National Crime Officers Association
2016 NCARRB Submission
Simon Bashford
NCOA National Secretary
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01925 214360
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Table of Contents
Foreword
Section 1: Prohibition on NCA Officers Right to Strike
Section 2: Novo
· Novo Communication
· Project 500
Section 3: Need to Recruit, Retain and Motivate
· Borders Policing Command
· PDS
· London Weighting
· 24/7 Shift Allowance
· BPC Assimilation
· Anti-Social Hours
· Subsistence
Section 4: Annualised Hours Working
Section 5: Legal Obligations on NCA Officers
Section 6: Inflation
Section 7: Pay Comparators
Section 8: Pay Submission Summary
Foreword
The NCOA welcomes the opportunity to submit written and oral evidence to the NCARRB of the pay and demands of its members. In compiling this report, we acknowledge the Home Secretary letter of 4th November confirming the Governments approach to the 2016/17 pay award and its public sector pay policy to cap awards at 1% for a further four years.
Within our evidence, the NCOA will demonstrate the need to recruit, retain and motivate its staff whilst remaining within the affordable budget and the effects of pay divergence.
In evidencing the above, the report will detail:
· The position of NCA officers against comparators
· The need to introduce/uplift allowances to future proof reward and retention within specialist departments
· Inequalities caused by the PDS system in awarding senior grades ‘Excellent’ payments
· Changes to pay scale maxima and minima
· Absence of pay progression and the effects on staff retention
· NCA proposals for annualised hours
· Pre-cursor agency assimilation offers
· The need to introduce a Northern Ireland allowance
· 2015 Staff survey
The National Crime Officers Association (NCOA), at the time of compiling this submission, represents 46.6% of all NCA staff [Nov 2015], over 1200 of whom have powers. In cognisance of the fact that this submission is in respect of our members with powers, we are pleased to report, that throughout the 2015 pay round, we were able to achieve parity in pay across all staff regardless of status.
Despite this, the Government confers a unique status on NCA officers designated with operational powers, with the restriction on their ability to strike. This fact should be borne in mind, alongside the Home Secretary recommendations, insofar as the NCA award should bear a less restrictive interpretation of the public sector pay policy.
Section 1. Prohibition of NCA Officers to Strike
The Crime & Courts Act 2013 outlines the NCA’s principle functions as:
1. Crime Reduction . . . by securing efficient and effective activities to combat organised and serious crime and
2. Criminal intelligence . . . by gathering, storing, processing analysing and disseminating information relevant to:
· Pursue, prosecute and disrupt people engaged in serious organised crime.
· Preventing people from engaging in serious organised crime.
· Protection by increasing and coordinating UK’s efforts to safeguard its borders from serious and organised crime and to protect people at risk of fraud, child sexual exploitation, human trafficking and modern slavery.
· Prepare to reduce the impact of criminal behaviour by working with communities to support them in responding to serious organised crime.
NCA operates across the UK, respecting the devolution of policing in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
In order to achieve the above, the Crime & Courts Act 2013 places unique restrictions on NCA officers. Section 13 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 prohibits NCA officers, with powers, from taking industrial action.
The NCA currently has a workforce of circa 4200 (Nov 2015) with an aim for nearly all members of staff to be designated with powers, where the use of powers is needed to effectively combat serious and organised crime.
To these dedicated and highly trained staff, the Crime and Courts Act 2013 delivers a significant restriction on their ability, (or support their union’s ability), to escalate issues of major dispute that directly affect their work, pay and pensions. They are civil servants in respect of government reform pay, terms and conditions, contracts, mobility and capability, yet have the same restrictions placed upon them as if they were armed forces or the police.
For this reason, NCA officers should be treated in isolation from the generic civil service and have the interpretation of the Civil Service pay guidance widened to its maximum potential.
Section 2. Novo
Novo
The Novo portfolio is a three to five year programme to transform the operational capabilities of the NCA. The work is midway through its 2nd year of delivery and this year has seen IT and Information Management added to the ongoing work of People and Estates change. Novo is designed to bring about an improved delivery despite ever dwindling Civil Service budgets.
Early delivery has seen new structures, skills and capabilities such as the National Intelligence Hub. Shared property services and operational capabilities are both areas where the NCA seeks to improve its joint initiatives such as Regional Organised Crime Units (ROCU) and Counter Terrorism Units (CTU). This can be seen in recent estate office moves that are scheduled for 2016.
The forthcoming year will see an incremental programme to further maximise existing capabilities, investment in IT/comms and in analytical and investigative skills. 2016 should see the NCA at full strength following Project 500 to recruit skilled experienced investigation officers.
Novo Communication
If the NCA is going to deliver change, whilst valuing its staff and ‘taking them on the journey,’ that is Novo, they will need to demonstrate both communication of change and management of change.
In 2014/15 NCOA reported its criticism of the organisation’s communication and management around change. It is pleasing to report that within the area of communication there has been considerable improvement during which there has been a strategy of ‘engagement not transmission’. A 52-strong Novo Network of staff located at NCA sites are actively feeding back concerns on the ground as the eyes and ears of the Novo Communication team. A monthly newsletter, Novo News, distributed by the Network throughout the organisation, along with a series of ‘light touch’ chats called Novo Café Conversations, are all designed to demonstrate the organisation’s intention to communicate.
The same cannot be said in respect of ‘all’ areas around management of change. The closure of some offices and subsequent relocation of staff to others caused a great deal of upset earlier in 2015. The greatest concerns came from staff not knowing, even just weeks before moves were made, exactly which of them were earmarked to relocate, and where. Those affected reported that little consideration had been given to transport and ability to physically get to their new workplace, and there was a staff perception that the process of selection had not been scrutinised sufficiently (all of these concerns are reflected in the recently published Staff Survey to be discussed in a supplementary and oral submission).
The relocation of some of the above staff, from a London Weighting (LW) qualifying area to a non LW qualifying area, will have impact on future retention and morale. Whilst NCOA negotiated to secure current staff in receipt of LW, to have their entitlement protected in future, this is only until the officer accepts a new post on either lateral or promotion . . . Officers will therefore, no longer ‘voluntarily’ move to these locations. Evidence is already coming to light that subsequent lateral moves away, are being resisted by management due to lack of resources.
Project 500
Novo Project 500 aims to address the existing shortfall in NCA staffing levels. The number of vacancies is actually higher than the title suggests however, it exposes a long term problem that blighted its pre-cursor, SOCA, and will continue within the foreseeable future of the NCA
Project 500 uncovers a major flaw in the future proofing of the NCA as a concept because it is an admission that it has failed in its attempts to self-generate the skills and experience required, and ‘grow its own’.
Up to 50% of the vacancies under Project 500 require applicants to have recent PIP2 training and/or be experienced law enforcement / national security / intelligence environment experience [NCA advert Oct – Nov 2015]. The criteria, listed as a minimum, confirms that the only available source of skills and experience, capable of resourcing the NCA, is the law enforcement community and in particular the Police Service. However, due to current constraints on pay and pensions and the absence of any NCA ‘spine point’ pay progression, it is impossible to entice younger/mid-term serving police officers to join the organisation, as it equates to a pay drop when comparing Police salary scales. It is clear that only those Police officers who have recently retired, or intend to retire soon, will see the appeal of the NCA.
This skills `cliff edge’ will remain a considerable risk to the future resilience of the National Crime Agency and is an issue that Novo must address.
Section 3. Need to Recruit, Retain and Motivate
BPC Assimilation
It is pleasing to report that assimilation negotiation terms are well underway [November 2015] and it is hoped that an offer will be sent to individual officers later this year or early 2016. The NCOA has previously been critical of the employer for failing to deliver on assimilation for the former HMRC/HMCE staff two years after they joined NCA. The matter became so critical, that earlier this year, NCOA escalated the matter to a Joint Negotiation Consultative Committee, the final negotiating forum short of entering into formal dispute.
This submission however recognises that, against a backdrop of six differing precursor terms and conditions, each containing a multitude of pensionable and non-pensionable allowance elements, the work of NCA HR in its collaborative efforts to reach a position where each officer receives an attractive set of NCA terms, is laudable. There has been a genuine determination on both sides to ensure that assimilating terms as much as possible, match each other. The NCOA has been clear in its approach, that lessons must be learned from SOCA 2006 – 2013, insofar as the consequences of failing to correctly and fairly offer parity across grades now will haunt the NCA for years to come.
The full outcome of the offer will be discussed at the NCARRB oral presentation in February.
PDS
NCOA recognises that performance rating is an appropriate way of marking an individual’s performance against peer groups and organisational demands and objectives.
In response to member concerns in 2014, where 50% of all staff surveyed, reported they lacked confidence in line managers to properly assess their performance, NCOA has been keen to support the NCA direction to improve the delivery and validation of scores.
The NCOA support a revised system that seeks to prevent an inconsistent application of standards, resulting in unfair ratings of performance. This is particularly important to ensure that ‘unconscious bias’ does not disadvantage particular groups or lower grades and also, that objectives and expectations for performance reflect the amount of time available for part time staff.
Guided distribution is an accepted method of what may be expected within the scoring outcomes. The NCA communicated at the start of the year that it expected 15% to exceed, 80% to achieve and 5% to underperform. Any officer following validation that scored an exceeding rating is eligible to receive an ‘Excellent’ payment. Having confidence in the validation process, which is in place to ensure a shared understanding of performance expectations between staff, managers and senior leadership, is essential.
Last year, the NCOA reported that the awarding of ‘Excellent’ payments directly correlated to grade, seeing least awards at Grade 6 and greatest at Grade 1. It is disappointing that, in 2015 too, the results are once again heavily weighted toward the highest grade. It is for this reason that the NCOA, whilst supporting the organisation in its endeavours to improve its performance management, still opposes a system that so clearly weights itself in favour of senior grades. The figures show that there is an average one in four chance of receiving an excellent marking as a Grade 1, compared to a one in thirty six chance of getting the same marking at Grade 6.
See below table of 2015 validated scores:
Grade / No / Female Excellent / Male Excellent / Total / % of Grade (+/- on 2014)Grade 1 / 69 / 6 / 10 / 16 / 23.2% (+3.2%)
Grade 2 / 194 / 13 / 26 / 39 / 20.1% (+6.3%)
Grade 3 / 542 / 36 / 73 / 109 / 20.1% (+7.5%)
Grade 4 / 1051 / 49 / 89 / 138 / 13.1% (+3.7%)
Grade 5 / 1932 / 51 / 55 / 106 / 5.5% (+0.3%)
Grade 6 / 365 / 10 / 0 / 10 / 2.7% (-1.5%)
London Weighting
The NCOA has seen no new information from the employer, in respect of their 2014 proposals to revise London Weighting. The NCOA proposes that, in light of no information forthcoming, the London Weighting qualifying areas remain untouched and the allowance remain untouched.
24/7 Shift Allowance
NCA staff retention issues continue within the departments where 24/7 cover is a necessity. The control centre, which currently employs 45 officers, has seen night shifts increase from one week in six to one in five to cover staff turnover. Whilst recruitment to 24/7 working does not pose the organisation a problem per se, most or all, recruits come from external advertising, as internal applicants often find the disturbance unattractive. The relatively low 12.5% allowance makes attrition rates high once any new staff have reached the requisite 18 months in post.
In an attempt to ensure retention of staff, the NCOA have worked with the organisation to look at other models. Metropolitan Police staff receive between 15%-20% dependent upon the degree of disturbance which is similar to the Home Office who reward staff at 10% - 20% in degrees between one week in seven, to one in four.
This report submits that to provide comparable equity with law enforcement partners and to improve retention, then a realistic 24/7 allowance should remain at the existing 12.5% however, in acknowledging the restraints placed upon the NCA by the 1% consolidated pay cap, the NCARRB should reflect on the additional demands placed upon control centre staff, and an ‘additional non-consolidated’ award be made reflecting a total package between 15% and 18%.