A Robust, Optimistic and Caring Service
| Author | Michael Day |
| Published date | 01 September 1976 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455057602300304 |
| Date | 01 September 1976 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
A Robust, Optimistic
and
Caring Service
MICHAEL DAY
West Midlands
THE management style of an organisation sets the tone for its activities.
For the organisation to have coherence and integrity the principles and
ideas it claims to advance must be reflected in its internal structures and
relationships. The way in which those who manage the Probation and
After-Care Service approach their task and how they engage with staff
will determine significantly the manner in which the detailed work of the
Service is carried out. Of course it is a two-way process and it is surely
true that as the Service has developed, the nature of its work has helped
to shape its administration. The principles applying in good social case-
work are equally relevant to sensitive management and they have
undoubtedly, if not always consciously, informed our overall approach
and made explicit the values of the Service. The role’which the probation
officer plays in society and the penal system, bringing personal care and
support to the individual offender but introducing discipline where
necessary, gives balance over the full range of the. Service’s work. It
should present itself as a sympathetic and humane Service but one which
has authority and is secure in its traditions.
_
The strength of our Service lies in its very coherence and the fact that
there is a broad philosophy running through its work and shared by
those who operate within it. There are deeply held beliefs in the capacity
of most offenders to respond to opportunities for a more satisfactory
and socially acceptable way of life, in the influence for good that one
person can have on another, in the minimum possible restriction of
individual freedom, that justice’must personalise sentencing and that the
offender should be treated as someone having needs in common with
other disadvantaged groups in society. ’ .. ’ ’ ’ ’ . ’
Our values relate to our roots put down at a time when society judged
more harshly and could even feel righteous in exacting penalties zion
those who offended. The humanitarian concern for the individual
offender struggling in a society, whose priorities helped to create the
very conditions from which his criminality sprang, shaped the work of
the Service as it played its part in bringing greater understanding and
compassion into our penal’ system.
..
But we now occupy a position nearer to’ the centre of the stage in
penal affairs. No longer do we operate on the periphery drawing atten-
tion to injustices and dealing with casualties, but are entrusted with
extensive...
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