Lack of training and knowledge means probation officers are not
adequately assessing risks to children and others from offenders
addicted to synthetic drugs such as Spice, according to a report
from HM Inspectorate of Probation.
Launching the report, Dame Glenys Stacey, HM Chief Inspector of
Probation, said work to tackle the prevalence, impact and
treatment of ‘New Psychoactive Substances’, particularly
synthetic cannabis, was lagging behind their use by offenders in
the community.
The report follows an inspection by HMI Probation (HMI
Probation) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) in five major
cities. Inspectors were particularly concerned that risks to
children were not fully assessed.
The report noted: “We saw case records where responsible officers
(front-line probation officers) were aware that service users
(offenders) who reported using NPS daily were on their way to see
their children. Such safeguarding concerns had not been
sufficiently analysed.
“Worryingly, probation providers did not routinely consider the
risks associated with NPS use to groups such as children, staff,
prisoners or the wider community, despite there being enough
known about the unpredictable behaviour that could be displayed
by those using the drugs.”
The report makes clear that NPS use is still relatively limited
compared to abuse of alcohol and drugs such as cocaine and
heroin. However, it notes that offenders under probation obtain
Spice and other NPS because they are cheap and difficult to
detect in tests.
The unpredictable behaviour of those on NPS is captured in stark
detail in the report. One offender told
inspectors: “It’s rife and easy to get, I used
it ‘coz cannabis can be detected but Spice can’t be tested for.
It’s the pound shop brown. I am seeing a lot of it, especially
with the homeless. When they have been using alcohol as well you
can see that they are drunk with slurred speech but when they use
Spice it takes over them. Spice is going to destroy this
world”.
One probation officer said: “People are crazy when they
are under the influence, one confused me for a fire hose when he
was under the influence”.
Dame Glenys said records on NPS were poor but “such records that
are kept show that NPS are used largely by the homeless community
and by other vulnerable people, including those who offend. Many
offenders first experience NPS in prison and are then released
with a dependency.”
Inspectors found that services tended to deal with the
emergencies created by NPS use rather than addressing the
long-term causes. An exception was found in Newcastle, where
Northumbria Police took a lead role with other agencies to tackle
the supply of NPS and understand and respond to local concerns.
However, many NPS users were not accessing available
services. All the individuals whose cases were
inspected were known either to have used or be currently using
NPS, yet probation assessments lacked sufficient information to
explore the pattern, level and funding of NPS use. Many users
experienced problems with housing, mental health and
relationships and finances but responsible officers rarely
identified this. These people ended up sleeping rough in an
environment where NPS were easy to obtain and frequently used.
Overall, Dame Glenys said:
“We found that probation staff and
even some substance misuse service staff had a low level of
awareness of NPS. Screening tools for identifying drug use were
not geared to NPS. Probation staff did not have structured,
in-depth training about NPS and how to deal with dependency, and
lacked the confidence and knowledge to quantify the problem and
to address it.”
- ENDS -
Notes to editors:
- The report is available at www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation at
00.01 on Wednesday 29 November 2017.
- The report - New Psychoactive Substances: the
response by probation and substance misuse services in the
community in England – looked at probation cases in
Hackney and Tower Hamlets in London, Newcastle, Leicester,
Brighton and Bristol.
- The National Probation Service supervises those who pose the
highest risk of harm to the community. Private CRCs supervise
those assessed as medium or lower risk. See Appendix 2 of the
report for details of the inspected CRCs and National Probation
Service divisions.
- The joint HMI Probation and Care Quality Commission team
carried out inspections in May and June 2017.
