Helping, holding, hurting: a conversation about supervision

This article begins with an overview of some of the late Bill McWilliams's key contributions to probation research and scholarship, focusing in particular on how his work helps us think about how people experience supervision, and about how the practice of supervision should be conceived and constructed. In the sections that follow, three of the co-authors respond to these ideas from their different perspectives as service user, as frontline probation officer, and as probation manager. In the conclusion, we summarise the discussion by focusing on the role of values, of relationships and of evidence in the reform and development of probation

Seeing and believing: Observing desistance-focused practice and enduring values in the National Probation Service

This article focuses on the feasibility of using a desistance-focused approach in the National Probation Service (NPS) in the post-Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) context. Findings are drawn from an exploratory study undertaken in one NPS Division, which used triangulation of three data collection methods; observations of one-to-one supervision sessions, documentary analysis and practitioner focus groups. Findings show that practitioners use elements of a desistance-focussed approach, although not exclusively. Values based upon belief in the capacity to change and the need to offer support endure, despite mass organisational upheaval. The article concludes by suggesting that this 'enduring habitus' of probation could be an enabler for a desistance-focused approach but instrumentalism in policy and practice is a significant barrier

The Dynamics of Service User Participation and Compliance in Community Justice Settings

This article draws on insights from within and beyond the parameters of criminal justice research, and from key models of community justice supervision, to illuminate the dynamics of service user participation and compliance in community justice settings. In doing so, the article provides a multifaceted analysis of how service user participation in setting the goals of supervision intersects with factors that could engender compliance. It identifies these factors as: service user agency; positive self-identity; empowerment; self-efficacy; and responsive services. Several complexities vitiate service user participation. The article proposes the co-production of compliance as an antidote that can neutralise the complexities

How to Evaluate Probation? HEALTH - A FUNDAMENTAL RIGHT

This paper was presented at a conference organized by Conférence Permanente Européenne de la Probation (CEP) together with the Ministry of Justice of Estonia which took place in Tallinn, on September 27th-29th this year. The title of this conference was 'Unity and Diversity in probation.' This was the reason and the angle of this article: to propose a matrix for the assessment of probation which is relevant to most of the EU countries. The model starts with an assessment focusing on the mission statement. According to these criteria, EU countries could be divided into four main categories: probation services based on promoting alternatives to incarceration model, probation services based on the model of assisting the courts in giving the best sentences, probation services based on the rehabilitation model, probation services based on the public protection model. Evaluating probation services according to these criteria has its strengths and weaknesses. Some of these are presented in this paper