It Could be Different

Now just possibly there might be one or two readers out there who are not convinced that moving away from our social work roots was a good idea for the probation service. Maybe there are some TPO's who have a worry or two that we could be barking up the wrong tree? Maybe - just maybe - all this nostalgic stuff about things being better in the past could be well, right? Is it possible that a social work ethos could be regarded as cutting edge? Now it may come as a surprise to some that 'probation' is done very differently in other parts of the United Kingdom.

As part of the peace process in Northern Ireland, police and criminal justice matters were finally devolved to a new Department of Justice on 12th April this year. Of course this has been a long and tortuous process and involved the Royal Ulster Constabulary being reformed and renamed. In a similar process the operation of the probation service was examined and the Probation Board of Northern Ireland (PBNI) was constituted under DoJ jurisdiction.

Now there are three things I find really significant about the probation service in Northern Ireland. Firstly, it is still a national statutory service and not a trust. Secondly, it is mandatory to have a Social Work qualification to become a probation officer and thirdly that the Service has a fully resourced Clinical Psychology department. Just imagine that. Not only a public body with a continuing commitment to a social work ethos, but PO's having access to in-house qualified psychologists for assessments, diagnoses, help with PSR's and on-going support with all those really difficult, worrying, risky cases we've all got, but not sure what to do with. I have argued for this in every venue and at every opportunity for years and got absolutely no where. I'm repeatedly told they're too expensive. An NHS manager once even told me that 'a CPN would do'. 

Then there's Scotland. Now I guess we all know that there have never been probation officers as such north of the border, but Criminal Justice Social Workers instead, working in Local Authority Social Service Departments. New recruits do have to undertake a criminal justice qualification, but the key thing is that the social work ethos is still alive and well. So both of these Administrations have deliberately chosen not to go down the route that England and Wales has chosen and neither has adopted the NOMS approach of merging prisons and probation. 

So, in two parts of the United Kingdom at least, social work and all that stuff that some of us hold very dear is actually still going strong and very definitely not regarded as having had its day in dealing with offenders. Out of interest, I thought I'd look to see what has happened in Hong Kong since the UK handed it back to the Chinese government in 1997 to become a Special Administrative Region. The Probation Service in Hong Kong still operates under a social work model and is fully integrated into the Social Welfare Department. Can all these Administrations be wrong in following such a supposed out-of-date model?