“Strong foundation” at North Wales Probation Delivery Unit, rated ‘Requires improvement’ 

Martin Jones, Chief Inspector of Probation, said: “North Wales PDU achieved some of the highest scores seen in recent inspections, with some effective frontline work to engage people on probation and support them to change. However, despite this, we again saw a PDU hamstrung by its insufficient public protection work, resulting in the overall rating of ‘Requires improvement’.”

Given these consistent deficiencies found in public protection work across the Service, from October 2025, HM Inspectorate of Probation is undertaking a new, six-month Dynamic Inspection of Public Protection of all twelve probation regions [see notes to editor].

At North Wales PDU, the Head of Service had established a positive footprint and was recognised and respected across all staff groups. The PDU covers a vast geographical area, and inspectors were impressed by the collective identity across the landscape of urban and rural areas, commenting that staff felt like they were “part of a family” and that this had aided the PDU’s ability to respond to challenges.

Leaders recognised that the quality of information sharing for the safeguarding of children and women at risk of domestic abuse needed further improvement. More work was needed to ensure probation staff were asking for the right information to understand and manage risk accurately. Positively, some activity was taking place to improve that, and some improvements had been achieved.

Mr Jones continued: “North Wales have a strong foundation to work from, and leaders were realistic and well-informed about the areas of practice in need of improvement. With a focus on protecting people from harm it has every chance of making the improvements necessary.”

The report makes five recommendations to North Wales PDU. These include to ensure processes for obtaining domestic abuse and child safeguarding information are clear, and that responses contain sufficient detail to support the assessment, planning, and management of risk of harm to others.

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 20 November 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 September 2025
6. HM Inspectorate’s Dynamic Inspection of Public Protection is a new programme and started in October 2025. The Inspectorate will be pausing its core adult programme to undertake six months of dynamic inspection activity, focusing 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. 
7. For media enquiries, please contact Louise Cordell, Head of Communications 07523 805224 / media@hmiprobation.gov.uk