The Drug Treatment and Testing Order : early lessons : report / by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

  • National Audit Office
Date:
2004
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: The Drug Treatment and Testing Order : early lessons : report / by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Summary of a thematic Inspectorate of Probation 1 In 2002, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation decided to assess the extent to which the Drug Treatment and Testing Order had been successfully implemented. 2 The Inspectorate visited eight probation areas, drawn from seven of the nine English regions, and one from Wales. The areas were selected to provide a mixture of size and geographical spread. The eight areas selected were: Dorset, County Durham, Lancashire, Leicestershire and Rutland, London, North Wales, Suffolk and the West Midlands. The fieldwork took place between mid-May and the end of June 2002. The Inspectorate interviewed sentencers from both the magistrates' courts and the Crown Courts in each of the areas visited. In addition, all 42 probation areas were asked to provide in writing some limited information about their local arrangements. The Inspectorate's report was published in March 2003. Its main findings and recommendations are set out below. Table 1: Summary of Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Probation's thematic review | 1 The national policy There was neither a national project plan in place to The National Director ] for the provision of implement the decision to roll-out the Drug Treatment should improve ; the Drug Treatment and Testing Order, nor a minimum infrastructure for either performance by developing j and Testing Order devising or implementing such a plan in the prescribed a management framework is being implemented timescale... Planning for implementation was subsequently _ for the Drug Treatment and ; and monitored. undertaken as effectively as was feasible in the Testing Order, addressing ! circumstances, despite the major changes taking place the recommendations nationally over the subsequent two years... The targets set out below. set were for commencements only ...and the National t Probation Service has recognised the need to develop and monitor other outcome measures. 2 A strategic plan has Areas planned to make the new sentence available in all As a minimum, Drug been established at area courts within four months of the announcement, as was Treatment and Testing level to implement required of them, and most succeeded. But few planned Order referrals, assessments national policy. both to achieve either the required target for and commencements commencements...or the new National Standard for should be monitored the Drug Treatment and Testing Order... Similarly, by race and gender insufficient attention was given to monitoring the so that disproportionate number of commencements from women offenders representation at any point and those from ethnic minority groups. in the Drug Treatment and Testing Order process can be readily identified. appendix one
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