Workforce modernisation.

Staff will lose their jobs when a controversial new regional control centre goes live for fire services across the south west of England.

A total of 63 people will be needed at the base in Taunton, Somerset, which will begin handling calls in 2009.

It replaces seven centres which currently employ about 175 people.

The regional project director said redundancies could not be avoided, but the cuts were criticised by the Fire Brigades’ Union.

Gloucestershire County Council cllr Will Windsor-Clive added: “I am extremely worried that this not only means the loss of expert staff, but puts people at risk of getting the engaged tone when they ring 999.”

‘Lessen adverse impact’

More staff will be brought in for the changeover period until the centre is fully operational by 2012.

Clive Kemp, regional project director, said new technology would increase safety across the region.

“We are confident that fire and rescue services will do all that they can to lessen any adverse impact on staff,” he added.

“It is unlikely, however, that redundancies can be avoided in every service.

“We understand this is a difficult time for affected staff and we are continuing to offer them our support throughout this process.”

The centre will replace those for Avon Fire & Rescue Service; Cornwall County Fire Brigade; Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service; Dorset Fire & Rescue Service; Gloucestershire Fire & Rescue Service and Wiltshire Fire & Rescue Service.

What was that Mr Kemp ?

Clive Kemp, regional project director, said new technology would increase safety across the region.

Lets see……………..one larger regional control centre to replace several smaller centres spread around the region, cutting staff from 175 to 63. One control centre dealing with the demand carried by seven centres, staffed by almost one third of previous staff numbers.

Clearly higher levels of safety to add to the increased levels of relevant communications that the fire crews with be supported by. I dare say that the staff cost savings will allow for longer bits of string between the cans to cover communications in all the counties in the region. The counters of beans will have been impressed at the savings projections.

We should take notice of this innovative and radical idea at the CTC Constabulary. We could be onto something here. 

‘WEB to control, check on a vehicle please.’

‘Control to WEB, stand by, I am on my own and I already have two checks pending plus I want someone to attend a domestic, plus I have seven other open logs to allocate,update or close. Are you committed ?’

‘WEB to control, no but I should be.’

I think the Fire Service could be onto a winner with this one. They could follow this up with Fire Community Support Officers.

Around the role of Constable……..?

Some people say their stuff and it can range from mildly interesting to having you paying full attention. Sometimes because you find the subject or the way it is coming at you new or unusual. Sometimes because it-is something you are told that the bosses will probably be asking suitable stooges what the latest stuff means. Other stuff has no real meaning but appears to be trendy and relevant to some sections with the hallowed halls of the organisation hub.

Most of it is just that, stuff. The latest stuff originating from the latest series of meetings and the new buzz words or phrases lifted directly from the Government guidelines on all that is good and great in the world where beans are simply so important.

I found out this today.

Creating more capacity, greater capability, more choice, giving more public value, giving a significantly more flexible employment framework built around the role of the Constable and supported by a wider mix of Police Staff……………………….

is called Workforce Modernisation.

So there, it-is not anything to do with money, it-is nothing to do with the undermining and removal of the rank of Constable. It-is about enhancing the role of the Constable and providing a greater support network for this valuable and essential position, of Constable that is.

I also found that there are a series of aims, also actions to provide stuff.

I will stop now, I know you are getting bored. Don’t switch off yet, there is some homework for you.

Can anyone tell me what an Industry Scale Testbed means ?

Old, but not senile.

A just-turned-sixty and slightly graying haired man walked into an exquisite jewellery store one Friday evening with a gorgeous, bosomy, young woman at his side. She was stunningly beautiful.

He told the jeweller he was looking for a special ring for his girlfriend,  so the jeweller looked through his stock and brought out a £5,000.00 ring.

The old man said, “No, I’d like to see something much more special than that!”

At that statement, the jeweller went to the safe and pulled out his  special stock, and brought another ring over. “Here’s a stunning ring at only £40,000,” the jeweller said.

 

The young woman’s eyes sparkled and her whole body began to tremble with excitement. The old man seeing this said, “We’ll take that one.”

The jeweller asked how payment would be made and the old man stated, “I’ll pay by cheque. I know you need to make sure my cheque will clear, so I’ll write it now and you can call the bank on Monday morning to verify the funds,  then we’ll pick the ring up on Monday afternoon,” he said.

 

On Monday morning, the jeweller phoned the old man and informed him, “Sir, there’s insufficient funds in that account.”
                                                   

“I know,” said the old man, “but let me tell you about my weekend!”

Storming & Swooping.

This is not another march about Police pay.

This is not operation overkill, as per the Daily Mail.

This is doing something about problems in a community that is blighted by criminals who operate within the same community. They either live within that community or are drawn there because of the ease of criminal activity.

For once this is a clear message to those who think they are beyond the law.

On this day we got more in our gang than you have. We have got enough here to deal with you and your gang if you want to play. There was swooping on premises and storming in the streets of North London.

It should be like this all the time. Then the wheels of the legal processes should kick in and support the efforts.

Then, and only then, will the communities such as these be safer with less crime.

Future is bright for PCSOs.

Gordon Brown has launched Labour’s campaign for the May local elections, pledging to increase high visibility policing and improve public services.

Mr Brown highlighted community policing as a key theme of Labour’s local election campaign during a launch in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

“Every community of the country is going to have neighbourhood policing with police to call upon, with their mobile phone number available, be able to put a face on the person, be able to call them up and have local meetings to discuss the local issues you’re concerned about,” he said.

“That will lead to neighbourhood contracts, where local residents and police come together to decide ‘here are the priorities, this is what we’ve got to do, this is how we can make it a safer place’.”

The future is bright, the future is…………………hi-vis yellow.

Living under the cloak.

‘John Lewis list’

Earlier this month it emerged that MPs were allowed to claim expenses of up to £10,000 for a new kitchen, £2,000 for furniture and £750 for a TV or stereo for their second homes.

And other claims allowable include £6,335 for a new bathroom, £299.99 for air conditioning units, £300 per rug, £50 for a shredder and £1,000 for a bed.

The figures are in the so-called “John Lewis list” used by Commons officials to list maximum amounts for items.

The existence of the list – based on prices at the John Lewis store “because it was highly rated by Which magazine” – was revealed during the tribunal.

Whilst everyone else has to finance their own households it is nice to know that some of our politicians are working harder than ever to choose what they will spend the tax payers money on to make the most of their generous expenses allowances to justify all they are achieving.  I can sleep a little better in my bed knowing this.

To see the John Lewis list in full see here.

Are there any vacancies left  ?

Shout from the rooftops

Rooftop protest at a Devon jail.Picture yourself incarcerated in one of the country’s finest prison. You want to have a bit of a demonstration because you are locked away in the middle of nowhere. What do you do ?

Plan A………….You climb onto the roof of your free bed & full board lodging accommodation to complain. Complain about what exactly ? You could be on the telly.

You and your two mates climb up onto the roof  at HMP Dartmoor at about 09.00am and one of you in allegedly coaxed down at about 5.00pm. Coaxed down by negotiators no less. The remaining two, who had the sense to have some form of canvas shelter and provisions with them, climbed down at about 2230 GMT.

The prison has declined to comment on the protest.

I suspect that good old mother nature breached their human rights by being a bit too cold, wet and windy for them. That’s the trouble with Dartmoor. It is remote and subject to unfavourable weather. That is one of the reasons that rescue teams are available to look for people who get lost and risk the effects of exposure.

Dartmoor……….its remote and bleak in places. In the summer on a nice sunny and warm day it-is an incredibly beautiful place.

Plan B…………. Consider the risk of cold and inclement weather.

Plan C…………. Do not forget boredom. Remind self about the weather.

Life under the cloak, again.

Having come in and seen the news on the box the thoughts of the ‘cloak’ again reared their ugly but inevitable head.

It seems our honourable and trusted MPs have had a bit of a change of mind and decided to oppose efforts to make public exactly how much of our money they spend on themselves and what they spend it on.

At the same time they are to be allowed to vote with their conscience on the matter of embryo research. No worries about voting against the party line, but a free vote, a conscience vote. Just when I was beginning to think that this conscience thing was the one thing they did not possess. No worries about what the bosses think, no worries about failing to tow the party line, no worries about what their constituents want (although they never bother with this point) and the luxury of a free vote where they can vote in line with their conscience. I simply have to keep saying this over and over again. The luxury of a free vote returns me nicely again to the luxury of all those expenses they have at their disposal.

So returning to the little matter of those expenses for a new kitchen, a new bathroom, a second home in the constituency or perhaps in or around London. I wait with keen interest to see exactly how much they have to spend and some of the deemed essential needs they have to spend our money on themselves.

They claim grounds of security when in real terms, they must have a great number who are in real and direct fear of the population being told exactly how long, how wide, how deep and how fast this particular gravy train just happens to be, as well as where it stops.

We could know how wide and deep the trough is and how far the snouts are buried into it.

Exactly how much do they not want this information to become available in the public arena ?

I suspect, a very very lot, that’s how much.

Of course some will say that they welcome it and have nothing to hide. Itis only right and proper that these figures are put into the public domain.

Some others will dread the media spotlight revealing how much they rip off the taxpayer.

Life under the cloak. Still safe and invisibly accountable.

I have also become fed up with news of the presidential goings on in the good old US of A.

They too have their lives under the cloak. Hilary appears to have been lying out of her arse but admits to a small bit of misspeaking. Dodging the sniper rounds during a visit when it was quite clearly obvious that there were no end of media people at the same place. Graphic licence clearly has no boundaries for those who live life under the cloak.

The Obama chap appears to have been coached by the very same people who coached the husband of the misspeaking one when he was running to the job. The stupid inane open mouthed grin appear to have been lifted from the very same. The greetings, the movements and pointing seem well rehearsed. Too well rehearsed.

Life under the cloak ?    There could be something to this.

Life under the cloak.

There has been a list published giving the top ten places where burglary is only one part of the blight that affects the persons perceived as statistical figures in to-days modern society.  At one time they used to be known by their other collective term of ‘victims.’

1. Nottingham

2. London

3. Bristol

4.Stockport

5. Leeds

6. Manchester

7. Hull

8. Cambridge

9. Sheffield

10. Reading

Guildford is identified as the location for the least risk of home thefts followed by Dundee, Norwich, Swindon and Bath.  Home theft ? An interesting alternative perhaps ?

This follows on from Government reports about the first recorded fall in overall violence in eight years, even though drug offences and robbery went up.  The same figures also indicate 24-hour drinking laws have not changed rates of alcohol-fuelled crime, but have merely shifted incidents to the early hours.  The Home Office said it needed to boost public confidence in statistics because 65% believed crime was rising. 

I suspect that those 65% might be the Police officers who deal with this alleged recorded fall in the crime figures. Perhaps the reduction in officers means that less are doing more of the crime recording resulting in the appearance that there is really more crime but the reality there is a lot less ? A great bit of productivity evidence for the next appraisal.

 You can, of course, totally trust these ‘statistics’ from a Government who claim that the underlying rate of inflation is steady at below their target inflation rate.

Also, anyone who thinks that anything likely to increase above the target rate is simply taken out of the equation and not considered when the numbers are crunched is totally wrong. These items were already out of the frame. 

So now you understand that this figure does not include the cost of your mortgage, fuel bill increases, bread, milk, butter, cheese, local rates, fuel costs for your transportation, be it car bus, train etc and a whole load of other things that have gone up enormously but, as if by magic, have had no effect on the underlying inflation rate. In fact anything that is likely to go up or increase about the target rate is not included. What a novel and simply brilliant idea.

Once upon a time, in a far off land where everything was clouded in a cloak of invisible responsibility,  where the spin of words was the aim to prove an effective source of governance, the same statistics were given out by the people who said that all was well…………….and they all lived happy ever after because they could see that all was well, under the cloak.

Shining examples.

We have a Ghurka soldier who has fought the the UK, risking his life and awarded medals for his bravery,  Madan Gurung, who served for 24 years has had his application to stay in the UK rejected. He and numerous other brave soldiers have handed back their hard earned medals as a sign of their disgust at their treatment.

We have a SERIAL paedophile arriving in the UK today after being deported from Australia following a 12-year jail sentence. He had been there for over 50 years.

We have the Chindamo case where deportation from the UK to Italy was refused because of not breaching his human rights.

We have all too many foreign criminals who are not deported for a whole list of reasons when really they should be.

We have this so called ‘managed migration’ used as an excuse for no border controls and anyone who speaks out is deemed to be a racist, even though it is perceived to save the Government hundreds of millions not to do anything about illegal visitors or overstayers.

We have insufficient prison places for the Government who are ‘Tough on Crime’ and have been reported as wanting to stop or reduce short term custodial sentences, even though they have increased the early release program to try to conjure up more spaces in the prison numbers despite trying to change the sentencing rules and putting pressure on the judiciary to reduce the numbers of those sentenced to custodial sentences. We could be in for a rehabilitation revolution  according the Jack Straw.

Can’t wait.

Whatever is going on ?