Recommendation 150

Much of the evidence we received related to how the Probation Service cooperates with local agencies, such as local teams of the Probation Service and of the Prison Service, the Police, the NHS, local authorities, and their contracted partners. NAPO told us that “while there are some formal approaches to mandate cooperation between agencies … too often this is lacking”, citing “the excessive workload and staff shortages faced by so many public sector bodies” as an explanation. They added that there was “a huge variance between levels of cooperation” between local agencies. 278