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- Title
Probation and Training.
- Authors
Smith, David
- Abstract
The article discusses the nature of the government-inspired redirection of probation away from social work. It begun under the last Conservative government of Great Britain, and confirmed under New Labour. In May 1997, probation in England and Wales was in something of a limbo: there were no arrangements in place for the training of new probation officers, so that in principle the new government could have decided to restore the link with social work training which had so distressed Michael Howard, the previous Home Secretary. The new government accepted the definition of probation as essentially a type of punishment, and therefore, as specified in the 1997 Crime Act, not a measure that needed the offender's consent; social work training logically had nothing to do with training for the delivery and enforcement of punishment. The arrangements for training that emerged fell short of realizing the worst fears of people, a social work academic with a background in probation practice and a long involvement in training probation officers as a specialist kind of social worker.
- Subjects
UNITED Kingdom; LEGAL status of social workers; EMPLOYEE training; PROBATIONARY employees; LEGISLATIVE bills; SOCIAL services; OCCUPATIONAL training
- Publication
British Journal of Social Work, 2001, Vol 31, Issue 4, p641
- ISSN
0045-3102
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/bjsw/31.4.641