The Covid-19 pandemic has changed and challenged the nature of probation supervision. In particular, the public health emergency brought an abrupt end to the traditional routine of face-to-face appointments in offices.
Service users and supervisors found themselves communicating remotely using the telephone, or meeting on doorsteps or in the open air. This article is about the experience of telephone supervision and is based on the perspective of practitioners. It explores some of the impacts and consequences of telephone contact and examines the extent to which this approach has a part to play in future, post-pandemic, ways of working.
The article draws on findings from a research project examining remote supervision practice during the pandemic. Fieldwork (comprising an online survey and a series of semi-structured interviews) was conducted between July and September 2020 in three divisions within an English community rehabilitation company (CRC). The article reinforces the importance of face-to-face work in probation practice; supervisors spoke about the contribution that this made to the quality of their work. However, the article also suggests that there is scope to retain some use of telephone supervision as part of a future blended practice model. Using the telephone, for some tasks and in some situations, can aid and enrich the supervision experience for both practitioner and service user. Further thinking about telephone supervision might consider these three themes identified in the research: remote working limits the sensory dimension of supervision, relationships remain at the heart of practice, and good practice requires professional discretion.
