‘Challenging’ doesn’t sum it up: Exploring probation practitioners’ experiences managing high-risk individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20662203231216662 |
| Author | Victoria Blinkhorn,Michael Petalas,Cathal O’Siochru,Lisa-Jo McGuirk |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Original Articles |
Original Article
European Journal of Probation
2023, Vol. 15(3) 171–188
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/20662203231216662
journals.sagepub.com/home/ejp
‘Challenging’doesn’t sum it up:
Exploring probation
practitioners’experiences
managing high-risk individuals
during the COVID-19 pandemic
Victoria Blinkhorn
Liverpool John Moores University, UK
Michael Petalas
NHS Merseyside Foundation Trust, UK
Cathal O’Siochru
Liverpool Hope University, UK
Lisa-Jo McGuirk
Probation Service Merseyside, UK
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has been, and still is, a worldwide health crisis. Despite the
surge of literature on this phenomenon, little research has been conducted with the
Probation Service during this time. The aim of this research was to explore Probation
Practitioners’(PPs’) experiences of the COVID-19 restrictions with a specific focus on
those who access the Psychologically Informed Consultation Service (PICS). Further, to
explore the experiences of key aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of
the Community Offender Personality Disorder Service. Semi-structured interviews were
conducted with 9 PPs who represented a broad cross-section in terms of age and years of
experience in the role. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to explore the
experiences of PPs and revealed 5 main themes: unmet support needs, problematic
working environments, an emotionally distressing time, the use of PICS, and a silver lining.
These findings are discussed with implications for further research.
Corresponding author:
Victoria Blinkhorn, Liverpool John Moores University, City Campus, Liverpool L2 2QP, UK.
Email: V.J.Blinkhorn@ljmu.ac.uk
Keywords
COVID-19, probation service, consultation
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic effect worldwide and probably will continue
to do so for the foreseeable future. To limit the number of deaths and hospitalisations due
to the Coronavirus, most governments in developed countries decided to suspend many
economic activities and restrict people’s freedom of mobility (Author, 2021a). In this
context, the ability to work from home became of great importance (Acemoglu et al.
2021) since it allowed employees to continue working and thus receiving wages, em-
ployers to keep producing services and revenues, thereby limiting both the infection
spread risk and pandemic recessive impacts. Recent estimates for the UK show that
remote workers have quadrupled to 50% of the workforce (Bloom et al., 2021). Due to this
sudden prominence, research has focussed on the effects of working from home across
several sectors such as primary and secondary education (e.g. Purwanto et al., 2020),
universities (e.g. Kotera et al., 2020), and the courts (e.g. Legg, 2021). The courts aside,
research on the impact of the pandemic on the Criminal Justice System has predominantly
focussed on changes in crime rates and organisational changes (e.g. Maskalay et al., 2021)
rather than the effects and experiences of the individuals working within the system
(Piquero, 2021). More specifically, research is significantly lacking in relation to the
Probation Service and the experiences of Probation Practitioners (PPs) during the
COVID-19 restrictions.
England and Wales entered a period of lockdown on the 23
rd
of March 2020, during
which the nation was instructed to stay at home. In response, the Probation Service
executed the Exceptional Delivery Model (EDM), which reduced the face-to-face contact
between people on probation (PoP) and PPs. For those PoP who were seen as high-risk,
face-to-face contact continued in the form of doorstep visits and only in exceptional cases
undertaken in the office (HMI Probation, 2020). For most PoP, approximately 86%,
supervision was conducted remotely either on the phone or in online meetings using the
Microsoft Teams platform (Russell, 2020). These changes were significant in terms of
probation practices and therefore had an impact on PPs who were already working in a
challenging role. A parliamentary inquiry concerning the impact of COVID-19 on prison,
probation, and court systems found that workload increased for PPs due to having to cover
sickness and the need to conduct additional risk assessments (Lomas, 2020).
Research investigating the Probation Service and the experiences of the PPs during this
time is rather sparse and much of the studies have taken place outside the UK. For
example, Schwalbe and Koetzle (2021) distributed a survey to Probation and Parole
Officers in the USA concerning their experience, personal impacts, and supervision-
related values and beliefs both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results
highlighted that overall rates of contact did not change, but that face-to-face meetings
were replaced with remote communication strategies. Participants felt that access to
electronic communication platforms facilitated more frequent contact and a higher
172 European Journal of Probation 15(3)
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