Matthew Millings
Biographic Data
| ID | 5238029 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Matthew Millings |
| GIVEN NAMES | Matthew |
| FAMILY NAME | Millings |
| SIGNATURE | MILLINGS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Liverpool John Moores University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1870-9435 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 13 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 25 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 13 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2013 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Policing the partnership: Structural change, organisational legitimacy and police evaluations of probation in public protection
This article explores how police actors perceive the probation service in the wake of its outsourcing and reunification during a decade of profound structural reform, offering a unique perspective on multi-agency collaboration within criminal justice. Drawing on interviews with senior leaders, frontline officers and staff immersed within partnership arrangements, the study examines how probation’s organisational legitimacy is evaluated from outsi…
A fork in the road: Probation unification in England and Wales two years on
This article presents findings from a major longitudinal research project of probation in England and Wales, arguing that the process of its ‘unification’ (re-nationalisation) continues to be a painful process whose end state remains elusive. Having previously articulated how practitioners experienced unification as ‘painful but necessary’, here, using the imagery of a journey, we argue that the speed and direction of travel have encountered a mo…
Indifference, resistance, possibility: Probation staff perspectives on the introduction of professional registration
Rehabilitating Probation is a three-year research project (2022–2025), exploring the most recent iteration of probation reform in England and Wales. This article takes as its focus the responses from interviews with a mixed sample of probation staff in one case study region (n = 56) to questions they were asked about their knowledge of the Professional Register and what implications they felt it would have for their careers. Our sweep of intervie…
Constrained voice and complicated loyalty: Understanding reasons to leave or stay working in the probation service
This article examines the complex reasons why staff choose to remain in or leave the Probation Service in England and Wales, using Hirschman’s Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Neglect (EVL-N) framework as an analytical lens. In the context of major systemic reforms, including the failed privatisation of services and subsequent reunification, the study explores the persistent staffing crisis and its impact on workforce morale, professional identity, and organis…
Anchors Through Change: Exploring Identity Work in the Unified Probation Service for England & Wales
The Probation Service for England & Wales offers an important case study for those who are interested in the impact(s) of organizational change on workers in criminal justice and, in particular, the identity work that they engage in as they move through frequent iterations of change. In this article, we draw on data from an ongoing longitudinal study of probation reform to explore identity work among a mixed sample of practitioner and management …
Making Good: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal
This paper provides insights into the predominant styles of political reasoning in England and Wales that inform penal policy reform. It does so in relation to a particular development that constitutes a dramatic, perhaps even unique, wholesale reversal of a previously introduced market-based criminal justice delivery model. This is the ‘unification’ of probation services in England and Wales, which unwound the consequential privatization reforms…
A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region
In this article, we present some initial findings from the first year of a longitudinal study of the experiences of unification by staff in one Probation Service region. Their reaction to unification is explored as well as their hopes and fears regarding the newly unified service. Despite working in what was often presented as an unsettled and fractured environment marked by on-going staff shortages – whilst at the same time having to respond to …
Whose confidence? Regional leaders’ perspectives on building confidence in a reconfigured probation service
The idea that the institutions of criminal justice should command the confidence of the public and other stakeholders is a taken for granted ‘good’, but one which has rarely been considered from the perspectives of operational leaders within those institutions. We also know little about what happens at times of crisis, when claims are made about the erosion of confidence and leaders are charged with rebuilding it. In this article, we seek to enga…
Transforming rehabilitation, emotional labour and contract delivery: A case study of a voluntary sector provider in an English resettlement prison
Scrutinising the appeal of volunteer Community Speedwatch to policing leaders in England and Wales: Resources, responsivity and responsibilisation
This article focuses on ‘Community Speedwatch’ (CSW) – a particular volunteering approach that has apparently attracted the attention of senior police decision-makers in England and Wales over recent years. It considers the significance of decisions by many Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Chief Constables to embrace CSW as a response to calls from the public for action against speeding motorists. CSW is apparently an option that ticks m…
Probation migration(s): Examining occupational culture in a turbulent field
In June 2014 approximately 54 per cent of the total probation service workforce in England and Wales were transferred to the newly created Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) as part of the government’s plans to establish a market for offender management services. This marked the beginning of one of the largest and most significant migrations of criminal justice staff from the public to the private sector in England and Wales. This article …
Criminal Justice Identities in Transition: The Case of Devolved Probation Services in England and Wales
In 2014, the coalition government's Transforming Rehabilitation reforms led to the wholesale restructuring of probation services in England and Wales. As part of this reconfiguration of probation services, more than half of the employees of public sector Probation Trusts were transferred to 21 new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) set up to manage medium-and low-risk offenders and destined for sale in the criminal justice marketplace. Thi…
Policing British Asian Identities: The Enduring Role of the Police in Young British Asian Men's Situated Negotiation of Identity and Belonging
Using data from ethnographic work and interviews with young British Asian men conducted in 2002 and again in 2012, this paper identifies the powerful real and imagined role the police play in these young men’s negotiation of belonging and identity. Experiences of policing are shown to meaningfully shape individual and collective claims of belonging. These negotiations are seen to contribute to, and be derived from, volatile climates of racism, fr…
Probation migration(s): Examining occupational culture in a turbulent field
In June 2014 approximately 54 per cent of the total probation service workforce in England and Wales were transferred to the newly created Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) as part of the government’s plans to establish a market for offender management services. This marked the beginning of one of the largest and most significant migrations of criminal justice staff from the public to the private sector in England and Wales. This article …
Criminal Justice Identities in Transition: The Case of Devolved Probation Services in England and Wales
In 2014, the coalition government's Transforming Rehabilitation reforms led to the wholesale restructuring of probation services in England and Wales. As part of this reconfiguration of probation services, more than half of the employees of public sector Probation Trusts were transferred to 21 new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) set up to manage medium-and low-risk offenders and destined for sale in the criminal justice marketplace. Thi…
Policing British Asian Identities: The Enduring Role of the Police in Young British Asian Men's Situated Negotiation of Identity and Belonging
Using data from ethnographic work and interviews with young British Asian men conducted in 2002 and again in 2012, this paper identifies the powerful real and imagined role the police play in these young men’s negotiation of belonging and identity. Experiences of policing are shown to meaningfully shape individual and collective claims of belonging. These negotiations are seen to contribute to, and be derived from, volatile climates of racism, fr…
Transforming rehabilitation, emotional labour and contract delivery: A case study of a voluntary sector provider in an English resettlement prison
Scrutinising the appeal of volunteer Community Speedwatch to policing leaders in England and Wales: Resources, responsivity and responsibilisation
This article focuses on ‘Community Speedwatch’ (CSW) – a particular volunteering approach that has apparently attracted the attention of senior police decision-makers in England and Wales over recent years. It considers the significance of decisions by many Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Chief Constables to embrace CSW as a response to calls from the public for action against speeding motorists. CSW is apparently an option that ticks m…
Making Good: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal
This paper provides insights into the predominant styles of political reasoning in England and Wales that inform penal policy reform. It does so in relation to a particular development that constitutes a dramatic, perhaps even unique, wholesale reversal of a previously introduced market-based criminal justice delivery model. This is the ‘unification’ of probation services in England and Wales, which unwound the consequential privatization reforms…
Whose confidence? Regional leaders’ perspectives on building confidence in a reconfigured probation service
The idea that the institutions of criminal justice should command the confidence of the public and other stakeholders is a taken for granted ‘good’, but one which has rarely been considered from the perspectives of operational leaders within those institutions. We also know little about what happens at times of crisis, when claims are made about the erosion of confidence and leaders are charged with rebuilding it. In this article, we seek to enga…
Policing British Asian Identities: The Enduring Role of the Police in Young British Asian Men's Situated Negotiation of Identity and Belonging
Using data from ethnographic work and interviews with young British Asian men conducted in 2002 and again in 2012, this paper identifies the powerful real and imagined role the police play in these young men’s negotiation of belonging and identity. Experiences of policing are shown to meaningfully shape individual and collective claims of belonging. These negotiations are seen to contribute to, and be derived from, volatile climates of racism, fr…
Probation migration(s): Examining occupational culture in a turbulent field
In June 2014 approximately 54 per cent of the total probation service workforce in England and Wales were transferred to the newly created Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) as part of the government’s plans to establish a market for offender management services. This marked the beginning of one of the largest and most significant migrations of criminal justice staff from the public to the private sector in England and Wales. This article …
Criminal Justice Identities in Transition: The Case of Devolved Probation Services in England and Wales
In 2014, the coalition government's Transforming Rehabilitation reforms led to the wholesale restructuring of probation services in England and Wales. As part of this reconfiguration of probation services, more than half of the employees of public sector Probation Trusts were transferred to 21 new Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) set up to manage medium-and low-risk offenders and destined for sale in the criminal justice marketplace. Thi…
Scrutinising the appeal of volunteer Community Speedwatch to policing leaders in England and Wales: Resources, responsivity and responsibilisation
This article focuses on ‘Community Speedwatch’ (CSW) – a particular volunteering approach that has apparently attracted the attention of senior police decision-makers in England and Wales over recent years. It considers the significance of decisions by many Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs) and Chief Constables to embrace CSW as a response to calls from the public for action against speeding motorists. CSW is apparently an option that ticks m…
Transforming rehabilitation, emotional labour and contract delivery: A case study of a voluntary sector provider in an English resettlement prison
A necessary but painful journey: Experiences of unification in a probation service region
In this article, we present some initial findings from the first year of a longitudinal study of the experiences of unification by staff in one Probation Service region. Their reaction to unification is explored as well as their hopes and fears regarding the newly unified service. Despite working in what was often presented as an unsettled and fractured environment marked by on-going staff shortages – whilst at the same time having to respond to …
Whose confidence? Regional leaders’ perspectives on building confidence in a reconfigured probation service
The idea that the institutions of criminal justice should command the confidence of the public and other stakeholders is a taken for granted ‘good’, but one which has rarely been considered from the perspectives of operational leaders within those institutions. We also know little about what happens at times of crisis, when claims are made about the erosion of confidence and leaders are charged with rebuilding it. In this article, we seek to enga…
Making Good: A Study of How Senior Penal Policy Makers Narrate Policy Reversal
This paper provides insights into the predominant styles of political reasoning in England and Wales that inform penal policy reform. It does so in relation to a particular development that constitutes a dramatic, perhaps even unique, wholesale reversal of a previously introduced market-based criminal justice delivery model. This is the ‘unification’ of probation services in England and Wales, which unwound the consequential privatization reforms…
A fork in the road: Probation unification in England and Wales two years on
This article presents findings from a major longitudinal research project of probation in England and Wales, arguing that the process of its ‘unification’ (re-nationalisation) continues to be a painful process whose end state remains elusive. Having previously articulated how practitioners experienced unification as ‘painful but necessary’, here, using the imagery of a journey, we argue that the speed and direction of travel have encountered a mo…
Indifference, resistance, possibility: Probation staff perspectives on the introduction of professional registration
Rehabilitating Probation is a three-year research project (2022–2025), exploring the most recent iteration of probation reform in England and Wales. This article takes as its focus the responses from interviews with a mixed sample of probation staff in one case study region (n = 56) to questions they were asked about their knowledge of the Professional Register and what implications they felt it would have for their careers. Our sweep of intervie…
Constrained voice and complicated loyalty: Understanding reasons to leave or stay working in the probation service
This article examines the complex reasons why staff choose to remain in or leave the Probation Service in England and Wales, using Hirschman’s Exit-Voice-Loyalty-Neglect (EVL-N) framework as an analytical lens. In the context of major systemic reforms, including the failed privatisation of services and subsequent reunification, the study explores the persistent staffing crisis and its impact on workforce morale, professional identity, and organis…
Anchors Through Change: Exploring Identity Work in the Unified Probation Service for England & Wales
The Probation Service for England & Wales offers an important case study for those who are interested in the impact(s) of organizational change on workers in criminal justice and, in particular, the identity work that they engage in as they move through frequent iterations of change. In this article, we draw on data from an ongoing longitudinal study of probation reform to explore identity work among a mixed sample of practitioner and management …
Policing the partnership: Structural change, organisational legitimacy and police evaluations of probation in public protection
This article explores how police actors perceive the probation service in the wake of its outsourcing and reunification during a decade of profound structural reform, offering a unique perspective on multi-agency collaboration within criminal justice. Drawing on interviews with senior leaders, frontline officers and staff immersed within partnership arrangements, the study examines how probation’s organisational legitimacy is evaluated from outsi…
Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Criminology (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Public relations (7 works) · Criminal justice (6 works) · Public Administration (6 works) · Business (5 works)