Probation’s evolving frontline: An oral history of probation paraprofessionals

Grant details

Leverhulme Trust - Research Project Grant - £158,177 - RPG-2022-267

Project start and end dates

15 August 2023 - 14 August 2025

Research team members

PI: Professor Gwen Robinson
Research Associate: Dr Jane Dominey
Research Associate: Dr Emily Rose Hay
 

Background and aims of the project

The Probation Service is a major part of the criminal justice system in England and Wales, responsible for supervising around 250,000 offenders in the community each year - a caseload almost three times the size of the prison population. In common with other public services (e.g. policing, social work, nursing, teaching), the probation service is staffed by both professionally qualified and ‘paraprofessional’ workers, with both groups delivering frontline services. In the probation context, paraprofessionals have been employed since the late 1960s - initially as ancillaries, then as probation service assistants, and (today) as probation service officers - and their numbers have grown significantly. Yet, in contrast with other occupations, their experiences and changing roles over time have not been subject to research, leaving a significant gap in our understanding of probation’s history and evolution. Using a combination of oral history interviews and archival research, this study will reveal the hidden history of the probation paraprofessional and bring a new perspective to the history of the service. The study will not only fill crucial gaps in our knowledge and understanding of a key (and relatively neglected) part of the criminal justice system, but also contribute to the growing field of historical criminology and wider sociological debates about ‘professionalism’ in public services.

The study has three central research questions:
1) How have paraprofessional roles in the probation context been learned, enacted, and experienced over a period of more than 50 years?
2) How have social, political and organisational changes impacts on the roles, experiences and identities of probation paraprofessionals?
3) What can an appreciation of paraprofessional work contribute to our understanding of the history of probation as a public service, and of the service’s claim to professional status?

Methods

Oral history interviewing and archival research