Scotland: Same Government, New Minister

As we head into the summer months and, at the time of writing, the EURO 2020 football tournament having kicked off, can I offer my condolences to our colleagues in England and Wales for their poor showing in the tournament, and congratulate Andy Robertson on his Freedom of Scotland award for captaining us to a memorable victory over Italy in the final. I appreciate this has not quite happened yet while I write this, but it will have by the time you come to read it. And….., back in the room, open your eyes….!!

So, congratulations first of all to Mark Meikle from HMP Edinburgh who was elected unopposed to the vacancy on the SNC. Mark took up post at the end of May and we look forward to his contribution, given his many years experience at branch level.

CONTINUATION OF SUPPORT

Also in May, the Scottish parliamentary elections took place, and the SNP government were returned as a minority administration, short of an overall majority by one seat. They have already entered discussions with the Green Party with a view to operating on a more formal cooperation basis, but short of formal coalition. What this means for staff in the SPS is, we hope, a continuation of the support for no further private prisons, and the return of HMP Kilmarnock to the public sector when the contract runs out in 2024. We also fully expect the recognition rights for staff in Kilmarnock to become part of the Partnership Agreement in place between the POA and SPS.

We also expect their continued support for the return of a retirement age of 60 for operational staff, as well as the continuation of the already-returned full employment rights (right to strike). The last part of the three-year pay deal was the introduction of a pay structure that allows for the proper recognition and measurement of operational roles in the service, and it is a piece of work that members of the SNC are actively engaged in at the moment. With the return of the SNP government, we fully expect the terms of that agreement to be honoured and implemented.

We have a new Cabinet Secretary for Justice, with Keith Brown MSP taking on the role. We have written to him welcoming him to his new role and taking the opportunity to ask that he consider a full rollout of the vaccination across the prison estate to all staff and prisoners, citing the SAGE report from March this year as the source for the need to respond beyond the Government’s strategy to date.

We have also asked to meet with him and invite him to lay out his vision for the service, as well as offering us the opportunity to seek confirmation on the continued commitments on the issues I have laid out here. At the time of writing, date options are being shared.

We would like to pass on our thanks and best wishes to the previous Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf for his time in office. He was always courteous and accessible to us as a trade union, as well as open to hearing new ideas and approaches. Of course, he also oversaw the biggest public sector multiyear pay deal anywhere in the UK for our members, and we will regard that above all else as the biggest single success for us in his time in office.

PAY DEAL FOR STATE HOSPITAL STAFF

Following the NHS Scotland pay deal offered in advance of the Scottish parliamentary elections, a ballot was run across the country for all staff affected by the pay offer. The offer itself was a 4% increase for the vast majority of staff, with some variations of that at some of the higher pay bands, and those on lower pay bands having a slightly differently structured offer.

The POA membership in the State Hospital in Carstairs were balloted and voted in favour of the offer by a majority of circa 86%, with a 70% return in the ballot. The offer was backdated to December 2020 and paid in the June salaries of staff. 

ATTENDANCE PATTERNS

Throughout the whole of the period of Covid, our prisons have been working a revised condensed attendance pattern, brought in at short notice to try to protect staff and prisoners and control the spread and risks within our prisons. It seems barely possible that some 17 months on from there we are still operating under those attendance patterns and we are still not able to plan with any certainty for what the immediate future looks like. That said, there have been various reintroductions to elements of the regime across the estate and members of the SNC have been active participants in a sub-group set up to develop a route map for the return of the more traditional attendance patterns in our prisons. We fully expect that the timetable and plan will be known to the staff by the time of going to print. We would want, once again, to acknowledge the tremendous efforts of the membership in both accommodating those changes to work and family life over such an extended period of tim, and the professional and dedicated way that they have managed the environment they are working in throughout this period.

SCOTTISH ANNUAL CONFERENCE

As things stand at present the Scottish conference is planned to take place in October in the Peebles Hydro Hotel. The Standing Orders are in place and the process of calling for motions has been issued to branches. We are planning for this full in the knowledge that, in these times, nothing is certain. Even at the time of writing the planned dates for further opening up in England and Wales have just been put back a further month due to the rising numbers of cases, and in Scotland we still wait to see what changes, if any, are going to be implemented here. We sincerely hope that we can all attend once again our annual conference and are putting in place all that we can at this stage to allow for a successful event to take place.

C&R REVIEW GROUP 

Following the Scottish government adopting the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) the SPS are required to review our methods of control and restraint in our youth custody areas of the estate. To that end we are actively involved in a subgroup tasked with looking at alternatives to our existing C&R model and examining the options of pain-free restraint in other jurisdictions. We are at the exploring stage at the moment but there is no doubt this piece of legislation will require us to change what we do and how we do it, and in time may well have wider implications for other parts of the estate. We are part of the group tasked with this and will be involving and consulting those in the field with the task of delivering the training and those tasked with carrying out the restraints for their input as the group progresses.

POA STAFF AND FAMILIES

Such is the timescale for the continued impact of covid that I never envisaged this becoming a standing item in the regular updates to the Gatelodge. But the fact that it is going on for so long is exactly why we should once again acknowledge and thank the POA staff for their continued efforts and support to the respective elected officials, the prison services who themselves make significant call on their time and expertise, and of course our members.

With still no clear date for the return to offices, and even then what will be a staggered and different working environment to the one staff recognise, we owe them and their families all a great debt of gratitude for keeping things going despite the challenges that working from home clearly bring. On the plus side, the better weather and the easing of some restrictions at least allows us all to get out a bit more from the same four walls and, more importantly, to meet up with family and friends in a way that has not been possible for so long now. I hope that at least helps make the continued difficult and strange environment for everyone just a little easier to manage day to day.

MARGARET RIDDELL

We have only just heard that a dear friend to the POA, Margaret Riddell, has passed away this week after a period of poor health.

Margaret and Bob have been long-standing attendees at Scottish conference, alongside their very good friends Sandy and Sheila Henderson. Both Sandy and Bob have long histories in the service and have both served the POA membership with distinction during that time. 

Despite their retirals from the service many years ago now, the four of them have always been very supportive and enthusiastic attenders at Scottish conference, very often at their own expense over the years, and it has always been a genuine pleasure to meet up with them each year and have them all take a full and active role in conference social proceedings.

I think for all of us who have been attending Scottish conference over many years, Bob and Margaret, Sandy and Sheila were just always there, always together. Their presence has always been taken as given, and we always all looked forward to seeing them. Our very deepest condolences to Bob and the family as they mourn the loss of Margaret. They, along with Margaret, are in all our thoughts today.

 

Phil Fairlie
Assistant General Secretary Scotland