Privatising Probation: The Death Knell of a Much‐Cherished Public Service?

Abstract

The probation service has showed a remarkable facility to reinvent itself over a century of turbulent, but sustained, history. This 16th Bill McWilliams Memorial Lecture will explore the ethos underpinning that survival as the service faces its potential fragmentation, and even dismantling, given the government commitment to privatise much of its current business. If the institution of probation collapses, is there still an important place for probation skills and in what institutional forms will this be reconstructed? Can a hopeful scenario for the future be garnered from the current policy imperatives? Does it matter? And if it matters, how can a vision be created which builds on that history in concert with partners from all sectors? This lecture will reflect on these themes in a policy framework which is fluid, uncertain, and deeply challenging.

Maintaining professional practice

“…This potentially creates an opportunity to use the positive heritage of probation À which has a solid track record of innovation despite the excessive centralized oversight and disruption it has endured since the early 1980s À to occupy that space with the essential ingredients of desistance work: sustained and compassionate support and practical help . As Paul Senior (2013) has observed, the probation service is more than its current organizational manifestation: it is a living culture that can survive through and beyond the TR changes. Sloughing off some of the obsession with 'risk management' may allow it to, in the words of Robinson and Raynor (2006: 343), 'gain much from an increased emphasis on renewing its engagement with communities and localities; from greater use of restorative approaches; and from a clearer focus on the relational and reintegrative components of rehabilitation'.…”

Transforming Rehabilitation: Another example of English ‘exceptionalism’ or a blueprint for the rest of Europe?

“…Growing from a commitment, briefly articulated in the government Transforming Rehabilitation strategy, and driven by the key professional organisations – Probation Chiefs Association, Probation Association, Napo and Unison and supported by higher education and the relevant sector skills council – the Institute is expected to launch in March 2014. It has a huge task to reclaim the legacy of what Senior (2014) calls the ‘institution of probation’. It does have, however, a sound base on which to build – a secure evidence base for practice, a well-regarded qualifications framework, support of the professional associations, the acceptance of a graduate profession and 30 potential providers searching for a framework within which they can demonstrate the quality of their delivery.…”

Transforming women’s rehabilitation? An early assessment of gender-specific provision in three Community Rehabilitation Companies

“…Closely aligned to broader political developments, market-based strategies have long permeated official thinking about probation (see Dominey, 2012a; Senior, 2016). Ideas to include more ‘partnership’ work with voluntary and private providers (while reducing the burden on the public sector) can be traced through several policy documents published during the Conservative era (see, for example, Home Office, 1990, 1992).…”