Napo - the Voice of Probation

Many of our members have been saying that for years of course, but being personally billed as such immediately after the interview I did with BBC Radio 4 on Monday regarding the Prime Minister’s earlier speech on prison reform, was one of those broadcasting errors that I was happy to let go.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06zqq9b#play

More seriously, in a week where Criminal Justice issues have featured prominently, it was great for Napo to secure some high profile media coverage on one of those days where the phone literally did not stop.

We certainly got off to a good start as The Independent* ran an excellent article in their morning edition where Mark Leftly did a number on Sodexo's disastrous redesign of their CRC estate.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/sodexo-is-ruining-probation-centres-officers-claim-there-is-no-privacy-a6859946.html

This sparked a number of angry as well as amusing social media postings to the effect that the interview booths pictured resembled a cross between McDonald's and an American Diner without the menus.

Our work with the Probation Institute on what ought to constitute a suitable and safe environment for the interface with clients has already been circulated to members and, as you can imagine, it was a somewhat hot topic in our meeting with Sodexo senior managers yesterday.

Suffice to say the contributions from our side were full and frank, and we have been promised a full response from the company indicating acknowledgement of our concerns and the steps they intend to take to rectify some of the problems that have emerged following the refits in a number of locations. I am hopeful we will see something tangible or I fear this one is going to run for some time.

* I gather that the Independent and Private Eye have today announced they will no longer be appearing in printed form and will be available online only from the 26th March. This is no doubt a sign of the times, but its nevertheless bad news, especially for those NUJ members whose jobs are now at risk. We have sent over a message of solidarity this morning.

Help – it’s awful here!

Unfortunately, the chaos that members are reporting is not just about office design but from what I can see, some shockingly inept organisation typified by one contribution as follows:

'We are day 3 into the new building and the novelty has worn off and the anger has surfaced. I have decided to email this in my lunch break (such as it is) so vexed am I.

We have no land line phoned installed, not even for reception. There are 3 people to two desks. We had no wi-fi installed, so currently we have been told to access wi-fi from I phones to view the laptops.

NDelius is not working for many, yet emails still flow asking for the breach reports to be done

The booths are beyond awful, there is no cover, no door, client and worker are exposed to anyone in the office,

This morning a woman was waiting in a chair behind the booth, I could hear her laugh as my client told his story. He was being sexist and I asked him to speak more quietly, but he thought I was telling him to shut up and just got louder. He eventually complained about the lack of privacy.

It is inhibiting for the worker too, there are only x of us and we have been told at busy periods to spend no more than 20 minutes per client

In 20 years I have never seen such a wholesale destruction of what probation should do.

I am looking for light but this is not good if this is the future.'

Yes it is appalling; but let’s be honest, Sodexo are usually fair game for their critics on account of their previous and current performance since their entry into the world of Probation, but there are some issues which beg big questions about the capacity of some senior people in the CRC's involved to get the basics right. Surely not the same people, some of whom are sending in 'Kim il Jong' style reviews to Sodexo about how happy everyone is?

Prison reform and Probation

Back to the Cameron speech, and the interest that it generated with BBC Radio 5 and the BBC TV News Channel also wanting our views live and direct about the impact on wider society of the apparent 'Road to Damascus' moment when the PM realised that people had actually been telling the truth about the UK prison estate being  overcrowded, unsafe and err, not really rehabilitating many of its clients.

Anyway, I was able to get in a hopefully useful good word or two about the post-TR state of probation, our concern about the capacity of the NPS and CRCs to handle more clients than expected, if what the PM said results in more early releases, the need for a review of sentencing policy (timely, given yesterday’s launch of consultation on the reduction of tariffs on a guilty plea) and I asked that Ministers meet with us urgently to draw on the expertise of our members.

Essentially, the message was that whilst we broadly welcome positive reform of the penal system, it simply will not work if it is done in isolation of the need to ensure adequate post-release provision.

Perhaps this development will be a pivotal moment in the history of the Criminal Justice system or perhaps it will just be another populist soundbite?  On top of all this comes yesterday’s announcements of major cuts to the HMCS estate, which will also be a huge issue for debate.

If the Prison reform initiative is genuine, then be sure that Napo intends to be there championing the cause of our members and their profession.

Blog type: 
General Secretary's Blog