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This article examines the concept, strongly promoted in recent Home Office policy, of partnerships between the probation service and the independent sector. Its aim is to discuss the implications of this concept for probation policy and practice. It is argued first that current debates have tended to lose sight of a long tradition of joint work between the service and the voluntary sector, and examples are given of past partnerships' which may help inform present thinking. Five central issues are then identified ‐ the divisibility of probation tasks, accountability, compatibility of aims, organisation, and funding. It is suggested that their resolution may depend upon enhanced local participation and co‐operation in criminal justice.

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The welfare 'reform' Green Paper, No one written off, outlined a range of proposals related to getting problem drug users into treatment as a first step to getting such people into paid work. This article outlines and critically engages with the contents of No one written off, particularly those aspects associated with the proposed introduction of a new social security benefit -a treatment allowance -for problem drug users. The article locates the proposed changes to income maintenance policy for problem drug users in Labour's concern with the behaviour of those people it defines as deviant and/or irresponsible. The article argues that because of the level of coercion proposed in the changes, they have the potential to impoverish further problem users. This, along with the pathologizing of problem drug users, means the proposals are likely to have little effect in getting problem users into either drug treatment programmes or paid work.

Accounts of employment experience with Hepatitis C (HCV) are scarce, particularly within a UK context where few qualitative studies are available. This article reports on a piece of empirical work which sought to explore the experiences of living with HCV in the UK, out of which the experience of employment emerged. Two standout areas of discussion in this article are the degree to which individuals felt protected in disability legislation (i.e. the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995, 2005, now part of the Equality Act 2010) and their experiences of receiving reasonable adjustments in the workplace. This research highlights the apparent lack of acknowledgement that HCV can affect employment and indeed that the difficulties faced by those with HCV are shared by other disabled people. The findings here suggest that where workplaces facilitate or allow reasonable adjustments employees were able to take up the potential that allowed them to work in sustainable ways.