POOR risk management planning of offenders and potential failures keeping the public safe have been identified by inspectors reporting on the Probation Board's (PBNI) work.
The Criminal Justice Inspectorate (CJI) and HM Inspectorate of Probation in England and Wales carried out detailed case file review of 84 probation cases and a series of interviews.
In the report released today, they praise PBNI work engaging offenders but warn it is not sufficiently focused on factors related to offending or public protection.
PBNI chief executive Cheryl Lamont said many elements of the report "are very positive", with inspectors citing "many examples of outstanding and good practice".
"The report also found staff were committed and motivated to support people in reducing their reoffending. (It) has also identified a number of strategic and operational recommendations.
"We have developed an action plan and already commenced work to address a number of the issues raised.".
Inspectors noted that a small number of cases incorrectly identified as not posing a potential "Significant Risk of Serious Harm' (SROSH) to others", some of which "should have been referred to the Public Protection Arrangements Northern Ireland (PPANI) [but] were not".
PPANI coordinates police, probation and others, managing risks posed by certain sexual and violent offenders.
Paedophile Ciaran McAuley, who was last week sentenced for a sexual assault on a teenager within hours of his release from prison, was under PPANI management. His case is not highlighted in the report.
It expresses "some concerns" about risk assessment and monitoring of cases which did not reach the SROSH threshold and a tendency for them to be "mistakenly be interpreted as no risk - which in some was clearly not the case".
They cited examples where "some risk had been identified", but forms were "not always completed to a good standard, with risk management planning lacking".
CJI has asked for the Board to develop an action plan to address this "within three months".
It said probation planning "did not adequately focus on keeping other people safe", with almost half of inspected cases finding it had not "sufficiently addressed risk of harm factors and prioritised those that were most critical".
There was no "clear, written record of the work planned to keep other people safe" in more than half of "relevant cases", with gaps in assessment "particularly concerning public protection... compounded by gaps in planning".
Gaps in communication between supervising probation officers and victim liaison officers, meant "the safety of victims was not sufficiently considered in nearly half of relevant cases".
The report also notes in more than a quarter of cases where "actual and potential victims were identified" Supervising Probation Officers "did not pay sufficient attention to protecting them".
Inspectors found "limited understanding of the triggers and motivation for offending" in more than a third of cases.
In almost half of cases there was insufficient focus "on keeping other people safe", including in instances where the offender was a current or potential "perpetrator of domestic abuse" or there were "current child safeguarding concerns".
CJI chief inspector Jacqui Durkin said "the quality of case supervision was mixed", but acknowledged "Probation Officers were committed and motivated to support people to reduce their reoffending".
"I am pleased the PBNI has accepted our recommendation and developed an action plan to implement this and other recommendations we have made."
Probation Board Chair Dale Ashford said "as one of the smallest organisations within the criminal justice system which receives less than two per cent of the justice budget the impact of austerity has been severe".
"We have worked with the Chief Executive to assist in developing a workforce modernisation strategy which is now well underway."
