Probation services in the county have been told to improve after an inspection.

Probation services here are run by the Kent, Surrey and Sussex (KSS) probation service, which has received an overall regional rating of Requires improvement after being inspected by His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Probation.

Probation services supervise offenders to be released into the community while protecting the public.

The inspectorate found the quality of work delivered to manage people on probation was insufficient, with particularly “poor and concerning” results in the quality of court reports and public protection.

In contrast, statutory victim work, where the service contacts victims at the beginning of their perpetrator’s sentence and approaching their release from custody, was delivered to a high standard and there were “clear strengths in the area’s overall strategic arrangements”.

This was the first regional inspection of the inspectorate’s current programme.

Martin Jones, chief inspector of probation, said: “Staffing in the region was in a fragile position. Despite improvements made to staffing numbers through proactive recruitment, significant gaps were still present - national recruitment limitations and insufficient salaries to cope with the cost of living in the region were hampering the region’s ability to resource the service appropriately.

“Levels of experience in the region were also limited, and deficits were found with national training, with this not preparing newly qualified probation staff adequately for their role post-qualification.”

The inspection also showed improvements were needed in the quality of work to assess and manage the risks that people on probation pose to the community. This was found to be particularly poor in implementation and delivery, where only 22 per cent of cases we inspected were judged sufficient to effectively support the safety of other people.

The region’s leadership team was also found to be resilient, innovative and responsive to the challenges faced; implementing additional roles to improve quality, delivering a consistent message around improving culture and persistent in addressing unacceptable behaviour appropriately and decisively.

Mr Jones added: “This region will be disappointed with the overall findings of this inspection. The current recruitment model is unlikely to address the issues it faces regarding resourcing and a more localised and incentive-based approach is required.

“Achievements have been made by the region, but it continues to face challenges going forward.”