Martin Narey - History

History

A Personal View by Mark Leech, ex-offender, founder and former Chief Executive of the National ex-Offenders Charity UNLOCK Editor of The Prisons Handbook for England and Wales ; editor of Converse, the national monthly Prisoners Newspaper and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

Following his graduation from Sheffield Polytechnic Martin Narey started his career in the NHS before joining the Prison Service in 1982 as an Assistant Governor in a young offenders’ institution. In 1989 he moved on promotion to Prison Service Headquarters and in 1990 to the central Home Office. At the Home Office Martin successfully led the work on reducing delays in the Criminal Justice System, work that became known as "Narey Reforms”. It was following the disastrous escapes of Category A prisoners first from Whitemoor in September 1995 and, three months later from Parkhurst, that Martin returned to the Prison Service and in 1997 under the then Director General (now Sir) Richard Tilt - who he was later to succeed - Martin became first the Head of Security Policy and then subsequently the Director of Resettlement. His appointment as Director General was announced in December 1998 and he was re-appointed in 2002. Following the policies of reform that had been spearheaded by Richard Tilt before him Martin Narey set out to change and reform the Prison Service, achieving a radical improvement in security and the development and provision of programmes that reduce reoffending; including a huge expansion in prison education with thousands of prisoners made employable for the first time. All this was underpinned by a decency agenda the principles of which Martin Narey chiselled into Prison Service bedrock. The Decency Agenda, which Martin Narey drove forward, often in the face of trenchant criticism, resulted in significant improvements in the treatment of prisoners and established an absolute intolerance of abuse – and when officers from Wormwood Scrubs were charged tried and acquitted of assaulting prisoners at the jail Martin Narey went out on a legal and professional limb and categorically refused to have them back in the Prison Service; he faced calls for his resignation, threats of industrial action from the Prison Officers Association but he held the line such are the morals of the man. Following the murder of Zahid Mubarek, the 19 year old Asian teenager brutally beaten to death in his sleep by his racist cell-mate at Feltham in March 2001, it was Martin Narey who immediately apologized to the family of Zahid Mubarek, accepting that in locating Zahid in a cell with a known racist the Prison Service had failed the teenager, and declared the Prison Service to be institutionally racist. In February 2003, Martin technically ceased to be Director General of the Prison Service and as a Permanent Secretary he was appointed as the first Commissioner for Correctional Services in England and Wales, with responsibility for Prison and Probation Services, oversight of the Youth Justice Board, and policy responsibility within the Home Office for correctional, rehabilitation and sentencing issues. On the 6th January 2004 the Home Secretary announced that Martin Narey would become the first Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service, integrating into a single Service Prisons and Probation. When in 1999 I founded the national ex-offenders charity UNLOCK with ex-offender Probation Officer Bob Turney and ex-offender Stephen Fry, it was Martin Narey who gave it his full support, recognising that ex-offenders could have a crucial input into the debate on reducing crime and its victims. He opened doors that allowed the views of successful ex-offenders to inform political debate and influence Prison Service policy. It was Martin Narey who authorised funding for GALIPS, the gay and lesbian prison officers staff association – against a Service culture that was fiercely homophobic – and it was Martin Narey who showed his support was not merely tokenism by arranging for a Prison Service Float to appear in the annual Gay Pride march – and recommended the Senior Prison Officer Pete Allen who started GALLIPS for a well-deserved MBE with which he was later invested. It was Martin Narey who invited me as Chief Executive of UNLOCK to speak at the Prison Service National Annual Conference, the first and only former prisoner ever to do so - and he insisted I appear even in the face of direct threats of a boycott by some ancient prison governors who did not want to engage or learn new ways of working; people who were it is fair to say at the end of their careers. There is absolutely no doubt that history will record that the ‘Tilt-Narey’ (and later ‘Wheatley’) era of prison management as the turning point which changed the Prison Service forever from a hitherto faceless uncaring custodial monolithic dinosaur, into a professional service, with values, standards and a clear sense of direction that other prison services around the world later looked to as an example of best custodial practice. Martin was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Sheffield Hallam University in November 2003 and in February 2004 he became the recipient of the Chartered Management's Institute's Gold Medal for 2003, an annual award presented to an individual who has demonstrated outstanding achievements through his or her leadership. In October 2005 Martin left the Prison Service after 23 years joining the national children’s charity Barnados as their Chief Executive; to those of us who were there and who know how absolutely vital his input had been, Barnados formidable gain was without doubt the Prison Service’s biggest loss in decades. Mark Leech Editor: The Prisons Handbook Director: prisons.org.uk www.markleech.com

Martin Narey graduated with a degree in public administration in 1977 at the then Sheffield City Polytechnic (now Sheffield Hallam University). After a short period in the National Health Service, he joined the Prison Service in 1982 as an assistant governor, rising to be the youngest ever Director General of the Prison Service (1998) and later the first Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service (2004). His career in the Prison Service included working in both Young Offender and Adult prisons, several Board positions, as well as a period in the Home Office as Private Secretary to the Prisons Minister. He was responsible for a major report on judicial system which led to the 'Narey reforms' and reduced the average time it took to plead a case in the criminal courts from 90 to 70 days. In 2003, Martin left the Prison Service to take up a role as one of three Permanent Secretaries in the Home Office and became the first Commissioner for Correctional Services in England and Wales, leading the Probation Service, Prison Service and Youth Justice Board. However, this period when Narey held his most significant offices within the prison service and fields of justice was also a period when prison numbers in the UK increased at their most significant rate since the 19th century. Narey has been accused of 'cosying up to government' and not using his status and reputation for questioning this line of thinking. In fact he argued publicly and frequently that we lock up too many individuals in the UK and resigned his position when Charles Clarke,then Home Secretary abandoned plans agreed with David Blunkett to put an 80,000 legislative cap on the prison population.Despite this, he has been portrayed philosophically by some journalists as a 'conservative statist' regarding social issues. He has challenged this by portraying himself as a pragmatist working within limited boundaries. The ex Lord Chief Justice saw the failure of the National offender management service as a consequence of Narey's resignation, telling The House of Lords in January 2010: "I believe it was seriously damaged by the fact that the first head of NOMS left after a short period of time. If anyone could have made NOMS work, it was Martin Narey, who went on in other fields to make a huge contribution in this area. But NOMS did not have the benefit of leadership of that sort of individual and not having it has proved to be a serious disadvantage. (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/lords/?id=2010-01-21a.1143.1&s=narey#g1167.0).

Commenting on Martin's departure from the Home Office in 2005, the then Home Secretary, Charles Clarke MP said, 'Martin Narey has been a distinguished servant to both the Prison Service and the Home Office over the past 23 years. During that time he has earned the respect of colleagues at all levels and is held in high regard throughout Government and across the Criminal Justice System. 'During my time at the Home Office I have been impressed by Martin's vision, drive and leadership qualities which have led to significant improvements in the way we manage offenders. He has made real progress in taking forward the recommendations in Patrick Carter's report on correctional services reform through the creation of the National Offender Management Service and he has set down solid foundations for the Government to build on in our work to reduce reoffending.' In 2003 he was awarded with the Chartered Institute of Management's Gold medal, a single annual award for outstanding leadership. Narey was the first public sector recipient of this award for ten years. In his Diaries "A View From the Foothills" Chris Mullin MP describes Narey as follows: "Decent, humane, level headed. We couldn't hope to find a better man to put in charge of the nation's jails (diaries page 277). However, others have been more critical of Narey. His most widely criticized statement was made in 2009 when he claimed that Britain should take more children into care. However, it is worth noting that although this continues to draw criticism he has persisted in defending his position and has drawn on extensive research to support it. Specifically it has been at least implicitly supported by DEMOS in their 2009 study which threw a much more positive light on care than had been traditionally understood. Eventually, In 2012, Michael Gove stated the Government's position on Narey's claim when he said "We believe Martin Narey's diagnosis of the problem is correct – and we know there are far too many children spending too long in homes where they are not receiving the care they need. We do not regard more children being taken into care as a problem with social work which the profession must address. It is a problem with parenting, which our whole society must address (http://www.education.gov.uk/inthenews/speeches/a00203926/michael-gove-speech-on-adoption). In 2010 in an edition of the Moral Maze on BBC Radio 4 Narey defended proposals to change child benefit from a universal benefit to a means tested system. He has also been accused of supporting emotionally manipulative advertising campaigns in order to raise Barnardo's profile and in doing so being part of a cultural shift that has led to a culture of fear regarding child protection developing in the UK in recent years. Following these issues he has recently been increasingly portrayed as being on the extreme conservative wing in terms of the 'child protection debate' a position he consistently refutes as being simplistic.

Narey has published frequently in the Guardian, Telegraph, Times and New Statesman. Regardless of the controversy surrounding his methods it has to be acknowledged that Narey led Barnardo's through a period of sustained growth making it, once again, the UK's largest children's charity and radically increasing its political and media profile. Simultaneously to running Barnardo's, and for three years he chaired the UK End Child Poverty Campaign and, he claims, gained significant success in encouraging greater government investment in tax credits.

Before the 2010 General Election he was asked by Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats to chair an independent commission looking into social mobility. Recommendations from the commission (http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/Social_Mobility_Report_Final.pdf) influenced both the Lib Dem manifesto and the coalition agreement.

In April 2011 he joined the Board of the Advertising Standards Authority and in July, after publishing a 22,000 word report on adoption, which echoed his earlier call for more children to be removed from neglectful and abusive parents, he was appointed as the government's first Adoption Czar. This appointment has caused some controversy, with the most directed opposition coming from the British Association of Social Workers, who have described Narey as a man who seeks 'simplistic' answers to 'complex problems'. However, others have been more supportive; baby adoption charity ASIST has been very supportive of Martin Narey's appointment as the Government's Adoption Adviser and has been fully supportive of his Adoption Report as commissioned by The Times ASIST www.babyadoptionasist.co.uk. Other commentators too were much more positive including: Francesca Polini, adoptive mother and author of "Mexican Takeaway";, the children's charity 'Coram', and conservative commentator Jill Kirby, who said that "Narey’s report shows that he is prepared to overturn current assumptions and make some radical changes."

Narey was knighted in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to vulnerable people.