A joint thematic inspection of Offender Management in Custody – pre-release

The Executive Summary includes the following:

"Information and communications technology (ICT) has developed under OMiC, with the introduction of systems to enable POM and keyworker records to be visible to COMs on probation systems, and this is welcomed. However, there remain barriers to information sharing, including keyworkers not having access to sentence plans and not all prison POMs having access to probation systems. This led to gaps in information sharing between practitioners, and work to keep other people safe not being fully informed. There was a lack of space on prison wings for one-to-one work with prisoners, which limited the opportunity to engage in focused work and address any concerns.

"Offender management in custody – delivery

Overall, keywork in the male estate was not connected to offender management and was experienced by some keyworkers and prisoners as little more than a basic welfare check. Insufficient attention was paid to the quality of keywork in relation to helping prisoners to make constructive use of their time in prison and to make progress throughout their sentence. By contrast, keywork worked well in the inspected women’s prison, building on existing good relationships and staff expertise.

The probation POM role in prisons did not always add value as intended under the model and we found significant difficulties with the handover process. POMs and managers were not always clear about pre-handover assessment requirements, and POMs did not always fully prepare individual prisoners to work with COMs. Despite transfer of almost 800 probation officers to POM roles in prisons, we found very little added value from these posts. They had little direct contact with prisoners and were not clear about their roles and responsibilities under the OMiC model. Handovers to COMs were often of poor quality and little work was completed to prepare prisoners Offender Management in Custody thematic inspection – pre-release 8 to work with COMs for their resettlement. We found little contact by POMs with prisoners, to work with and complete sentence planning with them."

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