In the last decade history of social work gained a growing interest among social professionals, teachers, students and policy makers. They want to know more about the contributions the social work professions made to social welfare, community building and public safety. A website was launched, which today in 2017 presents the history of fifteen fields of social work: www.canonsociaalwerk.eu/.
Part of this is the history of Probation. In this article this history is told, following highlights as the inspiration from Great Britain, the start in 1823 and the first decades of volunteer work. Probation tried to compensate the negative effects of solitary confinement. Since the early twentieth century the role of the state was growing (Probationcharter 1910) leading to 100% financial support in 1965 and 100% control in the 1980s. The probation service was integrated in the juridicial system, but became not an stateservice. Performance was delegated to relative independant institutions, heirs of the private probation associations of the past, with strong traditions of work ethic. This history of probation shows the influence of social casework methods since the 1950s, the search for a balance between dependance and independance from the state, and the balance between punishment and resocializing. Since the 1990s the role of probation in alternative sanctions, the contribution of volunteer work to a highly professionalized probation service and the What Works-debate brought innovation and new inspiration to the field of probation service.