Probation services in the Yorkshire and the Humber region (YatH) of the Probation Service have received an overall regional rating of ‘Requires improvement’ by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Martin Jones, Chief Inspector of Probation, said: “We found some evidence of high-quality work being delivered across the Yorkshire and the Humber region, however we simply did not see it in enough cases, resulting in their overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’.”

The report praised the region’s work to secure access to police systems, resulting in timely access to domestic abuse information in most PDUs – a significant achievement, as information sharing is vital for probation success. Unfortunately, as too often seen in inspections, this information was not always being used to sufficiently inform risk assessments or the management of the individual on probation.

Inspectors highlighted the “promising progress” made in engaging people on probation and to understand the root causes of their offending; and strategic relationships with partner agencies were a particular strength. However, again, insufficient work was being completed to keep people safe and deliver court orders.

Reflecting findings across the wider Probation Service, while recruitment continues across the region, vacancies remain across several critical delivery functions. These shortages, along with a high proportion of inexperienced staff, and officers carrying workloads above 100 per cent capacity, all impacted on the delivery of high-quality services.

Mr Jones added: “The regional leaders and operational staff in YatH deserve credit for their speed in applying changes after national policy was implemented to relieve pressure on the prison population. Doing this while being understaffed and over-stretched was a tough challenge, but they understood the task before them and put in place the building blocks to drive improvements.”

This report makes nine recommendations. Six of these are for the YatH probation region, including to implement a system for directing and following up action and learning in response to themes from serious further offence reviews. Three recommendations are for HM Prison and Probation Service, including to ensure senior probation officers have sufficient capacity to undertake effective management oversight of casework.

ENDS

Notes to editor

1. Probation Delivery Units (PDUs) replaced Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) and the National Probation Service (NPS), which merged into a unified Probation Service in June 2021.
2. Yorkshire and the Humber region is one of 11 probation regions in England, with a further region in Wales.
3. This was the first inspection of probation services in Yorkshire and the Humber region since the commencement of the Inspectorate’s new adult probation inspection programme in October 2023.
4. For this report, the Inspectorate conducted fieldwork in each PDU across YaTH between 01 July 2024 and 25 October 2024. We reviewed 546 cases, of which 327 were subject to a community sentence and 219 were subject to release on licence.
5. The report is available at justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation on 05 February 2025.
6. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales. We report on the effectiveness of probation and youth justice service work with adults and children. We highlight good and poor practice, and use our data and information to encourage high-quality services. We are independent of government, and speak independently.
7. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’. The Inspectorate rates specific aspects of each service and also gives an overall rating.
8. For media enquiries, please contact Louise Cordell, Head of Communications
   07523 805224 / media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)