Yesterday, with a mixture of jealousy and regret, I was following on Twitter some of the plenary addresses and the ‘Trial of Criminology’ at the BSC Conference which is currently taking place in Wolverhampton. Apparently Shadd put a strong case for the defence. One of the recurring themes concerned the question of criminology’s ‘impact’. That’s hardly surprising since this is the time when academics have to scurry around trying to find evidence of their impact to submit to the Research Excellence Framework (it’s our once-every-seven-years report card). I think I agreed with some of the speakers that impact in the social sciences is often more about helping people think differently about the issues and problems they face; not just in the policy context (which tends to unhelpfully dominate these discussions), but in practice too. Unlike engineers, we don’t often invent new widgets to ‘solve’ social problems (which is probably a good thing!); some of us don’t even aspire to do. Nonetheless, I hope this project has helped reflective practitioners to think differently about how to support the people in their charge, and about how to support desistance. With that in mind, I thought I’d share the brief report below, which captures the kind of criminological research impact I care most about and was sent to me by our colleagues in Merseyside, where we ran some workshops recently to help the staff and service users and local partners of one Local Delivery Unit imagine a new approach.
Wirral Desistance Project: ‘Seeing Beyond The Risk…
The Wirral is one of five geographical areas within Merseyside which is identified within Merseyside Probation Trust as a local delivery unit (LDU). It has been of some concern over the last few years that proven re offending rates on Wirral appear to be higher than the other LDUs and it has been very difficult to pinpoint exactly why that might be the case.
Rather than do nothing and blame changes in police activity, offending profiles within the geographical area etc, Wirral LDU decided to focus attention on probation practice. Encouraged by the NOMS SEEDs agenda, the senior management team wanted a focus on changing the way in which probation workers interact with service users based on improved engagement and supported by desistance principles. It was for this reason that the LDU took part in the Desistance Knowledge Exchange in the latter part of 2012.
Two workshops were held on Wirral comprising of a mix of staff, service users and partner agency representatives. This was the first time that staff and service users had sat around a table together in a workshop environment to truly explore the journey of the service user and the helpful/unhelpful responses of the probation service. As the probation lead officer, it was a humbling and very exciting experience. The film, ‘The Road From Crime’, acted as a wonderful conduit to understanding and debate between service users and workers. Partner agencies also contributed their observations. Whilst partners remained supportive of probation work, some comments challenged our thinking regarding service delivery particularly in relation to our use of the term ‘offender’. What came out of the workshops was a renewed commitment to work differently within desistance principles and to involve the service user more effectively in the journey Wirral LDU was about to make.
In order to ensure a sound knowledge base across the LDU, a further two theory lectures were delivered by Rachael Steele, Senior Research and Performance Information Manager, to all staff explaining desistance as a process and highlighting key desistance principles which should underpin and define a different way of working with service users.
Following the workshops, Siobhan Doran, project support consultant, galvanised staff into action by convening a desistance planning team comprising of Wirral staff and service users. This is where the ideas and creativity were generated and the energy to progress the project was fuelled. The first step was to change the language we used and the noun ‘offender’ was changed to ‘service user’. This was remarkably easy and was a first sign that we could make changes to common practice and still retain our focus on service user rehabilitation and public protection. At the same time, an early lesson was the realisation that too much emphasis on the offending behaviour and current risk issues masked important clues to why a person does not and cannot desist. As a result, we adopted a quote from one probation officer as our mission statement, Wirral Doing Things Differently: ‘Seeing beyond the risk…’
The structure for the project was designed in collaboration with project support and the research department who agreed to evaluate the project under a variety of data collection measures. A cohort of cases has been identified comprising of four cases per offender manager. This cohort will be asked to complete a pre and post desistance questionnaire over a nine month period. In addition, data will be collected which compares levels of unacceptable absences, compliance figures, reduction in tiering, staff /service user satisfaction, over a similar period.
It was agreed that for the project to be successful, it had to involve everyone in Wirral Probation Centre including administrative staff. For this to be achieved, staff members have bid for particular projects. Each project is linked to one or more desistance principles. For example, the creation of a women’s netball team can be linked to improvements in social capital, health and well being. The welfare reform workshops are based in a realism that acknowledges a service user’s obstacles to change. The film club hopes to develop moral aptitude via discussion and debate. The re design of the reception area encourages better engagement and a ‘hopeful’ environment.
One to one work with service users is based on the premise that everyone should try a different approach based on desistance principles. As such, practice workshops have taken place, jointly facilitated by Wirral team managers and our practitioner practice development officer. The aim was to encourage and liberate workers from old styles of offence focused work. By the end of the workshops, each participant would have formulated three actions to try with their desistance cohort and which will be different to conventional ways of working. This might include leaving the office and carrying out supervision on the move, known on Wirral as ‘walks and talks’. It might include visiting places which are important to the service user and exploring times when they were not offending. Follow on workshops will include exploring how to demonstrate desistance principles in risk assessments and risk management. We will also be looking at induction procedures, pre group work for accredited programmes and exit interviews.
In the face of considerable uncertainty surrounding Probation’s future, it would be reasonable to expect workers to approach any new initiatives with a degree of cynicism as future threats to job security appear on the horizon. On Wirral this has not been the case and workers appear invigorated and enthused by the project. I have encouraged staff and service users to write narratives about their experiences and these are beginning to trickle in. One worker decided on a sunny day to go for a walk with his service user. Interestingly, the first 10 minutes of the conversation were taken up with a bombardment of questions : ‘Where are you taking me? Are we going to the police station? Are you taking me to the court to make me pay my fine?’.
The message was not lost on the probation worker and it demonstrated just how much trust we had lost in our relationships with service users by an over emphasis on enforcement, targets and risk. Seeing beyond the risk is something we would hope all probation workers can do. Not so. Early signs suggest a relearning which is rich and meaningful and which all workers should take with them in or out of the public sector. Service users may even benefit and we look forward to hearing their stories over the coming months.
Rosie Goodwin (Assistant Chief Officer: Wirral LDU)(emphases added)
Discovering Desistance 