The NAPO Directory was an annual publication of the name, team, role, address and contact details of every member of staff in Probation, lovingly compiled by Owen Wells who was a committed Probation Officer and NAPO member. The Directory could be found in every office, on every desk and was used to find colleagues, teams and offices in a world before computers and Teams calls. Everybody relied on the Directory for information about Probation, prisons and ‘hostels’ [now Approved Premises].

More than that, the NAPO directory was used to find old friends and colleagues, to see how people were doing and where they had got to. It contributed to the feeling of Probation being a ‘family’ where you rarely spoke to a colleague in another part of the country without having a mutual acquaintance.

You still find old copies of the NAPO directory on dusty windowsills and bookshelves in Probation Offices. Google just isn’t the same.