‘A very considerable innovation’: The introduction of ancillary workers to the probation service in England and Wales, 1968–1979

This article outlines the early evolution, in the period 1968–1979, of the ancillary role in the Probation Service in England and Wales. It explains why the Probation Service made this ‘very considerable innovation’ and argues that this development was quickly seen to be a success enabling new opportunities for practitioners and for community supervision. The article draws on various sources of data: 13 oral history interviews with former ancillaries, a further six interviews with informants who held other relevant roles in the service, and documents from national and local archives. The article concludes by pointing to the far-reaching consequences of this innovation and, particularly, its prompting of the normative debate about how and where to set the role boundary between ‘professionals’ and ‘paraprofessionals’, a debate that remains salient for the Probation Service as well as other occupations where paraprofessionals deliver frontline practice.