This research draws on observation and interview-based research that took place between March 2014 until June 2015 to capture, in one case study area, the experience of staff during this period of unprecedented organisational change through the creation, early development, and sale of a CRC. The project capitalised on a unique opportunity to observe this period of profound change in one case study area and allowed us to capture the experiences of workers we tracked from immediately prior to the dissolving of the existing public sector probation service (from March 2014) through to their operation within a private sector based community rehabilitation company (in June 2015). The research team conducted semi-ethnographic fieldwork observing management meetings/decision-making processes throughout this time, attending staff forums and team meetings routinely throughout the fieldwork. The research team also conducted semi-structured interviews with staff from all levels of the organisation. In 2013 the Ministry of Justice announced plans to implement a policy that will see approximately 70 per cent of the work carried out by the public Probation Service being outsourced to other providers. The first stage in the process involves the creation of 21 'Community Rehabilitation Companies' (from 1 June 2014) that will be owned by the Ministry of Justice for a period of several months, prior to being offered for sale to a variety of potential providers, including private sector companies. This project examines this ‘devolution’ of the majority of probation services in one case study area. It will look at the process and implications of moving the bulk of probation work (and staff) from the public Probation Service to a Community Rehabilitation Company with an uncertain future. The project will seek to understand this process from a variety of perspectives, including those of managers involved in running the Company and probation workers engaged in supervising offenders. The researchers will attend and observe management meetings, collect and analyse policy documents and conduct interviews with staff at all levels within the organisation to record this profound development in criminal justice and, more broadly, of the process of 'outsourcing' a public service.

The project capitalised on a unique opportunity to observe this period of profound change in one case study area and allowed us to capture the experiences of workers we tracked from immediately prior to the dissolving of the existing public sector probation service (from March 2014) through to their operation within a private sector based community rehabilitation company (in June 2015). The research team conducted semi-ethnographic fieldwork observing management meetings/decision-making processes throughout this time, attending staff forums and team meetings routinely throughout the fieldwork. The research team also conducted semi-structured interviews with staff from all levels of the organization. For data storage purposes the participants were divided into three categories, namely: 1) 8 members of the Senior Management Team (SMT); 2) 20 Middle Managers (MM) and 3) 38 members of the wider staff group covering Probation Officers, Probation Service Officers, Programme Tutors and Support/Corporate Staff. Four ‘sweeps’ of research activity took place between April-June 2014; September-November 2014; December-January 2015 and then March-April 2015 to coincide with significant moments in the transition process. For data storage purposes all the interview transcripts for members of the Senior Management Team are stored in one zip folder, whilst zip folders have been created for Staff Group and Middle Managers participants that are grouped by sweep of interview activity.