Napo HQ Blog

Celebration, diversity, activism, a demonstration — whatever it means to you, Pride in London is back and set to be our biggest yet. Lesbian, trans, genderqueer or otherwise; wherever you identify, Pride in London is about the people, for the people. This year the event is celebrating 50 years since the birth of the modern LGBT+ rights movement. Over a million people joined pride in London 2018, marching, dancing and laughing to campaign for the freedoms that will allow them to live their lives on a genuinely equal footing. 2018’s parade was monumental, but 2019’s is going to be even bigger. Get ready to join our most diverse Pride in London parade yet. More information

Pride events will be taking place across the country during July and August - find out what's happening in your area FULL CALENDER

Whilst Napo members will welcome the Government U-turn which will see the transfer of Offender Management work to the NPS England and Wales by April 2021, the evidence against leaving Intervention services to the vagaries of the market are writ large in the failure of the last experiment. Ian Lawrence and Sarah Friday report…

On the 6th February 2014 Chris Grayling, then Secretary of State for Justice, announced to Parliament that he intended to terminate Serco’s Community Payback (London) contract by the end of that year. This followed an earlier award to SERCO of the entire Unpaid Work Service in 2012 with the intention that it should deliver this until at least the autumn of 2016.

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The Observer yesterday reported on a new research into the effects of TR by Professor Gill Kirton, of Queen Mary University of London, and Dr Cécile Guillaume, of Roehampton University. The findings, published in the journal Work, Employment and Society, published by the British Sociological Association, show that "the privatisation of probation is unprecedented in terms of its scale and scope and it has proven to be something of an unmitigated disaster for professionals".

Gill and Cécile surveyed almost 1,000 probation officers, and carried out face-to-face research with 100. More than a third said they did not have enough time for their clients. More than half said their targets were unrealistic.

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The TUC launches its #ThisIsNotWorking campaign today. The campaign calls on the government to introduce a new, easily enforceable preventative duty that would require employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent social harassment in the workplace.

Sexual harassment has no place in the workplace. But every day, people across the UK are sexually harassed at work. 1 in 2 women have been sexually harassed at work. 2 in 3 LGBT workers have experienced sexual harassment in the workplace - that's 68%.Currently, there is  no legal duty on employers to take proactive action to prevent this from happening. 

Our laws rely on individuals reporting but #ThisIsNotWorking. The onus is on the victim to report - which can be isolating, confusing and potentially traumatic. Four out of five don’t feel able to report sexual harassment to their employer. That is why we need a legal duty requiring employers to take action.It should not be down to the individual to prevent and manage their harassment alone.

Support the campaign - tell the government to act now and change the law.

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Another challenging issue for Napo at the moment is the position of our members who are called to give evidence to Coroners Inquests in increasing numbers.

A meeting took place with Sonia Crozier recently to see how we could encourage the employer to make improvements to the practical and emotional support offered to staff who are involved in legal proceedings. I can report that Sonia, in her letter to all NPS staff on Monday this week, seems to have acknowledged that more needs to be done in terms of guidance to staff and how the Government Lawyers (GLD) should provide better clarity in how they can assist staff through what is often an extremely difficult process.

We have agreed to meet again soon to explore the parameters between the employer’s responsibility to staff and the role of Napo in assisting our members. When we do, we will make it very clear yet again (as Ian Lawrence did in the recent meeting I had with new Justice Minister Robert Buckland) that Napo will not stand by and see our members scapegoated for political or operational expediency when systemic operational failures are the root cause of many of the problems identified during SFO reviews.

Please look out for our regular news feeds on Fridays and Mondays and please ensure that you encourage Napo colleagues to sign up to the receipt of this material on line.

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Work continues on the programme for this year's AGM, 11th and 12th October, in the St Davids Hall, Cardiff. We now have a nearly full programme of lunchtime and early evening workshops and fringe meetings planned. There will be a chance to hear from anti-racist campaign organisation, Show Racism the Red Card, and from a new arrival on the Napo stall scene, Narcotics Annonymous, who will run a workshop on the work the organisation does.

Women in Napo will be hosting an event on Police Spies (open to ALL attendees) with guest speakers from the campaign.There will also be a fringe on 'Probation's Technological Future: Robots, Surveillance and Technologies of control' as well as information sharing workshops on Ill Health Early Retirement, with AGS Dean Rogers, and a TUO meeting looking at the new Napo Education Programme for ACTIV8Rs, run by National Official, Ranjit Singh. Morrish Solicitors, Napo's new legal partners,will also be holding a workshop aimed particulary at reps but also introducing the new helpdesk, so of interest to all members. There will also be a Health & Safety fringe, a Forum meeting, an Equalities fringe looking at where we go now with the staff networks, and a fringe on campaigning and political lobbying run by Su McConnell from Napo Cymru and Charlie Allan, who provides support to the Justice Unions Parliamentary Group.

All this plus a full programme of debates and discussion in the main AGM session.

Registration for AGM is now open online.

The Justice Select Committee continues to look at the Probation Service, following the publication of it's comprehensive report into TR. Most recently the committee took evidence from the new Justice Minister, Robert Buckland. They also questioned Amy Rees,Director General for Probation and HMPPS Wales, Ministry of Justice, Jim Barton, Director and Senior Responsible Owner, Probation Reform Programme, and Sonia Crozier, Chief Probation Officer, HM Prison and Probation Service in the same session. Watch again on Parliament TV

There are still a few spaces left at the H&S reps training event which 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.

For more information contact Sarah Friday sfriday@napo.org.uk

Lord Farmer’s second review looks at strengthening family and other relational ties across both custody and the community through the lens of female offenders. It finds that supporting women to build and maintain healthy relationships is key to rehabilitation and reducing intergenerational crime. Read More