The Chief Officer, Pam McPhee was awarded a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to Probation. She has a long career with the Service spanning some thirty years. She came to the north east in 1989 as an Assistant Chief Officer based in Middlesbrough, taking on the Chief’s role in County Durham six years later. On receiving the honour, Mrs McPhee said, ”Obviously I’m delighted to receive the CBE, but I very much feel that I am receiving it on behalf of all those around me who have contributed to the success of the probation service in this area".

County Durham Probation Area has recently appointed a Consultant Forensic Psychologist, Professor Cynthia McDougall, to help progress the structure and direction of Probation Psychology. Cynthia's post is shared with York University's Department of Psychology. This has meant that the Probation Area has been able to forge links with the MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology and the Centre for Criminal Justice, Economics and Psychology at York University. This provides opportunities for the sharing of practical and academic experience between psychologists in the Probation Area and psychologists at the University.

County Durham Probation Area is currently advertising two 'Trainee Forensic Psychologist' posts. The Probation Area has already had experience of successfully supporting individuals to the achievement of their 'Chartered' status in forensic psychology, and the post-holders will receive similar support.

The new website of the County Durham Area was launched on 1st February 2004. Since then, several significant improvements have been made to the site. These have included the addition of News, Statistics, About Us and Jobs pages to the site. The Links section now includes links to the websites of almost all the local area's partnership links. The menu system has been improved and additional links have been added to the Contacts page which will display maps illustrating the location of every field office.