Rehabilitating Probation: Rebuilding culture, identity and legitimacy in a reformed public service

缓刑服务在刑事司法系统中发挥着关键作用，提供公共保护、管理风险和支持罪犯的康复。缓刑服务机构负责监督大约25万名在社区服刑或出狱后获得许可的人。2013年，政府决定将该服务一半以上的工作（和劳动力）转移或“外包”给新成立的私营公司（CRCs），同时保留一个较小的公共部门国家缓刑服务（NPS），以监督风险最高的罪犯。2021年，这些CRCs将被解散，NPS将扩大规模，以吸收它们的大部分工作（和劳动力）。因此，缓刑服务将经历一个前所未有的“统一”和“重新国有化”的过程。这不仅对如何提供缓刑工作有重大影响，而且还为研究人员提供了一个独特的机会来了解当“外包”政策失败时公共服务如何适应；在重大组织变革后，个人和组织身份如何重建；以及组织如何寻求（重新）建立员工以及与他们合作的组织和利益相关者（例如法院；警察）的信心。这项研究的目的是审查一项重大的公共服务改革方案的执行情况，该方案将把以前外包的缓刑服务重新纳入公共部门。这项研究旨在了解地方、区域和国家各级改革的经验和后果，并从各种角度，包括：缓刑工作人员；高级经理;政策制定者;服务用户;以及外部利益相关者。本研究将探讨改革对缓刑工作者的角色、身份和文化的影响，并观察新近重新配置的缓刑服务如何寻求（重新）与外部合作伙伴建立合法性。随着改革议程的启动和展开，一组研究人员将在三年的时间内进行研究，其中有五个工作包（WPs）将并行进行：WP1将在一个案例研究领域对试用工人进行访谈，以便我们能够详细了解工作人员对改革的体验。我们将对不同角色的员工进行总共180次访谈（每年60次），旨在通过该项目“跟踪”约75%的样本的经历。WP2将与所有12个NPS区域的高级管理人员进行访谈，使我们能够了解全国的变化过程。我们将寻求每年重复这些访谈（共36次访谈）。第三阶段工作将包括采访和观察机构间会议（例如，地方刑事司法委员会），以深入了解国家警察计划如何寻求向其他组织和利益攸关方代表自己，以及取得了哪些成功。该工作计划将侧重于案例研究领域，但也将涉及对缓刑有重要认识的国家组织（例如地方法官协会）。第四次工作计划将与高级政策官员进行面谈，以便了解国家一级的政策执行过程。在第一年将进行15-20次访谈，随后（在第2年和第3年）将进行两波5-10次后续访谈，以捕捉政策制定者在改革实施过程中出现的想法。WP5将探索服务使用者对缓刑服务改革的经验，研究人员将邀请前服务使用者设计、共同制作和交付研究。该项目设有内置里程碑，通过一系列互动论坛，包括从业者参与活动，与各种受众分享研究成果；项目网站;与区域经理进行行动学习；并结束项目传播活动。书面简报报告和学术出版物将扩大研究的范围。

The Probation Service plays a key role in the criminal justice system providing public protection, managing risk and supporting the rehabilitation of offenders. Probation services are responsible for supervising around 250,000 people who are serving community-based sentences or on licence following release from prison. In 2013 the Government took the decision to transfer or 'outsource' over half of the work (and workforce) of the Service to newly created private companies (CRCs), whilst retaining a smaller public sector National Probation Service (NPS), to supervise the highest risk offenders. In 2021 these CRCs will be dissolved and the NPS will expand to absorb most of their work (and workforce). Thus, the Probation Service will experience an unprecedented process of 'reunification' and 're-nationalisation'. Not only does this have major implications for how probation work is delivered, but it also offers researchers a unique opportunity to understand how public services adapt when 'outsourcing' policies fail; how individual and organisational identities are re-built after major organisational change; and how organisations seek to (re-)build the confidence of their staff and the organisations and stakeholders with whom they work (e.g. courts; police). The aims of the research are to examine the implementation of a significant programme of public service reform which will bring formerly outsourced probation services back into the public sector. The study aims to understand experiences and consequences of reform at local, regional and national levels and from a variety of perspectives, including: probation staff; senior managers; policy makers; service users; and external stakeholders. The research will explore the impact of reform on the roles, identities and cultures of probation workers and observe how a newly reconfigured probation service seeks to (re-) build legitimacy with its external partners.The research will be undertaken by a team of researchers over three years as the reform agenda commences and unfolds, and there are five Work Packages (WPs) which will run in parallel:WP1 will entail interviews with probation workers in one case study area so that we can gain detailed insights into how the reform is experienced by staff. We will conduct a total of 180 interviews (60 per year) with a mixed sample of staff in different roles, aiming to 'track' the experiences of about 75% of the sample through the project.WP2 will entail interviews with the senior managers in all 12 of the NPS regions, enabling us to understand the process of change nationally. We will seek to repeat these interviews annually (total 36 interviews).WP3 will entail interviews and observation of inter-agency meetings (e.g. local Criminal Justice Boards) to gain insights into how the NPS seeks to represent itself to other organisations and stakeholders, and with what success. This WP will focus on the case study area but will also engage national organisations whose perceptions of probation are important (e.g. the Magistrates' Association).WP4 will entail interviews with senior policy officials in order to gain an understanding of the process of policy implementation at a national level. In the first year 15-20 interviews will be conducted, followed (in years 2 and 3) by two further waves of 5-10 follow-up interviews to capture policy makers' emerging thinking as the implementation of the reforms unfold.WP5 will explore service users' experiences of probation service reform, and the researchers will engage former service users to design, co-produce and deliver research.The project has built-in milestones to share research findings with a variety of audiences via a series of interactive forums including practitioner engagement events; project website; action learning sets with Regional Managers; and an end of project dissemination event. Written briefing reports and academic publications will extend the reach of the research.