ABSTRACT
Scrutiny of the case material and the follow-up interviews suggested that the more clearly the problem and the work on the task was specified, the more able the client was to describe such work at the follow-up interview and to recognise his or her own part in it as well as the probation officer’s role. In another case, an important but comparatively small area of difficulty was clearly specified and worked on within a plethora of other problems, which according to the social enquiry report ‘have already received very long-term open-ended investigation without the client feeling any relief or that she could feel that anything could ever change’. A number of clients were placed with Bulldog manpower services, a voluntary scheme organised by the Inner London probation service with home office funding to provide employment opportunities for clients with poor work records and to equip them to move eventually into the open labour market.
