Privatising the Probation service is ill considered

You may well be aware of the efforts Napo is using to oppose this administration in respect of its headlong rush to privatise the Probation service and turn the work into a commercial enterprise where if introduced results would be held to the fortunes of Payment by Results. In an effort to publicise the folly of Privatisation, an e mail petition challenging the wisdom of privatisation has been set up.   While the wording (scroll to the end for its composition) is not endorsed by Napo it is one Napo hopes will be successful in leading to a debate on the subject in Parliament. To do so it needs 100,000 signatures. It has passed 9000 point in a matter of days.

Access can be gained via epetitions.direct.gov.uk. There is a search engine where you can type "probation" and it's the first one to come up, started by Gemma Bates.

There is also a Face book page called Probation Staff Against Privatisation you can join and share ideas about how we can fight this thing and a twitter account PSAP@BridPsap. From these you can access a new website.

There are six weeks to make as much noise as possible about the implications of these proposals. The public generally have no idea what we do or why it's important to them and we all have a duty to be actively involved in telling them.

If you can and agree with the need to preserve a Publically Funded Probation Service I urge you to add your name by signing the petition and enlist the help of your contacts, friends family to do the same.  

This takes you straight to the petition

https://submissions.epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/44403/signature/new

Here is the wording of the petition

Privatisation of the Probation Service and 'payment by results' is unlikely to work in reality.

Many offenders will not be supported to make the necessary changes in their lives, as the 'results' will not be overt. Privatisation of a service such as this can cause a lot of harm, especially if it is money orientated, true and accurate 'results' may not be reflected in reality. Businesses want to make profits, not losses.

Low to medium risk offenders can turn into high risk offenders overnight. People working with offenders should be well trained and skilled professionals.

Sent t the Midlands TUC by:

Keith Stokeld

National Treasurer Napo