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31 Prob. J. 1 (1984)

handle is hein.journals/probj31 and id is 1 raw text is: Probation Journal Published by the National Association of Probation Officers Editor: Nigel Stone Editorial Advisory Board: Andrew Bridges, Jenny Kirkpatrick (ex officio), Alan Mortimer, Sue Priestley, David Reaich, Peter Simpson, Andy Stelman Price £1.25 (free to members) ISSN 0264-5505 COMMENT Managing Change Yes, I know that a probation periodical has existed for a half-century, but Probation Journal, as such, first appeared in March 1974, and a decade of endeavour is worth a modest cheer. This isn't intended to be a banal and tedious exercise in prediction. But it is gratifying that an anniversary issue contains an attempt to make sense of the staffing and management trends in the Service. The lack of such analysis is extraordinary, compared to work on the Social Services since Seebohm, and local government at large, suggesting the organisational insularity of Probation and evolutionary change that has not required major stock-taking and theoretical input. Yet clearly there have been profound changes, particularly in some areas where powerful Chiefs have been able to reshape their county operations to conform to a strong centralist blueprint, creating a probation equivalent of a Directorate of Social Services. All areas are evolving gradually away from the simple, pyramidical management of a unitary resource, the befriending influence of generic probation officers. It seems remarkable that the Service has used ancillary workers only since 1971. It is perhaps more remarkable that the development of this potential has been so haphazard and piecemeal, and their numbers in relation to qualified officers so unbalanced. The common wisdom for a probation team suggests a basic one-six-one formation. Now we hear that Home Office thinking favours larger team-to-senior ratios, given the growing strength, qualifications and experience of main grade workers. Attempts to vary seniors away from the often debilitating and inflexible wheel hub role are encouraging, and re-formations in larger offices to utilize varying senior skills to better advantage have been liberating. So has the growth of prac- titioner support groups, beyond traditional supervision, particularly in new, more exacting areas of work. The greatest revolution, however, has been in ancillary services, so that the title 'ancillary' ceases to carry much meaning, as we recruit a growing army of specialists in housing, employment, and research, plus 'educationalists', residential social workers, group workers, workshop managers and community workers. The plant, both personal and physical, is growing, but we haven't developed management strategies, pay and training to match. Haxby earlier suggested that the Service could profitably employ its own solicitors, psychiatrists and psychologists. That would revise thoughts on ancillary staff! This diversification clearly raises considerable employment protection questions for probation officers, and the risk of erosion of standards. In the training sphere, there are already worrying implications arising from the CSS (Certificate in Social Service) which has some attraction for managements seeking competent operatives. More recently, influential proposals' for the 1

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