Probation service has 'lost confidence' in national IT system

The National Offender Management Service (Noms) needs to identify systems that work well for individual probation trusts with a view to adapting a successful system for national use, the Commons justice select committee has said. In a report about the role of the probation service the committee says that there needs to be an effective national system used by both prisons and probation and highlights concerns that have been raised by the probation service about a lack of freedom to innovate. Heather Munro, chief executive of London Probation Trust, told the committee: "Because we have a national infrastructure the needs of individual trusts are often not met because small areas have different needs to large areas. "The ability to innovate is severely constrained, for example, it would be good to develop hand held devices for staff on community payback placements or out on home visits. This would be much more efficient and when trusts are facing competition it seems to give other providers an advantage." The document also talks about the of the failure of the £234m National Offender Management Information System C-Nomis, which was originally designed to be a single database for end-to-end offender management across the prison service and the national probation service. The project was scrapped after it ran millions over budget. The report says that there could have been value in the national contract had it come to fruition and been delivered efficiently. It goes onto say that due to the failure of C-Nomis, the prison service is now left with the P-Nomis information system that does not extend to the probation service, and its Offender Assessment System (OASys), which it also cannot share. "This was to have been a crucial building block for achieving end-to-end offender management. The probation service still has to pay the costs and is charged above market prices for basic IT equipment. While individual trusts do not want to re-invent the wheel and to create their own individual bespoke systems, we were told that they needed an efficient and responsive service to be provided by central suppliers," explains the document. The report recommends a plan put forward by Northumbria probation trust, which it describes as "efficient and practical" and says "would meet trust needs". Northumbria argues that future ICT contracts contain key specifications which allow local flexibility through a range of approved suppliers. "Such an approach would, in our view, maximise the benefits of large scale procurement whilst at the same time allowing trusts to select services that are most suited to local needs," the report says. Northumbria adds that it accepts the need for an overarching IT strategy across the wider Ministry of Justice, but stressed that trusts' needs should be taken into consideration. This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates on news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.