Members will have no doubt seen the communications issued by the employers in relation to the next steps in the ongoing consultation on the restructuring of Interventions. The Transition Agreement referred to which is in the final stages of negotiation, is designed to ensure that career avenues are put in place for all colleagues in the programmes teams, whatever the Job Evaluation outcome.
We are also challenging the statement in the link in the email sent to you by the employer, which says that: If there is a need for people to move to a different role "pay protection will normally be no more than two years". We have a guarantee from the employers that if pay protection is needed, it will be for a full three years.
We have also raised with the Chief Probation Officer, that there is a role boundary issue emerging, especially in light of the necessity for any individuals who may in future find themselves in a different role, needing to undertake what is a mandatory Probation Officer training for working with people convicted of sexual offences. We await a response on this and will issue more news when it is available.
Please be assured, that Napo and our sister unions are still vehemently opposed to the plans to remove the Divisional Sex Offender Units from Probation, and work is ongoing in the background. This includes the issue being specifically raised by our National Chair and General Secretary with Alex Chalk Secretary of State for Justice, at a meeting with him and the Probation Unions this week. Here we asked the Lord Chancellor to call in the plans to abolish the DSOU ’s for urgent review.
There will be a FAQ document circulated imminently from the employer, which will answer some of your questions, but please do continue to get in touch with us as well cdoherty@napo.org.uk
Carole Doherty and Ian Lawrence