Reimagining Probation and the Rehabilitation of Offenders conference

The BSC Midland Regional branch and University of Wolvershapton 1-day conference: Reimagining Probation and the Rehabilitation of Offenders.

This conference aims to explore new developments, policies, and practices in probation and the rehabilitation of offenders.

University of Wolverhampton – City Campus Wulfruna Street Wolverhampton WV1 1LY

This conference aims to explore new developments, policies, and practices in probation and the rehabilitation of offenders. The new era of the renationalisation of the Probation Service in England and Wales has established a redefined reality for the service where both low- and high-risk offenders are supervised by the National Probation Service. This has also meant the introduction and involvement of new and existing partners in the supervision of offenders in both prison and community settings. The Target Operating Model for probation services in England and Wales published in early 2021 has set renewed principles, anticipated benefits, and promises for offenders, victims, and probation officers in the renationalised infrastructure of probation. These ranging from transforming through partnerships, an open culture, and consistent supervision to changes in the language of probation, modernising estates, and more manageable workloads remain to be evaluated in both academia and practice. This conference thereby invites academics and practitioners to discuss their experiences, examinations, or expectations of this renationalisation enterprise and further appraise what path the new model imagines for probation and the rehabilitation of offenders. In addition, the conference is interested in other developments in the area that may have accompanied renationalisation, such as OMiC, IOM (Refresh) and others and their impact on the culture and practice of probation and associated services. Due to the collaborative ethos the new model aims to establish, academics and practitioners are invited to share their research and experience with multi-agency work in probation too – whether that involves criminal justice or non-criminal justice agencies, Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements, or the future of victim work and victim liaison agencies in the reintegration of offenders. The conference also appreciates how the renationalisation era has come after the challenging part-privatised state of the Probation Service which has been heavily criticised by academics, practitioners, and service users alike. As such, it also invites discussion of the aftermath of part-privatisation of the service in relation to the state in which renationalisation has found probation services, and, crucially, the continuing impact of the Transforming Rehabilitation policy. Finally, the conference is interested in comparative approaches as well as experience or research on probation from other jurisdictions which may demonstrate developments in working with offenders and new rehabilitation policies outside England and Wales too.

Full details about the event, including the infromatoin on the schedule, key speakers and registration details can be found here.