The Community Rehabilitation Company in Cumbria showed the best probation work HM inspectors had seen in a private company since they started inspecting the reshaped system three years ago, according to a report published today.

The work of the public National Probation Service (NPS) in Cumbria was also good, though inconsistent in ‘pockets’, said Dame Glenys Stacey, HM Chief Inspector of Probation.

In 2014, the government’s Transforming Rehabilitation programme changed the probation landscape in England and Wales, making the NPS responsible for higher-risk offenders and creating 21 private community rehabilitation companies (CRCs) to supervise medium and lower-risk people, the bulk of more than 260,000 adults under probation.

Cumbria and Lancashire CRC is run by Sodexo Justice Services in partnership with Nacro; it is the third largest CRC-owning company, with six CRCs supervising 18% of the national CRC caseload. At the start of 2017, HM Inspectorate of Probation inspected Sodexo’s work in Northamptonshire and Suffolk. Neither was performing well. More recently, Sodexo’s CRC in South Yorkshire was found to be much better.

Publishing the latest report today Dame Glenys said: “The quality of the work within Cumbria is good overall. The NPS (its North West division) is providing a good-quality service for the most part but, as elsewhere, there are pockets of inconsistency. Staff are working hard with complex cases and are appropriately focused on protecting the public. However, more needs to be done to realise the full potential of the service so as to make a bigger difference to people’s life chances.”

The inspectorate, she added, “found exceptional practice at the CRC, the best we have seen in a CRC since we began inspecting CRCs and the NPS on a regular basis following Transforming Rehabilitation. The enduring values of probation and evidence-based professional practice shone through, case after case, in our inspection.

“Not all is well, though. Poor working conditions in some offices and the open-plan booths we have found in Sodexo-owned CRCs elsewhere made things difficult for service users and staff alike.” Also, the CRC’s supply chain of services – those support services it commissions from other community organisations, in both the private and voluntary, third sectors – was too thin. Commercial considerations and uncertainties had inhibited development by the Cumbria CRC of the supply chain.

“Nevertheless,” Dame Glenys said, “responsible officers have been tireless and remarkably conscientious in their persistent engagement with service users and their creative approach to the delivery of effective interventions. And staff  have remained focused on the critical issues, especially the protection of the public and safeguarding of children.

“That is exactly what we expect of probation services, and it is a delight to see it provided by the CRC in Cumbria.”

 

– ENDS –
 Notes to editors:

 

1. The report is available at justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmiprobation from 05 October 2017.
2. Since the introduction of Transforming Rehabilitation (TR) in June 2014, HM Inspectorate of Probation has reported on its implementation and produced the last of five Transforming Rehabilitation reports in May 2016. In April 2016, a new programme of regular inspection of adult probation services, known as Quality & Impact inspection, began. Cumbria is the thirteenth area to be inspected in that programme.
3. In this inspection reported on today (5 October), HM Inspectorate of Probation examined adult probation work delivered in Cumbria by the Cumbria and Lancashire CRC and the NPS North West division.
4. The CRC is one of six owned by Sodexo Justice Services in partnership with Nacro and the fourth inspected under the inspectorate’s Quality & Impact programme. It is the second time we have inspected in the North West division of the NPS.
5. For further information please contact John Steele, HMI Probation Chief Communications Officer, on 020 3681 2775 or 07880 78745, or john.steele@justice.gsi.gov.uk