Martin Jones, the Chief Inspector of Probation, published three inspection reports in February 2026. Two of them, on the South West and South Central probation regions, set out strong concerns. The third was positive. It covered the youth justice service in the London borough of Barking and Dagenham.
The reports came in the same month as a highly critical report on probation from MPs on the Public Accounts Committee.
England has twelve probation regions. South West covers Devon and Cornwall, Dorset, Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, and Bristol and South Gloucestershire. The South Central region takes in Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, West Berkshire, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.
The inspectorate examined both regions under its new Dynamic Inspection of Public Protection programme. It introduced the programme to look at public protection after earlier concerns.
In the South West, Mr Jones found a largely inexperienced workforce. Staff there reported significant gaps in their training. Yet almost all of them believed they had the skills and knowledge for effective public protection work. Mr Jones called this worrying. In practice, he said, that confidence did not lead to effective risk management in every case.
Senior leaders reflected that the pace and scale of operational workload had squeezed out routine chances to embed learning. Mr Jones described this as a significant barrier to stronger public protection work. “It is vital this is remedied,” he said.
Mr Jones found some positive developments in South Central. However, he said systemic challenges, rapid policy changes and inconsistent assurance mechanisms overshadowed them. He also pointed to continuing delays in sharing information between agencies. These, he said, undermined the region’s ability to deliver high-quality public protection work despite some good work.
The youth justice service in Barking & Dagenham achieved an overall rating of ‘Good’. Mr Jones said its practitioners were skilled and motivated. He added that they had worked hard to improve the service’s work with children since the last inspection in 2018.
“The strong focus on education, training, and employment has resulted in a service that is aspirational for its children,” he said.
