EFFECTIVE, EFFICIENT, EXCELLENT?

Great aspirations for sure, but will the E3 implementation blueprint due out on Monday provide the means for the National Probation Service to lay claim to them over the next 12 months?

There won't be many of our members in the NPS and the 21 CRC employing bodies who are not sick and tired of the relentless operational change that they have been subjected to over the last few years.

The E3 plans are essentially designed to change the way in which the Probation service deals with its work in courts, community supervision including approved premises, custody and with victims. In order for this to happen NOMS will also need to change its management structures as well.

Our most recent negotiations with NOMS have seen us focus on:

• Trying to secure an Implementation agreement
   
• Trying to secure a no redundancy guarantee
   
• Trying to resist changes to the 3 year pay protections following E3 job evaluation (JE)
   
• Trying to secure the availability of posts at the protected grade for those staff who are re-banded   downwards as a result of E3
   
• Trying to find a way through the mess (by way of a moderation and appeals process) that has followed the JE outcomes for AP Managers and Area Managers, AP Residential Workers and Victim Liaison Officers.

We will issue more news about how we have fared in respect of the above and an analysis of what E3 means, once we have received a response from NOMS senior management.

Pay 2015-16

Further talks also took place this week with NOMS to explore whether there was any scope for making some belated progress with the outstanding aspects of the joint unions claim now that the contractual progression payments have been authorised.

We now await a formal response to our latest representations, but let me make it clear that we have wasted no opportunity to relay the anger that members at their pay maximum have been expressing about the way they have been treated yet again.

More news as soon as it becomes available

NQ and communication with our members

Napo quarterly was published this week (www.NQonline.org and in hard copy https://www.napo.org.uk/sites/default/files/nq2-digital.pdf)  and it’s well worth a read since it informs our members about what is actually going on in the wider world of NPS, CRC's Cafcass, and Probation NI.

Napo is constantly reviewing the style and regularity of our communications, for example our members in a number of CRC's are now seeing specially tailored bulletins that reflect the hard work being undertaken by our National Officials alongside your local representatives. This is just one aspect of our strategy to get news directly out to members without having to rely exclusively on the traditional methods of expecting our hard pressed Branch Officers to get important news out to you as soon as it becomes available.

A number of readers of this blog have contacted me to say how they appreciated the quick update I provided following the recent meeting of your National Executive Committee, and I have arranged for this to be a standing arrangement by way of direct members mail outs in the future as we seek to develop our communications with you in way that is a bit more proactive and which increases the opportunity for direct feedback.

Make that switch

No apologies for giving our Direct Debit (DD) campaign another plug, especially after receiving some useful feedback from our Administrators here at Chivalry Road who report that in the main, the members they are speaking to who have yet to switch across to pay their Napo subs by DD, have simply 'not got round to it yet.'

In addition to saying that the process is simple (https://join.napo.org.uk/#/switch-to-direct-debit/home) it’s also worth remembering that the employer, whoever they may be, will retain a keen interest in the density of union members and non-members in their workplaces. The fact is that the financial contribution from paying members is what allows us to try and provide services to members, negotiate with employers and continue our campaigning work.

The work that we have reported on above illustrates how we are doing our best in what are extremely difficult times, to promote the interests of our members and remain the largest union in probation. Please help us to keep it that way and perhaps encourage colleagues at your workplace to make that switch or join up with Napo.