Changing conceptions of the paraprofessional role in probation: developing a typology

• In Event: Professional cultures in community sanctions and measures

Abstract

In common with other public services (e.g. policing, social work, nursing, teaching), the probation service in England & Wales employs both professionally qualified workers (probation officers) and ‘paraprofessionals’ (who do not hold the professional qualification). Both groups deliver frontline services. In England & Wales paraprofessional workers have been employed since the late 1960s - initially as ancillary workers, then as probation service assistants, and (today) as probation service officers. In this paper we draw on the emerging findings of a 2-year project which has been examining the evolution of the paraprofessional role in probation via oral history interviews and archival research. We consider in particular whether it is possible to capture this evolutionary process by means of a typology of paraprofessional roles, and the extent to which existing typologies developed in other public service contexts can help us in this process. In this paper we confront the particular challenge of bringing together data from both ‘official’ (archival) sources and from the lived experiences of people who have occupied paraprofessional roles at different times and in different places in the period since 1970.

Authors

• Gwen Robinson, University of Sheffield, UK.

• Jane Dominey, University of Cambridge

• Emily Rose Hay, University of Sheffield