Probation report improvement call

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Improvements need to be made to the probation service in north Wales, according to a report.

The probation inspectorate praised work in some areas, such as public protection but said not all staff were working to a high standard.

The report noted "disappointing pockets of poor practice" on some of the cases inspected.

The management inspection took place in April and a sample of 109 cases, from a range of offenders, were reviewed.

Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Probation, Andrew Bridges, said "hard work had been put into getting the fundamentals right" and sentencers and victims, the two key user groups, were "very positive".

"Staff were committed and the frequency and quality of their supervision and appraisal was good," Mr Bridges said.

"However, not all staff were working to a high standard and we found disappointing pockets of poor practice on some of the cases we inspected."

The report said the North Wales Probation Area achieved some good results and was highly thought of by their partners from statutory and voluntary organisations.

However it identified a need for greater consistency for a high standard of practice through clear "direction and leadership from managers and board".

Some of its main findings included:

<ul class="bulletList"><li>Reports to court were generally of a good standard but the decision making process to identify which type of report was most appropriate was not always clearly evidenced; </li><li>Sentence planning needed further development; objectives were not sufficiently outcome-focussed and not always based on the assessed need; </li><li>Aspects of assessing risk of harm needed improving across all cases; </li><li>There were positive examples of provision to meet the education, training and employment needs of offenders however there were inconsistencies in screening processes; </li><li>Work by victim liaison officers to support and inform victims of serious offences was of a good standard; </li><li>A greater focus was needed on review and evaluation generally, with more emphasis on demonstrating the outcomes of work with offenders. </li></ul>