Editorial

AuthorPaul Senior, Charlotte Knight
Pages1-3
Editorial
1
EDITORIAL
Prof. Paul Senior, Sheffield Halla m University and Charlotte Knight,
De Montfort University
This is the first occasion that the BJCJ has exclusively focused on the subject of training in the
Community Justice Sector; a focus of particular bearing at a time when the anticipated cuts
within the public sector are likely to erode any progress made in the development of
qualifications and training across the sector.
There have been undoubted developments; some more robust than others. The Community
Justice Sector is a complex web of agencies managing many of the processes of community
justice but with no real evidence of any systematic coherence. This is reflected in the variations
and differences in expectation of training and qualifications in the different agencies, as the
articles in this issue reflect. Crucial questions abound: what is the educational level appropriate
to professional training; what should be the core curriculum for any designated professional
group; what should be the balance between academic learning and training for competence
through identified occupational standards; how far is training increasingly a shared enterprise
given the inter-agency aspirations for joined-up justice; and finally, how sure-footed are the
arguments for a set of core educational principles for basic training when, in absentia, this
exposes the lack of frameworks for post-qualifying inadvertently leading to a more agency-
dominated and technically-defined operational practice as a career develops.
Probation training has been a graduate profession for many years, delivered by a number of
different universities. It now embarks on yet another change with the introduction of the
Probation Qualifications Framework (PQF) that offers an employment-based route to a full
professional qualification via a foundation degree to an honours degree, delivered by just three
main HEI providers, though one provider has a three-way HEI partnership. Much smaller
numbers are expected to be recruited onto this new framework, although the inclusion of a
previously neglected group, probation service officers, is to be welcomed. The former
qualification the Diploma in Probation Studies, seen by some commentators as a ‘Rolls Royce
award’, is being superseded by a more building block approach to training, though drawing on
many elements which have been seen as successful over the past 12 years. It remains to be seen
whether the introduction of specific training for probation service officers leads to a greater
predominance of lower level outcomes or whether the routes to full probation officer status
remain possible in this tightening fiscal climate.
The police service has established the ‘Initial Police Learning and Development Programme'
(IPLDP) for all new recruits, which is delivered through a range of schemes; some in-house and
some in partnership with Higher Education providers as foundation degrees. Dominey and Hill
in their article reflect on the role of Higher Education within this process and make
comparisons with the employment-based route developed by the probation service. The on-
going tensions between practice demands and academic ‘freedoms’ are highlighted, including

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