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59 Prob. J. 3 (2012)

handle is hein.journals/probj59 and id is 1 raw text is: Editorial The -l f C. qofCo y, m csh Probation Journal 59(1) 3-6 A collective voice © The Author(s) 2011 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0264550512438175 prb.sagepub.com OSAGE On 22 May 1912 about forty probation officers gathered at Croydon Town Hall to hear the Clerk of the Borough Justices, Sydney Edridge, call for the formation of a national organization for probation officers. From these small beginnings Napo was born and today it represents some 9000 probation staff across England and Wales. According to a report of the Croydon meeting it was believed that a national organization would enable probation officers to 'raise their voices to a height which would reach above the din and clamour of party politics at Westminster, and then get their needs attended to' (Bochel, 1962: 33). Thus, whilst its early objectives were concerned with the advancement of probation work by bringing probation officers together and sharing their experiences of work, Napo's longer term sig- nificance lay in the potential it offered for developing professionalism and thereby improving the pay and conditions of its members. At the time of the Croydon meeting many probation officers did not receive a salary but instead were paid a fixed fee for each case they supervised. There was little security of employment as appointments were reviewed annually. There has undoubtedly been much progress made in the ensuing period and through its campaigning and negotiating roles the trade union and professional association aspects of Napo's work have been entwined from the outset (McKnight, 2009). But the need for a collective voice remains as just as vital today as the probation service faces considerable challenges with the forthcoming probation review likely to further fragment service provision under the guise of competition (Travis, 2011) and threaten many of the gains which Napo has fought for throughout the past hundred years. Maurice Vanstone has argued that 'increased governance from the centre com- bined with an acquiescent bureaucratic management structure has resulted in the stifling of innovation and the imposition of too narrow a practice agenda' (Vanstone, 2010: 30). It is against this background that Wendy Fitzgibbon's article 'In the eye of the storm: The implications of the Munro Child Protection Review for the future of probation' provides a timely consideration of the potential for moving from a system that has become over-bureaucratized and unresponsive to one that values and devel- ops professional expertise and judgement. The Munro Review of child protection practice was established following the tragic death of baby Peter Connelly. Munro (2011) argued that there has been a failure to acknowledge the complexity and asso- ciated uncertainty of child protection work; too much focus in high profile public enquiries on professional errors without fully considering its causes; and an undue

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