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“Significant shortfalls” in public protection practice found in West Midlands region of the probation service.

Published:

HM Inspectorate of Probation has undertaken a review of public protection measures [see notes to editor] across the West Midlands region of the Probation Service.

Martin Jones, Chief Inspector of Probation, said: “Despite strong leadership commitment and clear strategic priorities to improve public protection, the delivery of work to keep people safe was not yet meeting the required standard. Staff understood its importance however, worryingly, this was not reflected consistently in the quality of assessment, planning, and delivery.”

Context

  • This report focused specifically on public protection work being delivered across the West Midlands region of the Probation Service.
  • Eighty-four cases were inspected where the Inspectorate examined assessment, planning, implementation and delivery, and reviewing, all through the lens of public protection work.
  • The West Midlands region of the Probation Service covers 11 Probation Delivery Units (PDUs).

Findings

  • Regional leaders had placed public protection at the centre of delivery plans and staff survey responses confirmed strong awareness of public protection as a priority. However, our findings revealed significant shortfalls in practice, with effective work to keep people safe being evident in less than half of the assignments inspected (49 per cent).
  • Staffing challenges were less acute than in other areas of the country, although resourcing remained a challenge for the region with rural areas such as Herefordshire having acute recruitment difficulties which resulted in high workloads.
  • Managers were not consistently identifying practice deficits and opportunities to protect the public were missed. In 49 out of 80 cases where management oversight should have been present due to the level of risk within the case or staff inexperience, oversight was ineffective or absent.
  • Staff operated in a complex safeguarding landscape, with underdeveloped access to, and analysis of, information to safeguard children. Information to support effective child protection was available in less than two-thirds of relevant cases, and, where present, was sufficiently analysed in only 31 out of 62 assessments.
  • At the time of our inspection, national measures to manage capacity in the custodial estate were causing significant operational pressures for probation service delivery and across partner agencies. These pressures were compounded by extensive organisational changes and complex national directives intended to create capacity, but which leaders and staff described as burdensome and difficult to implement.  

Mr Jones added: “Systemic barriers, including resourcing, organisational complexity and insufficient multi-agency communication remained significant challenges for the West Midlands region to overcome. Strengthening the skills and improving the confidence of practitioners will be essential in ensuring the region can consistently meet its public protection responsibilities.”

This report makes seven recommendations. Four are for the West Midlands region, including to develop practitioners’ confidence and skills in the use of professional curiosity, and using challenging conversations to identify, analyse, assess, plan, and respond to indicators of risk effectively.

Three recommendations are for HM Prison and Probation Service, including to develop a national strategic approach to information sharing with police and children services.

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. HM Inspectorate’s Dynamic Inspection of Public Protection is a new programme which started in October 2025. The Inspectorate has paused its core adult programme to undertake six months of dynamic inspection activity, focussed solely on the Service’s delivery of public protection. It will inspect all twelve regions and inspections, then deliver follow-up activity with strategic leaders and managers to identify what can be done to support and guide regional leaders into improving work, increasing knowledge and confidence and providing a solid foundation for further improvement. 
  3. The West Midlands region is one of 11 probation regions in England with a further region in Wales.
  4. The report is available on our website 26 February 2026.
  5. HM Inspectorate of Probation is the independent inspector of youth justice and probation services across England and Wales. We report on the effectiveness of probation and youth justice service work with adults and children. We highlight good and poor practice and use our data and information to encourage high-quality services. We are independent of government, and speak independently.
  6. The Inspectorate typically uses a four-point scale: ‘Outstanding’, ‘Good’, ‘Requires improvement’ and ‘Inadequate’ for inspections, however, has opted out of one-word ratings for this inspection programme.
  7. For media enquiries, please contact Louise Cordell, Head of Communications
    07523 805224 / media@hmiprobation.gov.uk (E-mail address)