This statement covers HM Inspectorate of Probation’s website (www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation).

This website is run by HM Inspectorate of Probation, which inspects youth offending and probation services across England and Wales. Our website is aimed primarily at individuals who work in these services or who are interested in our inspection findings.

We have made a few changes to our website to make it more accessible. For example, users can:

• stop scrolling on the homepage carousel
• navigate the website using an improved sitemap
• navigate PDFs using headings and links.

We are planning to make further changes to our website in Winter 2020/Spring 2021. This will include removing or replacing some features on our website.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible. For example:

• the homepage includes a series of plug-ins, which can cause issues for some assistive technology users. For example, the box to sign up for alerts is not marked up as a proper field and the social media icons on our homepage may appear to be a disproportionate size. While this is not perfect, users will still be able to use these features (they can sign up for alerts and use the social media icons to share content)
• inspection reports that were published prior to 2018 have been archived. These PDFs may not be fully accessible to screen reader software.

Feedback and contact information

Most of the information on our website is text. We do not produce reports in alternative formats such as braille or audio recordings as standard. If you would like to make a request, contact the Communications Team (communications@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)) and we will respond within 21 working days.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems not listed on this page or think we are not meeting accessibility requirements, contact the Communications Team (communications@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)) and we will look into the matter.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS).

Contacting us by phone or visiting us in person

At the time of writing, the Manchester office is closed. Find out how to contact us.

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

HM Inspectorate of Probation is committed to making its website accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

We have conducted a basic check of our website using guidance from Gov.uk.

This website is partially compliant with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines version 2.1 AA standard due to the non-compliances.

Non-accessible content

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

• Homepage when stylesheets are disabled – we found problems with the appearance of some icons that could be distracting for users, for example the size of the logos for other criminal justice inspectorates and for social media sharing can appear in a disproportionate size. It is not possible to adjust the size of these logos in the current layout, so we will prioritise fixing this issue when we change our website in Winter 2020.
• Plug-ins – we use several plug-ins on our website, for example the box to sign up for alerts on our homepage. We are unable to tailor these plug-ins, for example to mark them up as fields. Depending on the browser/technology, some users will not be alerted in an explicit way if they enter an incorrect email address. As part of the changes to our website in Winter 2020/Spring 2021, we will review the use of plug-ins.
• Meaningful links – we looked at a sample of webpages for our accessibility audit. We came across some instances where links where not meaningful, for example “click here”. We have corrected the links in our sample. As part of the changes to our website in Winter 2020/Spring 2021, we will review all links on our webpages to ensure the contents are clear to users.
• Archived reports – HM Inspectorate of Probation introduced new standards, ratings and methodology in 2018. PDFs and other documents published before 23 September 2018 fall outside the scope of accessibility regulations.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

PDFs and other documents

We have published many PDFs on our website, mainly inspection reports or guidance relating to inspections. Some inspections are historical and fall outside the scope of accessibility regulations which do not require us to fix PDFs or other documents published before 23 September 2018 if they are not essential to providing our services.

The Inspectorate introduced new standards, ratings and methodology in 2018, so we have archived all inspection reports before this time. We feel it is important that all legacy reports remain on our website for transparency reasons, but it would present a disproportionate burden to review and update/replace all these reports.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

We are planning to make further changes to our website in Winter 2020/Spring 2021. We will work with our website maintenance and hosting agency to improve the accessibility of our website including addressing areas of non-compliance.

We recognise the need for more staff training to ensure accessibility compliance is embedded in the way that we work. We will provide further training and guidance to our staff over the coming months.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 18 September 2020. It was last reviewed on 18 September 2020.

This website was last tested between 24 August and 04 September 2020. The test was carried out by HM Inspectorate of Probation staff using the Government Digital Service’s basic accessibility check. We followed this guidance to select a sample of pages to test.