L’association britannique d’ex-délinquants réhabilités « user voice » (la voix des usagers) vient de pulblier son étude sur la perception de la probation par ses usagers: instructif mais pas très encourageant!
Lire l’article complet à propos de cette recherche sur russelwebster.com
The report
The report is based on five focus groups with 45 service users in four CRC areas in different parts of the country. Several of these service users were given training in basic research methods and conducted peer research, administering a short survey about TR to a further 251 service users.
The majority of survey participants were on licence (n = 84), a suspended sentence (n = 65) or a community order (n = 61), although other and multiple supervision types were present. All participants were asked whether they were supervised by the NPS or CRCs. Interestingly, well over one-third (n = 105) were unsure of, or did not provide information on, which service managed their order.
It appears that most respondents were supervised by CRCs but the findings are not separated into CRC/NPS because only 34 participants were definitely supervised by the NPS.
The report merely presents the findings from these service user consultations and does not interpret them.
Main findings
The report focuses on six key areas:
- Relationships between service users and probation officers
- Perceived role of probation
- Number of probation officers
- Level of contact and barriers to contact
- Throughcare provision
- Changes since Transforming Rehabilitation
This is one of the largest studies of service user views of probation and merits careful reading. It’s not possible to do it justice in this post which will focus on service users’ experience of changes since the implementation of TR. However, it is worth noting that despite a number of criticisms, 46.7% survey participants rated their relationship with their supervising officer as good, 45.5% rated it okayand just 7.8% as not good.
Changes since Transforming Rehabilitation
Service users were asked whether they felt there had been any changes since the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda had been operationalised. More than three-quarters (77%) survey participants said they had not noticed any change in the overall service they personally received and this was also the case in the focus groups, where the general feeling was that there is going to be change, but it’s not happened yet.
The table reproduced below outlines survey participants’ views of whether specific aspects of probation have changed since Transforming Rehabilitation. Most respondents answered that they had seen no change in nine out of ten areas, although there were some clear differences, particularly with ‘help with housing’, which appeared to have deteriorated for many.
It appears that there have been more resources helping service users tackling their offending behaviour and direct criminogenic needs such as help with drug or alcohol problems but less help with key external causes of offending such as housing and employment. The lack of appropriate accommodation was a major theme in the research.
(…)
Summary:
The service users who took part in this consultation provided feedback on the differences they experienced as a consequence of the Transforming Rehabilitation agenda. A range of topics were covered regarding their experience of working with probation at the moment and any changes they had noticed in the last 12 months. The report summarises its three main findings
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For most, there had been very few noticeable changes, if any.
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For some, there were positive changes, mainly in relation to offending behaviour work and education.
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For others, relationships with probation had felt the effects of the changes, in terms of confused job roles and having multiple officers in a short space of time.
Le rapport source de User Voice est consultable ici
