Staff profiles
Professor Paul Senior
Director of Hallam Centre for Community Justice
BA (Hons), PGCert Education; Graduate Diploma in Social Administration, Diploma in Applied Social Studies (incl. CQSW), MA
Phone 0114 225 2406 or 0114 225 5725
E-mail p.g.senior@shu.ac.uk
Professor Paul Senior is the director of the Hallam Centre for Community Justice. Paul has been involved in professional education and research for 25 years. His professional background is in the Probation Service where he worked in the youth offending field, in resettlement and in partnership with the voluntary and community sector. Between 1995 and 2001 he also worked as a freelance consultant working on many projects with the Home Office, Community Justice National Training Organisation, the Central Council for Education and Training in Social Work (CCETSW) and other national organisations.
Paul is in a unique position of being both policy developer and involved in implementation of policy. This has been particularly the case in relation to probation officer training and the professional training of other groups within the criminal justice system and most recently in work undertaken for the Government Office in Yorkshire and Humberside on developing a strategy for Resettlement (Senior 2003) and in a major national ESF-funded EQUAL project on the employment, education and training needs of women ex-offenders (O'Keeffe, 2003).
Paul has just completed a major piece of scoping work for the National Offender Management Service on the role of the voluntary and community sector. Paul has published widely on the probation service, VCS and criminal justice policy making.
Research and consultancy projects
As Director of the Hallam Centre for Community Justice Paul has oversight of a number of projects undertaken within the Centre. Examples in the last two years include
Enhancing the role of the Voluntary and Community Sector: A Case Study of Yorkshire and Humberside
Home Office/National Offender Management Service (May - Dec 2004)
This report was commissioned by the Chief Executive of the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) to evaluate at ground level, using the Yorkshire and Humberside region as a case study.
EQUAL 'Women into Work' Project
This is a £3 million ESF funded project, Round 1 funded until 2005 to investigate effective resettlement of women prisoners into employment. It is a national and transnational project (Germany, France and Sweden involved). Round 2 has just begun and continues into 2007.
Yorkshire and Humberside Resettlement Strategy
Government Office/Yorkshire Forward in the region (Launched June 2003)
This work involved a consultancy and mapping exercise to support the development of the strategy. This resulting Strategy Document is the outcome of a period of consultation and discussion across the government region.
Evaluation of the DAWN Project, ESF, Objective One Funding (2004).
The DAWN project sought to bring agencies together in North Wales to develop centres of excellence across the area, supported by satellite venues that are able to exploit existing partnership facilities in identified rural areas.
The intention is to unite agencies in the field and provide an accessible, rapid and seamless service that bridges the gap from treatment to mainstream further education, training and employment for these hard to reach and often excluded client groups. The evaluation of the DAWN partnership was undertaken in collaboration between the Research Centre for Community Justice, Sheffield Hallam University and the Social Inclusion Research Unit, NEWI, Wrexham.
Evaluation of the Sycamore Tree Programme
An evaluation commissioned by the Prison Fellowship of a restorative justice programme delivered within the prison estate that sought to increase participant's awareness of victim issues. Published in 2005.
Anti-Crime Partnership Evaluation
This is a small piece of evaluation commissioned by West Yorkshire Police and completed 2003.
Community Safety Partnerships in Yorkshire and the Humber
This is a scoping survey undertaken by a former Chief Probation Officer working as a Research Fellow with us. He has interviewed key stakeholders across the region and a report was produced Summer 2003 'Unlocking the potential'.
Community Safety in Rotherham
An evaluation of anti-social behaviour policies in the Rotherham area. Completed 2004
CIRCLE Evaluation
Working with West Yorkshire Police this innovative project seeks a more citizen-focused approach to policing in line with the government's civil renewal agenda. April 2005
The Vocational-Academic Relationship in professional training
This is a three year research project to interrogate the relationship between vocational and academic learning through the way in which the NVQ is integrated into the training of probation officers
British Journal of Community Justice
A new international journal was launched in 2002 and is jointly edited by Professor Brian Williams of De Montfort University and Professor Paul Senior of Sheffield Hallam.
Teaching interests
These include
- criminal justice policy making
- the role of voluntary and community sector in offender work
- probation practice and policy
- resettlement and reintegration
- comparative studies, particualrly Hong Kong
- modernisation and criminal justice
Recent publications
Regional Resettlement Framework: Consultative Document July 2002 (Sheffield Hallam University Press)
Pathways to Resettlement: A Strategy Document for Yorkshire and the Humber June 2003 (Sheffield Hallam University Press)
Tackling social exclusion through positive pathways to resettlement in the Yorkshire and Humber Regional Review - Winter 2003
Delivering the Diploma in Probation Studies in North Wales and Dyfed Powys: On-line Learning Explored (with Madoc-Jones I and Buchanan J,) British Journal of Community Justice, Volume 2 No 2, Summer 2003
A feasibility study of Social Enterprise for Offenders in Barnsley - a report for the South Yorkshire Offending Partnership, Spring 2004
Enhancing the role of the Voluntary and Community Sector: A Case Study of the Yorkshire and Humber Region a NOMS Report written with Simon Feasey and Linda Meadows January 2005
