ABSTRACT
The idea for this book was originally conceived in the autumn of 2005. Back then the three of us were responsible for managing the academic side of the diploma in probation training (DipPS) across Yorkshire and Humberside. At that time the future direction of probation training was unclear (and remains so at this time of writing) and we began to think about what might emerge from the organisational changes planned under the National Offender Management Service (NOMS). What became clear to us was that whatever training arrangement emerged there was very little published work about the skills and practices we were teaching on a daily basis. With the possibility that probation training might be taken away from higher education we felt that an important pool of knowledge and experience might be lost and it would be a good idea to bring this knowledge and experience together in a single volume.
