2012 in Cowburn & Mayers 2016:94). This is completed in the form of an initial assessment when a request is received from the Court for a Pre-Sentence Report. A Pre-Sentence report’s purpose is to give the Court an insight into the individual, their lifestyle, areas of risk/need and their attitude to their offending. “There is a presumption that a court should request a PSR when considering a defendant’s suitability for the range of available community sentences” (Carr & Maguire 2017:57). Furthermore, the report will make an assessment on the likelihood of offending and the potential for intervention (and possible sentencing options) based on the risks, needs and strengths of the client following assessment. The assessment must be accurate, legally defensible, and proportional with the author being accountable for their work and committed to ethical practice as a social worker. In 2017 a pilot was launched to test the feasibility of a shortened Pre-Sentence Report in the form of a Magistrates Court Report (MCR). The Magistrates Court Report focuses the assessment on brevity and encourages the inclusion of relevant details only, to enable the Court to make decisions as to the most appropriate sentence for the individual (PBNI MCR Guidance 2018). Within my practice I regularly complete reports for the Court and I identified a client who was willing to allow me to use his anonymised information for the purposes of education. Respect was demonstrated to the client by explaining fully the purpose of the work, how his information would be used and the role of an assessor in the interview. This enabled him to consider the options and make informed choices before giving his written consent with the reassurance he could withdraw his consent at any time. This aided in creating a positive level of partnership working while empowering him to make his own decisions. NISCC Standards and Conduct of Practice (2015) state that the underpinning values for social workers include working in a respectful, person centred way while promoting their rights, equality and inclusion. Service users should expect their best interests to be at the heart of work and that their autonomy and independence is promoted through receiving a safe and effective service. These operating values are supported by the work of Beistek (1961 in Thompson 2009) and Rodgers (1961). As a Probation Officer I am mindful that many of our clients are not voluntary which can impact on the relationship and therefore the assessments we make. To prepare for my assessment of Mr M I completed a tuning in which gave me time to consider the knowledge, skills and values applicable to the case. In this case I had access to previ>