POA Circular 107/2020
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POA Circular 107/2020 29th June 2020 Dear Colleagues FACILITY TIME FOR RECOGNISED TRADE UNIONS AT LOCAL LEVEL Please find the enclosed letter that has gone to all Governors in England/Wales regarding the above. Please note this agreement is only in relation to recognised Trade Unions, which of course the POA enjoy solely for the grades identified in the letter. This close working arrangement is essential to ensure you are afforded that time as POA Officials to work with Local Management on EDMs, Risk Assessments, Safe Systems of work and Recovery Regime Management Plans. The Director General Phil Copple has recognised the importance of providing this facility time both Nationally and Locally. Yours sincerely Yours sincerely STEVE GILLAN MARK FAIRHURST General Secretary National Chair ENCLOSURE Phil Copple Director General Prisons HM Prison and Probation Service 8th Floor Ministry of Justice 102 Petty France London SW1H 9AJ Email:[email protected] To: Governors Cc PDGs, Exec Directors, Francis Stuart 29th June 2020 Dear all HMPPS local trade union engagement and consultation arrangements to support EDMs At a National and local level, maintaining constructive and positive engagement with our recognised trade unions has been immensely important during the Covid-19 emergency to maintaining staff confidence and enabling safe progress. I wanted to firstly recognise the significant focus on trade union engagement that you have had and to thank you for your efforts to date which have resulted in some excellent examples of joint working. If anything, the EDM process will present an increased challenge and the importance of maintaining this level of constructive engagement is heightened if we are to make the safe and sustained progress required. This must include regular meetings with your local trade union representatives to brief them on progress and to afford them the opportunity to raise and discuss concerns. At the heart of this is doing all that we can to maintain the confidence of our recognised trade unions, their members and the wider staff group. Colleagues will be aware that our recognised trade unions are being consulted at a national level on all the EDMs that are being sent to you. This has been constructive and helpful. Once you receive a final EDM version you will be able to communicate to your local representatives that it has been through that national consultation. The unions are aware that draft EDMs have been shared with you in advance and, helpfully, are all supportive of early local engagement with your local reps to discuss plans (with the caveat that the consultation on the EDM itself remains at a national level). To support this, and to support delivery, local reps will need to be given more facility time than would normally be the case. The commitment that I have given to the unions will be that Governors will make sufficient time available to facilitate joint working on EDM delivery, local safety risk assessments, safe systems of work and Recovery Regime Management Plans (RRMPs). So, until further notice, you have the discretion to agree additional local facility time for your local trade union reps commensurate with the engagement that you need to have on EDM delivery. You should determine how much is necessary. It is important that you make full use of this and that unions are effectively involved in your planning and implementation. Whilst due to the emergency situation we are consulting with the unions at national and local level on much shorter timescales than normal (exceptionally precluding the use of Annex As), we are only able to do this on a good will basis with the unions therefore the provision and use of additional facility time is intended to enable you to consult effectively at pace. Whilst the POA (covering OSGs, Prison Officer Bands 3 to 5, Operational Managers bands 6 to 8) and some of our recognised trade unions are well represented locally, a lack of local representation does not preclude the requirement to engage and consult with all relevant recognised union groups. Where you do not have local representation, you will need to have in place arrangements to consult through the union group contact listed below (please see the flowchart below). It is therefore recommended that you a nominate a local EDM TU liaison manager who is responsible for leading the consultation with these unions and for sending RRMPs to these unions, answering questions/ providing feedback on any comments/ providing additional documents (such as risk assessments) if requested. Again this should be to a shortened timescale due to the emergency situation. The national representatives below have been given dedicated project time and therefore it is reasonable to ask for any responses swiftly, and within 5 working days at the most. PGA (national consultation only) covering Operational Manager bands 7 to 11. Local readiness assessments must be shared with the PGA by e mail to xxxxxxxxx and xxxxxxxxxxx. This should be at the point that the readiness assessment is sent to the PGD. Any issues where you need a local PGA viewpoint should also be referred through this channel. NTUS (PCS, PROSPECT, FDA, UNITE, GMB) Where there are no local representatives (see Annex A below), you must share your local plans and readiness assessments (as for the PGA) with: • PCS: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx • PROSPECT: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx • GMB: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx • UNITE : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx • FDA: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx As a reminder, NTUS trade unions cover the following grades: • PCS: covering civilian instructors, administrative grades, non-op bands 5 to 11; Op Bands 711 • PROSPECT: covering psychologists and chaplains, non-op Bands 4-11 • GMB covering civilian caterers, catering managers, B2 grade in Waste Management • UNITE covering civilian caterers, catering managers, B2 grade in Waste Management • FDA covering senior non-operational management grades band 9 and above If there are any EDM planning issues which may impact on Probation Colleagues, HMPPS recognises the following unions: • Napo and UNISON covering Probation pay bands 1-6 and Napo and GMB-SCOOP covering Probation senior roles (probation pay bands A-D). Contact in the first instance, if you have no local representatives on site should be through Kate Stock, senior Employee Relations lead for NPS.xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx It should be noted that the lack of local representation does not preclude the requirement to engage and consult. Further advice and support will be available from the HMPPS Employee Relations team at xxxxxxxxxxxxxx. Thank you again for our support in this. PHIL COPPLE Director General - Prisons Annex A .