Probation services in the spotlight

The Probation Service in England and Wales has been under a critical spotlight in recent weeks following the publication of two reports by HM Inspectorate of Probation into Serious Further Offences (SFOs) committed by people who were under the supervision of probation services. SFOs are serious and violent and sexual offences committed by people on probation. They are relatively rare, constituting fewer than 0.5% of the probation caseload (HMIP, 2023b). The occurrence of an SFO leads to an automatic review of the supervision of the case prior to the offence being committed. Reviews are ordinarily carried out internally by the Probation Service and are not published, but in both the cases of Damien Bendall and Jordan McSweeney the Secretary of State for Justice requested that the Inspectorate carry out independent reviews. The publication of these reviews at the start of the year has led to increased political and media scrutiny of probation. Both independent SFO reviews deal with horrific cases and document shortcomings in probation practice. In the case of Damien Bendall, this included failures in risk assessment, inappropriate allocation of a complex case to untrained staff and insufficient attention towards child safeguarding and domestic abuse (HMIP, 2023a). The report into the management of Jordan McSweeney’s case also identifies inadequate risk assessment, as well as delays in case allocation and failure to action a timely recall to prison as shortcomings. In both cases, the backdrop of staff shortages, compounded by staff sickness and attrition, as well as stretched practitioners and their immediate managers, feature dominantly: