Introduction

This chapter explores the ways in which students have experienced the Professional Qualification in Probation (PQiP) during the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes comments drawn from focus groups with students in a range of cohorts at various stages of the qualification when the pandemic occurred. The findings lead to reflections on the implications for probation education moving forward. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on probation has been documented by the House of Commons Justice Committee (2020) in their report Coronavirus (COVID-19): The impact on probation systems, which details the move to the exceptional delivery model that changed the way probation services were delivered. Unfortunately, there was no mention of PQiP students within the Justice Committee's report. We are interested in learning more about the students who transitioned from the workplace to working from home, and those students who started the qualification when already working from home. Given that the report states that staff ‘[m] orale and wellbeing are being affected’ (House of Commons Justice Select Committee, 2020) by the current circumstances, there is further support for research that explores the ‘wellness’ of probation trainees.

The aspiring probation officers were entering the service at a time of tumultuous change. During this period, the Justice Select Committee (2020) reported that probation practice adapted by using Skype, phone and messaging services for supervision, while people assessed as high risk received doorstep visits. Further to this, sentence requirements could not be completed where they involved unpaid work or offending behaviour programme interventions. In addition, an already-stretched workforce, with high caseloads and not enough staff, suffered the absence of 2,000 staff per day due to COVID-19. Moreover, Phillips (2020) flags a request from HM Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS) for the frequency of contact with people on probation at this time to be doubled. With 224,174 individuals on probation in the community in March 2021 (GOV.UK Justice Data, 2021), this was also a difficult time for people on probation and in prison experiencing supervision, exacerbating the ‘pains’ of supervision (McNeill 2019, 2020). This has all come at a time when probation services in England and Wales are undergoing significant reforms following the failure of Transforming Rehabilitation.