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Improvements needed as Nottingham City PDU and Nottinghamshire PDU are rated ‘Inadequate’

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Nottingham City Probation Delivery Unit (PDU) and Nottinghamshire PDU have both received an overall rating of ‘Inadequate’ following inspections by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

These are the first inspections of these PDUs since being established under the unification of probation services in 2021. These PDUs were inspected separately, and two reports have been published.

Martin Jones, Chief Inspector of Probation, said: “Despite recent improvements to staffing levels and workloads, urgent improvements are required at Nottingham City PDU to protect the public and improve outcomes for people on probation. We saw a similar picture at Nottinghamshire PDU, where despite a strong identity and cohesive team spirit, service delivery was insufficient.”

Nottingham City PDU

Inspectors had concerns about the quality of work to keep people safe at Nottingham City PDU, with insufficient focus on public protection and ineffective information sharing mechanisms with police and children’s services. When safeguarding information was received, it was only used in 22 per cent of cases examined in this inspection to inform assessments.

A range of services to support people on probation were available and leaders had used diversity data to commission services for minoritised groups within the PDU. However, there were low referral rates and practitioners lacked confidence in the quality of service delivered by some providers. Consequently, people on probation were not consistently receiving sufficient services to address risk and need.

The report makes six recommendations to Nottingham City PDU, including to improve the quality of work to assess, plan for, manage, and review risk of harm and to ensure domestic abuse and safeguarding information is complete and analysed sufficiently in all cases.

Nottinghamshire PDU

Positively, staff spoke well about the support they received from managers, and the PDU was driven by the needs of people on probation, with commissioning of innovative health initiatives. However, Nottinghamshire PDU was found to be understaffed, with practitioners having to cover work to compensate for vacant posts.

The delivery of work to address desistance and reduce reoffending was a weakness for this PDU, with less than half of the people who required support with drug and alcohol misuse receiving sufficient help.

Nottinghamshire PDU have received five recommendations, including to ensure facilities to interview people on probation are safe and private, and to devise and implement arrangements for monitoring and improving the quality of sentence management work delivered by practitioners.

Mr Jones continued: “Both PDUs will be undoubtedly disappointed with the outcome of these inspections but, given the improving resourcing picture at Nottingham City and the strong staff culture at Nottinghamshire, there are some potential building blocks for success in each PDU. With an increased focus on the quality of service delivery and work to protect the public, I am confident improvements can be made.”

ENDS


Notes to editor

  1. Probation Delivery Units (PDUs) replaced Community Rehabilitation Companies (CRCs) and the National Probation Service (NPS), which merged into a unified Probation Service in June 2021.
  2. The reports will be available at https://hmiprobation.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/ on 22 May 2025.
  3. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales. 
  4. The Inspectorate uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’. The Inspectorate rates specific aspects of each service and also gives an overall rating.
  5. Fieldwork for these inspections took place in March 2025.
  6. For media enquiries, please contact Louise Cordell, Head of Communications 07523 805224 / media@hmiprobation.gov.uk