The London division of the National Probation Service (NPS),
which advises courts on sentences and supervises higher risk
offenders, has shown encouraging improvements over the last year,
according to a report by HM Inspectorate of Probation.
However, it still needs to address weaknesses in some aspects of
its work, including ensuring it can provide courts with full
information about potential risks to children and known partners
when pre-sentence reports are prepared. Dame Glenys Stacey, HM
Chief Inspector of Probation, said that while the NPS’s overall
court work was carried out well, inspectors “found staff
particularly hampered by a lack of access to information on child
and adult safeguarding, when they were trying to complete
assessments quickly.”
NPS staff are responsible for advising judges and magistrates
about the assessment of risk of harm and likelihood of
reoffending by the defendant, and their suitability for different
interventions. The report noted that NPS court officers “asked
children’s social care services for information about a case,
knowing that they were unlikely to receive a response within the
time available at court and the case would proceed to sentence
the same day. Such cases would then be allocated to the CRC,
where the same checks would take place. These checks might reveal
information that potentially would have altered the sentencing
outcome, allocation or initial planning.
“There was clearly a tension between avoiding unnecessary delays
in sentencing and making sure that risk of serious harm was
assessed accurately from the outset. Our view is that the safety
of known partners and children should take priority.”
As well as court work, the London NPS supervises more than 16,000
higher-risk offenders. Around 87% of them serve prison terms and
are then supervised in the community after release. The work by
the NPS to protect the public was found by inspectors to be good.
Assessments of individuals focused on the right issues and
informed good planning. However, rehabilitation work was
less consistent. Good assessments and plans did not always
translate into well-delivered services, Dame Glenys said.
“Insufficient attention was paid to addressing offenders’ diverse
needs when, of course, London is such a diverse city. In
particular, we thought services did not address the needs of
women well enough.”
Overall, Dame Glenys said the London NPS had acted on the
inspectorate’s concerns and recommendations following an
inspection in north London in 2016. “There were encouraging
signs of improvement, but more still to be
done. Importantly, we found an appetite for improvement: the
leadership team knew what needed to be done.” However, management
efforts to ensure all NPS London staff were suitably trained, and
to fill vacancies, were undermined by a lack of essential
workforce information arising from “a longstanding systems
failure” in the Ministry of Justice’s IT support network. “That
seemed inexplicable to us,” she said.
Notes to editors
-
1. The
report is published at 09.00 on Wednesday 10 January 2018
- https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation/
-
2. In
June 2014, 35 self-governing probation trusts were replaced by a
new public sector National Probation Service (NPS), under HM
Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS), and 21 Community
Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) owned by eight organisations,
each different in constitution and outlook.
-
3. In
September 2016, HMI Probation examined the quality and impact of
the work delivered by both the NPS (London division) and
the private London Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC)
across eight boroughs in the north of the capital. Given concerns
about the standard of work at that time, particularly the work of
the CRC, the inspectorate undertook to revisit London the
following year and to inspect, separately, the pan-London work of
the NPS and the CRC.
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4. The
report on the work of the London CRC will be published in early
spring 2018.
