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Transforming rehabilitation as 'policy disaster': unbalanced policy-making and probation reform

Transforming rehabilitation as 'policy disaster': unbalanced policy-making and probation reform
Transforming rehabilitation as 'policy disaster': unbalanced policy-making and probation reform
This paper utilizes the notion of ‘policy disasters’ to examine the policy developments that led to the part-privatization and marketization of probation services in England and Wales – Transforming Rehabilitation. Specifically, it examines the ‘internal’ component of policy disasters, drawing on semi-structured interviews with senior policymakers and other relevant sources. The findings presented demonstrate that the policy dynamics relating to Transforming Rehabilitation specifically, and the departmental budget as an important underlying component, were both distinctly ‘unbalanced’. This is argued to be an important explanatory factor in its extremely swift implementation and operationalization. In closing, the paper reflects on the policy studies notion of ‘policy equilibrium’ to consider whether the policy landscape relating to probation in England and Wales has reached a ‘steady state’, or whether the ongoing apparent failings of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms may result in a further round of considerable policy change.
Probation, Policy disaster, Transforming Rehabilitation, penal politics
10.1177%2F0264550518820117
0264-5505
Annison, Harry Michael John
91ee5a4a-811e-4b57-9fd4-df643465b2a1
Annison, Harry Michael John
91ee5a4a-811e-4b57-9fd4-df643465b2a1

Annison, Harry Michael John (2018) Transforming rehabilitation as 'policy disaster': unbalanced policy-making and probation reform. Probation Journal. (doi:10.1177%2F0264550518820117).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This paper utilizes the notion of ‘policy disasters’ to examine the policy developments that led to the part-privatization and marketization of probation services in England and Wales – Transforming Rehabilitation. Specifically, it examines the ‘internal’ component of policy disasters, drawing on semi-structured interviews with senior policymakers and other relevant sources. The findings presented demonstrate that the policy dynamics relating to Transforming Rehabilitation specifically, and the departmental budget as an important underlying component, were both distinctly ‘unbalanced’. This is argued to be an important explanatory factor in its extremely swift implementation and operationalization. In closing, the paper reflects on the policy studies notion of ‘policy equilibrium’ to consider whether the policy landscape relating to probation in England and Wales has reached a ‘steady state’, or whether the ongoing apparent failings of the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms may result in a further round of considerable policy change.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 14 December 2018
Published date: 28 December 2018
Keywords: Probation, Policy disaster, Transforming Rehabilitation, penal politics

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 427394
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/427394
ISSN: 0264-5505
PURE UUID: a2c782f1-ed5b-4c26-8006-9ef7f1205df2
ORCID for Harry Michael John Annison: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0001-6042-038X

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Date deposited: 15 Jan 2019 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:16

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