THE COMPANY looking after criminal offenders across the Durham Tees Valley area is 'requiring improvement' according to an independent inspection.

Durham Tees Valley Community Rehabilitation Company (CRC) was praised for its organisational strengths but was still given the second lowest rating by HM Inspectorate of Probation.

The Chief Inspector of Probation Dame Glenys Stacey said that governance at the CRC, which supervised 3,729 people at the time of the inspection in November 2018, was sound.

However, despite the praise the inspection did flag up concerns about 'quality management arrangements' and 'not enough attention has been given to risk of harm and safeguarding issues'.

The CRC was recommended to improve its work in cases involving domestic abuse and child safeguarding.

Dame Glenys said: "Poor record keeping and poor case review practices are commonplace. We also noted that some case managers have gaps in their knowledge and skills relating to risk of harm and safeguarding."

She added: "DTV CRC’s caseload analysis indicated that there is a trend towards more violent offending. Domestic abuse featured in 40 per cent of cases. Safeguarding was an issue in 10 per cent of cases. The operating model should see such cases allocated to experienced probation officers; however, the allocation process leads, on occasion, to complex work being allocated to insufficiently experienced or knowledgeable staff.”

The CRC chief executive Bronwen Elphick said work was already underway to address some of the issues raised. She said: “We welcome the report published by HMIP and I am pleased to note we are the only CRC to date to have achieved a rating of ‘outstanding’ for leadership and organisational capability.

"Our inspection has shown we have some work to do around our ability to manage the complex and sometimes competing demands evident in managing individuals within the community.

"We are already well on the way with our action plan to address the deficits highlighted and I am confident that with continued strong leadership, DTV CRC will embrace the recommendations from HMIP and make the necessary improvements.”