The Home Office has confirmed that there have been IT delays to the
Probation Service's new Offender Assessment system (Oasys).
A leaked National Probation Directorate circular earlier this year
warned that Oasys software development and implementation will be
subject to significant delay, partly as a result of project
management issues.
However, the Home Office insists it is resolving the project
management difficulties. A spokesman said, "We have acted quickly
to address the issues by bringing in more staff and improving
project management.
"All the training is on schedule and there will be no delay in
reaping the service's benefits."
The service will roll out the full IT element of Oasys in late
summer 2003, the spokesman said.
Robin Pape, head of IT at the National Probation Service, has
already identified Oasys as a key part of the service's long-term
strategy.
The Home Office spokesman said, "The basic principle behind the
Offender Assessment system is that there is a single, consistent,
tool for assessing offenders and the risk they pose."
The benefits are not dependent on the full IT roll-out, the
spokesman added.
Jointly designed by the prison and probation services, Oasys will
provide a national system for assessing the risks and needs of an
offender.
The leaked circular also pointed to problems with an Oasys
prototype, trialled in the Durham area earlier this year, which, it
said, "did not support reports against the data entered and was
unfavourably received".
A Home Office spokesman said the system had been modified since
this feedback.
The service has been dogged by inadequate IT and poor project
management. Last year a National Audit Office report highlighted
the fact that the predecessor of the current Standard Technical
Environment for Probation Services - the National Probation Service
Information Systems Strategy - had employed seven programme
directors between 1993 and 2000, of whom only two had significant
IT experience.
Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National
Association of Probation Officers, said, "All the recent evidence
suggests that there are still major ongoing problems with the
Probation Service's IT. If these are not resolved quickly it will
result in a deteriorating service to the public."
Probation Service IT in trouble- NPSISS: the National Probation Service Information Systems
Strategy, delivered late, troubled by poor project management, over
budget and not what users wanted
- Steps: Standard Technical Environment for Probation Services IT
support contract awarded to Integris in 2001 to replace NPSISS
- Crams: a case management system intended to enable access
between magistrates courts, probation, prison and police service
systems, low take-up, practical problems
- Oasys: Offender Assessment System - a tool to help probation
officers assess the risk offenders pose and the help they need - IT
element now running late.