The latest inspection report on adult offending work in England and Wales was published today.

Sally Lester, Assistant Chief Inspector of Probation, said:

‘This inspection of offender management work in Warwickshire took place as part of our second programme of Offender Management Inspections. We have examined a representative sample of probation (adult offending) cases from the Trust, and have judged how often the work with each case was done to a sufficiently high level of quality.

‘Over the Trust as a whole, we judged that the work to keep to a minimum each individual’s Risk of Harm to others – i.e. the ‘Control’ purpose’ – was done well enough 84% of the time. The work to make each individual less likely to reoffend – the ‘Help’ and ‘Change’ purposes – was done well enough 81% of the time. Work to maximise compliance and enforcement was done well enough 82% of the time. A more detailed analysis of our findings is provided in the main body of this report, and summarised in a table in Appendix 1. These figures can be viewed in the context of our findings from the areas and Trusts where we have inspected so far – see the Table below.

‘In Warwickshire we found enthusiastic practitioners and committed managers. The Trust takes pride in the quality of service delivery and has an organisational culture which promotes learning and development. We saw some good work being done with offenders to protect the public. The Trust also achieved positive outcomes for offenders many of whom made good progress in reducing factors linked to their reoffending.

‘Overall, we consider this a very creditable set of findings. We are confident that Warwickshire probation Trust is well placed to build upon this solid foundation and to take forward further improvements in the quality of offender management.’

	Scores from the English regions that have been inspected to date			Scores for Warwickshire
	Lowest	Highest	Average
‘Control’ – ‘Risk of Harm to others’ work (action to protect the public)	64%	83%	74%	84%
‘Help’ and ‘Change’ – Likelihood of Reoffending work (individual less likely to reoffend)	62%	82%	73%	81%
‘Punish’ – Compliance and Enforcement work (individual serves his/her sentence)	69%	86%	79%	82%

Download a copy of this press release (PDF, 329 kB) (PDF 0.33mb)

Notes to editors:

1. Download a copy of the report. (PDF, 699 kB) (PDF 0.70mb)
2. This Offender Management Inspection 2 programme started in September 2009. Adult offending work is being inspected by visits to all NOMS areas and Trusts over a three-year period from September 2009.
3. The purpose of offender management has been usefully characterised as to ‘Punish, Help, Change and Control’ each individual offender, in accordance with the need of the individual case. Although our detailed inspection findings can seem rather technical for the general reader, our headline findings can be related to those ‘plain language’ purposes. We have given particular attention to the ‘Control’ purpose – the Public Protection aspect of the work – since this is where independent inspection can add the most value. Our ‘Risk of Harm to others score’ measures how well this has been done.
4. Sally Lester can be contacted by mobile 07917 084763 or by email sally.lester@hmiprobation.gsi.gov.uk (E-mail address)