Inspectorate highlights from 2025

Firstly, our new website was launched in March 2025, and we worked alongside MoJ digital to ensure the new site meets the necessary accessibility requirements, provides a more seamless user experience, and highlights key information. We began moving to HTML reports on the site over the summer and will be continuing our work to deliver improved accessibility and more accurate search functionality.

Since the publication of our last Corporate Plan, we have published four new thematic inspections on the delivery of unpaid work, the recruitment, training and retention of frontline probation practitioners, safeguarding adults in the Probation Service, and a joint inspection with HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services on the use and effectiveness of out-of-court disposals. We also published our first thematic review, revisiting the topic of domestic abuse and exploring progress against recommendations made to HMPPS in 2023. These have been well-received across the sector, generating useful feedback and discussion which has fed back into our core inspection and research programme.

The Inspectorate remains dedicated to highlighting and sharing the effective practice we uncover during our inspections. Four effective practice guides have been published in 2025 based on findings from our thematic inspections. These included the introduction of new regional effective practice spotlights based on findings from our regional inspections, which set out the strongest case examples across several themes related to case management. Our aim is to highlight that, even where our inspections find challenges and areas for improvement, we still find many areas of strength and excellent delivery. We have also been pleased to see work highlighted in the guides as ‘effective’ being rolled out nationally, for example the CASPO from our MAPPA guide.

We completed our youth justice inspection programme in March and Spring 2025 saw the launch of our new youth programme following a series of roadshows, pilots, and consultations. The new programme puts children and victims at the forefront, drives improved practice, increases the focus on victims and allows the inspectorate to remain agile and proportionate. We have now published 11 youth justice reports under our new inspection standards, to positive feedback from the inspected services.

The publication of our national inspection in April found major shortfalls in national arrangements to support service delivery and keep people safe and, over the year we concluded inspections in the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands and Wales regions of the Probation Service where again, public protection was an area of weakness across all PDUs and regions inspected.

The consistent insufficiencies found in public protection practice prompted a pause in our adult inspection programme, and we began a six-month dynamic inspection of public protection, with fieldwork beginning in the South Central region in late October. The first report is due to be published in the New Year, and each report will be followed by follow-up activity with strategic leaders and managers to identify what can be done to support and guide improvement.

This year also saw the first inspection from our new Approved Premises inspection programme, which comes at a pivotal point for the Probation Service. The number of places available in APs has been under pressure in recent years, and this is pressure is likely to increase following the introduction of Probation Reset, SDS40 early release scheme and the implementation of the Sentencing Bill. Until now, no independent scrutiny of APs has taken place, and our aim is to provide a clear and balanced picture of how well the Probation Service is working to protect communities through the AP network.

In May, we published our two-year Participation Strategy, outlining our approach to integrating participation into our work with people on probation, as well as children, parents, and carers. We have established a lived experience advisory group for adults who have experienced probation services and are engaging with children though child advisory groups in youth justice services across England and Wales.

Our research work continues to be well-received, with our output including ten Academic Insights, two Research & Analysis Bulletins, six academics providing their Reflections on Research and a new section on our website focused on relationship-centred services. Our new consultation on thematic inspection and research programmes for 2026/2027 is currently taking place, and we will be sharing the selected topics in the New Year.

In October, we decided to permanently end development on our Inspect Plus inspection tool, but work is underway with MoJ digital to explore alternative long-term solutions for recording inspection activity, and we look forward to sharing more about this project in 2026.

Finally, our 2024/2025 annual monitoring report for our Welsh language scheme highlights our commitment to working with the Probation Service and youth justice teams in Wales to train some of their Welsh speaking staff to become local assessors and outlines our commitment to ensuring there is at least one Welsh speaking inspector on our youth and adult inspection programmes in Wales. We look forward to continuing and expanding the Inspectorate’s commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion across all our programmes throughout 2026 and beyond.