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.
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.
Organisations
Publications
Carr N
(2023)
Rehabilitating Probation - Researching Probation Unification
in Probation Quarterly
Robinson G
(2023)
Whose confidence? Regional leaders' perspectives on building confidence in a reconfigured probation service
in Criminology & Criminal Justice
Millings M
(2023)
A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region
in Probation Journal
Annison H
(2023)
Making Good?: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal
in The British Journal of Criminology
Annison H
(2023)
Making Good?: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal
in CrimRxiv
| 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 December 2024 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 February 2024, and having secured the necessary ethical and access approvals, we are about to start our third sweep of three rounds of interviews with frontline probation staff within one case study region (n=120 interviews completed thus far); we have conducted two of three planned sweeps of interviews with all 12 Regional Probation Directors (n=24 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=52); and have conducted a series of interviews with national level policy/decision-makers (n=26). 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 the first and second sweep of interviews with probation practitioners, taking place one and two 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 November 2023, validate these concerns around the number of people in post falling short of expected staffing levels. Our interviews with Regional Directors, one and two 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, one year on from unification, 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 CRCs. 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. In our second sweep of research activity we could see 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 NPS and CRC 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 - and that will be developed further as the project moves towards completion in its final year - will be of value to a range of audiences. The Rehabilitating Probation Project is capturing 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, in the first two 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. The team have delivered a number of engagement sessions to Leadership Teams and staff groups within the 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 two, of the planned three, research-led Organisational Development Workshops 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 delivered bespoke inputs to Senior Decision/Policy makers sharing 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 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 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). In this final year of the project we will now see the recruitment and engagement with 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). 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 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 in late 2023. As the project enters its final year we have 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 |
| URL | https://rehabilitating-probation.org.uk/our-research/reports/senior-probation-leaders-event/ |
| 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 | 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 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 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 | 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 |