‘The worst tax form you’ve ever seen’? Probation officers’ views about OASys

Abstract

Classification with regard to their risk/needs has become an increasingly significant aspect of work with offenders generally. In England and Wales, the Offender Assessment System (OASys) used by the National Probation Service has a key role to play in effective practice. OASys is the latest in a series of such assessment tools, but despite considerable care taken over its development, users’ views about its efficacy have not been explored. This article reports the results of the first national survey of Probation Officers’ views about OASys. While a variety of concerns are noted - especially the time-consuming nature of completing an OASys assessment - and such concerns need to be addressed, on the whole, users are not opposed to OASys.