ilawrence@napo.org.uk's blog

To say it’s been an interesting and full on week for Napo is a bit of an understatement. We have some important news to announce for NPS members shortly about the conclusion of the negotiations on the Maternity policy and harmonisation package which are now with the Probation Negotiating Committee for their views.

On Tuesday I gave oral evidence to the Justice Select Committee (JSC) hearing into Transforming Rehabilitation along with Unison, which was the second slot in a session which also featured the Probation Institute and witnesses from the DTV and Thames Valley CRCs.

Next week sees the second session of the Justice Select Committee hearings into Transforming Rehabilitation. Napo will be among those who have been invited as Witnesses to provide oral evidence.

Many of the difficulties we encountered during Phase 1 of the so called efficiency, effectiveness and excellence programme (E3), were usually down to the usual three M’s. In no particular order these comprised: misinformation, mistrust and mismanagement.

Heading back from Manchester and the hugely successful Family Court Section Annual General Meeting yesterday, gave me an opportunity to reflect on the appallingly unrealistic demands being placed on our CAFCASS members who are trying to shore up a family justice system that is creating record caseloads, bigger demands on allocated time with clients and their children, and the perennial difficulties caused by the burgeoning number of litigants in person.

It was no surprise to receive questions from members this week following the latest pronouncement by the Secretary of State that raising salaries for Prison Officers is a priority as part of the government's drive to improve standards of prison safety.

Whilst we have no difficulty acknowledging the dire conditions that our brothers and sisters in the POA are facing across the HMP estate and supporting their cause, the fact is that not all the Ministers fine words are to be taken literally.

Workload pressures and the unreasonable expectations that accompany them are the bane of everyone’s lives. Sadly they cannot just be wished away and stuffing cases in cupboards or a desk drawer doesn’t solve the problem either. Since the implementation of the TR programme our members in probation have repeatedly raised concerns regarding increasing workloads and in the Family Court Service the statistics don’t lie in terms of huge increases in public and private law applications.

More often than not, beleaguered Government Ministers are regularly asked to do the exact opposite. It's an occupational hazard for anyone in charge of anything of course, but heading up one of the most powerful departments of state brings big responsibilities.

The team here at Falcon Road have been busier than normal this week with briefings for activists and members on issues such as our campaign to defend collective bargaining and the launch of our new workloads initiative with supporting material for members and branches.

We have also been trialling some of the thinking behind our recruitment campaign in various visits to workplaces and branches and have held important meetings of our Trade Union Organisation and Health and Safety Committees with lots of good ideas being produced.

‘What’s Napo doing about it?’

It’s about the most repeated, and certainly not unreasonable, question that you and the team here at Falcon Road hear from members. Given the daily challenges that you face at the workplace, be it as a result of staff reductions on the one hand or the implementation of plain daft policies such as the Attendance Management regime that I covered last week on the other; many members expect us to have all the answers or at least be posing the right questions.