Record Review Dear Sir
| Published date | 01 December 1983 |
| Date | 01 December 1983 |
| Author | T. Warburton |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455058303000421 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
157
LETTERS
• These
pages
are
open
for
comment
and
discussion.
Deadline
date
for
the
March
issue
is
February
1 st.
Home
Office
Speak
Dear
Sir,
Most
ulncers
will
nave
react
tne
two
recent
‘draft’
papers
from
the
Home
Office
concerning
the
direction
of
the
Service
(‘Future
Direction
of
the
Probation
Service’,
June
17,
and
’Note
by
the
Home
Office’,
’, August ?)
and
will
be
preparing
their
responses.
Some
responses
will
be
local
and
others
will
be
national,
and
some
reactions
could
well
be
to
refuse
to
engage
in
discussion
upon
the
terms
implied
by
these
draft
papers.
I
would
be
very
interested
to
learn
the
different
responses
across
the
Country
and
the
Professional
Organisations
but
at
present
it
looks
like
only
the
Home
Office
will
know
the
overall
picture
and
that
the
rest
of us
will
have
to
pick
it
up
through
gossip
and
the
fractured
grape-vine.
If different
responses
-
or
decisions
not
to
respond -
are
sent
to
me,
I
will
put
aside
a
couple
of days
and
prepare
a
brief
synopsis
of
who
said
what
and
how
for
a
forthcoming
issue
of
Probation
Journal.
How
about
it?
MICHAEL
WILLSON
Consultant
in
Social
Work
Management,
Training
&
Practice
Please
send
all
responses,
team,
individual
or
area,
to
us
for
Michael
Willson
to
collate
—
Hon.
Ed.
Clarity
Begins
at
Home
Dear
Sir,
I
do
not
know
who
wrote
’Comment’
in
the
September
issue
of Probation
Journal,
but
I
would
suggest
that
he
or
she
either
changes
their
literary
style,
or
gets
dropped
from
the
Journal
without
delay.
I
pick
out
two
sentences
as
examples
of the
style:
’Elastic
expediency
readily
overrides
clarity
of
expectations.
Flair
and
compassion
is
liable
to
be
excoriated
without
redress.’
May
I
suggest
that
those,
and
other
sentences,
are
virtually
meaningless,
and
that
the
language
is
obscuring,
rather
than
illuminating
the
message.
Not
all
subjects
can
be
discussed
in
childlike
phrases,
but
as
the
apostle
almost
said
&dquo;The
greatest
of
these
is
clarity&dquo;.
A.
WHITEHEAD
Probation
Officer,
Clitheroe
Hon.
Ed.
(for
it
was
he):
Mea
Culpa .
Record
Review
Dear
Sir,
Does
anyone
know
if
the
Home
Office
is
thinking
of
setting
up
another
Working
Party
to
look
at
Probation
Records?
If
so,
could
you
please
let
me
know
as
I
would
love
to
be
on
it.
Whilst
we
need
to
be
accountable,
the
present
record
format
not
only
leads
to
the
temptation
to
duplicate,
but
to
actual
duplication
itself.
Part
of
the
Part
‘A’
is
mentioned
in
Parts
‘B’
nd
’C’;
part
of
the
Part
’B’
is
mentioned
in
Part
‘C’
and
’A’,
and
some
facts
in
the
SER
are
distributed
evenly
and
in
a
duplicatory
manner
through
A,
B
&
C.
Who
are
these
records
for?
What
a
ridiculous
question.
I
maintain,
however,
that
in
their
present
form,
they
are
far
from
being
an
adjunct
to
client
assessment
and
hence
(hopefully)
client
help
but
are
seen
mainly
as
a
prop
to
the
system.
Their
design
is
such
that
they
hinder
any
thought
of
always
being
up
to
date
and
have
become
the
bane
of
(some)
people’s
lives.
I
would
advocate
a
more
condensed
running
record
which
would
be
easy
to
keep
and,
therefore,
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