So will anyone in the Moj dare to now speak the truth?

All who have witnessed Chris Graylings chaotic meddling with the Criminal Justice System will surely be beyond exasperation at his regular use of flawed or incomplete statistics and outright lies, as he seeks to portray himself as the great reformer.

It came as no surprise to hear that he thinks that people should stop listening to the probation unions in general and Napo in particular, but as we get nearer to Tuesday when it is expected that announcements will be made about which contractors will be named as preferred bidders for the 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies, the spotlight now turns swiftly on Michael Spurr, Colin Allars and Dame Ursula Brennan, the senior civil Servants whose opinions on whether it is safe to proceed to share sale ought to be critical.

Now there are those among our membership who tell me that the above people have already ‘sold out’ on TR; and then we have the actual statements from Colin and Michael to the unions that they would not hesitate to advise the SoS that it is unsafe to proceed if that were the case. No pressure there then; except that the overwhelming evidence provided by probation staff is that the service is no longer safe, and that Chris Grayling needs to be sat down and drawn a diagram to demonstrate that he has got it woefully wrong. Wrong about the operational risks of TR; wrong about the role and the value of probation practitioners; wrong about his claims (and that of his new running mate Andrew Selous) 'that probation staff are excited about TR' and, above all, wrong to tell lies which seek to mask the inescapable fact that there is a serious risk to staff and public safety that he is directly responsible for as a consequence of his ineptitude.  

As I write, we are just 24 hours away from knowing if the Secretary of State is prepared to reveal his assurance testing and other evidence to back up his pathological belief that TR should proceed but, like you, I am not exactly holding my breath.

Judicial Review

Much of what I can say here is governed by the complex realities of the legal process and not wanting to telegraph our next moves to the opposition in advance. But I did want to thank Napo members for the massive support you have given to the Officer and Official team in the days since the AGM where we held a closed session on Judicial Review and discussed our plans to invoke the final leg of our quest to seek legal redress to try and prevent the share sale of the 21 CRC's. Your enthusiasm and ideas have helped us to undertake a massive amount of work; all of which would not have been possible without the testimonies that many of you have provided and the quite horrendous examples of unsafe practice and its impact on you as you try and go about your daily duties. We will be issuing a bit more news to you about where we are tomorrow and again early next week, so please bear with us.  

Meanwhile, my personal tribute and appreciation again goes to those of you who have courageously signed off individual witness statements. I have made it clear that full Napo support will go to anyone who is the subject of any reprisals for speaking to their union. Your efforts have helped get us to a position where we can hopefully present a compelling case to the Courts if Chris Grayling refuses to agree to halt the sell off.

Probation service sell-off faces legal challenge from unions

This article in today’s Independent is a pretty helpful analysis of the direction of travel:

Government efforts to part-privatise the probation service may end up in the courts, unless the Ministry of Justice reveals a raft of confidential information, including the results of safety tests into the new structure.

The FTSE 100 giant Capita, rail-to-social housing group Amey, and French caterer Sodexo are among those companies waiting to see if they have won the right to run 70 per cent of the service, in deals worth at least £5bn over 10 years. The MoJ is expected to name preferred bidders to run 21 Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), which will oversee all but the most dangerous offenders, by the end of this month.

However, the service has suffered a series of acute problems since June, when it was reorganised from 35 Probation Trusts into 21 CRCs and a National Probation Service, which remains government-run and monitors the most risky offenders. IT systems have failed, case files have been lost and there have been numerous warnings of threats to public safety.

In a letter threatening the MoJ with a judicial review, the Napo probation union’s lawyer, Slater & Gordon, has gathered examples of how the public and officers have come into danger as, allegedly, the result of the confusion caused by the reforms.

These include members of two rival gangs being invited into a probation building at the same time, and a murderer being invited to join a programme to rehabilitate a group of domestic violence offenders.

Napo is hoping to block the MoJ’s plans, partly because the Justice Secretary Chris Grayling did not pilot the reforms. Mr Grayling believes that private sector management will make the service more efficient, but Slater & Gordon has given him until 4pm on Friday to disclose information to prove his argument.

The lawyers intend to force an injunction for breach of duty of care and a judicial review if the MoJ doesn’t respond. If it does, Slater & Gordon has asked for a 21-day pause in the bid process while lawyers look over the documents.

A spokeswoman for the MoJ said: “We have received correspondence from Napo and will respond in due course. It would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”