Discovering Mental Ill Health: 'Problem-Solving' in an English Magistrates' Court

People with problems of mental ill health are overrepresented in the criminal justice system. Community justice courts have established procedures for ‘problem-solving’ as a way of addressing these and other issues associated with pathways into crime. In this chapter Auburn et al examine problem-solving in one such court in England. The ways in which mental health issues are raised by members of the problem solving team and how signposting is implemented, is examined. Three main questioning forms are identified and the influence that these forms have on the meeting-talk trajectory is discussed. There was a continuum from eliciting ‘no problem’ responses to facilitating claims of mental ill health. Specific ‘diagnostic procedures’ are also identified as important precursors to advice delivery. The clinical relevance of these findings is considered

Health trainer-led motivational intervention plus usual care for people under community supervision compared with usual care alone: a study protocol for a parallel-group pilot randomised controlled trial (STRENGTHEN).

INTRODUCTION: People with experience of the criminal justice system typically have worse physical and mental health, lower levels of mental well-being and have less healthy lifestyles than the general population. Health trainers have worked with offenders in the community to provide support for lifestyle change, enhance mental well-being and signpost to appropriate services. There has been no rigorous evaluation of the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of providing such community support. This study aims to determine the feasibility and acceptability of conducting a randomised trial and delivering a health trainer intervention to people receiving community supervision in the UK. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A multicentre, parallel, two-group randomised controlled trial recruiting 120 participants with 1:1 individual allocation to receive support from a health trainer and usual care or usual care alone, with mixed methods process evaluation. Participants receive community supervision from an offender manager in either a Community Rehabilitation Company or the National Probation Service. If they have served a custodial sentence, then they have to have been released for at least 2 months. The supervision period must have at least 7 months left at recruitment. Participants are interested in receiving support to change diet, physical activity, alcohol use and smoking and/or improve mental well-being. The primary outcome is mental well-being with secondary outcomes related to smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption and diet. The primary outcome will inform sample size calculations for a definitive trial. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been approved by the Health and Care Research Wales Ethics Committee (REC reference 16/WA/0171). Dissemination will include publication of the intervention development process and findings for the stated outcomes, parallel process evaluation and economic evaluation in peer-reviewed journals. Results will also be disseminated to stakeholders and trial participants. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBERS: ISRCTN80475744; Pre-results

The Barley Genome Sequence Assembly Reveals Three Additional Members of the <i>CslF </i>(1,3;1,4)-b-Glucan Synthase Gene Family

An important component of barley cell walls, particularly in the endosperm, is (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan, a polymer that has proven health benefits in humans and that influences processability in the brewing industry. Genes of the cellulose synthase-like (Csl) F gene family have been shown to be involved in (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan synthesis but many aspects of the biosynthesis are still unclear. Examination of the sequence assembly of the barley genome has revealed the presence of an additional three HvCslF genes (HvCslF11, HvCslF12 and HvCslF13) which may be involved in (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan synthesis. Transcripts of HvCslF11 and HvCslF12 mRNA were found in roots and young leaves, respectively. Transient expression of these genes in Nicotiana benthamiana resulted in phenotypic changes in the infiltrated leaves, although no authentic (1,3;1,4)-β-glucan was detected. Comparisons of the CslF gene families in cereals revealed evidence of intergenic recombination, gene duplications and translocation events. This significant divergence within the gene family might be related to multiple functions of (1,3;1,4)-β-glucans in the Poaceae. Emerging genomic and global expression data for barley and other cereals is a powerful resource for characterising the evolution and dynamics of complete gene families. In the case of the CslF gene family, the results will contribute to a more thorough understanding of carbohydrate metabolism in grass cell walls

Indifference, resistance, possibility: Probation staff perspectives on the introduction of professional registration

Rehabilitating Probation is a three-year research project (2022–2025), exploring the most recent iteration of probation reform in England and Wales. This article takes 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, captures 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

A fork in the road: probation unification in England and Wales two years on

This article presents findings from a major longitudinal research project of probation in England and Wales, arguing that the process of its ‘unification’ (re-nationalisation) continues to be a painful process whose end state remains elusive. Having previously articulated how practitioners experienced unification as ‘painful but necessary’, here, using the imagery of a journey, we argue that the speed and direction of travel have encountered a more perilous trajectory than expected as high workloads and staffing challenges have persisted. Second, we argue that enduring challenges in bedding in new working practices – and building the confidence of new and existing colleagues to deliver them – have acted as ‘hazards’ that have needed careful navigation. Third, we argue that staff experience a sense of individual and collective operational vulnerability, in the face of the relentless demands placed upon them. In conclusion, we identify a series of forks in the road that prompt profound questions about the delivery of probation services now and in the future

Lessons for public management reform from the insourcing of the probation service of England and Wales

This article responds to calls for fine-grained studies of public management reform, presenting findings from a major longitudinal research project examining the renationalization of probation services in England and Wales: a case study of the rare phenomenon of whole service insourcing. The authors provide three central insights: First, they demonstrate the enduring imprint of prior outsourcing on how further change programmes are experienced. Second, they demonstrate how change is experienced at different ‘speeds’ and ‘trajectories’. Third, structural reforms do not in themselves resolve complex challenges for the (re-)legitimation of an insourced organization in its wider field. The authors encourage further cross-fertilization between public management insights and emergent arguments towards ‘mission’ oriented government; arguing that both perspectives must operate in service to the grounded practice, the public sector craft, that an organisation is seeking to achieve

Making good?: A study of how senior penal policy makers narrate policy reversal

This paper provides insights into the predominant styles of political reasoning in England and Wales that inform penal policy reform. It does so in relation to a particular development that constitutes a dramatic, perhaps even unique, wholesale reversal of a previously introduced market-based criminal justice delivery model. This is the ‘unification’ of probation services in England and Wales, which unwound the consequential privatization reforms introduced less than a decade earlier. This paper draws on in-depth interviews with senior policy makers to present a narrative reconstruction of the unification of probation services in England and Wales. Analogies with desistance literature are drawn upon in order to encapsulate the tensions posed for policy makers as they sought to enact this penal policy reform

A fork in the road: Probation unification in England and Wales two years on

This article presents findings from a major longitudinal research project of probation in England and Wales, arguing that the process of its ‘unification’ (re-nationalisation) continues to be a painful process whose end state remains elusive. Having previously articulated how practitioners experienced unification as ‘painful but necessary’, here, using the imagery of a journey, we argue that the speed and direction of travel have encountered a more perilous trajectory than expected as high workloads and staffing challenges have persisted. Second, we argue that enduring challenges in bedding in new working practices – and building the confidence of new and existing colleagues to deliver them – have acted as ‘hazards’ that have needed careful navigation. Third, we argue that staff experience a sense of individual and collective operational vulnerability, in the face of the relentless demands placed upon them. In conclusion, we identify a series of forks in the road that prompt profound questions about the delivery of probation services now and in the future

Whose confidence? Regional leaders’ perspectives on building confidence in a reconfigured probation service

The idea that the institutions of criminal justice should command the confidence of the public and other stakeholders is a taken for granted ‘good’, but one which has rarely been considered from the perspectives of operational leaders within those institutions. We also know little about what happens at times of crisis, when claims are made about the erosion of confidence and leaders are charged with rebuilding it. In this article, we seek to engage critically with the idea of confidence in one criminal justice institution – the Probation Service in England & Wales – at just such a time. Drawing on original empirical research with the 12 leaders of the recently unified service, this article focuses on the question of whose confidence matters and considers some of the challenges associated with confidence-building work from the perspectives of these leaders. Our research revealed that the stakeholder groups whose confidence most concerned them were sentencers and other partner agencies; government ministers; and their own staff within the unified service. We introduce the idea of ‘domains of confidence’ to highlight the importance of understanding perspectives on confidence (and efforts to strengthen or rebuild it) in a relational space in which the particular positionality of actors in the criminal justice field must be understood