the March National Negotiating Council, (NNC), they are likely to say that, instead of paying increments in the normal - and agreed - way from 1 April, they intend to hold them back and include them in the 2008 pay negotiations. They accept that they are a contractual right and have said that when it is agreed how much the increments should be, they will be then paid retrospectively from 1 April 2008.

I have been personally outraged by the possibility of this ploy which keeps a little more money in Probation Areas budgets for a few more months, at the expense of Probation staff.

This is the not the way for our Employers to raise morale and win the hearts and minds of staff who have never been performing harder or more effectively, despite the uncertainty generated by the constant changes and reforms.

This position has not yet been formalised, and we still hope that Probation Areas might change their mind before the NNC meeting.

We have therefore sent a briefing to Branches asking them to meet with Probation Area Chairs to put the case for increments to be paid in the normal way.

If the Employers don’t budge, we might well need to consider industrial action this year.

I still hope that it won’t be necessary, but members will need to consider if it is right to sit back if the Employers were to act in such a shabby way.

Here is a copy of the Briefing sent to Branches

Download file

Posted by jmcknight at 06:31 PM | Comments (0)

February 14, 2008

General Secretary Election

Congratulations to Jonathan Ledger who has been elected to replace me as General Secretary when I retire in June.

Here is the Branch Circular with the results and a copy of the Press Release is below.

Download file

Continue reading "General Secretary Election"

Posted by jmcknight at 04:44 PM | Comments (0)

February 11, 2008

Probation Service - News Update

There have been a number of developments on a range of issues in recent days.

I will be issuing a circular to branches but here it is in a draft form:

1) MoJ Restructuring

Attending the Prison Service Conference last week provided a few more insights on what the restructured NOMS might mean for the Probation Service.

Information received included:
• "New" NOMS will be an agency from 1 April 2008;
• The plan was to promote the Prisons Service and the Probation Service rather than NOMS;
• The aim is to get rid of duplication of civil servants at national and regional level; the aim is to save £20m in NOMS - including regional offices - over an unspecified time;
• The aim is to replace commissioning which, we heard, is more suitable when demand does not outstrip supply, with contracts and SLAs, (Service Level Agreements);
• There will still be a role for some competition;
• The new regional structure will be based on collapsing Prison Area Managers with ROMS into one office by April 2010; the new regional boss will be known as a Director of Offender Management, DOM; in the meantime in Wales the current DOM will manage prisons and in London the ROM will go, leaving the Chief Officer to run Probation and the Area Manager to run Prisons;
• Under Phil Wheatley as Chief Executive, prisons and probation staff will work to a Chief Operations Officer, who will probably be Michael Spur;
• Under the Chief Operations Officer, Chief Officers will report to Roger Hill as Director of Probation; (clearly some aspects of this governance model still need addressing, as under Trusts, Chief Executives are supposed to be line managed by the Chair of the local Trust rather than NOMS);
• Centralisation of the current NOMS functions will mean Probation Human Resources, (HR), will merge with Prisons HR.
Whilst the new structures are clearly still very much at a developmental stage, they seem, subject to ensuring that the Probation voice and presence continues to be heard loud and clear, to have the potential for providing a more rational structure than the previous NOMS.
Napo will continue however to make the case for ensuring that the Probation voice is not lost in the new structures.

2) Workloads

We have held various meetings to take forward the workloads issues in the light of the AGM resolution calling for industrial action if workloads are not addressed.
PACU have now agreed to convene a seminar with Union representatives along with the Employers and a selection of Chief Officers to identify action that could be taken to reduce workloads.
Phil Wheatley, at last week’s Prison Service Conference, also acknowledged the current workloads crisis facing the Probation Service., and spoke of the need to urgently address costings issues for the Service. He also said that priorities needed to be determined at the centre, and that any other action would jeopardise public protection.
The recent National Audit Office report on Community Orders is also helpful to our workloads campaign, recognising as it does the growing workloads problem for the Service.
In Para 4.3 it states:
“The commitment of Probation Staff to their challenging and important jobs was clear in all the local Probation Areas we visited, but high case loads impact negatively on the motivation of Probation staff and may undermine the quality of offender supervision.”

Branches will be kept informed of the outcome of the Seminar which is planned to be held prior to the March NEC meeting.

3) Training

A more detailed circular is being issued updating on developments on training, and the fact that Ministers are now considering whether the development of the new training qualification, originally planned for introduction this year, should be deferred for another year.
We have made representations to the effect that if the new training arrangements are deferred, then it is important that there is no training gap. In addition to ensuring another cohort of TPOs, it will be it will also be important to address the training needs of PSOs.

4) Cuts

I will soon be circulating a further letter sent to David Hanson on a range issues including the impact of cuts on the Service.

5) Pay

Joint Secretarial discussions are being held this week on our pay claim and on the issue of increments. A further report will follow.

Posted by jmcknight at 08:59 AM | Comments (0)