Hampshire probation service fails to improve as it has too few experienced staff, inspectors find

An inspection by HM Inspectorate of Probation found work at Hampshire & Isle of Wight Community Rehabilitation Company had seen a ‘sharp decline’.

The organisation is tasked with supervising offenders on community sentences from court and is run by Purple Futures, owned by Interserve.

But a cost-cutting reorganisation has caused ‘profound’ damage to the service.

Changes were made in 2019 due to a ‘reduced income’ coming into Purple Futures.

The report said: ‘Complex casework has been assigned to responsible officers beyond their capability, who have not had sufficient time to develop the necessary core skills.

‘Existing skilled staff at all levels have had to manage high workloads, which has compromised the quality of their work.

‘Management oversight has been stretched and has not attended to risk of harm indicators well enough.’

There had been a 38 per cent cut in senior case managers, and 45 per cent of lower-grade case managers were new.

The report, published today, said no progress had been made on three out of four recommendations made by HMIP the previous year. Probation was praised for its work with prisoners coming back into the community.

Chief Inspector of Probation Justin Russell said: ‘In 2018-2019, Hampshire & Isle of Wight was the only one out of 21 CRCs to be rated “Good”.

‘On our return, it was disappointing to find a sharp decline in the quality of work with individuals under probation supervision.

‘We have concluded this is directly related to a shortfall in sufficiently trained and experienced probation staff.’

He added: ‘After the last inspection, we warned that substantial changes to the workforce would put the quality of work at risk.’

The CRC was established after then-justice secretary Chris Grayling part-privatised probation in 2014. But MPs on the Public Accounts Committee last year ruled the move a disaster, and services were in a ‘worse position’.

Services across the country are due to be renationalised by June next year.

Melanie Pearce, director of operations at the CRC, said ‘resourcing pressures resulting from the Ministry of Justice’s original contracts’ meant cuts had to be made.

She added: ‘We launched a robust action plan in early 2019 and believe the training measures we already have in place have gone a long way to addressing the issues highlighted by the HMIP report. Protecting the public is our priority and we are proud of the services we deliver.’