IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/woemps/v36y2022i6p1118-1138.html

Professionalism, Payment by Results and the Probation Service: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of Marketisation on Professional Autonomy

Author

Listed:
  • Matt Tidmarsh

Abstract

This article utilises Foucauldian understandings of the sociology of the professions to explore how marketising reforms to probation services in England and Wales, and the implementation of a ‘Payment by Results’ (PbR) mechanism in particular, have impacted professional autonomy. Drawing on an ethnographic study of a probation office within a privately owned Community Rehabilitation Company, it argues that an inability to control the socio-economic organisation of probation work has rendered the service susceptible to challenges to autonomy over technique. PbR was proffered as a means to restore practitioner discretion; however, the article demonstrates that probation staff have been compelled to economise their autonomy, adapting their conduct to conform to market-related forms of accountability. In this sense, it presents the Transforming Rehabilitation reforms to probation as a case study of the impact of marketisation on the autonomy of practitioners working within a public sector profession.

Suggested Citation

  • Matt Tidmarsh, 2022. "Professionalism, Payment by Results and the Probation Service: A Qualitative Study of the Impact of Marketisation on Professional Autonomy," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(6), pages 1118-1138, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:36:y:2022:i:6:p:1118-1138
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170211003825
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/09500170211003825
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/09500170211003825?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gill Kirton & Cécile Guillaume, 2019. "When Welfare Professionals Encounter Restructuring and Privatization: The Inside Story of the Probation Service of England and Wales," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 33(6), pages 929-947, December.
    2. Paul Clist, 2016. "Payment by Results in Development Aid: All That Glitters Is Not Gold," The World Bank Research Observer, World Bank, vol. 31(2), pages 290-319.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Jeremy Aroles & Kevin Morrell, 2025. "Marketisation and the Public Good: A Typology of Responses among Museum Professionals," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 39(1), pages 226-247, February.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Brendan Whitty & Jessica Sklair & Paul Robert Gilbert & Emma Mawdsley & Jo‐Anna Russon & Olivia Taylor, 2023. "Outsourcing the Business of Development: The Rise of For‐profit Consultancies in the UK Aid Sector," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 54(4), pages 892-917, July.
    2. Stephen Mustchin & Miguel Martínez Lucio, 2023. "The fragmenting occupation of labour inspection and the degradation of regulatory and enforcement work inside the British state," Economic and Industrial Democracy, Department of Economic History, Uppsala University, Sweden, vol. 44(2), pages 526-546, May.
    3. Matt Tidmarsh, 2022. "Professional Legitimacy, Identity, and Practice: Towards a Sociology of Professionalism in Probation," The British Journal of Criminology, Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, vol. 62(1), pages 165-183.
    4. repec:osf:socarx:hdr78_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Tomiwa S. Adebayo & Demet B. Kalmaz & Abraham A. Awosusi, 2024. "Wavelet analysis of the foreign aid and economic growth nexus in Turkey," Economic Notes, Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena SpA, vol. 53(2), July.
    6. Maren Duvendack, 2022. "Payment‐by‐results for health interventions in low‐ and middle‐income countries: A critical review," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(1), January.
    7. Asa Maron, 2022. "Public Service, Private Delivery: Service Workers and the Negotiation of Blurred Boundaries in a Neoliberal State," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 36(6), pages 1060-1077, December.
    8. Chih-Hung Yuan & Dajiang Wang & Chuanyu Mao & Feixia Wu, 2020. "An Empirical Comparison of Graduate Entrepreneurs and Graduate Employees Based on Graduate Entrepreneurship Education and Career Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-15, December.
    9. Fischer, A.M., 2017. "Dilemmas of externally financing domestic expenditures: Rethinking the political economy of aid and social protection through the monetary transformation dilemma," ISS Working Papers - General Series 629, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    10. Genevieve Coderre-LaPalme & Ian Greer & Lisa Schulte, 2023. "Welfare, Work and the Conditions of Social Solidarity: British Campaigns to Defend Healthcare and Social Security," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 37(2), pages 352-372, April.
    11. Sedlmayr, Richard, 2018. "Rewarding Poverty Alleviation: A Case Study in Payment-by-Results," SocArXiv hdr78, Center for Open Science.
    12. Ivica Petrikova & Melita Lazell, 2022. "“Securitized” UK aid projects in Africa: Evidence from Kenya, Nigeria and South Sudan," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 40(1), January.
    13. Daniel Evans & Karl Jones, 2025. "Change and Resistance in the Royal Mail: Dispatches from the 2022/2023 Postal Workers’ Strike," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 39(5), pages 1269-1279, October.
    14. Gugelev, Alice & Gungadurdoss, Avnish & Lee, Jared & Sedlmayr, Richard & Stumpf, Andrea Emily, 2019. "Conceptualizing Fiduciary Structures That Create Demand For Development Outcomes," SocArXiv 7cdsn, Center for Open Science.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:36:y:2022:i:6:p:1118-1138. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.britsoc.co.uk/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.