Probation without boundaries? ‘Agile working’ in the Community Rehabilitation Company ‘transformed’ landscape

Abstract

The repeated references to ‘agile working’ within the Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) landscape led me to independently investigate what the terminology means. In this article, I share the findings from my brief examination of some of the available literature on these ‘new ways of working’. I place this information within the context of the publicized approaches that four out of the eight CRC owners promote. It is noteworthy that between them, these four corporate bodies own 16 out of the 21 CRCs in England and Wales. I conclude by highlighting some of the boundaries that could restrict probation practitioners’ ability to conduct meaningful probation work built around relationships of trust, collaboration and engagement.