The Jersey Supervision Skills Study

In Swansea University we have a long-standing
interest in the effectiveness of probation practice
and have made a number of contributions to the
‘What Works?’ literature, including an early
evaluation of a cognitive-behavioural programme
(Raynor and Vanstone 1997) which emphasized the
contribution to success made by effective case
management and individual supervision. This was
also one of the first studies of probation practice in
Britain to make use of video-recording of
programme delivery. We had also experimented
with practical approaches to the teaching and
learning of individual interviewing skills (Raynor and
Vanstone 1984). From 1996 onwards we became
involved in a research partnership with the Probation
and After-Care Service in the Channel Island of
Jersey, which was an early and exceptionally
committed pioneer of ‘what works’ and of practice
evaluation. Dr. Ugwudike joined our research team
in 2008 while completing her own research on
compliance with supervision (Ugwudike 2010).
The current supervision skills study is one of a number
of studies done by Swansea researchers in the
Channel Island of Jersey, which is self-governing
with its own legal system and a small Probation and
After-Care Service closely aligned with the Courts,
as Probation Services in England and Wales were
until 2001. Previous work in Jersey has concerned
risk/need assessment and the effectiveness of
supervision (see, for example, Raynor and Miles
2007), and the supervision skills study grew out of
a shared perception that developments in evidencebased practice in England and Wales had not yet
paid sufficient attention to the impact of skilled oneto-one supervision. We were particularly influenced
by the concept of ‘Core Correctional Practices’
(CCPs) developed by the late Don Andrews
(Dowden and Andrews 2004), and we had already
applied the concept of CCPs in a study of Parish
Hall Enquiries, which are a very successful method
used in Jersey to resolve offences informally and
locally. Would it be possible, we wondered, to carry
out a systematic study of the skills and methods used
by probation staff in individual supervision?