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Rehabilitating Probation: Rebuilding culture, identity and legitimacy in a reformed public service

Lead Research Organisation: Liverpool John Moores University
Department Name: School of Justice Studies

Abstract

The Probation Service plays a key role in the criminal justice system providing public protection, managing risk and supporting the rehabilitation of offenders. Probation services are responsible for supervising around 250,000 people who are serving community-based sentences or on licence following release from prison. In 2013 the Government took the decision to transfer or 'outsource' over half of the work (and workforce) of the Service to newly created private companies (CRCs), whilst retaining a smaller public sector National Probation Service (NPS), to supervise the highest risk offenders. In 2021 these CRCs will be dissolved and the NPS will expand to absorb most of their work (and workforce). Thus, the Probation Service will experience an unprecedented process of 'reunification' and 're-nationalisation'. Not only does this have major implications for how probation work is delivered, but it also offers researchers a unique opportunity to understand how public services adapt when 'outsourcing' policies fail; how individual and organisational identities are re-built after major organisational change; and how organisations seek to (re-)build the confidence of their staff and the organisations and stakeholders with whom they work (e.g. courts; police).

The aims of the research are to examine the implementation of a significant programme of public service reform which will bring formerly outsourced probation services back into the public sector. The study aims to understand experiences and consequences of reform at local, regional and national levels and from a variety of perspectives, including: probation staff; senior managers; policy makers; service users; and external stakeholders. The research will explore the impact of reform on the roles, identities and cultures of probation workers and observe how a newly reconfigured probation service seeks to (re-) build legitimacy with its external partners.

The research will be undertaken by a team of researchers over three years as the reform agenda commences and unfolds, and there are five Work Packages (WPs) which will run in parallel:
WP1 will entail interviews with probation workers in one case study area so that we can gain detailed insights into how the reform is experienced by staff. We will conduct a total of 180 interviews (60 per year) with a mixed sample of staff in different roles, aiming to 'track' the experiences of about 75% of the sample through the project.
WP2 will entail interviews with the senior managers in all 12 of the NPS regions, enabling us to understand the process of change nationally. We will seek to repeat these interviews annually (total 36 interviews).
WP3 will entail interviews and observation of inter-agency meetings (e.g. local Criminal Justice Boards) to gain insights into how the NPS seeks to represent itself to other organisations and stakeholders, and with what success. This WP will focus on the case study area but will also engage national organisations whose perceptions of probation are important (e.g. the Magistrates' Association).
WP4 will entail interviews with senior policy officials in order to gain an understanding of the process of policy implementation at a national level. In the first year 15-20 interviews will be conducted, followed (in years 2 and 3) by two further waves of 5-10 follow-up interviews to capture policy makers' emerging thinking as the implementation of the reforms unfold.
WP5 will explore service users' experiences of probation service reform, and the researchers will engage former service users to design, co-produce and deliver research.

The project has built-in milestones to share research findings with a variety of audiences via a series of interactive forums including practitioner engagement events; project website; action learning sets with Regional Managers; and an end of project dissemination event. Written briefing reports and academic publications will extend the reach of the research.
 
Description As a research team, we are being funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) to conduct research into the experiences and consequences of the unification, in June 2021, of probation services in England and Wales. Our project Rehabilitating Probation: Rebuilding culture, identity, and legitimacy in a reformed public service (ES/W001101/1) started in January 2022 and has funding to run until March 2025 and across five work packages that are running in parallel we are conducting research that is capturing first-hand accounts of the impact of organisational change at a) local, regional and national levels; and b) from a range of perspectives, both within and outside of probation.

At time of writing in March 2025, and having secured the necessary ethical and access approvals, we have completed our fieldwork activities and conducted a total of 340 interviews. We have completed, across three sweeps of activity, interviews with frontline probation staff within one case study region (n=183); we have conducted three planned sweeps of interviews with all 12 Regional Probation Directors (n=38 interviews); we have conducted interviews with a series of national and local level probation service stakeholders and criminal justice partners who are directly involved in partnership work with the probation service, including representatives from HM Courts and Tribunals Service, the judiciary, Police Services, Office of Police and Crime Commissioners, and HM Prison Service (n=78); and have conducted a series of interviews with national level policy/decision-makers (n=41). We also have a work package dedicated to exploring the insights of people who have experienced being supervised by probation services and co-producing research tools with them to better understand the realities of community sentences and have run a series of workshops with a consultative group of people with lived experience of criminal justice.

We can draw here on insights from work we have undertaken with frontline probation practitioners and with Regional Probation Directors to explore, amongst others, four obstacles to the effective delivery of probation and rehabilitation services;

1) Within all three sweeps of interviews with probation practitioners, taking place one, two and three years after unification, there was an inescapable sense of crisis all participants identified as confronting all working in probation. Staff shortages, sickness levels, the departures of experience staff, and prevailing uncertainty as new structures are being established are all shaping what many found to be a very challenging climate within which deliver robust support and services to people on probation. All believed these were challenges being faced by practitioner peers within and beyond the region and were common to a sector that many identified as feeling very unsettled. Ministry of Justice workforce data, published most recently in December 2024, validate these concerns around the number of people in post falling short of expected staffing levels.
Our interviews with Regional Directors, one, two and three years on from unification, likewise saw them identify that staffing concerns are a very real and very stark problem for all probation regions in how they deliver services. That is, concern in trying to fill vacancies; in supporting the continuing professional development of existing staff and building a culture where staff feel valued; in the service being able to pay competitive salaries; and in terms of retaining staff and stemming the numbers leaving the service (but not always the sector). Regional Probation Directors at times also used the language of crisis when making sense of the staff shortages they are having to manage (with some offices operating at 60% capacity) and the challenges this imposed in seeking to develop rounded practitioners. Within the very clear stated concerns around staffing there was recognition of the work being undertaken nationally to try to address staffing concerns and developing efficient ways of working.

2) The interview schedules for the first round of interviews with probation staff and Regional Probation Directors did not explicitly ask participants a question about their views on the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reform programme. However, its impact on the working environment and working practice of probation services was a feature in most of our interviews and demonstrated how painful the legacy of TR is for many. The speed and reach of the implementation of TR still feels raw for the majority we spoke to, as does the way the reforms fractured the service and split offices/relationships. The strength of feeling expressed - some talked of organisational trauma (also discussed in Robinson 2023) - contextualises why many staff within the new organisational structures of probation divisions remain hesitant and insecure in seeking to deliver effective community sentences.

3) From our interviews with frontline probation practitioners in our case study area there was a prevailing sense, at the two years on from unification landmark, that staff felt they were part of a fractured workforce that was still in a state of transition. Participants cited the impact of Covid measures in creating staff 'bubbles', hybrid working practices, and changing the layout of office spaces; the organisational shifts and changes that unification has entailed; and the continued legacy of TR, in compromising efforts to (re)build organisational cultures within often redefined local and regional identity forms and in compromising the attention that could be given to developing and refining good probation practice. Whilst some within our sample identified feelings of great optimism and hope in assessing their reactions to unification - and the vast majority agreed reunification was the right change for probation services - there were many who were much more measured in how they reconciled the processes and outcomes of reunification. Many staff considered they were realistically pragmatic about the challenges associated with bringing together component parts of probation which had learned to operate in isolation from one another, especially within the context of Covid. Others reported feelings of anger and resentment at what they saw as the needlessness of being split and of the danger of losing lessons of good practice/innovation, especially from the disbanded Community Rehabilitation Company. What our longitudinal research has been able to examine is how it feels for staff two years into a Target Operating Model (TOM) unification programme timeline - designed by senior national probation leaders as a heuristic device to guide organisational and practice reform - that seeks to bolster a unified service. Whilst our problematising of where progress is on the roadmap of the TOM set out prior to unification could be seen as an inevitable outworking of a roadmap meeting reality, the fact that something so robustly planned out and paced as the TOM experienced delays and has been somewhat derailed by a sequence of early release schemes administered by two different governments shows how volatile and uncertain the sector has become.

4) The harmonisation of staff groups within a unified service, one year on from unification continued to be, a challenge for Regional Probation Directors. Creating coherent office and regional based identities for staff groups has been hard through Covid measures and hybrid working practices. Some went further to identify the legacies of the organisational trauma generated by TR in creating what can at times be enduring cultural differences between micro-cultures of staff groups that need to be navigated and overcome. In building inclusive cultures, RPDs identified the work they had undertaken to challenge the language and narrative of (CRC) failure in terms of emphasising structural and systemic failure of the model rather than associating failure of individuals and staff teams. In other cases, some RPDs cited the symbolic importance of being an RPD who had previously led a CRC as helping ensure (as one put it) "years of people's careers aren't rubbed away" and efforts to draw through the learning and generated good practice from both legacy organisations is realised, especially in respect of some of the innovative working in the fields of community sentences that the CRCs had developed. However, capitalising on the longitudinal nature of our research, our second and third sweeps of research activity help us examine that whilst all staff groups sensed the power of 'legacy' organisational identities had lessened, for some the attachment to organisations they had once belonged to remained strong and that these were part of an increasingly diverse range of professional identities practitioners identified with.

Within this data it is possible to identify a consistency in the view that the speed, reach, and legacy of the Transforming Rehabilitation reform programme had harmed the ability of probation services to deliver rehabilitation services. Whilst many of our participants - from legacy National Probation Service and Community Rehabilitation Company organisations alike - felt confident in being able to isolate pockets of good practice / innovation that had occurred during the operation of devolved probation services, there was a general agreement that flaws in the model of split probation services (2014-21) had created instability within the sector. It means that whilst most of our sample supported the decision to unify probation services in June 2021 their enthusiasm for change was tempered the appreciation many voiced of the time and effort required to harmonise the working practices and organisational cultures of the newly formed probation divisions (often comprising multiple former NPS divisions and staff groups from different CRC providers). The powerful legacies of organisational change on practitioners' occupational identities and practice confidence, we feel, shape the context within which the integrity and performance of rehabilitation service provision need to be judged. In ways consistent with the messages captured within a series of HM Inspectorate of Probation reports since unification, our research is highlighting how staff shortages and accumulated fatigue from years of organisational reforms and related uncertainties continue to challenge the ability of the unified Probation Service to innovate and deliver effective community sentences.
Exploitation Route The findings generated by the project thus far will be of value to a range of audiences. The Rehabilitating Probation Project has captured the experiences and consequences of probation reform at (a) local, regional and national levels; and (b) from a range of perspectives, both within and outside of the probation service. Through engaging with probation staff; senior managers; policy makers; people on probation and external stakeholders the project has built up a series of perspectives that help understand the challenges and opportunities presented when seeking to design, implement, and manage a period of profound organisational change in ways that will speak to audiences in probation services and beyond. The research is able to capture the routine and everyday tangible changes to working practices that play out as the reconfiguration of organisations and structures takes hold, whilst also then exploring deeper questions about how individual and collective notions of culture, identity and legitimacy are (re)built and renewed as leaders and staff in a reformed public service shape their working practices.

For those academics, practitioners, and policy-makers with an interest in the delivery of probation and rehabilitation services, the study data captures rich insights at a poignant moment in the history of the probation service and especially in respect of the resilience, protection, and evolution of roles and professional identities within the sector. For these audiences, and those beyond in broader fields of organisational change, by tracking the experiences of leaders and staff within the service in the three years that followed a unique period of unification and bringing a series of organisational forms back into the public service, the fieldwork explores the impact and legacies of approaches and strategies that seek to support staff, sustain communication, and renew organisational working cultures and values. Finally, the lessons learned from criminal justice partner's perspectives on working with a partner that is undergoing significant organisational restructuring will help provide lessons for how organisations can (re)build and trigger changes in levels of confidence and perceptions of legitimacy in a service.
Sectors Communities and Social Services/Policy

Government

Democracy and Justice
URL https://rehabilitating-probation.org.uk/
 
Description The Rehabilitating Probation Project research team, throughout the three years of the project, have been involved in a range activities across the 5 Work Packages of the study with practitioner and academic audiences alike to share learning from the fieldwork and stimulate dialogue about the development of probation and rehabilitation services. In written testimony (from February 2025), the Executive Director for Change within HM Prison and Probation Service has recorded how the project has, amongst other things, 'aided myself and colleagues working within an organisation experiencing organisational change to better understand the experiences of the full range of people within probation who have implemented, managed, or are experiencing that change. This has in turn informed our approach to subsequent changes impacting the probation service'. The project has, from their perspective, 'consistently pressed the need to re-centre national policy deliberations upon these questions of the appropriate role, purpose and values of a modern probation service'. The team have delivered in-person and online engagement sessions to Leadership Teams, specific practitioner groups, and been featured more widely on 'all staff' quarterly Teams calls within our case study probation area that have been used as part of the on-going organisational development work taking place in that probation region (Work Package 1). The team have delivered research-led Organisational Development Workshops exclusively for Regional Probation Directors to examine the representativeness of the case study area findings and engage in broader examination of the challenges and opportunities Senior Probation Leaders assess implementing and managing organisational change generates (Work Package 2). The team have, on invite, delivered bespoke inputs to Senior Decision/Policy makers through, amongst others, in-person sessions with HMPPS' Higher Leadership Team and Executive Leadership Group to share insights from across the project to help explore the impact and legacies of enacting change within the sector on practitioner's and service delivery (Work Package 4).The featuring of the research in national level forums like, amongst others, the HMPPS Senior Probation Leaders Event, HM Inspectorate of Probation Staff Development Sessions, Ministry of Justice 'Lunch and Learn' sessions, and a Probation Institute webinar, are ensuring the full range of probation leaders and staff experiences are being shared with a diverse range of audiences (Work Packages 1, 2 and 4). The featuring of our research activities with people with lived experiences of justice (Work Package 5) through a Rehabilitating Probation specific themed podcast series on the Prison Radio Association's 'The Secret Life of Prisons' series has extended the reach of the study further still. The process of recruiting, engaging, and then sharing generated outputs from the project with representatives of criminal justice agencies (including, amongst others, Police and Crime Commissioners, Senior Members of the Judiciary, Prison Service Leaders, Police Service Leaders and Officers, third sector partner organisations) who work in partnership with probation services is helping raise awareness of the work being undertaken to restructure the delivery of rehabilitation services and the impacts this is having on staff (Work Package 3). Through the project we have recruited and engaged participants who have been supervised by probation services where the research instruments (for individual interviews) and activities (for group activities) have been co-designed with a consultative group of people with lived experience of supervision through a series of workshops that have helped the group develop and demonstrate research skills (Work Package 5). We have worked with the Probation Operations Directorate to help share insights from sweeps of our research with managers and frontline practitioners (Work Package 1) of their perspectives on the introduction of Professional Registration view to help reflect, in real-time, on efforts being made by HMPPS Workforce Team to advance probation worker's understanding of, and engagement with, the Professional Register. Throughout all of the above activities the process of research engagement as much as the sharing with participants through presentations or the written academic outputs from the project have stimulated reflections on logistics, challenges and future direction of the on-going delivery of probation supervision and rehabilitation services. This has been seen, by managers and staff alike, as providing a valuable stimulus for reflective learning in the development of the reformed probation service and continue to see the team being invited to engage with decision-makers and practitioners in a variety of forums. The study has contributed to the wider academic, political, and at times more public debates around the reunification of probation services through being able to offer a comprehensive range of unique perspectives of from those who initiated organisational change, the senior managers charged with its implementation, and then of the staff who are experiencing its impact. We have delivered a series of presentations to a variety of national and international level audiences that have routinely mixed academic and practitioners together. We have delivered papers at the annual meeting of the European Society of Criminology (Florence, 2023), at the annual meeting of the British Society of Criminology (Glasgow, 2024), at the inaugural meeting of the British Society of Criminology's Probation and Community Justice Network, and at a joint ESRC and Probation Institute supported Professional Registration Event at the University of Leeds. We have written and disseminated body of works from the project engaging academic and practitioner audiences and submitted written evidence that was cited in the House of Lords Home Affairs and Justice Select Committee review of Community Sentences (2023) and HM Inspectorate of Probation's Consultation on National Inspection (2025), with written evidence submitted too to the on-going Independent Review of Sentencing and Justice Select Committee inquiry into 'Rehabilitation and Resettlement: Breaking the Cycle' (2025). As a project team we have delivered, and will continue to generate outputs that advance, the publication and dissemination plans that will help us to extend and deepen our impact activities.
First Year Of Impact 2024
Sector Communities and Social Services/Policy,Government, Democracy and Justice
Impact Types Cultural

Policy & public services
 
Description Delivery and facilitation of Regional Directors of Probation Organisational Development Workshop, Nottingham, October 2023
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
URL https://rehabilitating-probation.org.uk/our-research/reports/regional-directors-of-probation-worksho...
 
Description Invited presentation to HM Prison and Probation Leaders Event, Manchester Wednesday 7th February 2024
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact In written testimony provided by the Executive Director, HM Prison and Probation Service Change, to the Rehabilitating Probation Project team (in February 2025) the delivery of the Presentation at the Probation Senior Leaders Forum in Manchester (February 2024) was one of the activities cited as part of a commentary that has helped the project generate impact. The following extract from the written testimony identifies the contribution the project has been judged to make. Executive Director, HM Prison and Probation Service Change, February 2025 - 'The project, and the ongoing engagements by the team with HMPPS senior leaders, has helped surface the voices of groups of staff (practitioners, managers and policy makers) that may not otherwise have been heard but for the research. The dissemination of experiences of change has been helpful for all involved. The research has aided myself and colleagues working within an organisation experiencing organisational change to better understand the experiences of the full range of people within probation who have implemented, managed, or are experienced that change. This has in turn informed our approach to subsequent changes impacting the probation service. From the outset, this project has been highly valued by senior leaders in HMPPS, including myself, from the perspective of the Probation Reform Programme. The range of activities undertaken by the Rehabilitating Probation team, in collaboration with HMPPS, have constructively provoked discussion about core issues regarding probation, informed by the project's comprehensive engagement with practitioners, stakeholders and those affected by probation. Their grounding in a deep and detailed knowledge of probation, and the dynamics of national criminal justice policy making, is clear and facilitates our ongoing honest, open, constructive engagement. The journey of change for the probation service has been particularly challenging. The new 'unified model' was envisaged as a chance to refresh and refocus on how to deliver an effective and functioning service, despite enormous pressures in the justice system. It was also envisaged as an opportunity to revisit and strengthen probation's core purpose and values. Dr Millings and Professor Annison have consistently pressed the need to re-centre national policy deliberations upon these questions of the appropriate role, purpose and values of a modern probation service. We have particularly valued not only the provocations provided by the Rehabilitating Probation team, but the emerging suggestions, grounded in their project data.'
URL https://rehabilitating-probation.org.uk/our-research/reports/senior-probation-leaders-event/
 
Description Presentation, on invitation of the Director General Chief Executive HMPPS, of Emerging Research Themes to HMPPS Higher Leadership Team, Ministry of Justice, 11th September 2024
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Participation in a guidance/advisory committee
Impact In written testimony provided by the Executive Director, HM Prison and Probation Service Change, to the Rehabilitating Probation Project team (in February 2025) the delivery of the input to the Higher Leadership Team at the Ministry of Justice (September 2024) was one of the activities cited as part of a commentary that has helped the project generate impact. The following extract from the written testimony identifies the contribution the project has been judged to make. Executive Director, HM Prison and Probation Service Change, February 2025 - 'The project, and the ongoing engagements by the team with HMPPS senior leaders, has helped surface the voices of groups of staff (practitioners, managers and policy makers) that may not otherwise have been heard but for the research. The dissemination of experiences of change has been helpful for all involved. The research has aided myself and colleagues working within an organisation experiencing organisational change to better understand the experiences of the full range of people within probation who have implemented, managed, or are experienced that change. This has in turn informed our approach to subsequent changes impacting the probation service. From the outset, this project has been highly valued by senior leaders in HMPPS, including myself, from the perspective of the Probation Reform Programme. The range of activities undertaken by the Rehabilitating Probation team, in collaboration with HMPPS, have constructively provoked discussion about core issues regarding probation, informed by the project's comprehensive engagement with practitioners, stakeholders and those affected by probation. Their grounding in a deep and detailed knowledge of probation, and the dynamics of national criminal justice policy making, is clear and facilitates our ongoing honest, open, constructive engagement. The journey of change for the probation service has been particularly challenging. The new 'unified model' was envisaged as a chance to refresh and refocus on how to deliver an effective and functioning service, despite enormous pressures in the justice system. It was also envisaged as an opportunity to revisit and strengthen probation's core purpose and values. Dr Millings and Professor Annison have consistently pressed the need to re-centre national policy deliberations upon these questions of the appropriate role, purpose and values of a modern probation service. We have particularly valued not only the provocations provided by the Rehabilitating Probation team, but the emerging suggestions, grounded in their project data.'
 
Description Research-Informed Professional Registration focused session with HMPPS Workforce Professional Registration Leads, 13th September 2024
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Influenced training of practitioners or researchers
Impact The Rehabilitating Probation team report, prepared for the probation Operations Directorate (within the HMPPS Workforce Team) took, as its focus the responses from interviews with a mixed sample of probation staff in one case study region (n=56) to questions they were asked about their knowledge of the Professional Register and what implications they felt it would have for their careers. Our sweep of interviews, running from March 2024 through to September 2024, captured the views of staff in the months leading up to the formal establishment of the Professional Registration policy framework that set out the requirements and guidance for probation staff around professional registration, probation professional registration standards, and loss of authority to practice. Our findings suggest that although some staff in our sample expressed a cautious support for professional registration, there was also a high level of indifference - and in some cases resistance - among those interviewed suggesting a need to articulate more clearly what the purpose of Professional Registration is and what its implementation means for those working within the Probation Service. In written testimony provided to the Rehabilitating Probation team (in February 2025) by the Probation Operations Directorate they recorded how valuable the research had been in helping 'gain a sense of how policies are landing and for our workforce to have different avenues to provide feedback'. They reported that our research 'is helpful for us to consider alongside our own internal evaluation'. When talking more specifically about the key findings of the research they identified that 'these insights have been helpful, particularly in relation to our thinking about the 'hearts and minds' of senior leaders and our continuing engagement with this group, as well as with other leaders in Probation Delivery Units to lead and rive change'.
 
Description Submission of written evidence to HM Probation Inspectorate's consultation on a National Inspection of Probation.
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
Impact In November 2024 HM Inspectorate of Probation consulted stakeholders about whether and how they should undertake a national inspection of probation. The consultation asked for views on their proposed standards for national probation inspections, as well as how they should rate those inspections. The Rehabilitating Probation Project was one of the 14 submissions the consultation received and drew upon in finalising their approach to national inspections (see https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2024/12/Response-to-national-inspection-standards.pdf). The Inspectorate, following this consultation process, will undertake their first national inspection in 2025 with the aim to focus on the things that make a difference to regions and probation delivery units (PDUs), to identify both enablers and blockers, and to identify opportunities to improve delivery of probation services. The rolling out of national inspection, alongside the established regional and PDU inspections, will provide a comprehensive picture of the impact of national arrangements and will enable the Inspectorate to most effectively pinpoint areas for improvement.
URL https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/497872/1/Attachment_4-_Rehabilitating_Probation_HMIP_response.pdf
 
Description Submission of written evidence to House of Lords Justice and Home Affairs Select Committee
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/42651/documents/212004/default/
 
Description Submission of written evidence to Independent Sentencing Review Consultation, January 2025
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/497870/1/Attachment_3-_Rehabilitating_Probation_team.pdf
 
Description Submission of written evidence to Justice Select Committee inquiry 'Rehabilitation and Resettlement: Breaking the Cycle', January 2025
Geographic Reach National 
Policy Influence Type Contribution to a national consultation/review
URL https://committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidence/134659/html/
 
Description 'On Probation' Workshop, Liverpool John Moores University, Monday 24th June 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project Investigators, Nicola Carr, Lol Burke and Elly Surridge organised a workshop for a group of 18 participants that mixed together people with lived experiences of justice, probation professionals, and teachers and researchers with specialist interests in probation. The workshop was built around three elements - 1) an exercise exploring 'What is probation'; 2) a group task to design a probation intervention; and 3) a task to vision the shape and character of probation services in 2041.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Invited Presentation to Centre for Justice Innovation Online Seminar Series 'What Makes a Good Community Sentence', Thursday 7th March 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project team member Nicola Carr delivered a 20 minute presentation to Centre for Justice Innovation's lunchtime seminar series on: 'What Makes a Good Community Sentence?'. This topic was chosen in light of proposed legislative changes to reduce the use of short prison sentences, and encourage greater use of CSMs. The audience was mainly comprised of policy makers, practitioners and probation stakeholders (e.g. HMIP). Follow up included requests from participants for more information about the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l8AT70d0xg
 
Description Invited presentation to joint ESRC, HMPPS and Probation Institute supported event - A Professional Register for Probation Practitioners: Opportunities and Challenges, University of Leeds, Friday 2nd February 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project Team members professor Gwen Robinson and Professor Lol Burke were as invited as keynote speakers to deliver the opening presentation of the event focused on the development of a Professional Register for the Probation Service. Their presentation, titled 'Confidence in Probation', explored themes from the research that examines how managers and staff alike conceptualise and seek to build confidence, and with which audiences. Professor Lol Burke also took part in the Round Table discussion in the final session of the event bringing together - for a mixed academic and practitioner audience - the contributions and insights shared on the day with attendees drawn from HM Prison and Probation Service's Workforce Programme, HM Inspectorate of Probation, and the Trade Union and Professional Association for Probation and Family Court Staff, Napo.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Practitioner Engagement Event for Host Probation Region Management Team, February 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Research Project members Matthew Millings, Lol Burke and Elly Surridge - as part of the delivery plan for the project's pathways to impact - ran a workshop for the Senior Management Team of the Probation Service Region within the project's Case Study area. The session allowed the team to share emergent findings from the first sweep of activity with probation workers in the case study host organisation and provided a platform for those in attendance to reflect on how the probation landscape has changed since the fieldwork took place. The workshop provided a dedicated space to the help managers reflect upon the processes of organisational change they had sought to influence and then on how the research insights helped assess how staff within the wider group were making sense of the impact of the unification programme. In line with the longitudinal character of the project the research team shared the themes to be explored in the second sweep of fieldwork activity - commencing in February 2023 - and were able to establish timelines to lead into a further research-informed workshop at the end of the second sweep of fieldwork activity in the Case Study. The workshop helped to recruit new participants from within the leadership group, confirmed follow-up interviews with some of our tracker cohort, and discussed ideas to help broaden the recruitment push to new teams nd offices within the Region.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation at the 'Commodification of the Public Good: Who Wins, Who Loses?' Conference, July 2022, University of Nottingham 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Nicola Carr from the Rehabilitating Probation Research Project shared emerging findings from across the project Work Packages as part of a presentation to a conference on Commodification in Public Services organised by the Public Administration Committee of the Joint University Council, Academic Services for Public Management at the University of Nottingham in July 2022. This audience were public service specialists (academic and practitioners), but were unfamiliar with probation services and the recent reform programme that had involved the reunification of probation services. A planned output from the event is a special issue of a journal capturing emergent themes arising from the conference.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022
 
Description Presentation of Project Research Data in Session Delivered as part of HM Inspectorate of Probation Staff Development Event, February 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity Participation in an activity, workshop or similar
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project team members, Matthew Millings and Nicola Carr, delivered an invited hour-long online session to practitioners from HM Inspectorate of Probation (HMIP) as part of a package of online sessions delivered across three days in February 2023 of Staff Development Activity Events. The input, dedicated to the project and Chaired by the Research Manager at HMIP, shared emerging findings from the first sweep of research activity in the case study area (Work Package 1) and then involved engaging with attendees about probation practitioners experiences of engaging with inspection processes and the Inspectorate. The discussions that followed the presentation helped identify how many of the key findings resonated with the experiences Inspectors are encountering across Probation Regions during this immediate post-unification period but then moved to highlight and share fresher insights around how practitioner's consumption of inspection reports in their and other probation areas dynamically shapes their sense of practice esteem and confidence in wider organisational robustness at a time when the staff perceive the service to be organisationally vulnerable as it comes to terms with the significant organisational change(s) in the sector witnessed through Transforming Rehabilitation and now the unification of the Probation Service, and of staff capacity issues. Based on the level of interest and interaction it was agreed that the research team would return to a future round of Staff Development Activity Days to share fresher insights from on-going fieldwork activity.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation of Project Research Findings to the British Society of Criminology Midlands Conference: Reimagining Probation, January 2023 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Other audiences
Results and Impact As an invited Keynote speaker, Nicola Carr from the Rehabilitating Probation Research Project team gave the opening address at the British Society of Criminology's Midlands Branch Event at the University of Wolverhampton (in January 2023) concerned with 'Reimagining Probation'. To an audience of academics and probation practitioners the presentation was able to explain the ambitions of the research project and share some of the emergent data from our case study location that captured staff reflections on the experiences and consequences of the reunification of probation services.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.britsoccrim.org/event/reimagining-probation-and-the-rehabilitation-of-offenders-conferen...
 
Description Presentation of Research Findings to Director General Chief Executive of HM Prison and Probation Service, HM Prison and Probation Service Senior Leadership Groups, and Regional Probation Directors 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project team members Matthew Millings and Harry Annison delivered - on a Teams call set up to focus exclusively on the research project - a summary of the project progress to date and reflected on four key themes emerging from the research; 1) The ongoing complexity of reuniting a fractured workforce; 2) Individual and Collective Operational Vulnerability - Inspection and Serious Further Offences; 3) Developing and clarifying probations' purpose and values; and 4) Probation structures: confidence and relationship-building. The audience included Senior Policy Leads in the Ministry of Justice and HM Prison and Probation Service and helped facilitate dialogue and knowledge exchange between policy-makers and the experiences of frontline probation staff. The presentation led, in time, to the Research Team being invited to deliver an input at the Probation Leader's Event in the February that followed to help explore and make sense of the challenges being faced by probation staff working within the sector.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
 
Description Presentation of Research Findings to MSt Penology Group, University of Cambridge, 17th July 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project Lead, Matthew Millings, delivered a presentation that explored a number of themes that have been generated through the project that help make sense of the experiences and consequences of the unification of probation services. The MSt programme has a number of HMPPS employees working across the prison and probation estates who are supported to engage with the programme.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Presentation of Research Findings to Managers and Staff in Case Study Probation Region, Tuesday 30th April and Wednesday 1st May 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A talk or presentation
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project Lead, Matthew Millings, 25-minute presentations to the two online quarterly staff calls in the case study probation region, reaching an audience of 680 in the first call and 270 in the second. Hosted by the Regional Director and with inputs by the Director of Operations the online staff calls are repeated twice to ensure staff on all work patterns have the opportunity to engage with the key messages from leaders. A presentation of emergent findings from the research was delivered, on invite, first on the agenda in both the sessions with positive feedback subsequently shared with the team.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Presentation of proposed research activity to online meeting of the Probation Service's National Senior Leadership Team, November 2021 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Chief Probation Officer for England and Wales invited members of the Rehabilitating Probation Research Project team Matthew Millings and Harry Annison to attend and and present at an online meeting of the Probation Service's National Senior Leadership Team in November 2021. The presentation and briefing notes provided beforehand explained the project is being funded and identified the support secured - when applying for research funding - of probation service organisational leads at a regional level within our case study area, and then at a national level within the Ministry of Justice. The delivered presentation helped mapped out the sequenced research fieldwork activities running across the project's five Work Packages and of the planned outcomes written into the three-year project timeline and beyond. The presentation provided especially rich detail of the specific Work Package developed to explore the experiences of implementing enacting organisational change of Regional Probation Directors. Following the presentation of the research a follow-up session with the Chief Probation Officer for England and Wales (in January 2022) formalised plans that - with their full agreement - involved the Regional Directors representing all the 12 probation Divisions of England and Wales agreeing to be interviewed three times each through the project and the research team committing to deliver three research workshops specifically for the Regional Director group to share emergent findings through the lifetime of the project.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
 
Description Presentation titled 'Thinking about 'confidence' in probation' by Gwen Robinson to Probation Institute Research Event 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The online webinar featured an input by Rehabilitating Probation Project team member Professor Gwen Robinson based on the first round of interviews with Regional Probation Directors and then featured a second presentation from Kyle Hart, a Probation Officer from the West Midlands. Kyle had been supported by the Sir Graham Smith Research Award to conduct research into probation practitioner's transition into the new unified service and had been supported in designing and developing this project by Rehabilitating Probation Project team members Professor Lol Burke and Dr Matthew Millings.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2023
URL https://www.probation-institute.org/events/probation-institute-research-event
 
Description Presentation to Leadership Group of a Probation Region (not Case Study Region), 17th September 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project Investigator, Nicola Carr, delivered an invited input featuring key messages from the research project as part of session delivered in the Probation Region to explore the leadership challenges being faced within the area and sector more generally. The event, hosted by the Regional Director, was attended by the Area Executive Director and staff from the level of Senior Probation Officer grade and above.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Presentation to Westminster Legal Forum - Next steps for the probation system in England and Wales, Online Friday 26th January 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation project team member Professor Harry Annison delivered an input to the Westminster Legal Forum session 'Next steps for the probation system in England and Wales' and drew on the research to focus on key messages from the fieldwork with Probation Service Leaders and practitioners alike to highlight the challenges facing the sector in overcoming staff shortages, supporting new staff, and tackling retention issues within the sector. The probation service stakeholders in attendance for the presentation included key policy officials from HM Prison and Probation Service; Home Office; Ministry of Justice; Probation Board of Northern Ireland; Prison and Probation Ombudsmen; and the Welsh Government.

The event involved keynote sessions with: Kim Thornden-Edwards, Chief Probation Officer, HM Prison and Probation Service, Ministry of Justice; Phil Bowen, Director, Centre for Justice Innovation; Jenny George, Director, Justice Value-For-Money Studies, National Audit Office; and Ian Lawrence, General Secretary, Trade Union and Professional Association for Probation and Family Court Staff, Napo.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
 
Description Rehabilitating Probation Project theme podcast on the Prison Radio Association's Secret Life of Prisons series, 15th July 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project Investigator Lol Burke and project participant Caroline took part in a recorded podcast for the Prison Radio Association's the Secret Life of Prisons series for the Prison Radio Association. With show hosts Phil Maguire and Paula Harriott they discussed the experience of being on probation. Recorded after the 'On Probation' workshop that assembled a mixed group of people with lived experience of justice, those who have worked within probation, and academics and trainers now involved in supporting people looking to join the service, the WP5 workshop explored a series of questions related to what is, and what should be probation. This episode allowed Caroline the space to reflect on her own experience of being managed by the probation service and the mixture of good and bad support she received.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://pod.link/1481971681/episode/8ba44b9542398622108f7a7701dd1b95
 
Description Rehabilitating Probation Project theme podcast on the Prison Radio Association's Secret Life of Prisons series, 5th August 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press)
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Public/other audiences
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project Lead, Matthew Millings, and Investigator Nicola Carr, took part in studio-recorded interview for the Prison Radio Association's the Secret Life of Prisons podcast series. Matthew and Nicola were interviewed by show hosts Phil Maguire and Paula Harriott in an extended interview that explored lessons for the future of the probation service generated by the project. The first section of the programme featured a series of voices from attendees at the project's 'On Probation' workshop in Liverpool in July.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024
URL https://pod.link/1481971681/episode/3d465c43f686d8fdf14a99abaab082ff
 
Description Research Presentation of Emergent Findings to Regional Directors of Probation at Senior Probation Leaders Organisational Development Workshop, October 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact The Chief Probation Officer of England and Wales and their Leadership Development Team allocated dedicated session time within their Organisational Development Workshop (in October 2022) to present emergent findings from the Rehabilitating Probation Research Project. Lol Burke presented and facilitated discussion of the emerging research themes from the first sweep of research activity in our Case Study work package and then Matthew Millings presented and facilitated discussion of the themes generated from the first round of interviews with the Regional Director cohort themselves in a second of project work packages. The engagement with all 12 Directors of Probation Divisions throughout the three years of the project ensures the research is able to capture the range of regional perspectives on administering organisational change within the unified service. The dedicated workshops with Regional Directors to share and discuss our generated research data help us explore the extent to which our case study data resonates with leaders across England and Wales and provides scope for Senior organisational leaders to reflect on the leadership strategies and behaviours they draw upon to support processes of organisational change and transition within the probation service. Briefing notes and questions to consider made available ahead of the session help stimulate the discussion and focus on the personal and professional leadership challenges of managing organisational change. After the session, the research team were asked to produce (and wrote) a short summary of our project findings for the Minister for Prisons and Probation and the Chief Probation Officer and members of their Leadership Development Team connected the research team up with a series of thematic programme teams working within HM's Prison and Probation Service's Probation Workforce Programmes.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
 
Description Research Project Workshop for people with lived experience of criminal justice, October 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Local
Primary Audience Study participants or study members
Results and Impact Within the five Work Packages that run, in parallel, through the three-years of the Rehabilitating Probation Research Project Work Package 5 is focused exclusively on the lived experience of people who have been supervised by probation service and seeks to work collaboratively with people with lived experience of probation to develop co-produced research tools to help understand and narrate the experience of being supervised. This workshop, in October 2022, involved recruited participants sharing their experiences of being on probation and of the experiences and insights they felt need to be captured when making sense of supervision and beyond in individual's biographies. Organised and facilitated by Research Team members Nicola Carr, Elly Surridge and Lol Burke the workshop shared details of research materials being used within the study and engaged participants in dialogue about how the voices of service users can be captured and used to effect change. The workshop represented the first of a series of sessions being run for participants to provide research training inputs to develop their role as co-producers of research tools, ideas, and outputs.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
 
Description Research team members engagement with HMPPS' Probation Reform Evidence and Evaluation Team, March 2022 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach National
Primary Audience Policymakers/politicians
Results and Impact Members of the Rehabilitating Probation Research Project team Matthew Millings and Gwen Robinson delivered a project overview and engaged in discussion with staff from HM's Prison and Probation Service's Probation Reform Evidence and Evaluation Team to explore how our planned project activities could feed into on-going lines of activity they are pursuing (and to avoid unnecessary duplication and placing of excess demand on frontline practitioners). Our application to the Ministry of Justice's National Research Committee (NRC) to facilitate our research fieldwork had been flagged to the Evidence and Evaluation Team as the Committee reviewed and approved the submission in January 2022. The meeting - in March 2022 - represented an opportunity for the research team to share the planned timeline of research activity and of planned outputs from phases of research activity across all five work packages that run in parallel though the three-years. Follow up meetings have continued that have allowed members of the research team to share insights from the project that help provide a rich picture of the experiences and consequences for managers and staff of the organisational change the unifying of probation services has involved.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2022,2023
 
Description Research-Informed Leadership Insights Workshop with Case Study Probation Region Senior Leadership Team, 10th December 2024 
Form Of Engagement Activity A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue
Part Of Official Scheme? No
Geographic Reach Regional
Primary Audience Professional Practitioners
Results and Impact Rehabilitating Probation Project Lead, Matthew Millings delivered, at the request of the Case Study Probation Region's Director of Operation, a 90-minute presentation/workshop that explored insights for current and future probation leaders emerging out of the research project. The session, delivered to members of the Case Study area's Senior Leadership Team, drew on insights gathered across the full range of the data generated across the project's five work packages.
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity 2024