INTERSERVE LAUNCH THEIR PURPLE FUTURE

The Trade Unions were invited to a preview yesterday which I attended along with a good number of Napo and Unison reps. Credit is due to Interserve for being as open and transparent about their objectives as they could be at this stage in comparison with the shoddy way in which one of their competitors recently went about announcing their transitional plans.

 

Any Purple Futures CRC employees looking for a clear idea on their future employment or exit prospects will be disappointed though, as the plan, while full of content about Interserve’s strategic direction of travel and the intended operational and delivery mechanisms that they wish to put in place, has clearly had a good deal of thought put into it. But it does not, as yet, give any indication of how many staff will be required to deliver them.

 

In an uncertain world everybody understandably wants answers, but the offer of genuine consultation with the unions about how all of this hangs together, and how it will impact on jobs and how those jobs will be structured using the established Job Evaluation process, (a good advert as to how NNC benchmarks are still relevant and useful by the way,) is a process that will run until January. 

 

Of course we are now entering a crucial Autumn period where no doubt other CRC owners will similarly start to unveil their intentions (news reaches me that Working Links are another one) . I won’t pretend that we are not going to have some very difficult discussions but the crucial fact is this; being in a trade union is the best opportunity that all employees have to try and shape future outcomes. Napo intends to be part of those discussions, working alongside your locally elected representatives and consulting with our members to hear what you want us to do to support you. 

 

It’s a message I will be repeating at our AGM in Eastbourne this week; and it’s one that we intend to take out to every workplace over the next few months.

 

Cafcass and Egress joint project wins ‘Security Project of the Year 

 

I caught sight of this the other day,  and for once will reserve judgement on whether it is quite the achievement that is being claimed at Cafcass HQ, at least until I get some feedback from FCS members.

 

We are proud to announce that Cafcass, together with our Encryption services provider Egress, has won the ‘Security Project of the Year – Public Sector’ award at this year’s Computing Security Awards.

Although the majority of the awards categories were decided by public vote, the category of Public Sector Project had the prestige of being awarded by a panel of judges who had read Egress’ news article on Cafcass and Egress’ joint working.

 

Cafcass migrated to Egress Switch Secure Email in August 2013 in order to fulfil part of our data protection requirements. The implementation of the software has allowed Cafcass to share the sensitive and personal information we work with both securely and electronically within the organisation, as well as with wider organisations and the families we work with.

 

Fair enough, but I hope that the panel of judges didn’t have to access Egress to read about Egress, if Egress users know what I am saying? Or maybe its just me?

 

Hate Crime Awareness Week

 


10th-17th October is Hate Crime Week. Today some depressing figures were published indicating an 18% increase in reported Hate Crimes compared to the results from 2014. 

 

Many agencies and groups are taking the initiative in the fightback, and one that I am happy to advertise is being run by West Yorkshire Police who are working hard to encourage people to report any sort of Hate incident or Hate crime, and who have made lots of resources available to publicise their efforts – just look up Hate Crime on the WY Police website or take a look at the Stop Hate UK website

 

Also see the national twitter campaign #WeStandTogether.  Anyone can get involved in #WeStandTogether by taking a photograph of themselves standing with at least one other person.  Upload it to #WeStandTogether with a message about the stated cause, e.g. "We stand together against Hate and Intolerance" or “We stand together to celebrate our difference” or other relevant statement.  People are encouraged to create their own messages about why they are standing together, and can then nominate one or several other people to do the same. 

 

As the Hate Crime awareness week coincides with our own AGM why not include the following hashtags alongside any messages you are posting from #Napo15?

 

  #NHCAW  #WeStandTogether #NoPlaceForHate and #SafePlaceForAll. 



 

The Rehabilitation Revolution still isn’t working!

 

Two more examples from Napo members showing that the post-TR world is still a shambles.

 

‘I have a new case, X. The client was originally allocated to the CRC as they are medium risk but they rejected the case as the client is technically MAPPA eligible so should be NPS. Hence I got the allocation only a month before their release. The sentence was under the ORA meaning that they should have got "through the gate" support with accommodation and employment. Release will take place this week and I've been told that they have been put on a waiting list for a telephone assessment with the local housing office but will need to present at housing on the day of release as homeless. So in reality the service user has got less support than they would have had if they had engaged with the previous voluntary scheme run by the probation trust at no additional cost, which offered far more intensive support joined up with other agencies.’

 

Nothing like diversity… 

 

‘The CRC local to me launched the T2A guidance with much fanfare only to become severely embarrassed when it was pointed out that a picture of a man on page 6 depicts him wearing what can only be described as a Pornographic T-shirt which was seriously  degrading to women. The Chief apparently got involved and representations have been made about it to the authors and the partner providers. Maybe the PI might want to consider this unfortunate situation as well since they no doubt mistakenly automatically replicated the link to the CRC publicity?’ 

 

EM review on the cards, or so it seems

 

This notice came the way of NOMS Trade Unions last week.

 

‘This is a notification to NOMS Trade Unions of the intention to engage staff in discussions about the shape and future of the Electronic Monitoring Group.  The SMT are writing to you for information to highlight the intent to engage staff and the approach we will be adopting.

 

The Electronic Monitoring team are looking to develop existing structures to examine how we can best work together across the group to deliver against a background of programme uncertainty and developing policy ambition. This work is being undertaken in order to clarify reporting structures and job descriptions in the first instance, to ensure that the programme is properly resourced, that mobilisation of the contracts delivers effective change into the service and that the strategic objectives of Ministers, MoJ and NOMS are appropriately served, and in doing so, looking to minimise reliance on consultants. As part of this we will be running a whole team meeting to discuss the current operating environment with staff and to ask for their input on how we can best work together.  

 

The meeting will set out recent developments in response to Ministerial ambition for tagging and concerns at delays within the programme, the current thinking of the SMT on the group’s structure and how this needs to address these issues and will provide an update on the Electronic Monitoring programme and the role of the group moving forward.  

 

Having shared these initial thoughts SMT members will run a world café exercise, facilitating discussion with staff around the best structure moving forward to feed into discussions. At this point in time we are unable to advise on how the detailed structure will look and what this means in terms of job numbers and grades but we wanted to inform you of these discussions and our engagement with staff. This will be one of a series of engagement events with staff over coming months.

 

After this staff engagement has taken place we would welcome your contributions and once we have a confirmed structure we will begin formal Trade Union engagement and consultation in line with the restructuring toolkit.  Any comments you have at this early stage are welcome and we will keep you informed of the outcomes of the engagement sessions.’

 

Whilst not quite written in Enigma, it still takes some deciphering but seems to suggest:

 

1. EM is a rip off to the taxpayer and has made shed loads of money for the contractors which in these times of austerity we can no longer afford


 

2. We really would appreciate staff and Unions telling us where it all went wrong


 

3. We know you told us so but...

 

4. We await our call up to the World Café with much enthusiasm

 

 

Adult education under threat

 

While the party of working people congratulates itself on their euphoric post-election victory conference last week, their nasty schemes to cut away opportunities for people trying to better themselves continue unabated.

 

The latest target appears to be Adult Education with the Government now preparing its Spending Review (CSR) for the next 5 years. The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, which funds the Workers Education Association (WEA) and other adult learning institutions has been asked by the Chancellor to suggest cuts of 25% and 40%.

 

Over the next few weeks the WEA are hoping to reach thousands of students, members and supporters of the WEA as well as a vast range of partners and friends who share their concerns. Their aim is to raise awareness, make the case for adult education and to give adult learners a voice.

 

Former WEA students and anyone now engaged in an adult learning programme are being asked to help. 

 

The Association is asking for individual letters or emails to be sent to your local MP and George Osborne at HM Treasury, 1 Horse Guards Road, London, SW1A 2HQ or email: public.enquiries@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk to try and ensure that adult learners are not forgotten when the CSR is eventually announced.  

 

Let the WEA know you have written by copying any emails to them at: news@wea.org.uk    

 

Spread the word on social media:

Use #saveadulteducation on twitter and tell the world about the impact adult education has had on your life, family and community

 

Join the Save Adult Education Facebook Campaign

 

#Napo 15

 

Ok that’s it for now, off to help load the AGM bound van here at Chivalry Road. Look out for the AGM Blog from Eastbourne and the above hashtag on twitter feeds.