A new world but not as we would like it

The launch of the National Probation Service and the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies has been accompanied by an array of corporate speak quotations from a number of the new CRC Chief Executives in their introductory messages. You know the ones: ‘innovative’, ‘challenging’ ‘exciting’, ‘huge opportunity’ etc. etc. etc.

Let me say at the outset that despite our continuing opposition to the TR agenda and our unhappiness at the part that many senior managers have played in helping to implement the professional apartheid that Grayling has manufactured (now also visually apparent by the issue of white or purple lanyards to staff), I can do nothing other than wish them well as they try to pick up the mess they have been asked to create.

Contrary to the quite ridiculous notion that still circulates among some senior leaders, Napo is not ‘anti-managerialist’, and I don't believe that our reputation as a principled and progressive trade union and professional association who seeks to represent all our members with equality and consistency should go unchallenged. 

In other words we want managers at all levels to consider joining us, and we positively welcome the valuable input that they can offer to our representational, professional and campaigning work.

That said, I ought to make a plea as we approach the end of the first week of the TR parallel universe which is simply to say, everyone knows you have inherited a tough ask, and that deep down many of you agree with what we have been saying and what we are trying to do as we show the way forward in terms of the campaign to stop the share sale.

Please remember that our reps are also doing their best under severe circumstances and that positive engagement at an early stage will help everyone to try and cope with the reality of where we are. It’s a tough world but it’s not of the three Probation Union’s making, and we have a duty to help our constituent members as much as we can.

You could not make it up – come and join the probation Jamboree.

Today’s news that the Ministry of Justice is desperately trying to recruit new staff may not on the face of it be altogether surprising. But the advert in the Guardian which announced a scheme by employment agency ‘Redsnapper’ to recruit ‘trained’ Probation Officers from New Zealand and Australia currently living in the UK, is right up there in the ‘astonishing’ category.

The MoJ is offering to pay up to £27 per hour for anyone with two or more years’ experience. However, this is a significantly higher rate of pay than existing practitioners are receiving. Our take on this has attracted significant press interest this morning and this insulting news will not sit easily with our members who, like the majority of public servants, have endured a four year pay freeze. Aside from the fact that a Probation Officer with 10 years’ experience is currently paid approximately £17 per hour, the UK equivalent undergo two years training which includes a BA in Community Justice, whilst their counterparts in New Zealand undergo yes, just six weeks training.

We have included this scandalous development in todays Parliamentary bulletin and hope to see  to see questions raised in Parliament which will again hopefully make for uncomfortable listening for Messrs. Wright and Grayling.

MoJ Question provenance of joint campaign letters

For some months now we have been engaged in an amusing but quite silly joust with the Prison and Rehabilitation Ministers office. It’s all been about the genesis of a small number of Napo/Unison ‘Don’t Break Up Probation’ campaign letters which were signed by members of the public in Kenilworth (Jeremy Wrights constituency) last year, and passed on to the Minister. The MoJ have advised us that four of the authors are now complaining, and are denying ever having signed anything to do with the Probation service. Whilst no formal allegations of malfeasance have been levelled against us, the energy that has been put into the interrogation of the two unions is remarkable.

The following final exchanges say it all, but perhaps it is further evidence that our successful efforts in Jeremy’s manor may just have touched a nerve?

‘Don’t Break up Probation’ campaign letter.

Dear Mr Priestley,

In his letter of 7 April, Jeremy Wright, the Minister for Prisons and Rehabilitation, undertook to provide you with the names and addresses of those members of the public who received a response to your campaign letter ‘Don’t break up Probation’ despite not having written to the Department. I have been asked to provide this information to you.

You will recall that, for Data Protection reasons, we were obliged to seek the permission of those affected before we could pass you their details.  It is worth noting that we received 11 complaints from members of the public saying that they had not signed or sent a letter in their name. Of those whose permission we sought, four responded, and I am pleased to be able to pass on their details, which can be found in Annex A.  Since you wrote, we have received a number of similar enquiries and we have written to them asking for their permission to send you their details, and we will pass those on to you when we get that permission.

In addition, we have also received 17 letters which were returned undelivered. These were returned because either the person to whom they were addressed was not known at the address provided, or the address was incorrect.  In one instance, we received a letter from a firm of chartered financial planners claiming that the address to which we had sent one letter was not one at which anyone could legally reside.  We cannot forward these undelivered for Data Protection reasons, since we are unable to seek permission from the addressee to do so.

Hopefully you can now conduct this investigation and let Jeremy Wright have the findings in the near future.  We look forward to hearing from you in due course.

Yours sincerely,

ANNEX A

LIST OF CORRESPONDENTS

These correspondents have given written permission for NAPO/UNISON to have their names and addresses in connection with their investigation into the ‘Don’t break up Probation’ letter campaign.

JTU 08-14

6 June 2014

Jeremy Wright MP

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice

102 Petty France

London SW1H 9AJ

Dear Jeremy,

‘Don’t Break Up Probation’ Campaign Letter

Thank you for your letter of 9 May regarding the above. We have investigated the four names provided in the annex to your letter and can confirm that, according to our records, none of the individuals is either a member of Napo, or of UNISON.

During September, October and November last year, the local branches of Napo and UNISON campaigned publically against Transforming Rehabilitation in Kenilworth town centre. As part of the campaign, members of the general public were invited to sign a letter if they were concerned about the privatisation of the Probation Service. They were informed that the letter would be delivered to you, as the responsible Minister. The families, friends and colleagues of those campaigning were also invited to sign the letter, and many did so.

The two union branches ran a stall on two weekends in Talisman Square Kenilworth. Our representatives were amazed at the positive response from the public to the stall and the campaign message and the number of people willing to sign the letter to you. As you know over 1400 letters were eventually delivered to your constituency office on 23 November last year.

We can confirm that every letter delivered to you had been personally addressed and signed by a real person. With the above in mind, we can only offer the following two possible explanations as to why a small number of individuals claim not to have sent the letter to you in the first place:

• Given the delay between signing the letter and receiving your reply, they had simply forgotten what they did back in the autumn of last year
   
• Some members of the public may have completed the letter in someone else’s name as a prank.

We received each letter from the public in good faith and sent it on to you in similar good faith.

We are pleased that you do not suggest that Napo or UNISON completed the letters fraudulently; we would, of course, strongly refute this were any such allegations to be levelled.

From your figures, it would appear that 2% of the letters you received are alleged to be of doubtful provenance, and only 0.3% of letter writers subsequently agreed to give their names to us for investigation.

We reflect on a successful campaign in Kenilworth to raise the public’s awareness of our concerns over TR.

Yours sincerely

      Ian Lawrence                        Ben Priestley                       

General Secretary                National Officer       

Napo                                      UNISON                   

Lanyards again

Finally, and before I forget, be sure to look out for the new Napo version that will be issued shortly, to which you can attach your ID credentials whether you are in the NPS or a CRC. These pieces of ‘must have’ fashion apparel, come in a sleek black and white ‘one size fits all’ model. Be sure to wear it with pride.