October 13, 2004: Probation Staff Raise Concerns

Napo general secretary Judy McKnight in her speech to the Napo conference, voiced the concerns of Napo members about the way in the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) has been introduced. She stated that:

“…the only business case that could be produced for NOMS is one that says that by bringing the Prison and Probation Services under a common umbrella, it provides a bigger market for the private sector to come in and make profits from the delivery of criminal justice.”

Ms McKnight stated that Napo would work jointly with the Prison Officers’ Association and other criminal justice system unions “to fight any, and every, attempt to privatise the delivery of justice.” Napo saw “no case, no rationale, to show that NOMS will improve service delivery, reduce re-offending rates or contribute towards reduced prison numbers” though Napo wanted to work with the Government on measures that truly addressed those objectives.

Ultimately, Napo’s view was that “… no case could possibly be made to establish a link between privatisation and improved service delivery”.

Noting that NOMS chief Martin Narey has sough to assure probation staff that contestability is not about privatisation, and that contestability has also led to some contracts coming back in house, Ms McKnight questioned the price of contestability:

"What price would we be expected to pay in terms of professional standards? In terms of the quality of training? What price is being paid already to the principles of diversity?"

While welcoming Mr Narey’s assurances on diversity and his promised action to ban the far right British National Party in NOMS, Ms McKnight noted that diversity as a commitment is not mentioned anywhere in the Carter's report which led to the creation of NOMS.

Ms McKnight also noted that in private prisons wages are 25 percent lower than those in their public sector counterpart.