The Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) responsible for managing low and medium risk offenders in Kent is doing some excellent work, but the National Probation Service (NPS), who manage higher-risk offenders, is struggling due to staff shortages. This contrasts with other areas in England and Wales, where inspectors have so far found the NPS to be generally delivering good work while CRCs are still embedding large-scale organisational change, said Dame Glenys Stacey, HM Chief Inspector of Probation. Today she published the report of a recent inspection of probation work in Kent.

The inspection looked at the quality of probation work carried out by the CRC and NPS and assessed the effectiveness of work undertaken locally with people who have offended.

The CRC had adopted a straightforward way of working and had implemented it confidently and quickly. It was committed to involving people fully in planning their own route away from crime, which was impressive. Staff morale was good, with leaders enjoying the confidence of their staff.

The quality of the work of the CRC was generally good. There was certainly more for the CRC to do so that offenders could do unpaid work in the community, and to make sure enough staff were sufficiently well trained so as to be able to do their jobs well, but overall, the CRC’s development and delivery was impressive in many respects.

NPS performance in Kent was noticeably poor when compared with other NPS areas inspectors have seen. It was struggling to establish itself, mainly because of chronic and unacceptable staff shortages. As a result, not enough was being done to protect the public from the risk of harm. Not all staff were sufficiently alert to or focused on managing those risks.

Although staff at all levels worked hard, there was a vicious circle of low staff numbers, difficulties in attracting experienced probation officers, and an over-reliance on agency and new staff. This meant unrelentingly high workloads, leading to high levels of staff absence and undesirable, unplanned changes in the probation worker allocated to cases. The quality of the work was mixed.

Inspectors made recommendations which included the CRC reducing the rate at which people were “stood down” from unpaid work placements and the NPS solving the problems of recruiting and retaining staff, and training them once they are in place.

Dame Glenys Stacey said:

“The CRC has made a really good start. Although there are still some areas for improvement, CRC leaders and staff had got on with the job in hand without being unduly deflected by organisational change.

“The NPS is in a quite different position, struggling due to chronic and significant staff shortages. This puts unrelenting and unacceptable pressure on local leaders and staff working to protect the public and deliver probation services consistently and to the right standard. With so much at stake, the national NPS and the Ministry of Justice should do everything possible to redress the clear shortfall in staffing in Kent urgently.”