An investigation into competency for working with personality disorder and team climate in the probation service

Personality disorder (PD) is highly prevalent in offender samples and is an aggravating factor for risk assessment. Working with PD may be particularly challenging and requires specific staff competencies. However little is currently known about probation staff's competency for working with this group. Self report methodologies were used to investigate probation staff's competency for working with PD, their team climate and the relationship between the two factors. Probation staff’s competency was not found to be significantly different to a sample of voluntary sector housing workers. No significant difference was found between probation public protection unit (PPU) and non-PPU staff or between qualified and unqualified staff. Two facets of team climate were associated with improved competency for working with PD, but probation staff obtained low scores for one of these facets (team vision). There is a need for staff competency development in this field. A model for improved service delivery is proposed.