ABSTRACT
The probation worker 1 –offender relationship has been a long-standing and some might say a defining feature of probation practice, despite a brief blip in recognition of its importance around the early 2000s in England and Wales (Burnett and McNeill, 2005). Despite this, we know relatively little about what level of investment practitioners currently place in the worker–offender relationship, and how and why they might aim to create and nurture it. This is important because a revival in appreciation of the importance of the relationship identified by Burnett and McNeill eight years ago appears to have been borne out, insofar as NOMS has implemented several programmes to make better use of the relationship between the probation worker and offender. This chapter explores how probation practitioners in England and Wales conceptualise and use the worker–offender relationship.
