Cymraeg

Introduction

1. This report has been prepared by the Inspector with responsibility for our Welsh Language Scheme and covers the period 01 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.
2. His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation promotes excellence in probation and youth justice services across England and Wales. We do this through independent inspections, recommendations, research, and effective practice guidance.
3. In addition to our inspections, we publish regular thematic inspection reports on key issues in the criminal justice system, quality assure serious further offence reviews, conduct our own independent serious further offence (SFO) reviews, and produce annual reports each year on our findings.
4. Our independent research contributes greatly to our work and provides an evidence base, on which we base our standards for inspections and SFO review quality assurance. We also commission leading academics to provide their views on a range of related topics.
5. We use our voice to drive system change, with a focus on inclusion and diversity. Our scrutiny leads to improved outcomes for individuals and communities.
6. We receive a delegated budget from the Ministry of Justice, which for the period 2024 to 2025 was £7,205,000.
7. Our Welsh Language Scheme was approved by the Welsh Language Commissioner on 20 February 2024 and is published on our website.
8. HM Inspectorate of Probation, led by the Chief Inspector, is committed to fulfilling the responsibilities set out in our Welsh Language Scheme.
9. We are committed to ensuring, in accordance with the Welsh Language Act 1993, that in the conduct of our inspections in Wales, we will treat the Welsh and English languages on the basis of equality.

Recruitment and staffing

10. In this reporting year we have had a continued focus on increasing our recruitment of Welsh speakers. We ensure that the wording in our job advertisements is explicit in stating that we warmly welcome applications from Welsh speaking candidates. We also continue to make regular use of our established stakeholder relationships in the justice sector in Wales, to promote awareness of our vacancies. We provide both the recruitment advert and job description in Welsh.
11. We have a Welsh language mentoring and shadowing scheme which can offer one to one support, guidance, and shadowing to those who are interested in joining and learning more about the organisation. During this reporting period we facilitated two discussions between potential applicants and Inspectorate staff members in Welsh.
12. The Inspectorate currently employs two full time members of staff who are Welsh speaking. This represents a decline from the previous reporting year due to one staff member changing roles. The recruitment of Welsh speaking staff remains a priority.
13. We work with one Welsh speaking fee-paid inspector who has been deployed on inspections delivered in Wales in this reporting period.
14. We are committed to continuing to work with the probation service and youth justice teams in Wales to train some of their Welsh speaking staff to become ‘local assessors’. These local assessors will support the delivery of inspection activity in Wales. This year we held engagement events with probation and youth justice staff members who were interested in hearing more about this role, and parts of these events were delivered bilingually.

Service planning and delivery

15. HM Inspectorate of Probation designs and implements inspections in Wales of both adult probation and youth justice services. At times we work jointly with other relevant inspectorates, in Wales, these include Care Inspectorate Wales (CIW), Estyn, Healthcare Inspectorate Wales (HIW) and His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS). When working together, we promote our Welsh language scheme and are similarly cognisant of other inspectorate’s schemes.
16. Our Welsh language scheme sets out our commitment that we will provide at least one Welsh speaking Inspector on our core youth and adult inspection programmes in Wales. This has been achieved in this reporting year.
17. In preparation for both the core and thematic inspections in Wales we have engaged with the Wales Regional Probation Director and youth justice team managers in Wales. A key part of this engagement has been the gathering of information on the Welsh language preferences of those that use their services, of their staff and of the other relevant partner agencies they work in collaboration with. This early engagement has enabled us to understand the Welsh language needs of the services we inspect in Wales and supports our effective planning to meet these requirements when delivering our inspections. This engagement approach will continue over the forthcoming reporting year.
18. Information requested by HM Inspectorate of Probation in advance of inspection can be submitted in either Welsh or English. During the reporting period, we received submissions from one of the youth justice services inspected which included documentation in both Welsh and English.
19. A launch of our new youth justice inspection programme was held in Cardiff, which included a discussion with attendees on inspecting in Wales and working in a Welsh context.

Inspections delivered in Wales

20. We have completed and published the following inspections of youth justice services in Wales during the reporting period: Cwm Taf, Ceredigion, Pembrokeshire
21. For the inspections noted above, interviews with staff members in Welsh were offered. Although we did not receive any requests for meetings to be conducted in Welsh, various conversations were held in Welsh while our Inspectors were on inspection sites.
22. Although this year we have not received requests to hold meetings in Welsh, these other Welsh conversations serve to further promote and reinforce the importance of having Welsh speaking staff available on location.
23. Following each inspection, we collect feedback to evaluate how the inspection was delivered, which includes a specific focus on meeting Welsh language needs. This year feedback has positively reflected how we responded to the Welsh language.
24. For each of these inspections, the announcement letter, children’s information leaflet and consent form, and staff information leaflet were provided in both Welsh and English as per our commitment set out in the Welsh Language Scheme.
25. There have been no core inspections of probation services in Wales during the reporting period.
26. We have completed three thematic inspections that have included areas in Wales, two of which were published during this reporting year. A thematic inspection of the delivery of unpaid work, A thematic inspection of the recruitment, training and retention of frontline probation practitioners. Youth out of court disposals, which will be published Autumn 2025.
27. Our Welsh speaking fee paid inspector was deployed on the thematic inspections of the delivery of unpaid work and youth out of court disposals. We did not receive any requests for meetings to be conducted in Welsh on these thematic inspections, however during the inspection delivery several conversations were held in Welsh.
28. The thematic inspection on recruitment, training and retention of frontline probation practitioners was conducted remotely, and a Welsh speaking member of staff was available.
29. For the inspection on the delivery of unpaid work two Welsh language leaflets were provided, one for unpaid work supervisors and one for those individuals being supervised by probation.

Inspection findings in relation to the Welsh Language

30. Our core inspection work of probation and youth justice services in Wales includes a focus on how well the inspected organisation has identified and responded to requests to access their services in Welsh.
31. Our inspection findings and discussions that take place with staff during an inspection, also serve to promote the importance of recognising that those who access probation and youth justice services are entitled to do so through the medium of Welsh.
32. The inspection of youth justice services in Cwm Taf found that the service had several Welsh-speaking practitioners, and all children have access to services in either Welsh or English.
33. In Ceredigion, it was found that practitioners within the youth justice service had been funded to engage in Welsh language courses. An ‘impressive instance of restorative practice’ was found during this inspection which had been delivered in Welsh. However, the inspection also noted that the service did not routinely analyse data to track whether Welsh language needs could be consistently met. It also found that policies did not detail how the partnership arrangements working with the youth justice service would meet the needs of Welsh-speaking children placed in custodial establishments outside of Wales.
34. The findings of the youth justice inspection in Pembrokeshire were that the service had one fluent Welsh speaker and several other members of staff that had some understanding of Welsh. Our published inspection report emphasised that the service needs to monitor the number of children, parents or carers, and victims opting for services in Welsh to ensure that the needs of those that use the service can continue to be meet.

The organisation’s public image

35. We continue to use our Welsh language branding for all reports and communications in Welsh.
36. Our Welsh speaking staff are clearly identified via their bilingual name badges and lanyards.
37. We have launched a newly formatted webpage which contains a dedicated Welsh language (Cymraeg) section. This includes information about the inspectorate, our reports, consultations, corporate documents, and career opportunities in Welsh.
38. Reports on our inspections that are undertaken in Wales are published in in both Welsh and English. During this reporting year, reports written in the Welsh language were published as soon as possible following receipt from external translators. These published reports are also promoted with a bilingual title on social media platforms.

Wider Communications

39. Requests for Welsh language media interviews are referred to our Welsh speaking senior manager. One such request was made during this reporting period with the Welsh speaking senior manager interviewed for S4C’s Newyddion programme.
40. We have not received any calls or correspondence to our Manchester or London offices through the medium of Welsh during the reporting period.
41. During this reporting period we have kept in touch with partner Inspectorates, including liaison to promote the development of joint thematic inspection arrangements in Wales.
42. We continue to pro-actively engage with stakeholders which has included ongoing liaison with criminal justice leaders in Wales, and key stakeholders including Welsh Government, Police and Crime Commissioners and the Wales Centre for Crime and Social Justice (WCCSJ).
43. We attend the Youth Offending Team (YOT) Managers Cymru forum and have regular engagement with Youth Justice Board Cymru.
44. We welcome opportunities to further our understanding of the devolved arrangements for adult and children’s services, as they apply to our role in inspecting probation and youth justice services.

Staff training and development

45. New staff joining the Inspectorate this year have received input on the history and significance of the Welsh language, and our revised Welsh Language Scheme so that they understand the commitments it sets and how they can support their delivery.
46. All new staff continue to receive, as part of their induction, an equality and diversity overview which incorporates our responsibilities and commitments regarding inspecting in Wales.

Future arrangements

47. Hannah Williams, HM Probation Inspector, will continue have lead responsibility for our Welsh Language scheme, on behalf of HM Chief Inspector of Probation.

Hannah Williams

HM Probation Inspector

On behalf of

Martin Jones CBE

HM Chief Inspector of Probation