Introduction

The coronavirus pandemic sent shockwaves around the world, resulting in radical changes to how people in all sectors were expected to do their jobs. The probation service was no exception, with the National Probation Service (NPS) in England and Wales introducing the exceptional delivery model (EDM) following the announcement of the first lockdown on 23 March 2020. This chapter focuses on the impact these changes had on the service, staff and people under supervision. The EDM led to unpaid work (UPW) ceasing (temporarily at least), a pause to the delivery of accredited programmes for all but the highest-risk individuals (which were delivered on a one-to-one basis) and most court-related activities being suspended (Phillips, 2020). The EDM mandated the completion of assessments to review risk management actions and sentence plan objectives for all individuals subject to community supervision (House of Commons Justice Committee, 2020a; Napo, 2020) and determine the method and frequency of supervisory meetings under the new model of delivery (Napo, 2020). Face-to-face meetings with people on probation were reduced in frequency to enable people to adhere to the ‘stay at home’ message, and most probation practitioners quickly transitioned to working from home. Face-to-face meetings were limited to people assessed as posing a very high risk of harm, prison leavers reporting for their initial appointment, people managed in accordance with counterterrorism legislation and, finally, those without access to remote communication. Where face-to-face meetings were deemed necessary, these were conducted at a probation office and/or via doorstep visits at the client's home.

Remote communication thus became the primary method for delivering community supervision. Clients were contacted by telephone, WhatsApp and Skype, with video messaging to be used wherever possible (Napo, 2020). Remote supervision was considered inferior when compared to traditional face-to-face contact, so contact requirements were increased to twice the frequency (Napo, 2020). As the pandemic progressed, this requirement was relaxed to allow greater professional judgement, ameliorate logistical difficulties and respond to a perception that these additional reporting requirements were too onerous for people under supervision.