Welcome
About the Gatwick IRC/PDA contract
The new Gatwick IRC/PDA contract offers a range of significant improvements against the existing contract, the main difference being a substantial increase in the number of Detention Custody Officers and Detention Custody Managers which will allow for greater levels of support for detainees.
The Serco contract also provides:
- Detainees with greater access to activities and education provision
- Innovative technology to support staff, detainees and visitors
- Mentoring for newly recruited staff
- Regular support and professional development for staff
- Further developments in Safeguarding practices
- Dedicated staff groups to help minimise the use of cross-deployment
The Home Office driven improvements are further steps to modernise the immigration detention estate, as wells as responding to the former Prison Ombudsman, Stephen Shaw’s reports on detention.
Stakeholder Partnerships
At Serco we have a team of people that are dedicated to managing relationships both internally and externally to ensure that we work in partnership with all stakeholders whilst remaining impartial.
Our stakeholders are anyone with an interest or concern in the work we do and we are here to manage Serco’s relationship with stakeholders by being a single point of contact on a local and strategic level.
Our main stakeholders are:
- You
- Detainees
- Home Office Immigration Enforcement
- NHS England
- West Sussex Local Authority
- West Sussex Local Safeguarding Board
- Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group
- Hibiscus Initiatives
- Police and Crime Commissioner
- Sussex Police
- Members of Parliament
- HM Inspectorate of Prisons
- Prison and Probation Ombudsman
- Independent Monitoring Board
Our approach to managing these stakeholders include:
- Stakeholder Partnership events
- One to One meetings
- Strategy committees
- Consistent messaging
- Clear communication channels
- Effective management of complaints
- Quick responses to audits and report recommendations
- Contingency planning and exercises
Partnership working also means working with our people so we will regularly seek updates, ideas and feedback on matters relating to the important work you do at Gatwick IRC/PDA. We understand that as frontline staff you often have greater knowledge and experience of the issues that affect those people in our care.
Throughout the year we will hold a number of cultural and social events for staff and detainees, as well as promoting and supporting Serco Group initiatives including World Environment Day and Zero Harm Week.
We have a commitment to corporate responsibility and encourage all staff to use their 1 day of volunteer leave that they get each year either individually or as part of a team. It’s a fun way to give back to communities, and you have the chance to meet new people. We also help to organise fundraising activities across the contract and actively ask staff to participate so we can raise money for our chosen charities.
We are also fully committed to the work of the Armed Forces and have been signed up to the Armed Forces Covenant for the past 7 years. As part of our commitment, we continue to actively recruit veterans and provide greater flexibility to staff who are Armed Forces Reservists by supporting their training and operational deployment.
Throughout the year we will conduct several feedback surveys for staff and detainees, this will help us to gauge satisfaction levels and enable us to learn how and where we can improve our service.
Gatwick IRC/PDA Employee Partnership Forum
The Employee Partnership Forum (EPF) ensure that all staff are well informed about matters that directly relate to them and that they also have the opportunity to communicate their views in an open forum. This promotes an exchange of views from all on issues of mutual interest to everyone working for Serco.
Becoming an Employee Representative
There are EPF meetings each month which Employee Representatives (ER) from across the contract attend. These ER’s are volunteered staff and there is at least one person from each area of the contract to ensure every team has a voice. All ER’s are asked to contribute to the agenda so staff can raise points that interest them.
The ER’s commit to representing the views and concerns of their colleagues by raising matters at the EPF and then providing subsequent feedback.
Examples of matters that the EPF can address include
- Bonus and incentives
- Contractual issues such as “out of hours “
- General issues and concerns from overall departments
- Benefits
- Business improvements
If you would like to be an ER please contact askalan@serco.com