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10 Prob. 1 (1962)

handle is hein.journals/probj10 and id is 1 raw text is: Probation JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF PROBATION OFFICERS VOLUME TEN NUMBER ONE - MARCH 1962 THE DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE by FRANK DAWTRY (General Secretary, N.A.P.O.) EN the Ingleby Report appeared we suggested in this journal that a Departmental Committee need not judged by the extent of change it proposed in the >ject of its enquiry. In the case of the Morison Com- ttee (Report of the Departmental Committee on the 9bation Service. Cmnd. 1650. H.M.S.O. 10/-) there is leed great cause for satisfaction that in many areas of review no serious changes are proposed. This Association asserted for many years that probation s not always understood nor properly used. It asserted belief that probation was not just another social service t that the probation officer must be regarded as a ecialist, dealing with delinquents and those seeking :ourse in the courts for their difficulties, while also uintaining a responsibility to the courts and to society. e Association did not agree with suggestions that certain ties might be carried more appropriately by other encies, but it had no empire to build and was always idy for an impartial examination of the work of the -vice. It did not regard such an enquiry as an imposition t as a desirable necessity when the demands on the vice were increasing and seemed likely to continue to so. The Association also valued the close association tween the service and the magistrates and others con- cted with the courts, and regarded administration by abation committees as an important evidence of the lependence of the service from local or national political luences; here again, proposals for change were some- aes heard, and the Association waited hopefully for this itter to be examined. And, of course, the Association is never satisfied with the recruitment, training or pay probation officers. The crisis of spirit in the probation service, which is nted at in several places in the Morison Report did not, wever, arise so much from concern over salaries, recruit- ,nt, overwork, external criticism or doubts about the ties and control of the service, as from the utterly frus- iting feeling of inability to get anything done about ese things. In these concerns, the principal officers pro- iced chapter and verse time after time about the state affairs, but nobody seemed to listen. The Home Office oved slowly, the Training Board issued soothing state- ents, the negotiating bodies made little allowance for e special problems of the probation service, the Indus- trial Court did no better, with its inaccurate information, and over all, there was the brooding but unimaginative figure of the Treasury. Where to turn next? The only hope lay in the problems of the service being taken out of the arena of contending and involved parties, and so the service pressed for the enquiry which is now concluded. AN AMPLE JUSTIFICATION This was an enquiry conducted by a Committee most of whose members were expert in some field or other impinging on the probation service. They heard the views of the service (35 probation officers gave evidence in one capacity or another) and of many associated with it, and of other bodies including some who were critical of the service. And what comes out of it all? A long and detailed study of the many duties of probation officers and a firm justification for them all, with a broad hint that in Scotland these duties could be extended. On two of the most important, but sometimes questioned, fields of work the Committee is emphatic. The carrying out of prison and borstal after-care by probation officers . . . was almost universally endorsed 'by our witnesses. We agree with their view . . . . Our approval of this . . . work is not, however, any mere acceptance of a fait accompli . . . we do not regard Contents of this Issue THE DEPARTMENTAL COMMITTEE . 1 Frank Dawtry THE PLACE OF PSYCHIATRY IN PROBATION 4 W. M. Millar GROUP WORK IN THE PROBATION SETTING 6 P. D. Ashley ScOTTIsH REMAND HOMES . 8 J. C. Rogers PROBATION FORUM . . . 9 IN PARLIAMENT . . 12 OBITUARIES . . . 13 HONOURS . . . 15 PROBATION DIARY . . . . . 16

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