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, DameGlenys 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.

ENDS –

 

Notes to editors

1. The report was published at 9:00am on Wednesday 10 January 2018.
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.
4. The report on the work of the London CRC will be published in early spring 2018.
5. Please contact John Steele, Chief Communications Officer, on 020 3334 0357 or 07880 787452, or at john.steele@justice.gov.uk (E-mail address), for more information.