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Making research and effective practice work for the frontline: launching REP-N

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How do we make sure that research and effective practice products are useful to the people delivering probation services every day? And how do we learn more about what happens when they are used in practice? 

These questions form the basis of the Inspectorate’s new Research and Effective Practice Network (REP-N), hosted by Helen Cox, Effective Practice Lead and Robin Moore, Head of Data Analysis and Research. 

The REP-N brings together frontline staff and leaders from across the probation service and creates a direct link with HM Inspectorate of Probation, providing a forum for quality development. In meetings, members are given an opportunity to review our research and effective practice products, share their experience of using them and help us understand how our work can best support improvement. 

The network has four main aims – to:  

  • strengthen the usability, impact and reach of our publications 
  • support the practical application of evidence and inspection learning 
  • create a two-way feedback loop with operational delivery  
  • help us understand how our products are being used in practice. 

The first REP-N session took place in September and focused on the Dynamic Inspection of Public Protection Effective Practice Spotlight. We wanted to explore member’s feedback on the resources as well as explore how they could be used, shared and applied in different operational settings. 

At the end of the session, members made practical commitments about what they would do to promote the materials, including taking resources into quality development and team meetings, using them in one-to-one and reflective practice sessions, incorporating them into improvement planning, sharing them with senior leaders, and promoting them across regions.  

This will help ensure that inspection learning is shared, used and built into improvement activity. Our aim is not only to share examples of effective practice, but to explain the conditions that helped them develop and succeed. 

The REP-N is equally about what we can learn from practitioners. Members will help us understand what is useful, what could work better, the barriers to applying learning in practice and how we can develop our research and effective practice offer. We will feed back to members about how their contributions have influenced our work. 

As the network develops, we will continue to explore ideas, listen to operational experience and learn more about how research and inspection findings can translate into practical improvement. 

Would you like to become a REP-N member? Email us to find out more.