Evaluating a Training Programme in the Probation Service Available to Purchase

Beginning in February 1973, an experimental course was run by Durham University Business School for Durham Probation Service. The course was an innovation as far as the Business School was concerned, as no member of staff had extensive experience in the teaching of management concepts to members of a social service department. Similarly, experience of this type of management course was, for Probation Service personnel, very limited. A feature of the course was the composition of the participant group from the Probation Service. The entire top management strata were to attend, together with the area groups of Senior Probation Officers. Figure 1 illustrates the upper organisation structure of the service.