Unions seek emergency action as risk to probation staff rise

Napo has a fundamental view that your employer has a responsibility to ensure that you can undertake your duties with a reasonable expectation that you will be safe from physical violence or abuse in any shape or form. Unfortunately, as we have seen over the last month, violent incidents sometimes occur.

The most extreme example has been the appalling attack on a staff member in Preston, and our thoughts go to everyone affected for a full recovery from what must have been a terrifying experience. Sadly, we have heard of other instances in the last few weeks where staff on Home Visits or on Unpaid Work Supervision, delivering programmes, in the court environment , Approved Premises and in Probation offices,  have found themselves in situations where their safety was threatened by the clients that they were trying to assist. Obviously, we are trying to establish all the facts in relation to these incidents, but what has again featured prominently in meetings that we have held with members is that all too many ‘near misses’ still go unreported, and we would encourage you all to record any incident on Sphera, no matter how small or large.

Probation staff now carry out their work in an unprecedented operational climate, where nearly every location is understaffed, with individual caseloads well beyond safe working levels. Little wonder that absences due to Mental Health issues resulted in a loss of 103,000 working days across the service as reported to us by the employer. On top of this, comes the increase in the risk to your safety in the form of record numbers of clients eligible for early release into the community where, all too often, there are simply not the resources available to provide the rehabilitation that everyone wants. In turn, we are seeing record numbers of recalls which adds to the perennial problem of a lack of Prison capacity which as everyone knows bounces back on Probation staff.

Napo’s immediate response

Immediately after the Preston incident, National Vice-Chair Tony Perkins visited the premises to engage with members and to listen to their experiences. At times,  the testimonies were especially harrowing. Soon afterwards a meeting of Napo members in the Cumbria and Lancashire Branch was attended by Tony and Napo General Secretary Ian Lawrence, together with Link Official Ranjit Singh and Link Officer Dully Gill.  Here, many members mentioned their surprise that more incidents of this nature have not taken place across the wider Probation Region where the increase in clients known to carry weapons and where (now commonplace) verbal threats to staff, were a huge concern.

Tony and Ian, alongside our sister unions, have also engaged with the senior manager who is carrying out the internal investigation. We will obviously issue a further statement when the report on the Preston incident is published, although this will not happen until we have met with Probation Senior Management who will then forward this to the Lord Chancellor.

This is encouraging, but we have had to make it clear that the Probation Unions were not satisfied that the terms of the investigation into the Preston Incident were wide enough and should have considered additional factors such as staffing and sickness levels.

We have also expressed our dismay that some of the information that was immediately released at regional level about the cause of the incident was wildly inaccurate, and caused further distress to staff, especially those who had been witness to the incident. We are pleased to report that in the last fortnight remedial action on security within the Preston Office has been carried out, but there are legitimate questions being raised as to why these steps had not been carried out before.

Early progress

Meanwhile, we have started to make traction in recent meetings on the need to establish common Health and Safety parameters across the whole of the Probation Estate and a further report will be made to the next week’s meeting of the National Executive Committee. As you would expect, Napo has been calling the employer to account on all matters of Health and Safety. HMPPS have already sent out to all regions a health and safety audit and instruction to review all safe systems of work and the violence and aggression General Risk Assessments (GRA’s).

At the same time as encouraging our Branches to put H&S on all agendas with management, we are seeing more members step forward to take up the opportunity to train as health and safety representatives. Most recently, and over many years prior to this, we have raised questions around the people safety devices and the concerns we have for those supervising unpaid work. This, alongside a review of General Risk Assessments across the Probation estate will take time, but we can assure members that we are robustly pursuing the need for people to feel as safe as possible at work. Napo are continuing to campaign for no members of staff to be in a position of lone working and that there must be robust health and safety arrangements for colleagues working in informal tenures and in evening and weekend working.

We are also seeking adequate time for Health and Safety representatives to carry out risk assessments, where a joint approach with the employer is vital. This encourages ‘best practice’ through continuous dialogue and further demonstrates the efforts of Napo to make Health and Safety a highly important issue in your workplaces.

Napo’s demands 

It is not surprising that many members in all parts of the Service have serious fears for their safety on a daily basis, and are sceptical that the lessons of the Preston incident will make any difference to the wider picture of Health and Safety across the Probation service.

Our view is that immediate action must be taken by senior HMPPS management to reassure Probation staff that their personal safety is being taken seriously and that’s why we have asked that the Probation Joint National Committee be urgently convened . We have also asked for HMPPS Health and Safety experts to be on hand, and our hope is that it will be possible to reach a collective position that will produce practical steps for an improvement in safety standards that reflect the ‘changed world’ that our members are now working in.