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“Some stability” leading to promising work at Derby City Probation Delivery Unit – inspection finds

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Derby City Probation Delivery Unit (PDU) has received an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’ following an inspection by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

This is the second inspection of the PDU since the reunification of the Probation Service in 2021, and was last inspected 2023, when it was rated as ‘Requires improvement’ overall. Since then, the PDU has experienced a sustained period of instability, with high sickness rates, workload pressures and staff vacancies, including significant turnover in senior leadership.

Martin Jones, Chief Inspector of Probation, said: “Despite significant challenges, it was pleasing to see some stability across the Derby City PDU and a staff group who were engaged and motivated to do what was best for people on probation. We also saw some promising work on desistance across our casework inspections, which were the strongest results seen in our recent probation inspections. It was disappointing that not enough progress has been made against our previous inspection recommendations.  This has resulted in an overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’.”

Inspectors were concerned that an inexperienced cohort of staff were not fully supported by effective management oversight, with the existing levels of supervision not improving the quality of work with people on probation. The learning needs of the staff were also not fully understood by leaders and protected learning time was sometimes being used on administrative tasks rather than its intended purpose.

The inspection found PDU staff had timely access to information on child safeguarding, however this information was not always being used to inform initial risk assessments, meaning the assessments did not always sufficiently set out and analyse the risks to all children.

Mr Jones continued: “I am encouraged by what we saw at Derby City. The changes brought in by the interim head of service and deputy are beginning to have a positive impact on service delivery, and I look forward to watching the service continue to develop.”

The report makes five recommendations, including to improve the quality of work to assess and review risk of harm and to provide effective management oversight to sustain the quality of with people on probation.

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 report is available at https://hmiprobation.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/ on 08 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 this inspection took place in February 2025
  6. For media enquiries, please contact Louise Cordell, Head of Communications 07523 805224 / media@hmiprobation.gov.uk