The 2025 report described staffing as the service’s primary challenge for a second year running, with agency staff used as an interim measure while vacancies are filled.
Kerry Tardif, who was appointed chief probation officer on a permanent basis in June 2025, said her main focus for the second half of the year had been reorganisation and recruitment. Internal promotions had left further posts to backfill.
The pressures have had a direct effect on the service’s work. Resource issues meant fewer offender groupwork programmes ran in the prison than usual during the year, the report said.
Under its public-protection arrangements, the service has also moved 14 cases – nine of them last year – to a ‘reactive risk management’ footing, which suspends active reviews and home visits so that resources can be concentrated on the highest-risk offenders.
This comes as demand climbs. The overall caseload rose to 265 by the end of the year, up from 238 in 2024, while the number of people registered under Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements, which monitor sexual and violent offenders, reached a record 183.
The service ended 2025 having offered four probation officer posts and a public protection support officer role to candidates, but it was still recruiting to several further positions.
Its intimate partner abuse programme, Sarnia, was among the teams disrupted, with its co-ordinator leaving in May and the role restructured into a support officer post that was set to be filled this year. Referrals to the programme remained low, at 16 for the year.
Finding paid work placements for prisoners approaching release also proved difficult, particularly for those convicted of sexual offences, the report said.
Despite the pressures, the service said it was ‘enthused’ by approval to create several new roles.
A letter critical of the state of the Probation Service and its problems over the past 18 months is published in today’s Guernsey Press, warning that failures in the service risk leaving the public inadequately protected.
The Home Affairs Committee said that effective risk management of offenders was a priority for a team of ‘experienced and dedicated’ officers. ‘The Probation Service undertake a valuable and effective role in the Bailiwick, managing offenders in the community and within the prison,’ it said.