The cost of caring
The most recent (21 August 2026) in the Probation Inspectorate’s Academic Insights series explores compassion fatigue in probation practice. “The cost of caring: compassion fatigue in probation practice” was produced by Dr Anton Roberts from the Policy Evaluation and Research at Manchester Metropolitan University. The report highlights the relevance of compassion fatigue as one of the vicarious harms faced by probation practitioners.
The report show how many of the skills and attributes associated with effective practice, such as high levels of empathy and a strong desire to support those in need, can also make practitioners vulnerable to compassion fatigue. Harm is most likely to occur when the repeated demands of caring and exercising emotional labour are combined with organisational and operational pressures, many of which can be found within the Probation Service, including resource constraints and high caseloads.
Before turning to the report itself, I think it is worth mentioning that this is the 75th Academic Insight produced by HM Inspectorate of Probation since February 2019. I’d personally like to commend the Inspectorate for commissioning this series and, in so doing, making a whole range of recent research in the probation and youth justice space easily available to practitioners and everyone else with an interest in desistance practice.
Vicarious traumas
Dr Roberts starts by setting the issue of compassion fatigue in the context of a growing understanding of the vicarious traumas that many professionals (including nurses, probation, prison and probation officers) confront in their working lives. The infographic of the common frontline harms that many probation staff and other professionals have to face (which I have reproduced below) will, I am sure, resonate with many readers.
Compassion fatigue and burnout
Much of the research relating to compassion fatigue (CF) comes from the nursing field. Dr Roberts says that CF occurs through a combination of relationally and emotionally placing yourself in the position of another – demonstrating considerable compassion and empathy. The literature consistently identifies the following features of CF:
- assisting often complex individuals with trauma-filled histories
- chronic overuse of empathy in the relief of suffering
- a requirement to provide a high level of care with relational closeness
- responsibilities for assisting clients with physical, emotional, and psychological growth
The author goes on to say that:
“it would be difficult to overstate the considerable challenges faced by probation practitioners in their everyday working lives. They must manage high-pressured, emotionally and intellectually demanding cases, and balance the goals of rehabilitation and public safety.”
The report very helpfully lists six key approaches for reducing compassion fatigue:
- Increase sensitivity. There are countless signs and symptoms beyond frequent staff absence that suggest the presence of CF. Opportunities should be explored to add knowledge of CF to existing psychological monitoring of staff wellbeing within the Probation Service.
- Adopt wider best practices Training should be augmented with examples of best practice outside of the field of probation. Homelessness provision, for example, offers considerable expertise in boundary management, trauma-informed leadership, goal alignment, fostering peer support networks (e.g. shared problem solving), and advice on safe spaces that allow for decompression and open dialogue.
- Promote reflexivity Elements of reflective supervision have already been implemented within the Probation Service. CF-related questions could be incorporated into existing practices, thus creating professional space to decompress and voice any potential concerns/risks.
- Foster protective factors The literature reveals many factors that can generate staff resilience to CF. These include greater importance placed on support networks (both formal and
informal), promoting positive work cultures that reduce fear of performance related judgement, and cultivating procedures that increase professional competence. - Adopt positive and strength-based approaches Strength-based approaches should be promoted to counter staff discourses of apathy/cynicism and examples of positive staff conduct should be highlighted where practitioners have acted ethically, professionally and courageously, despite an array of system pressures.
- Target interventions Interventions should be specific and targeted, recognising that individuals are impacted differently – CF can be more severe with less experienced professionals and female practitioners, who report increased levels of emotional exhaustion.
Thanks to Vitaly Gariev for kind permission to use the header image in this post which was previously published on Unsplash.
