Social work skills in probation practice: the JS3 study

1. (Declaring an interest: former probation officer and qualified social worker) • Peter Raynor • Swansea University • Wales, UK • ESC Budapest 2013 Social work skills in probation practice: the JS3 study

2. British social work research and criminal justice: Articles in the British Journal of Social Work:

3. Steps in divorce (simplified) 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 2001+ approx.: social work research prefers qualitative approaches, reflexive evidence-informed practice, focus on practitioner-client relationship; criminologists publish ‘what works’ research in criminology journals

4. Towards reconciliation? • 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.

5. Background • 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

6. Analysis so far • 95 videotaped interviews collected and assessed • 14 participating staff • Skills checklist developed 2007-9 • Focus so far on skills used, impact on assessed risks/needs, impact on reconviction

7. Our skills checklist version 7c covers 63 items in 9 clusters: • Set up S • Non-verbal communication N • Verbal communication V • Use of authority A • Motivational interviewing M • Pro-social modelling P • Problem solving S • Cognitive restructuring C • Overall interview structure O • Total

8. What does the checklist tell us? • 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

9. Boxplots for ten officers, 88 interviews

10. Mean scores for group of 10 compared to possible scores

11. A high-scoring officer compared to possible scores

12. A lower scoring officer compared to possible scores

13. Differences between officers are: • 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

14. Do skills matter? The reconviction study 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.)

15. Reconvictions 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 15 21 58% Staff using more skills 29 10 26% p= .004

16. Correlations with desistance (r) 1 year 2 years Set up .019 .078 Non-verbal communication .093 .330 ** Verbal communication .160 .263 * Use of authority .147 .169 Motivational interviewing .125 .201 * Pro-social modelling .195 * .094 Problem solving .214 * .254 * Cognitive restructuring .214 * .173 Overall interview structure .145 .131 Total .230 * .272 **

17. Questions about skills: • 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?

18. Questions about social work: • 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?

19. References and contacts: 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: P.Raynor@swansea.ac.uk