ILPC 2027

 ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ or the Labour Process?:  The continuing saga of the UK probation service’

In a previous journal article, the author provided an account of some of the key developments that probation experienced under the New Labour government between 1997 and 2010. These developments included not only structural re-configurations of the service itself, but managerial and workforce reforms alongside changes to probation practice that led to the ‘Taylorization’ of the probation labour process (Gale, 2012).  The political and economic rationalisation for these reforms reflected those in the wider public services in order to achieve efficiency and effectiveness while taking into account economic pressures (Bach and Winchester, 2003).   This current paper considers developments that have continued under subsequent Coalition and Conservative Governments and attempts to develop a conceptual analysis of the ongoing probation ‘saga’ where reforms have essentially carved out greater roles for both the private and voluntary sectors (Burke, 2014).  It is demonstrated how the division of labour within the labour process has been further extended to include not only established divisions between different grades of probation staff, but generated further complexity and fragmentation between staff working for different providers across different sectors.  While such reforms have been legitimised in terms of ‘Transforming Rehabilitation’ (Ministry of Justice, 2013), and the ‘Big Society’ (Cabinet Office, 2010), the author argues that these on-going reforms represent yet another stage in transforming the probation labour process as successive governments continue to drive through ‘marketization’ and a commitment to cost-cutting associated with a wider on-going neoliberal project.  Consideration is then given to what these developments mean for specific stakeholders, such as employees, trade unions and offenders, and poses further research questions of interest for academics and policy-makers.

References

Bach, S. and Winchester, D (2003), Industrial Relations in the Public Sector. Edwards, P. (ed), Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice. 2^nd Edition, Oxford: Blackwell, 285-312.

Burke, L. (2014), ‘Maintaining Professionalism in a House Divided’, Probation Journal, 61(3), 229-233

Cabinet Office (2010), Building the Big Society, London: Cabinet Office.

Gale, J. (2012), Government Reforms, Performance Management and the Labour Process: the case of officers in the UK probation service. Work, Employment and Society, 26(5): 822-838.

Ministry of Justice (2013), Transforming Rehabilitation: A revolution in the way we manage offenders, CM 8517, London: The Stationery Office.