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Paul Laxton
Issue 76 Spring 2017
REFLECTIONS ON THE 2016 PGA CONFERENCE

For the second successive year, PGA conference was held at the Radisson Bleu Hotel close to East Midlands Airport. It was no surprise that the NEC chose to return here after the much-improved attendance in 2015 when compared to Buxton. Conference also continued with the new two-day format, which, as I reported last year, actually only results in a reduction of 90 minutes of business time. Again guest speakers were kept to the minimum: the Prisons Minister, the Head of NOMS, and the spokesperson for the Conference charity, this year Guide Dogs for the Blind. Socially the change of format has led to the loss of Duncan Scales' famous quiz and the opportunity for people to visit local pubs but with only one night away, that only leaves time for the Conference dinner as a social event. Again the dress code was smart casual but, unlike last year, there was no loyal toast and no guest speaker. Speaking personally, I do regret the absence of an after-dinner speech.

Attendance was significantly lower this year, but without falling back to Buxton levels. My delegate list was not entirely accurate but, as close as I can tell, the number of delegates including Scotland, Northern Ireland and HQ branches was in the mid-60s, and total attendance including NEC, Distinguished Life Members, Chair, Standing Orders and Conference scribe was somewhere approaching 90 at its’ maximum. However, given the problems, the Service is facing and the uncertainties about the future direction of Government policy, you would feel that more branches should have been represented, and there were some big players missing.

I have devoted the Editorial to the state of the nation's prisons so will not dwell further on the debates on the subjects of safety and decency, or more accurately the lack of it. Forty-five resolutions were on the agenda for debate, around a third less than last year, but in terms of manageability within the time frame, it made life easier for the Conference Chair, which this year was Phil Taylor OBE. Those of you who can recall last year's Conference Report will remember that the working hours and the general health and well-being of governors was a dominant theme. It was quite clear that Conference still felt that the job was impossible without a commitment to working hours which go unpaid. Resolutions were debated and carried which called for the Government to reinstate Operational Manager posts lost during the benchmarking exercise, and also for the first time that I can remember overtime payments. Conference also expressed its concerns that the proposed reduction of administrative staffing in HQ by 50% would only result in work being pushed down to establishments and finding its’ way on the desks of hard-pressed Governor grades. You would be more likely to see flying pigs than a commensurate 50% reduction in bureaucratic requirements.

The acronyms may change but the gripes about pay, grading, promotion and job evaluation will be eerily familiar. The Job Evaluation Scheme (JES) is as much a running sore as when I was on the NEC. The latest anomaly revealed to delegates was the grading of Regional Health and Safety advisors in the same pay band as In-Charge Governors of our largest and most complex prisons. Those of you who were regular conference delegates will recall Paddy Scriven's annual diatribe regarding sexually-transmitted promotions. I have no doubt that it still goes on and it will not be stamped out until such a time as the Siamese twins of patronage and promotion are separated. However, it came as a shock to see a resolution on the agenda calling on the NEC to make it clear that serving prisoners should have no role to play in the selection of Operational Managers.


Clearly, some politically correct metropolitan elite clown has floated this proposal. The speaker was very careful not to denigrate prisoners but confined himself to saying that as we would never allow the POA a say in choosing the Governor, it would be illogical to grant prisoners a role in the selection process: one for Richard Littlejohn's column in the Daily Mail, I think.

Conference was also concerned with the future, in particular, the Government's reform agenda which dangles the tantalising carrot of greater autonomy for in-charge Governors. This is where the disadvantage of being retired when writing this piece becomes most apparent, as it is impossible to be aware of the minutiae of discussions.

Certainly, from what I can gather, the PGA was energised by Michael Gove's ambitious plans for reform and the prospect of liberation from the stifling hand of Area or Regional Offices. Given Mr Gove's policy of fragmenting the Education Service by promoting the growth of academies separate from Local Authority control (and more pertinently academy chains which equate to de facto privatisation) my first thought is "beware of what you wish for." It remains to be seen if Mr Gove's successor, Elizabeth Truss, is a visionary or a pragmatist. Delegates expressed concern that a reform model that borrowed from Education whereby pay and conditions were devolved to academy Executive Heads would be replicated in the prison system. Although conference supported reform that gives greater autonomy to in-charge Governors, conference was equally clear that PGA members must remain under the Civil Service umbrella and opposed to any notion of local pay bargaining.

Finally, returning briefly to the theme of my Editorial, I wrote this piece shortly after a major prison riot at HMP Lewes, shamefully downplayed again by NOMS. Given that those who do not learn from historical errors are doomed to repeat them, the public inquiry called for by the NEC is only likely to be convened if there is a repeat of the 1990 Strangeways riot. Let us hope that next year's Conference does not follow in the wake of what in 1990 Brendan O'Friel called an "Explosion of evil." The government needs to act now if it is to be prevented.

PAUL LAXTON