Firstly, thank you to all those Napo members who attended yesterday’s Joint Union meeting on the Operation Protect campaign yesterday.
It was testimony to the commitment of members that, despite the ongoing workload challenges that you are facing, so many of you were among an audience that comprised well over 200 members.
As promised, there will be a further Joint Trade Union Bulletin which will try to answer the many questions that were posted and the contributions that came from participants, the event was not recorded in order that a safe space could be created for discussion. At times there were some impassioned pleas for the employer to take immediate action to relieve the pressures on staff and for them to endorse the trade unions objective to see a pay settlement that will not only be attractive to prospective new staff but also recognise the equally important need to motivate experienced staff to remain in the service.
As was made clear by the National representatives of each Union, we are at a critical stage in the discussions with senior HMPPS leaders and Ministers about the Probation Capacity crisis, the possible impact of the Sentencing Review which is due to be published in the next few weeks and of course, the need to agree a timetable for Pay negotiations where we await news of when we can expect to see the release of the Pay remit from Government.
More news on all of this will follow as soon as possible