Theme 3: Motivation and Commitment

The PSM participants spoke at all three time points about what motivated them to join the scheme. The participants’ commitment to putting their motivation into practice and to the scheme itself was also discussed.

Motivation to Help Others. Consistently the participants expressed apparently selfless or pro-social motivations for becoming PSMs;

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“I actually care about prisoners. You think they’ve got no one now, no family, no support,

staff are bullying them.” - Frankie, TP1.

“I’ve been interested in trying to help change the system, and what I mean by the system is the help that people get.” - Eric, TP2.

Whilst this motivation to help others was referenced at all time points, it was most frequently raised at time point one, where the participants described this more often as their sole motivation.

Motivation to Help Self. The PSM participants also spoke about their motivation to gain personal benefits from partaking in the scheme. These benefits were varied and included having power, being appreciated, the excitement of being involved in something new and acquiring skills that could be applied to future work in the community;

“It gives you the power to sit down with someone and implement the ways that you’re going to be taught and I thought, that sounds amazing.” - Ollie, PSM, TP1.

“I’m hopefully going to be a mentor when I got on the outside, like mentoring gang members

and stuff, kids that are vulnerable to get into gangs and stuff like that. So, hopefully that will

help.” - Leroy, PSM, TP2.

“We’re almost pioneers in a way. Quite nice that.” - Olu, PSM, TP1.

“Gives you an appreciation that you’re respected, your opinion matters to someone, so in

that sense that’s what makes you feel better.” - Eric, PSM, TP2.

At time point two, Eric and Theo expressed frustration about not feeling recognised and appreciated, suggesting that this motivating factor was not being actualised;

“You feel unappreciated for the role that you’re doing, you know, you’re helping staff out as well as other lads, because these problems, if we weren’t around, the staff would have to deal

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“You need support from staff and obviously the prison, because the job you’re doing, you want to feel it’s valued and you want to feel that you’re respected for doing it.” - Theo, PSM,

TP2.

From most of the interviews the PSMs appeared motivated by both the desire to help others, and the desire for personal gain. Chris nicely summarised this dual motivation;

“I thought, well I might as well be able to help others but help myself at the same time, because with this course even though it's helping others with their problems it's also helping

me as well with my problems.” - Chris, PSM, TP3.

The Motivation of Others. Whilst all the participants felt that they themselves had valid motivations, at all time points there were questions raised about the motivation of their fellow PSMs, and their predecessors;

“George is young, yeah, he’s just daft upstairs, I think he just does it, yeah, just to look good and wear the T-shirt, do you know what I mean?” - Ollie, PSM, TP1.

“Not one of them have got a sticker on the door saying that they’re a problem solver. So it

makes me question it about why have you actually done it then?” - Theo, PSM, TP2.

“Different lads that are in here for they want, to get their cat D, they want early release or they just going to do that to make it look good. There’s lads that generally want to do it ‘cause of self-development, might help them in career aspects. And, certain lads that actually

want to do it ‘cause they want actually to help.” - Jake, PSM, TP3.

Commitment. Whilst the participants all described factors that had motivated them to engage in the scheme, there was some variation in their commitment to the role, and how committed they saw their fellow PSMs as being;

“Everybody’s really keen.” - Olu, PSM, TP1.

“A few people dropped out they didn’t really believe in the scheme, which I’m still on the fence.” - Jason, PSM, TP1.

Page 69 of 169 Some of the participants spoke about the future of the scheme, suggesting a longer- term commitment and an interest in its progression past their time as PSMs;

“Hopefully it will be like a snowball effect. Then hopefully in time the numbers of drug abuse

and self-harm will go down a lot more.” - Jason, PSM, TP1.

Whilst there was variation within each time point, a trend emerged with the

participants being more committed to the scheme at time point one than at time point three. It is possible that this drop in commitment related to the increased barriers that the PSMs perceived to them being able to do their role, which is discussed in Theme 5 (Impact on Others). At time point two most of the participants had just completed their training, so it was not clear whether their motivation was sustained into committed action.

Whilst the PSM participants at time point three were not as active in the role as their predecessors, there was still belief in the principles underpinning the scheme and in its potential. Jake held a view that one day the scheme could become nation-wide, this appeared to underpin his motivation to be involved, with him viewing himself as a pioneer;

“It’s going to be a good couple of years before this actually starts to take shape and take

movement. But I’m just doing it just for the long run ‘cause if there’s no one involved in it then it’s not going to happen.” - Jake, PSM, TP3.

The participants appeared to see the 7-steps as an effective way of managing problems;

“Their [young offenders’] heads are full of all kinds of different problems and I just think that if they actually have people, even staff trained dealing with the…the 7-steps. It can stop

people taking it further, smashing their cells.” - Jake, PSM, TP3.

This idea that the steps would be most helpful for young offenders was shared by Chris, who spoke about how he had tried to introduce the steps to the youth offending team in the community, demonstrating a commitment to the ideas underpinning the project;

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“It's like before I come back in I actually spoke to the youth offending team to try help the younger generation.” - Chris, TP3.

Chris’s own experiences of talking about his problems and finding this beneficial also contributed to his belief in the scheme;

“I've had problems in the past where I haven't wanted to talk to people and it's made my

problems worse, you know what I mean, until a few year back where at one point I needed

someone to talk to, had that person to talk to and I felt better for talking.” - Chris, TP3.