Thursday 22 May 2014

Just £46 in Their Pocket

Prisons Minister answers me that new probation aftercare 4 people getting less than 1 year prison sentence won't come in soon.

44 comments:

  1. And yet probation offered grayling to take on that extra work for no extra resources, I understand, but were not taken up on that offer. No doubt because it was never intended. Who cares about prisoners thrown out on the streets with £46 when you can destroy an award winning service and make friends rich on taxpayers money? Blatant corruption. A govt which will have blood on its hands.

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    1. Hear, Hear! NAPO, yet another opportunity on a plate. Please, please, please don't let this one slip through your fingers. Ian, Tom, Tania - even you guys surely can't miss this open goal?!?

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  2. As a young barrister specialising in criminal law, Jeremy Wright acted for the prosecution as often as he put the case for the defence. His experience of the justice system at the sharp end, as well as his ability to adapt to any brief, have proven invaluable since his promotion to the Ministry of Justice in September 2012.

    Wright never forgets that his title is minister for prisons and rehabilitation. And with the flagship Offender Rehabilitation Bill (known as ‘ORB’ by Whitehall insiders) due a second reading in the Commons soon, he knows that he has undertaken a big task of radical reform over coming months. Chris Grayling, secretary of state for justice and his boss, is very active on prisons and probation, often grabbing the big ‘tough justice’ headlines. But as Grayling is the first non-lawyer in more than 300 years to serve as Lord Chancellor, Wright’s legal nous may prove even more useful as he advises on the practicalities – and politics – of Coalition policy.

    Wright cut his Parliamentary teeth on familiar turf, serving on the Constitutional Affairs (later Justice) Select Committee. He was ‘talent-spotted’ by David Cameron’s team in 2007 and served in the opposition whips office until the election. After the Coalition was formed, he spent two years as a government whip until the reshuffle of 2012 gave him his big promotion to the front line. As for many among the 2005 intake in ministerial roles (David Gauke, Richard Benyon, Greg Clark, Anne Milton), his friends say he’s been around long enough to know the pitfalls of Parliament, but not so long that he’s jaded by it.

    Within days of his new posting, it was clear that Wright’s job was to balance a tougher message on prisons (compared to the ‘softer’ approach of his predecessor Crispin Blunt) with a stress on rehabilitation as a means of cutting both crime, and the costs of reoffending. With No.10 keen to draw a line under the Blunt and Clarke eras, Wright and Grayling have embarked on a war on so-called ‘holiday camp’ jails and signalled that prisoners will have to earn such privileges as Sky TV and gym time.

    But equally, the minister is concerned about the number of older prisoners, monitoring them for signs of dementia (he has long had an interest in the issue, having founded the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Dementia in 2007). Tory backbenchers liked his crackdown on things like prisoners being able to order a pizza, while prison reformers appreciate his pilot scheme to end strip-searching of young offenders. He’s seen as very smooth in speaking to different audiences without them ever getting a real handle on what he thinks: the classic barrister-turned-politician.

    Pushing PbR and Community Payback
    Wright is a vociferous advocate for payment-by-results within probation and rehabilitation, arguing that a large number of organisations want to provide services, often in partnerships. The results of the first year of a four-year pilot at Doncaster Prison (run by Serco and social businesses Turning Point and Catch22) are due to be published next year, with a stated aim to cut reoffending from 58.2 to 53.2 per cent.

    As ever, cutting costs is a big driver, although the aim is to get as many charities involved as possible, often with the help of bonds to allow them to finance their schemes. The minister is a big fan too of ‘community payback’ and is pushing to make it more intensive, more visible to the public and delivered more swiftly after an offender is sentenced.

    Wright remains a non-practising member of the high-flying No5 Chambers in Birmingham, a group of barristers which only recently denounced Grayling’s original plan to axe client choice for legal aid solicitors. Fortunately for Wright, legal aid isn’t his brief.

    When asked about his hobbies, the minister says he used to play the trumpet but admits, 'I can barely get a note out of the instrument these days.' He's not one to blow his own trumpet, literally or metaphorically. But Jeremy Wright is one to watch.

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    1. Those words have now come back to haunt him. I've met him He's not a listening man...he is totally driven by his own agenda. It is an idealogical crusade driven by Oliver Letwin types and NOMS are the puppet front who do as they are told!

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    2. Thanks for that Profile, if I were in trouble I would want an advocate like Jeremy Wright to argue my case - he is resolute.

      I was curious where the report came from.

      It may have been copied from a Website

      http://www.southamonline.org.uk/node/2049

      where it seems out of place but the

      Politics Home website is where it seems to have originated - as on the Southam website it is referenced "Written By:
      Paul Waugh, editor of PoliticsHome.com
      Tags: Jeremy Wright MP"

      The subscription to Politics Home, from where I could not access it is £22.00 per month - maybe I will give up my sub to the Financial Times which could not even get the name of Napo right after they spoke to Pat Waterman at the Serco AGM and costs nearer £30.00 a month!

      Hopefully Wright will go when Grayling does - I hope it is in the aftermath of the Euro Elections - it seems almost impossible to stop the split actually happening as Wind Up orders have been issued for the Trusts on 31st May, but it is possible for the sale to be stopped - the split reversed and a new governance system introduced.

      Also - please check back to the previous blog and see the excellent press release from Mike Quinn - I gather Tracy Worthers was on a Welsh BBC TV programme at 10.35 last night - that should also be viewable.

      http://probationmatters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/total-chaos-and-despair.html?showComment=1400743890419#c5921776935765953463

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04404dm/the-wales-report-21052014

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    3. The Jeremy Wright profile does belong on the Southam online website - Southam is in his Warwickshire constituency - I was a 100 and more miles out thinking it to have been in Hampshire!

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    4. paul waugh profile, but a different site:
      http://www.ethosjournal.com/topics/politics/item/455-profile-jeremy-wright-mp

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  3. More evidence if needed - I applied, filled in the forms provided and got TM approval early last week - to go on some training 9-12 June. By end of the week, with PSR slots filling up to the end of the Month - I asked if I could be advised asap - if I had got a place? Our Training Dept sent my app off. Then got an e-mail Tues suggesting I needed to complete a Noms application form and return it to an email address in the Midlands. Did that and returned to address provided - whihc bounced back as undelivered - trouble with the e-mail address - so yesterday, sent email to our Training Officer, stating I couldn't send it and could she sort it? Got an out of office reply from her and so had to 'phone the Midlands and ask them to give me a functioning, reliable email address - eventually got it there. Rumour had it that one objective of this TR shite was to reduce the bureaucracy; well it's just not happening! Don't, just don't get me on the new excel timeshits!

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    1. At least we don't have to time our shits in the CRC yet. Every cloud...

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    2. Update - the misspelling was deliberate, but I love the reply....further to my trials and tribulations re - Training Course - Noms in Midlands sent me an email - no such training exists on the Training Directory - computer says No - and the next date is oversubscribed, but there is space on the 24-25th March 2014..............now I'm good, but I have yet to learn the essential skills of time travel..it's shite!

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  4. Everyone - VOTE!

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  5. R.I.P Grayling

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    1. Posts like the above 'RIP' comment are redundant, pointless, have no message to convey and are supected by me to be the work of MOJ Trolls looking for a reason to criticise this blog. Your call Jim, it's your blog, but that post could be alleged to be a threat to an individual. When will people learn that cyberspace is subject to rules about what we can and can't say (and for good reason).

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    2. calm yourself - its simply someone clumsily saying the chaos described above must surely mean the end of his tenure as Minister

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    3. I entirely agree with Anon 13:49, especially now that the post has been tempered with some contextual analysis. However, I would also urge caution and self restraint too as Anon 11:01 points out. Hopefully, we'll get them at the ballot box.

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  6. Grayling has stopped prisoners having clothing sent in, stamps and envelopes to maintain family contact, and imposed an un-necessary harsher IEP scheme.
    Why would anyone think he gave a shite wheather or not prisoners were discharged with £46, 46 pence or sod all? He just doesn't care at all.

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    1. It is what we in Probation call a justification

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  7. Watched an old Blackadder last night where they're in the trenches.
    Can't help but think the same way about TR.
    1st of June the generals will blow their whistles from a nice comfy chair in Whitehall, and those on the front line will scramble over the top, into the unknown with devestating consequences.

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  8. http://t.co/AcESSTezJa have you seen this. Derby probation gave mugs to staff as a gift. Person put it on ebay with a message to grayling

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  9. Tom Rendon resigns via NAPO mailing

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  10. Dear All

    I'm stepping down from my role as National Chair of Napo with immediate effect. This is one of the toughest decisions I've had to make and I don't underestimate the impact of it.

    For several months I have disagreed with the direction of travel taken by Napo's senior officials on some important matters of employment and on the campaign against Transforming Rehabilitation. Although debate is healthy, the differences here are so fundamental as to make my position untenable.

    We are a professional association as well as a trade union but I strongly feel our professional issues have not been given enough weight in our central strategy. For many members, Napo is not just any trade union because part of our purpose is to affirm and promote probation values. I don't think this is either adequately understood or respected across the management team. I hope that changes.

    I want to publicly thank the elected officers for their support, the National Executive Committee for holding us to account and to the many activists who make me feel proud to be part of Napo. I'm proud of my achievements over what has been a very troubled time in our history and I'm grateful for many of the experiences I've had in this post. It's been a privilege to be your elected representative.

    I realise that my decision will be unsettling but I want to reassure members that I will be handing over to the Vice Chairs over the next few weeks until the NEC makes a decision about the vacancy when they meet in July.

    After the first of June, I'll return to working as a probation officer; a job that I enjoy and believe in. For my part, I think stopping the re-structure of Probation was a very tall order but stopping privatisation is infinitely possible. I'll still be a Napo member and I'll do whatever I can to stop the sell off.

    Best wishes,

    Tom Rendon

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    1. If this is true, then thank goodness for that. It was wrong of you Mr Tendon, I mean Rendon to have scuttled so quickly over to the other side looking for an executive position at CRC.

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  11. Ok-what are these "disagreements"? What officials? Why are the problems "so fundamental" as to necessitate resignation? Will we plebs ever know what goes on up there??

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  12. Anon 16.35 here's a novel idea, how about raising the issue at a NAPO meeting or asking your NEC rep about wanting answers, assuming you are a member. Do you honestly think he is going to put everything in a resignation letter so that everything is aired in public, the letter seemed pretty candid as it is.

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  13. Fine 17.02. I do raise issues at NAPO meets and guess what? The reps get caught up in the stuff about confidentiality,and -to be blunt- tacitly concede that they don't really know what's going on. And you and others really have to give it a rest with these presumptions that anyone remotely critical of the "shivery row" crowd is a grayling plant. I've been in NAPO 20 plus years. And I would't say that letter is candid, I'd call it self-serving. And it raises more questions than it answers. Accountabilty, anyone??

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    1. He resigned quite simply because his position was UNTENABLE! It became so the moment he applied for the CRC position, under a cloak of darkness I might add. In terms of his prospects for reelection, he was finished.

      Good riddance I say! Pity, should have happened sooner.

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  14. Hang on a minute there were people posting on this blog for head...well he's gone hope they are all over the moon. Hope they don't get trampled in the rush to put their name forward for our new chair. Happy days another figurehead we can blame for everything.

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    1. I think the majority wanted him to show some backbone, leadership and ingenuity - to do something other than blow his own trumpet about the Institute and then putting his efforts into the clock and dagger stuff about his application to CRC. I don't buy his resignation speech (letter) either - it is "self serving" - suggesting there was some others who did not take seriously the profession,and its 'values; just reinforces the view that there is real disfunctionality going on at the top. Pleased however, he's going back to the PO role tho...he can then truly empathise with the rest of us at the coalface.

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    2. Annon 19:05

      What else could TM do? He couldn't arguee against TR because the first question asked would be,
      "if it's such a bad idea then why did you want to become part of it?".
      Whats his answer to that? There is none really is there?
      No-one is scratiching the door looking for his job- but maybe you could pay a bit more attention to whats going on in the bigger picture before you start piinting fingers. I suggest you wake up!!!

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    3. In my view Tom R shouldn't have had the option of stepping down, he should of been sacked ages ago.
      He sent me on strike to fight against something he sought to be part of. As an ex miner from Nottingham that makes him a scab!
      Good riddence to him, and what will NAPO do now? You keept him on board even when you you knew he sold out. Are you fighting TR or not? Now would be a good time to say.

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    4. Errr could Pat Waterman be about to step forward p'chance ? ..

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  15. At our office I think TR passed us we are all working as we did before the split, not one single case has been transferred. We have all got our heads buried and ignoring TR, not by design, just think we have not got the time and so we manage by carrying on as normal. Call it a sort of silent protest.

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    1. How have you managed that? We need to know how you have done it !!

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    2. Wait untilit is.,in my office 99.9% of cases are ending up,with the CRC who have 50% of the staff!! It is very dangerous and SFO's will occur. However, the best defence of any Om will be to say 'I told you so'.

      On a separate note, feel free to contact the press, anonymously, to express your concerns. At Teesside we have been told that we cannot do this but have adopted a policy of taking not a blind bit of notice.

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    3. I think its happened because, our manager has not been pushing it and the message now is that it will be a gradual change so we are taking it gradually. Also we have been saying all along that we are a trust until 1/6 so we are carrying on with our work. We have all been allocated PSR's well into June/July so they can't have it every way they want. WE CAN'T COPE.

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  16. Ha, knew you would comment. Make sure my cup of tea is ready for 9 :) I only have 11 in tomorrow so hopefully will be done for 2 and we can get the cakes in again. #GreggsisGod

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  17. Looking forward to Mr Brown deciphering TR's encoded resignation email. As others have observed, I also didn't understand the oblique references. But hey, I'm just a subs-paying member.

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  18. We need someone who is brave, combative and has the interests of union members at heart; someone who will stand with members, whichever side they have been assigned to and who will go down with the ship rather than betray them - Pat Waterman, your union needs you now!

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  19. "We need someone who is brave, combative and has the interests of union members at heart; someone who will stand with members, whichever side they have been assigned to and who will go down with the ship rather than betray them"

    The union needs someone brave enough to line manage the General Secretary and hold them to account on behalf of the members. My information says Pat Waterman will not be tempted and sadly Joanne Hughes is ineligible.

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    1. Unless it has changed again unemployed probation officers are entitled to be full members of Napo and so eligible for any Napo office.

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    2. I do realise that is a problem - but presume there would be a solution - were she victorious in election, if she chose to stand - I think her first priority is campaigning for parliament via next May's General Election - so it would probably be impracticable to tackle both - I am more concerned about the principle, there maybe other unemployed probation workers interested in standing for a national Napo position - (officer or treasurer)

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  20. Andrew but no funding for joanna.funding for seconded union posts will be via levy on NPS & CRC now I believe.Historically via levy on Probation areas then Trusts.

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  21. for probation staff it probably wont come in at all - by the time it's set up there will be Private sector companies in place to do it

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