Napo HQ Blog

Napo is exploring how we can amplify the professional voice of probation and family court professionals and grab the opportunity to shape the future structure and direction of our services.

As a professional association and trade union, Napo has a long and proud history of championing the value of the probation and family court services; the importance of recognising the professionalism of all staff; and the value of investing in professional development for all grades. This is reflected in our long-standing policies for a professional register, national professional standards and professional unity across probation.

This is a constant strand of Napo’s national work with employers and our political lobbying. However, local opportunities for members to get involved as Napo’s Professional Advocates are not always as well recognised or supported.

Through our Activist and Representative Training Programme we are identifying opportunities to open this up at local level on a number of fronts.

Opportunities include:

• Exploring if Napo Practice Surgeries can help recently qualified staff safely discuss how to manage tricky situations for the first time;
• Organising short talks at lunchtimes or the end of work to discuss specific articles in our professional journals or around professional themes;
• Rejuvenating the Trade Union Learning Reps concept to identify CPD needs;
• Becoming a local lead on professional issues and participating in collective negotiations and discussions at local and divisional level.

Other unions have successfully utilised meetings focussing on celebrating successes and why they still do what they do, for example NEU “Teacher Meets”. This is a model Napo are also looking to develop with “Probation Meets”. For example, in Thames Valley we’ve successfully piloted a “Proud of Probation” day combining meeting new and non-members’ with a workplace walk-around and surgery and an evening social event.

Looking outside the workplace, Napo’s also looking at how we can work with academia to talk to students about what probation really involves. A pilot with St Mary’s University in West London has already led to further discussions around potential research partnerships. We think employers may even support and sponsor such initiatives as they look to promote probation and social work and help ease long-standing recruitment difficulties.

These initiatives are explored further in our Activist and Representative Training programme. Branches are then supported in promoting and developing these ideas into strategic outcomes, with Napo’s link Officers and Officials coaching and mentoring local Reps to deliver their new Branch Plans.

Napo AGS Dean Rogers says: “Our members care so much about their professionalism. Helping Napo develop our professional engagement by becoming a Professional Advocate can be a really exciting and interesting way to contribute positively and to get more involved with Napo locally. With the pressures members are under and the chaos across their services, it’s vital we help members remain positive and continue to help celebrate and promote our members’ incredible work.”

Anyone interested in finding out more can contact their local Napo branch or email their details to info@napo.org.uk making the email “Professional Advocate Opportunities”.

Napo, Unison and GMB/SCOOP have formally registered a dispute with KSS CRC over pay.

The genesis of the dispute is around the sub-standard nature of an intended general pay award and what we see as a failure by the employer to properly address pay parity issues across the two regions of the KSS CRC West (Former Working Links areas) and East (original Kent, Surrey and Sussex areas). Additionally we have said that the employer has not conducted itself within the terms of the relevant national collective bargaining agreements.

Unions seek the continuation of negotiations

Because of the nature of pay discussions the parties have agreed to not yet publish the written exchanges between us; but the unions have made it clear that in the absence of further discussions we will be doing so as part of our wider consultation with members.

Our message is that the employer should allow more time for a wide ranging discussion on current and longer-term pay for its workforce and show it is seriously committed to its stated intention to work constructively with the unions..

More information about the next meeting of the trade unions and our plans to consult with members will follow just as soon as they are available

Meanwhile …Join a union now!

In light of the foregoing, we again emphasize the importance of belonging to a trade union. Please share this bulletin with colleagues who may not be in a trade union.

The unions are campaigning for:

• Fair pay for all
• The reunification of all probation work
• An end to all privatisation
• A moratorium on formal action against staff caused by inept management and the operational failures identified in  previous HMI Probation reports (e.g. Gloucester and Devon, Dorset Cornwall)
• Restoration of effective collective bargaining across the extended KSS CRC
• Immediate action to reduce workload pressures
• Staff to be treated with dignity and respect.

Can you afford to leave the struggle to everyone else?

Napo members have been contacting HQ worried after receiving demands from NPS payroll for historic overpayments to be returned.

These overpayments range from a few hundred to several thousand pounds and date as far back as the creation of the NPS in 2014.

Napo is of course challenging this latest systematic failure of the computerised HR and payroll system. Given recent announcements about the future of probation, Napo are in the process of preparing a comprehensive case to present to ministers arguing zero confidence in SSCL and the NPS being able to cope with any of the many complexities that arise from the proposed transfer of CRC staff into the NPS at the ending of CRC contracts.

Given the scale of this issue, Napo have issued guidance on what to do if you receive an overpayment demand.

If you are not yet a member of Napo but encounter this problem we are willing, as part of the collective nature of the dispute, to be flexible around our usual rules about not representing someone who joins with an existing problem.

If someone fills in the questionnaire and joins Napo then we will progress their case alongside others in the same position. However, you must join Napo immediately for us to progress a questionnaire and we will review the level of legal support we can afford to support for members who had not taken out our “employment insurance” by joining Napo prior to the overpayment demand arriving.

The justice select committee will be calling on justice minister Robert Buckland to appear in the hot seat on Wednesday.

The minister will be tasked with answering questions on the government’s response to the JSC report and  changes to the probation model recently announced.

Amy Rees, Jim Barton, and Sonia Crozier will also face questioning.

The Committee will also take evidence on the management and supervision of men convicted of sexual offences. This was the subject of a joint HM Inspector of Probation and HM Inspector of Prisons report in January 2019.  

Watch live on Wednesday at 10am here

Napo HQ is pleased to be sending out the first wave of recruitment rewards to members who encouraged colleagues to sign up to the union.

But there is still time to let us know you have done the same, or to get recruiting if you haven't already done so.

Return this form (which also includes the scheme's T&Cs) to us ASAP to claim your reward.

The programme for this year's AGM in Cardiff is shaping up nicely. Outgoing HM Chief Inspector of Probation Dame Glenys Stacey has agreed to be on the panel for the debate on the future direction of Probation. She will join Amy Rees, Executive Director HMPPS Wales and Strategy. We also hope to have Shadow Justice Secretary, Richard Burgon, and JSC Chair, Bob Neill.

There will also be a Family Court Professional Session looking at Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and the link to domestic violence from both a family court (the start of the cycle being the ACE) and probation (the result of ACE being DV perpetrator/adult victim) angles. More on the panel later.

Online registration for this year's AGM in the St David's Hall, Cardiff, is now open. The registration fee this year is frozen at the 2018 rate of £50 (£30 Unemployed/Retired/Retired PAM members) AND this year the fee will include a sandwich lunch on both days as well as refreshments in the formal breaks and live entertainment. There is also a full programme of lunchtime and evening fringe meetings shaping up.

More information and register here

REGISTRATION FORM

Morrish Solicitors has issued a press release announcing the new partnership with Napo. Morrish will be working with us to offer members a bespoke legal service, including a dedicated helpdesk, offering support and advice on a variety of legal services.

With offices across West Yorkshire, Morrish Solicitors is renowned for its partnerships with trade unions, working closely with the Transport Salaried Staffs’ association (TSSA) and Equity to name a few. The partnership will include predominantly employment and personal injury services for members but also family law, medical negligence, private client, property services and dispute resolution.

In the release, Senior Partner at the firm, Paul Scholey said;“We are absolutely delighted to create a new working partnership with Napo and its members.  We are proud to provide services to many thousands of union members across the UK and look forward to extending that representation by introducing a holistic Helpdesk and legal advice service for Napo in the coming months.”                                                                                     

Ian Lawrence Napo General Secretary said: "We think this exciting new partnership with Morrish will give Napo members, their families, and our local representatives, the best available support from any union in the UK. When we were looking to re-tender our legal support package we wanted to explore ways of building on our already well established offer to members. Our National Executive Committee were confident what Morrish offered gave us what we need now and moving forward. It is important our members can get access to good advice and support as soon as they need it. Setting up a single point of entry and members' helpdesk staffed by trained employment law specialists is an exciting improvement. Backed up by a further Rep helpline and aligned to the wider legal support available for members and their families we will be able to offer a faster, more comprehensive service to members. All this will sit alongside improvements to Napo communications and IT which will give members improved access to news about bargaining and our activities as a professional association. The Officer Group and I think that this is the start of an exciting time for Napo members following the Government's recent u-turn on Probation services and growing awareness of the need for greater resources in our Family Court areas."

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Napo’s H&S training course for reps in London and the South East and South West has now been opened out to members from other areas.

The event will take place on Monday 8th July to Wednesday 10th July and will be held in Room GW1 in the PCS Head Office, 160 Falcon Road, London, SW11 2NY (a couple of minutes walk from Clapham Junction train station).
 
The three days will cover the basics of health and safety reps duties and their rights; it will also give an introduction to relevant legislation, look at the safety structure of the NPS and CRCs and discuss probation specific case studies and issues such as stress at work.
 
There will be speakers; including health and safety specialists from NPS and CRCs and Napo staff speaking about their areas of responsibility that relate to health and safety.
 
The course is suitable for those who are thinking of becoming a safety rep, new safety reps, safety reps who want a refresher and for other Napo reps who might not want to become safety reps - but would like to have some knowledge of safety legislation.
 
The course programme will be broadly the same as other safety reps courses Napo has run. If you attended one of those courses you may not want to sit through the course again, but if you would like a refresher and can get the time off work/and your branch to cover expenses, you are more than welcome to attend.
 
Tea and coffee will be provided, but all other expenses including your travel and subsistence expenses will need to be covered by your branch.
 
Please contact Sarah Friday - sfriday@napo.org.uk - if you are interested in attending BUT do make sure you discuss it with your line manager first, to arrange paid time off from work to attend, and also check with your branch that they will cover your expenses.
 
 
 

Nominations are sought for the following Officer posts to take effect from AGM in October 2019:-

• One Cafcass Vice-Chair post
• One Probation Vice-Chair post
• One Vice-Chair post (with additional  responsibility for chairing the NEC Finance Subcommittee and liaising with the Finance Officer)

FIND OUT MORE

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