Public performance reports

Justice social work services ensure that those in conflict with the law are appropriately assessed and managed within the community. In undertaking this work justice services contributes to the wider aim of enhancing community safety and wellbeing for all residents of South Lanarkshire. We work closely with partner agencies to ensure that we are contributing towards the Community Planning Partnership Community Plan 2017-2027

The overarching aims of the service are to:

• Deliver a justice service that contributes positively and helps to create an inclusive and respectful society in which all people and communities live safely and securely
• To reduce reoffending and support people to pay back constructively for their crimes, to build better lives for themselves, their families and their communities
• To promote strong, equal partnership working between third party and public sector organisations and other agencies with an increased emphasis on public protection
• To contribute to making our community a safer place to live

The implementation of the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 led to Justice Social Work Services forming part of a wider Community Justice Partnership. The Scottish Government's vision for Community Justice is to:

• prevent and reduce further offending by addressing its underlying causes; and
• safely and effectively manage and support those who have committed offences to help them reintegrate into the community and realise their potential for the benefit of all citizens

Community Justice Scotland, a national body, provide:

• independent professional assurance to Scottish Ministers on the collective achievement of community justice outcomes
• and also have a hub for community justice innovation, learning and development

The aims of the Justice Social Work service are delivered through a range of methods and interventions as identified in our web pages (follow the links to our web pages for further information)

Justice social work services employ a range of professionally qualified staff as well as para professionals across our services alongside third sector agencies to deliver interventions and support which meet the wider goals of the Community Planning Partnership.

Reintroduction of Services

South Lanarkshire Council have published their Covid 19 Recovery Service Reintroduction Toolkit in July 2021. This toolkit has been developed to provide information and guidance to managers and employees in relation to supporting the workforce as we emerge from the pandemic. Justice services, as will all Council services had to revise the way they worked and remodel how they delivered their services over 2020-2022. In response to this we have developed a hybrid approach to office and home working for staff, utilising digital technology to support virtual meetings with service users and partner agencies and community visits have resumed. Unpaid Work Services continue to use a blended approach to both delivering services in the community and our Unpaid Work at Home projects which allow reparation to the community to be conducted remotely.

As part of our commitment to supporting The Scottish Government’s Vision for Justice in Scotland 2022 areas of priority, Justice Services should utilise those with lived experience to develop person centred and trauma informed services.

As part of this we have developed the new Justice Peer Support Worker Service (JPSW) across South Lanarkshire Council through funding via the Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP). This service was developed to introduce and enhance the provision of peer support to people transitioning from Justice Services at the end of their statutory orders. The (JPSW) service  offer ongoing support to people at the end of their orders to help maintain attendance and participation in community-based treatment, harm reduction and therapeutic intervention services to sustain their recovery during and beyond the life span of any statutory order

In 2021 we undertook at Strategic Strengths and Needs Assessment for out Bail Supervision and Diversion services.  This allowed us to capture data that informed the needs of these services. We have developed our Bail Supervision Service with increased staffing, review of processes and case file auditing to inform our improvement plan. In 2022 we will now focus on a similar review and audit of our Diversion Service.  We have worked in partnership with SACRO to recruit 2 peer mentors in both of these services. This supports our vision for promoting a public health approach to those with substance use issues that need assistance with health, housing and social inclusion in their communities.

We are committed to working with our Community Justice partners to reduce remands to custody where there is not a risk of serious harm to others. As part of this national and local strategy we will work together to implement Electronic Monitoring as part of The Management of Offenders Act (Scotland) 2019, which commences on 17th May 2022.  The commencement regulations will at this time give effect to three new electronic monitoring uses; use with bail, use with CPO (at first disposal) and use with temporary release from prison. Justice Social Work staff will undertake Electronic Monitoring assessments to consider the suitability of a person remaining in their community prior to their sentencing or as part of a Community Payback order or release from prison.

Performance Management

As part of performance improvement and governance of our services we have developed a Justice statistics dashboard aligned to the Social Work Resource Plan 2021 performance measures and outcome plan.

The resource measures are as follows:

We continue to monitor our target of 95% of Criminal justice Social Work Reports being submitted to court by the due date:

We have continued to meet our targets of 75% of Service Users on Community Payback Orders with an Unpaid Work Requirement are seen within 5 working days by their case manager

We have demonstrated our ability to ensure 95% of service users are seen within 2 working days of their Drug Testing and Treatment Order commencing

Feedback, participation and consultation with individuals who use Justice Services is an area of ongoing work for the service as we want to ensure that we are always learning and developing our service delivery in line with need.  This is also an area of work with stakeholders and the community to provide the best service we can. Through the Community Justice Partnership we are developing a Community Engagement Strategy which aims to communicate and engage with the wide range of audiences that have an interest, or say, in what we do to ensure we deliver the best possible service to all our key stakeholders.  

Links to other websites that may be of interest:

• Community Justice Scotland
• Scottish Government - Reconviction Rates in Scotland
• Details on Recorded Crime in South Lanarkshire
• Community Justice Outcome Improvement Plan 2017-2022

Resource Plans are prepared each year by all council Resources to outline the key developments they intend to take forward in the year. In addition to the continuing demands presented by COVID-19 there are several factors which present specific challenges to Social Work Resources in relation to the demand for key service provision. In the coming year Social Work Resources will take forward all necessary actions, where reasonable and appropriate, to mitigate or reduce the Resource’s exposure to these risks. More information on performance and actions relating to Justice Services can be found in the Social Work Resource Plan, the Chief Social Work Officer Report.

Twice a year, performance reports are presented to council committees on progress against the Resource Plans. In addition, reports detailing progress against the Council Plan Connect Priorities are prepared. See Quarter 2 (September) and Quarter 4 (March - year end).for performance reports for further information.

More information on our objectives can be found in the Council Plan Connect and also the Annual Performance Spotlights.

Local Government Benchmarking Framework (LGBF) allows councils to work together, to use performance information in a way which will help understand variations, share knowledge, expertise and good practice, with a view to making improvements. At the core of the framework is an agreed suite of performance indicators. We report the results for these indicators, over time, on the website. Additionally, you can compare our LGBF results with other councils' using the mylocalcouncil tool. Not all local authorities are alike and so family groups of eight ‘similar’ councils have been set up for comparison purposes. Workshops take place throughout the year to discuss the indicators and results – South Lanarkshire Council is actively involved in these discussions

The information contained within this report reflects the position based on the data available at the time of publication (March 2022).