Probation officers have always had to perform a daily balancing act, one that balances the constraints of risk management against the opportunities of rehabilitation.
Though having always existed, this high-wire act has been compounded by the demands of the global pandemic with its resultant imposition of remote methods of service user supervision.
A recent report by Kent Surrey Sussex CRC and the Institute of Criminology – University of Cambridge, entitled Remote supervision: getting the balance right presents the findings of a joint research project that explored probation supervisory practice in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. The report examines the views of probation officers and the limitations and benefits of different methods of remote communication. As one respondent indicated:
“I don’t think we ever would have gone to this phone contact if it hadn’t been for these exceptional circumstances. It’s been forced to come in. But there certainly have been some benefits…..it’s the mixture that’s needed. That balance between the two”.
Additionally, the report looks forwards towards future probation practice within a post pandemic world, asking as it does what practice methods, skills and technologies are currently being used by probation officers; and what is seen as valuable, with the potential to be developed further in the future?
