A meeting was held on Tuesday 1 March 2016 at Henry Deane Building and attended by representatives across all Vocational Branches, Departmental Committees of the PSA, and four PSA staff including the General Secretary.

The purpose of the meeting was to receive updated information on the benchmarking within Corrective Services NSW.

The Department delivered the briefing that, in essence, remains an overview of the process they are undertaking.

The main take away point from this meeting was that the team assembled by Corrective Services NSW are developing what could be termed a hypothetical model for the operation of a correctional facility.

In management terms, and in the document provided to all Corrective Services employees, it is called “resource benchmarks”.

Other key points that Corrective Services claim are required to support the process of benchmarking include Safety and Security, Decency and Respect, Rehabilitation and Re-integration and Professionalism and Accountability.

Our understanding following this meeting is that they intend to establish a resource benchmark by looking at 20 or more individual functions and obviously comparing those to a whole range of other correctional facilities including privately run prisons and prisons in other states.

The Department have set a timetable and their timetable indicates that within Stage 1, an establishment of the hypothetical model, will conclude sometime in May 2016.

There is not a lot of time for the Department to complete this considering they have indicated that they do not yet have a completed model.

Following approval of their hypothetical model, they will move into what they have termed Stage 2 Pilot sites.

The Department have informed us that they have not yet determined what sites will make up the list.

Stage 2 will include a period of negotiations and adjustments to the model to hopefully create a workable model for an individual correctional centre.

They refer to this as “adjusting resource benchmarks”.

In relation to the individual centres’ benchmarks, they then say Stage 3 to set the desktop benchmark for each correctional centre.

What is unclear is what level of input the union will have at a local level.

The information provided by Corrective Services NSW lacks detail and therefore it remains very difficult for anyone to fully understand what this process will entail.

To this end, we have made an initial request that the Department provide further information in relation to the 20 plus aspects that they claim they are currently considering.

Other workplace reforms as raised by Corrective Services NSW include consolidation of the five awards into one, classification restructure of 26 ranks into 12 pay levels, improve productivity by reducing sick leave and roster flexibility to meet targets.

The PSA will advise delegates and members when we receive the additional information requested then all options for next steps will be considered in consultation with members.