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About the Project

Rehabilitating Probation is a three-year ESRC-funded research project, exploring the most recent iteration of probation reform in England and Wales. Probation services across England and Wales were reunified following a period of large-scale privatisation under Transforming Rehabilitation reforms implemented in 2013, which had led to the establishment of a publicly operated National Probation Service (NPS) and a number of private Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs).

In June 2020 the public and private arms of probation were brought back together under a newly constituted public Probation Service. This project explores this significant public service reform, the scale of which is unprecedented. Our research will capture the experiences and consequences of reform at:

(a) local, regional and national levels; and

(b) from a range of perspectives, both within and outside of the probation service.

Through a series of work packages and research activities that run in parallel throughout the project, our study is recording the impact of reform at local, regional and national levels and from a variety of perspectives, including: probation staff; senior managers; policy makers; people on probation and external stakeholders.

Learn more about the Project Team