Community Rehabilitation Companies Research Articles

Probation practice and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Twenty-one Community Rehabilitation Companies were set up following the division of the National Probation Services during 'Transforming Rehabilitation' in England and Wales, under a 2013 Ministry of Justice initiative. Reunification commenced in 2018. A study completed prior to these changes suggested that probation officers had had little training in recognising attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and may have been underestimating its prevalence among their clientele. Given the substantial changes in probation staffing and organisation since 2018, a new study seems warranted. The aim of the study was to understand experiences of people under a community sentence who reported having ADHD and of probation staff working with them. Using a qualitative research design, one-to-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with client facing probation staff recruited from one Community Rehabilitation Company. Service users undertaking a community sentence who had been diagnosed with or self-identified as having ADHD were then identified and recruited by these staff; those who consented were also interviewed. Transcripts were analysed using a thematic analytic approach. Thirteen probation staff and six male offenders under community sentences, agreed to participate and completed interviews. The overarching themes emerging from the two groups were similar, both reflecting on descriptions of ADHD; treatment of ADHD; experiences of having or working with ADHD in the wider community and in the criminal justice system specifically and visions of future support needs tied to the order. In addition, probation officers specifically raised the matter of payment by results. Both service users and probation staff identified gaps in knowledge, experience and services, but areas of good practice were also identified. The findings highlight the continuing under-acknowledgement of tailored clinical support for people serving a community sentence who have ADHD together with a lack of support and training about ADHD for probation staff. Return to the national organisation of probation services and recognition of need for a range of relevant skills offers a great opportunity for re-evaluating supervision and management of offenders under community sentences who have ADHD. These findings provide the basis for a template for developing knowledge and support provision for probation staff to recognise ADHD, or its likelihood, and their capacity to follow through with appropriately informed personalised supervision plans and access to specialist service advice and support.

Sentencing: New trajectories in law By E.A.O.Freer, Abingdon: Routledge. 2021. pp. 131. £44.99 (hbk); pp. 146. £16.99 (pbk). ISBN: 9780067862619; 9781032063027

Sentencing: New trajectories in law By E.A.O.Freer, Abingdon: Routledge. 2021. pp. 131. £44.99 (hbk); pp. 146. £16.99 (pbk). ISBN: 9780067862619; 9781032063027

The partner link worker: A vital but undervalued service for women who have been subjected to or at risk of domestic abuse

This study aims to explore the partner link worker (PLW) role in supporting women who have been subjected to or at risk of domestic abuse. Prior research in a probation setting tends to focus solely on the person on probation, failing to examine the experiences of people subjected to crime and support services on offer. The PLW role provides an essential service that has been undervalued and overlooked. The study begins to provide some evidence to counter the broader political rhetoric that people subjected to crime are central to probation practice within the criminal justice system. It draws on the findings from thirteen semi-structured interviews conducted across five Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). The findings suggest that PLWs demonstrate a professional commitment to protecting and safeguarding vulnerable women and addressing domestic abuse. However, PLWs face many challenges and obvious gaps in provisions to provide a fully inclusive and accessible service to meet the individual needs of women and their children. The recently reunified probation service offers an optimum opportunity to review, resource and regenerate the PLW service to protect and safeguard people who have been subjected to or at risk of domestic abuse.

Co-creating rehabilitation: Findings from a pilot and implications for wider public service reform

As part of a large pan-European project on co-creating public services we supported the design of a programme in England that attempted to operationalise research on desistance, through a model of co-created, strengths-based working. We then evaluated its implementation and impact. The programme was implemented in a Community Rehabilitation Company. It was delivered in the context of rapid organisational change, often in response to rapidly changing external events and a turbulent policy environment. These factors impeded implementation. An impact evaluation did not identify a statistically significant difference in re-offending rates between the intervention group and a comparator group. However, in-depth qualitative evaluation identified positive examples of co-production and co-creation, with individual case managers and service users supportive and noting positive change. Taken as a whole our findings suggest that a co-created, strengths-based model of probation case management is promising but needs to be accompanied by wider systems change if it is to be embedded successfully.

Putting a face to a name: Telephone contact as part of a blended approach to probation supervision

This article is about the experience of telephone supervision from the perspective of practitioners. It is set in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, which changed and challenged the nature of probation supervision and required service users and supervisors to communicate remotely, using the telephone, rather than by meeting face-to-face. The article explores some of the impacts and consequences of telephone contact and examines the extent to which this approach has a part to play in future, post-pandemic, ways of working. The article draws on findings from a research project examining remote supervision practice during the pandemic. Fieldwork (comprising an online survey and a series of semi-structured interviews) was conducted between July and September 2020 in three divisions within an English community rehabilitation company. The article reinforces the importance of face-to-face work in probation practice but suggests that there is scope to retain some use of telephone supervision as part of a future blended practice model. Further thinking about telephone supervision might consider these three themes identified in the research: remote working limits the sensory dimension of supervision, relationships remain at the heart of practice, and good practice requires professional discretion.

The stories of eight women managed by a community rehabilitation company during the Covid-19 pandemic.

This study explores the stories of eight women supervised by probation during the first national lockdown in the United Kingdom in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Probation quickly implemented an exceptional delivery model to protect the health and safety of staff and service users. Covid-19 has highlighted societal disparities across the world, it can be suggested that this has hugely impacted the lives of women and further extending the gender inequality gap. Although acknowledging that this is a small-scale study, it does provide a platform for women to voice and share their experiences of both problematic challenges encountered and the opportunities embraced during the first national lockdown. Firstly, the importance of supervisory relationships kept women feeling connected, emotionally supported and provided a source for practical advice. Secondly, the experiences of lockdown were felt differently dependant on the vulnerabilities and complexities of women; in short, the greater the priority need the more issues and obstacles women encountered. Thirdly, remote probation supervision was regarded as the safest and appropriate way to approach the unchartered waters of Covid-19. And finally, there was shared optimism to return to ‘normal’ face-to-face supervision, re-engage with services that had been paused or interrupted to aid recovery and rehabilitation.

Making desistance real: Implementing a desistance focused approach in a community rehabilitation company (CRC)

Desistance is now a key focus for probation practice in the United Kingdom. However, how to implement desistance in the workplace has remained challenging, particularly in the absence of practice guidance. This article presents the experience of ‘making desistance real’ in the context of Community Rehabilitation Companies. ‘Identity shift’ is presented as a core component of the desistance approach adopted, and practice designed to support services users to transition to a pro-social identity and their ‘best life’ is presented. The article examines changes in assessment processes and tools, outlines desistance informed interventions, and the engagement of practitioners in delivering desistance.

Professional Legitimacy, Identity, and Practice: Towards a Sociology of Professionalism in Probation

AbstractThis paper draws from Foucauldian understandings of the sociology of the professions to explore legitimacy, identity, and practice in probation after the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms to services in England and Wales. A discourse of ‘professionalism’ was crucial to the Coalition Government’s mobilization of TR; however, the contested nature of the term is rarely acknowledged in a probation context. Based on an ethnographic study of a privately-owned Community Rehabilitation Company, the paper demonstrates how professionalism in probation has been reshaped by punitive, managerial, and rehabilitative ‘adaptations’. It argues that professionalism has been detached from its ideal-typical groundings, becoming a malleable practice of (self-)government which is integral to how probation professionals demonstrate their legitimacy to multiple (and competing) actors in a network of accountability – the state, the public, offenders, adjacent organizations, and, additionally, private providers. Accordingly, appeals to a discourse of professionalism are a source of meaning for staff and a disciplinary mechanism that governs their conduct ‘at a distance’.

Negotiating bereavement and loss: Influencing persistence and desistance from crime

Much previous research has considered experiences of bereavement and loss in a prison-based setting. This overshadows the nature of bereavement within the context of community supervision and probation delivery, resulting in inadequate explorations of the potential link to persistence and/or desistance from crime. Research into desistance has predominantly focused on relationships with those who are still alive. This article evidences an emergent theme of bereavement experiences within the context of probation delivery, relationships and desistance. It draws upon narrative research undertaken within a Community Rehabilitation Company in the north of England, collected as part of a doctoral thesis. Evidence demonstrates the similarities between the process of desistance and that of bereavement with the narratives of men and women reiterating how bereavement can influence the onset of criminal or risk-taking behaviour whilst highlighting emergent evidence on how bereavement can disrupt desistance. This enables the article to highlight the importance of resilience in the process of both bereavement and desistance.

Professionalism, Payment by Results and the Probation Service: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of Marketisation on Professional Autonomy

This article utilises Foucauldian understandings of the sociology of the professions to explore how marketising reforms to probation services in England and Wales, and the implementation of a ‘Payment by Results’ (PbR) mechanism in particular, have impacted professional autonomy. Drawing on an ethnographic study of a probation office within a privately owned Community Rehabilitation Company, it argues that an inability to control the socio-economic organisation of probation work has rendered the service susceptible to challenges to autonomy over technique. PbR was proffered as a means to restore practitioner discretion; however, the article demonstrates that probation staff have been compelled to economise their autonomy, adapting their conduct to conform to market-related forms of accountability. In this sense, it presents the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms to probation as a case study of the impact of marketisation on the autonomy of practitioners working within a public sector profession.

Social media: A challenge to identity and relational desistance

Society has witnessed a rapid growth in the prevalence and use of social media. The influence and impact of this expansion has sparsely, if at all, been considered within the context of desistance from crime. This article draws upon the narratives of male and female service users subject to community supervision by a Community Rehabilitation Company, collected as part of a doctoral thesis. Evidence demonstrates how social media plays a largely negative role, with some gendered difference on a service user’s identity and relational desistance, alongside individual agency and wider social structures. This enables the article to develop the evidence base of interactionist perspectives of desistance, while also recognising gender.

The probation service in England and Wales: A decade of radical change or more of the same?

This article reviews developments in probation in England and Wales since 2010, a decade in which services were exposed to the logic of competition and profit. In 2014, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat Coalition government’s Transforming Rehabilitation ( TR) reforms promised an end to a top-down, target-centric culture of state intervention by outsourcing services for low-to-medium risk offenders to 21 privately-owned Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs). And yet, just four years after the reforms were implemented, the Conservative government announced that CRCs’ contracts would be terminated, with all offender management services returned to the public sector. With a focus on the private sector, the article argues that radical change to the probation service’s structure has entrenched a focus on centrally-administered performance targets and audit. In other words, contrary to the decentralising rhetoric at the core of TR, the decade has in many ways produced more of the same managerialism that the reforms were presented as a means to displace. The result has been a general decline in the quality of probation services.

Post-sentence supervision: A case study of the extension of community resettlement support for short sentence prisoners

Introduced under the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms, the Offender Rehabilitation Act 2014 created a period of post-sentence supervision (PSS) after licence for individuals serving short custodial sentences. This empirical study features on the ground views and perspectives of practitioners and service users of PSS in one case-study area. Findings from this research suggest a number of issues and ambiguities with the enactment of the sentence. These include ambiguities regarding the correct use of enforcement procedures; the antagonistic relationship between third sector and Community Rehabilitation Company staff, primarily centred around transferring cases and concerns over the use of ‘light touch’ supervision and uncertainties over what the rehabilitative aims of this sentence mean in practice. These issues led to practitioners questioning the legitimacy of the third sector organisation involved in the management of PSS, while service users experienced PSS as a frustrating ‘pass-the-parcel’ experience, where resettlement support was constantly stalled and restarted at each juncture of the sentence. Before briefly discussing the potential future of PSS under the next iteration of probation policy, this article concludes by arguing that there is emerging evidence of a commonality of failures occurring at every juncture of the short sentence, undermining resettlement prospects for the long-neglected short sentence population.

Delivering desistance-focused probation in community hubs: Five key ingredients

This article argues that probation is well placed to facilitate desistance when delivered in community hubs – community-based offices where probation services are co-located with other community-based provision. However, we highlight that hubs need to include certain key factors to maximise the potential for desistance. Using data collected through a piece of empirical research in six community hubs in England and Wales, we identify what factors make for a ‘good’ community hub as perceived by staff who work in them, those subject to supervision via a hub, and managers with strategic responsibility for commissioning hub services. We consider what it is about those factors which facilitate desistance-focused practice as outlined in McNeill et al.’s (2012) eight principles of desistance-focused practice. The five key factors identified in this study are the location of a hub, the hub’s physical environment, the extent to which services are co-located/produced, the cultural context of the hub, and the need for leaders to be innovative in the way services are commissioned. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications for the National Probation Service as it takes over the work of Community Rehabilitation Companies in the coming years.

‘If the cap fits’? Probation staff and the changing nature of supervision in a Community Rehabilitation Company

This article explores the changing nature of supervision in a Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) following the Transforming Rehabilitation ( TR) reforms to probation services in England and Wales. Based on an ethnographic study of an office within a privately owned CRC, it argues that TR has entrenched long-term trends towards ‘Taylorised’ probation practice. This is to say that qualitative and quantitative changes to the complexion of practitioners’ caseloads since TR reflect a decades-long devaluation of the probation service and its staff. The decision to allocate most qualified practitioners to the National Probation Service means that Case Managers (i.e. probation service officers) now supervise offenders who would historically have been supervised by Senior Case Managers (i.e. probation officers). This loss of expertise has been exacerbated by administrative staff redundancies at the office. The result is an increasingly standardised and fragmented mode of working within the CRC in which the majority of services are now delivered by the voluntary sector.

A legitimate business? Representations of privatised probation in England and Wales

The Transforming Rehabilitation reforms implemented in England & Wales in 2014 witnessed the transfer of responsibility for a large proportion of the work of the public sector probation service to 21 newly created Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs), which were contracted out to a range of providers dominated by private sector interests. This part-privatisation of probation services has raised important questions about the legitimacy of the new organisations in the eyes of both internal and external audiences, and about the ‘legitimation work’ that the CRCs might engage in to address any legitimacy deficits they themselves perceive. This article presents the findings of an analysis of the websites of all 21 CRCs, and considers what these externally facing representations of the CRCs suggest about legitimation work in the private probation sector. Our analysis suggests that CRCs use some of the same strategies of legitimation that have been found in another ‘tainted trade’ – the private security industry – and are similarly ambivalent about what – and to whom – they are marketing their ‘business’. We suggest that our analysis sheds new light on old questions about how the somewhat intangible goods of probation work can be captured and communicated to a mixed constituency of potential stakeholders, as well as raising new questions about the role of websites (and other marketing materials) in that endeavour.

Individual health trainers to support health and well-being for people under community supervision in the criminal justice system: the STRENGTHEN pilot RCT

Background Little is known about the effectiveness or cost-effectiveness of interventions, such as health trainer support, to improve the health and well-being of people recently released from prison or serving a community sentence, because of the challenges in recruiting participants and following them up. Objectives This pilot trial aimed to assess the acceptability and feasibility of the trial methods and intervention (and associated costs) for a randomised trial to assess the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of health trainer support versus usual care. Design This trial involved a pilot 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 a mixed-methods process evaluation, in 2017–18. Setting Participants were identified, screened and recruited in Community Rehabilitation Companies in Plymouth and Manchester or the National Probation Service in Plymouth. The intervention was delivered in the community. Participants Those who had been out of prison for at least 2 months (to allow community stabilisation), with at least 7 months of a community sentence remaining, were invited to participate; those who may have posed an unacceptable risk to the researchers and health trainers and those who were not interested in the trial or intervention support were excluded. Interventions The intervention group received, in addition to usual care, our person-centred health trainer support in one-to-one sessions for up to 14 weeks, either in person or via telephone. Health trainers aimed to empower participants to make healthy lifestyle changes (particularly in alcohol use, smoking, diet and physical activity) and take on the Five Ways to Well-being [Foresight Projects. Mental Capital and Wellbeing: Final Project Report. 2008. URL: www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-capital-and-wellbeing-making-the-most-of-ourselves-in-the-21st-century (accessed 24 January 2019).], and also signposted to other options for support. The control group received treatment as usual, defined by available community and public service options for improving health and well-being. Main outcome measures The main outcomes included the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale scores, alcohol use, smoking behaviour, dietary behaviour, physical activity, substance use, resource use, quality of life, intervention costs, intervention engagement and feasibility and acceptability of trial methods and the intervention. Results A great deal about recruitment was learned and the target of 120 participants was achieved. The minimum trial retention target at 6 months (60%) was met. Among those offered health trainer support, 62% had at least two sessions. The mixed-methods process evaluation generally supported the trial methods and intervention acceptability and feasibility. The proposed primary outcome, the Warwick–Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale scores, provided us with valuable data to estimate the sample size for a full trial in which to test the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the intervention. Conclusions Based on the findings from this pilot trial, a full trial (with some modifications) seems justified, with a sample size of around 900 participants to detect between-group differences in the Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale scores at a 6-month follow-up. Future work A number of recruitment, trial retention, intervention engagement and blinding issues were identified in this pilot and recommendations are made in preparation of and within a full trial. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN80475744. Funding This project was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Public Health Research programme and will be published in full in Public Health Research; Vol. 7, No. 20. See the National Institute for Health Research Journals Library website for further project information.

‘The right kind of person for the job’? Emotional labour and organizational professionalism in probation

This paper utilises the concept of organizational professionalism to illustrate the importance of emotional labour for probation practice, as well as its potential consequences for practitioners. Based on an ethnographic study of a probation office led by a privately-owned Community Rehabilitation Company, the paper demonstrates that probation values are operationalised through the performance of emotional labour with offenders. However, the implementation of the Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) reforms has exacerbated long-term trends away from working with ‘people’ towards working with ‘things’ – that is, the information technologies used to log performance. That practitioners are willing to forgo their administrative responsibilities to spend time with their clients suggests emotional labour is fundamental to practitioner understandings of professional identity. The paper thus demonstrates that the challenges of balancing a client-centred ideology of service with the increased administrative pressures that have accompanied the TR reforms have further exposed probation practitioners to stress, strain, and sickness.

The spice trail: transitions in synthetic cannabis receptor agonists (SCRAs) use in English prisons and on release

Since 2010, synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (SCRAs) have dominated concerns about drug use in prison; particularly as their use increases in custody and has profound impacts on users, non-users and prison staff. However, far less is known about whether SCRA use continues on release, when ex-prisoners are under the supervision of Community Rehabilitation Companies or resident in Approved Premises (APs). This study, the first of its type, examined experiences of SCRAs amongst recently released ex-prisoners and found that, most often, use discontinues on release, suggesting that SCRAs are seen predominantly as a ‘prison drug’ or, for those continuing use, as a way to avoid a positive drug test and/or breaching their licence whilst living in an APs. Awareness of SCRA use amongst their clients differed notably between Community Rehabilitation Company staff and APs staff; with the former having far less awareness and thus, also far less experience of the associated problems for supervision of their clients.

Enabling change: An assessment tool for adult offenders that operationalises risk needs responsivity and desistance principles

This article examines the extent to which the risk needs responsivity (RNR) model and desistance principles have been integrated and operationalised in the development of the Enablers of Change assessment and sentence planning tool developed by a Community Rehabilitation Company provider in England. We consider the constructs that underpin the tool, identifying points of departure and similarity between RNR principles (Andrews and Bonta, 2007), the ‘good lives’ model (Ward and Maruna, 2007) and desistance principles (McNeil and Weaver, 2010) and their integration. We examine how these constructs have been operationalised in the tool, which aims to assess needs, strengths, protective factors and contribute to risk assessment. Given the tool’s innovation, this article is of international significance and will make an original contribution to the evidence base on operationalising desistance in the management of people with convictions in England and Wales and other jurisdictions.