The cost of austerity

I write this whilst keeping an eye on the news to see what comes of Business Minister Sajid Javid’s belated trip to Port Talbot, to explain to unions and workers exactly what his government have been doing to save the last vestiges of the UK steel industry.

The decimation of the industrial base in the UK which has been presided over by all our governments since as far back as the 1960’s, paints a sorry picture of decline. Whilst it may not seem relevant to many of today’s generation, the carve up of the rail industry by a certain Dr Beeching on March 27th 1963 was a black day for the railways and people of Great Britain. On that fateful day, the Doctor (fortunately he was not of the medical variety) released his infamous report, "The Reshaping of British Railways" on the nation. The consequences of this early exhibition of neo- liberal surgery, was the loss of at least 4,500 route miles, 2,500 stations and 67,700 jobs.

It has also been recognised by commentators far more knowledgeable in these matters than me, as being a major factor in the creation of the economic divide between North and South and the disproportionate spread of the UK population into several large cities and their neighbouring conurbations as opposed to the inevitable creation of new places to live and work that would have flowed from a fully joined up national and regional rail and transport network. Had that happened the demand for British steel would surely have endured for another 100 years.  Fast forward to today’s steel crisis, the risk to 40,000 jobs and the juxtaposition with the government’s ambitions for a ‘Great Northern Powerhouse’, and it’s easy to ask: how will this be built, what will it be built with and by whom?

We all wait with baited breath to see if a policy of intervention or meaningful support will follow today’s fateful encounter between the Minister and the Port Talbot community, but I guess not many of our members especially those with family links to steel workers have much optimism.

The salient point to all this is that we have a government that has consistently demonstrated that it has absolutely no interest in doing what needs to be done to support the vital industries and public institutions that are vital to wealth creation and the fabric of society. Perhaps we will see a conversion of Damascene proportions today but I am not putting my shirt on it.

Meanwhile, our thoughts go out to our Brothers and Sisters in the Community Union and especially their General Secretary Roy Rickhuss, who has been unceasing in his efforts to protect his members and their families interests, long before the predictable hand wringing by Ministers who have already sold the family silver in the form of the High Speed 2 rail project to the same financiers who, yes, will be using cheap steel to build it.

Napo Family Court Conference beckons

Napo’s Family Court Conference takes place in Birmingham on 26^th May  (click here for details) and as usual we can expect to see a range of topical professional issues covered by a number of distinguished keynote speakers. In advance of this important event in the Napo calendar which this year will focus on working with vulnerable young people, here are some common themes that we share with sister unions and partners. These have come through to me this week and follow from the summit that Jay Barlow and I attended in January on the Future of Social Work. These included:

• Developing  a stronger united voice for social work
• Renewing confidence within the social work profession
• Collaboration and sharing professional experiences
• Developing partnerships with service user and carer groups
• Defending and strengthening social work against the challenges it faces
• Working towards the creation of a Standing Conference of Social Work

The aim of that event was to help unify the profession and offer a more co-ordinated response to the major changes envisioned for future social work practice.

Napo is committed to the aim of ensuring that the profession retains its traditional values, ethics, knowledge and practice, and that social work should be developed as a unique profession especially fiven its strong roots into social justice.

The FCC is a great opportunity for members and prospective Napo members to network around common themes and I look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

E3 talks continue on Job evaluation appeals mechanism

As I reported recently, Napo intervention on the outcomes of E3 job evaluation helped to secure a much needed pause in the appeals process. This was agreed so that we can have some further discussion about how we are going to cope with the somewhat unusual situation of management and unions being unhappy with the JE results but for entirely different reasons.

This issue featured highly among a number of others at this week’s meeting of senior NOMS management and trade unions, and I am hopeful that we can find a mechanism that works for all of us. As you would expect, any agreement that we reach will need to be fit for purpose if it is to help provide some confidence in the job evaluation process and the E3 programme as a whole. On the latter, we also had some constructive exchanges about an implementation agreement and I hope to bring some positive news on this as well during the course of this month.

 Have a great weekend.