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Office shake-up will have a big impact on Archway
AN open letter by more than 200 staff to Martin John, Chief Executive, Office of the Public Guardian
• Dear Martin John,
We write this open letter in the hope that you can not only be frank and open with us but with the residents of Archway, as the proposed redeployment will affect their jobs and lives as well as ours.
You have now set up the second project board for the redeployment of staff to Nottingham and there is no doubt that it will eat into permanent staff positions.
On top of this the minister, Bridget Prentice, has replied to our letters sent by our MPs asking detailed questions about the future of the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG).
Unfortunately, it is disappointing as it gives no specific detail of how the mentally vulnerable whom we serve will get a better service.
Our trade union colleagues tell us that the truth is this whole redeployment exercise is nothing more than estate driven.
In other words there is no long-term plan other than when space becomes available outside London you seek to occupy it regardless of any business case.
They have also stated that the office will be dispersed around the country into five different locations and the posts will be filled by inexperienced staff who will be paid considerably less than the current staff.
It is no more than a cost-cutting exercise and there is actually no intention to offer a better service for those who are mentally incapable of looking after their own finances.
To support their argument the union states that the Director General of Access to Justice was supposed to have presented a detailed plan, costs etcetera of the redeployment of the OPG in November 2008 to the permanent secretary and, ultimately, the Lord Chancellor Jack Straw.
When the union asked you for this detailed plan you stated that he missed this objective. The union has also written to Human Resources asking for a detailed breakdown of the ethnicity, gender, age and disability of the staff.
The answer was that the office does not keep such records. We have to say that this is appalling for an office within the Ministry of Justice, which is dedicated to administering the law and is not prepared to ensure that it upholds the various discrimination acts passed by Parliament.
It also casts grave doubts on whether or not the Ministry of Justice has done not only equality impact assessments on the redeployment of its staff but on the general public it is meant to serve, the mentally vulnerable. Has even an impact assessment on the local area in Archway and how such a redeployment of so many jobs will affect the lives and jobs of people dependent on our custom been done?
Our fear is that the whole redeployment exercise is being implemented via the back door to ensure no one notices and that legal obligations are bypassed.
We therefore ask you to release the detailed plan drafted by the Director of Access to Justice to the trade union along with the equality impact assessments done on staff, our customers and the local area.
We believe that this is a legal obligation. Thank you
The staff of the OPG and the Court Of Protection
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