Transforming Rehabilitation: Transforming the Occupational Identity of Probation Workers?

AuthorAnne Robinson
Pages91-101
91
TRANSFORMING REHABILITATION: TRANSFORMING
THE OCCUPATIONAL IDENTITY OF PROBATION
WORKERS?
Anne Robinson, Principal Lecturer, Dept. of Law, Criminology and Community
Justice, Sheffield Hallam University
Abstract
This article explores the tensions and threats to the occupational identity of practitioners
working with offenders, and identifies areas wh ere the positive aspects of the probation
service's values and humanitarian approach might endure under the changes being
brought about by the Coalition's Transforming Rehabilitation agenda. It does so by
reviewing change in the probation service and th e nature of employee engagement with
the service, drawing on recently published research with probation officers and tra inee
probation officers. It also reflects upon the literature analysing organisational change in
the youth justice system and multi-agency working in children's services, as well as the
author's own experience and views as a manager experiencing change and, currently, as
an academic working with probation service officers (PSO s) on qualifying programmes for
probation officers. Systems and structures may alter , but the process and pace of
adaptation for individuals working within them is markedly slower, with resistance and
reworking rather than radical overhaul, of occupational and professional identities. The
article goes on to anticipate issues that might arise as the probation service and its
workforce is divided across public, private and voluntary sectors.
Keywords
probation; rehabilitation; occupational identity; penal policy; corrections
British Journal of Community Justice
©2013 Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
ISSN 1475-0279
Vol. 11(2-3): 91-101

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