Recommendation 174

Communication issues arise at referral stage. Damian Hinds MP told us that “Probation practitioners are required to share information with CRS [Commissioned Rehabilitative Services] providers to enable them to engage with people on their caseloads appropriately and be responsive to individual risks and needs”. 323 Justin Russell commented that “the actual referral mechanism is not giving the providers of services enough information about the people being referred”, explaining that they are “not being told the potential risk levels of people or of their other needs”. 324 He explained that in theory, “a very comprehensive assessment is done when someone first starts their community order and that then informs their sentence plan”. 325 Niki Scordi told us that in practice “we definitely find that risk assessments are not always available”. 326 Even when they are available, Niki Scordi told us that “the quality of the initial assessment” by the Probation Service “might be limited”. 327