Protecting the legacy of probation – the new National Probation Service

This chapter discusses respondents’ views of the forthcoming (at the time of the survey) organisational changes to probation and the impact that this may have on probation as an ideal, as well as briefly considering the views of a small number of managers who had moved from probation to the private sector. We are still in the midst of dramatic organisational change, but it is clearly unknown as to what levels of collaboration or resistance may occur at an individual level. Indeed, survey responses reflected a deep bitterness over the way in which the changes had been organised and operationalised. Concerns included: working conditions and career prospects; deficiencies in information technology (IT) systems; the implications of low staff morale on working practices and offender engagement; deficiencies in systems set up to manage handovers from a Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) to the National Probation Service (NPS) and vice versa; and risk assessments and the risks posed by those under probation supervision to the public and probation staff.

It might be surmised that essential elements of the probation ideal will be retained in the NPS despite its shrunken responsibility and size. Previous research suggested that practitioners use a number of strategies to cope with change, including decisions to battle through or even focus on the positives (Robinson and Burnett, 2007: 331; Mawby and Worrall, 2013). Thus, respondents were asked: ‘Do you think working for the new National Probation Service would be: better/worse/no different from working in the existing Probation Service?’ Of the respondents who answered the closed question (n = 823), only 33 (4%) felt that working for the new NPS would be better; 702 (85%) felt that it would be worse and 88 (11%) felt that it would be no different. The quantitative responses suggest an overwhelming rejection of the new NPS, which undermined the idea that it could be seen as the continuing symbol of the probation ideal.

Additional comments on this question were made by 90% (n = 739) of respondents who had answered the closed question. At the time of the survey, probation staff had little information of what working for the NPS might entail, and some made comments to that effect.