Probation Service Objectives and the Neglected Ingredients

Abstract

The ability to help people effectively remains the major challenge for the Probation Service, whilst at the same time responding constructively and confidently to the problems of a punitive criminal justice system. To do this, it is vital that the Service retains essential social work values whilst enhancing its status as a learning organisation, as opposed to a bureaucracy. This paper aims to describe the waves of change that the Service has faced and examines their implications for skills, training, values and objectives.