(Declaring an interest: former probation officer and qualified social worker) Peter Raynor Swansea University Wales, UK ESC Budapest 2013

Articles in the British Journal of Social Work: Year:Overall number of articles: Articles about social work in criminal justice: % of CJ articles: % % % % %

1997: Probation officer training removed from social work courses to make it ‘tougher’ 1998+: Effective Practice Initiative (‘What Works’) adopts evidence- based approach 2001: National Probation Service: limits practitioner discretion, prescribes group programme content, uses outcome-based evaluation approx.: social work research prefers qualitative approaches, reflexive evidence-informed practice, focus on practitioner-client relationship; criminologists publish ‘what works’ research in criminology journals

 2007: Social work researchers and criminologists from seven countries form CREDOS (the Collaboration of Researchers for the Effective Development of Offender Supervision) to promote the empirical study of individual offender supervision.  The Jersey Supervision Skills Study is part of this movement.  Carried out in the British Channel Island of Jersey by Peter Raynor, Pamela Ugwudike, Maurice Vanstone and Brian Heath.

 Swansea researchers had a long-term interest in 1:1 supervision as part of effective practice  Implementation of ‘What Works’ in England and Wales showed a lack of official interest in individual supervision, contributing for example to programme attrition  Particular research opportunities were presented in Jersey

 95 videotaped interviews collected and assessed  14 participating staff  Skills checklist developed  Focus so far on skills used, impact on assessed risks/needs, impact on reconviction

 Set upS  Non-verbal communicationN  Verbal communicationV  Use of authorityA  Motivational interviewingM  Pro-social modellingP  Problem solvingS  Cognitive restructuringC  Overall interview structureO  Total

 Does 7C distinguish between officers?  Are officers consistent in the skills they use?  Do officers who use more skills do so over a wide range of interviews?  Ten officers with 5-15 interviews in database  Boxplots show median, interquartile range and outliers

 Substantial  Consistent across a number of interviews (for most officers)  Consistent across different types of interviews (for most officers)  More evident in ‘structuring’ skills (maybe reflecting social work training of the Jersey officers: they mostly score well on ‘relationship’ skills)  High-scoring officers tend to be more consistent

Based on 75 interviewees with scored interviews and 2-year reconviction follow-up (When same individual was interviewed more than once, repeat interviews were not counted.)

Two-year reconviction rates of people interviewed by 7 staff with below-median skill ratings, compared with interviewees of 7 staff with above-median skill ratings (N of staff = 14; N of interviewees = 75) Interviewed by: Not reconvicted Reconvicted % reconvicted Staff using fewer skills % Staff using more skills % p=.004

1 year2 years Set up Non-verbal communication ** Verbal communication * Use of authority Motivational interviewing * Pro-social modelling.195 *.094 Problem solving.214 *.254 * Cognitive restructuring.214 *.173 Overall interview structure Total.230 *.272 **

 Are these the outcomes of the identified skills or of something else that skilled officers do (or are)?  Are these ‘social work skills’? All? Some?  Are good relationship skills a precondition for the effective use of structuring skills (‘therapeutic alliance’)?  Are short-term effects and longer-term effects different?  Can skills be improved by training?

 Is probation still ‘part of social work’?  Should social work show more interest in outcome- based research?  Should social work develop more use of ‘structuring’ skills?  Should probation researchers publish more in social work journals?

Early stages are covered in: Raynor, P., Ugwudike, P. and Vanstone, M. (2010) ‘Skills and strategies in probation supervision: the Jersey study’, in McNeill, Raynor and Trotter (eds) Offender Supervision: New Directions in Theory, Research and Practice. Abingdon: Willan. Results are covered in ‘The impact of skills in probation work: a reconviction study’, Criminology and Criminal Justice advance access (same authors) For information on the study contact: