The PROBATION service in the South East and East of England has been struggling with “high workloads”, inspectors have said.

The regional division has been given an overall rating of “requires improvement” during its most recent inspection.

HM Inspectorate of Probation said the division has effective staff wellbeing policies and information on performance and quality is communicated effectively.

But workloads, particularly for senior probation officers and responsible officers, are too high and are the highest of any of the seven NPS divisions.

About 16per cent of probation officer posts are vacant – a shortfall of 102 probation officers.

There are also “unacceptable delays in repairs to offices and premises”, which adversely affects staff, service users and the division’s capacity to manage individuals assessed as presenting a high-risk of serious harm.

Justin Russell, chief Inspector of probation, said: “The leadership of the division is a clear strength.

“Strategic priorities are communicated effectively, and comprehensive performance information is used to improve service delivery.

“Court work, however, is an area where audit recommendations and quality assurance reports have not resulted in improved service delivery.

“This division has significant staff shortages. This is a long-standing issue in the division.”

He added: “In too many cases, we were concerned to find insufficient attention being paid to victims in the supervision of cases.

“Actions to protect victims should be integral to the management of all cases.”

The division’s commitment to offenders’ health was commended, as well as the joined up working with mental health teams.

Mr Russell said: “The division has identifiable strengths but there are currently shortfalls in key areas of service delivery.”

Amy Rees, director general for probation at the Ministry of Justice, said work is being done to recruit more staff.

She said: “The inspector rightly praises the good work our probation staff do to support victims in the south east but there are clearly areas we need to address – including staffing levels.

“We are training more than 120 new probation officers in this region and will continue working tirelessly to boost our numbers.

“We are creating a new model for probation which will harness the expertise of the National Probation Service and the skills of the private sector to better protect the public and rehabilitate offenders.”