Justice Update Report 2024-25
Perth and Kinross Council · 21 January 2026
Back to Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee — 21 January 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
Page 1
Our vision is a Perth and Kinross where everyone can live life well, free from poverty and inequality ___________________________________________________________________ Committee or Board: Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee Date of Meeting: 21 January 2026 Report Title: Justice Update Report 2024-25 Report Number: 26/18 Report Author: Eleanor Lindsay, Community Justice Quality Improvement Team Leader Organisational Lead: Arun Singh, Strategic Lead – Children, Families and Justice 1. Purpose 1.1 The purpose of this report is to provide the Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee with an update on the work of council services and partners to meet local and national outcomes for Community Justice for the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025. 1.2 The report details Perth and Kinross Council’s (PKC) contribution to the Community Justice and Safety Partnership (the Partnership), including its contribution to the Community Justice Progress Report 2024-25, approved by the Partnership on 12 December 2025. It provides an update on the effectiveness of the arrangements for the supervision of serious offenders and the approaches being used to help people make positive changes in their lives and tackle the underlying causes of offending behaviour. Appendix 1 provides a glossary of terms being referred to within both the committee and the Partnership report. 1.3 Sections 1. Purpose 2. Recommendations 3. Background/Context 4. Conclusion 5. Impact Value Assessment 6. Appendices
Page 2
2. Recommendations It is recommended that the Committee: 2.1 Notes the approach being undertaken by PKC teams in respect of the Partnership. 2.2 Endorses the contents of this report. 2.3 Requests the Strategic Lead for Children, Families and Justice bring forward an annual report detailing the PKC contribution to the Partnership. 3. Background/Context The Perth & Kinross (P&K) Community Justice and Safety Partnership 3.1 The Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 (the Act) established Community Justice Partnerships in each local authority area in Scotland comprising of statutory partners - Police Scotland; Scottish Prison Service; Scottish Fire and Rescue Service; Skills Development Scotland; NHS Scotland; Health and Social Care Integration Joint Board; Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service, the local authority; and representation from the third sector. Alongside the launch of the Act, the Scottish Government issued a National Strategy and an Outcomes, Performance and Improvement Framework. 3.2 The Act requires statutory partners to work together to deliver a Community Justice Outcomes Improvement Plan (CJOIP), delivering on the National Strategy for Community Justice and the Outcomes, Performance and Improvement Framework for their area, and report on progress to Community Justice Scotland (CJS) via an Annual Outcome Activity Return. 3.3 The Partnership launched its first CJOIP, a three-year plan, on 1 April 2017 (the plan was extended for a further 2 years due to the COVID-19 pandemic) and submitted an Annual Outcome Activity Returns to CJS annually since 2018, highlighting local progress against the CJOIP. These returns were published annually on the Community Justice and Community Safety Partnership webpages hosted on the PKC website. 3.4 The Scottish Government launched a new National Strategy for Community Justice in June 2022, and a new Community Justice Performance Framework in March 2023. The Partnership launched a new Perth and Kinross CJOIP 2023 - 2028 in June 2023. 3.5 The first Annual Outcome Activity Return reporting against the new national strategy and framework, and the new CJOIP, was submitted to CJS in September 2024 which covered the 2023-24 reporting period. A new public facing annual report was created and published in the December of the same year, meeting the Section 23 requirement of the Act.
Page 3
3.6 The Community Justice Progress Report 2024-25 is the current public facing annual report covering the 2024-25 period which details the Partnership’s progress during year two and includes progress against the national indicators. The report was approved by the Partnership on 12 December 2025 and was published on the Partnership’s Community Justice webpage on 18 December 2025. The report contains contributions from statutory and third sector organisations. 3.7 From a PKC perspective, the Community Justice Progress Report 2024-25 highlights examples of positive work being carried out by a range of PKC teams, often in partnership with other stakeholders and includes the following: • Complex Needs Project commenced in September 2022 (initially a two-year test of change), jointly funded by Community Justice Social Work (CJSW) and the Alcohol and Drug Partnership (ADP). The role of the Complex Needs Co-ordinator initially focussed on screening referrals received from a third sector organisation (Positive Steps) located within police custody in Dundee, but over time, the referral route changed to direct referrals from Police Scotland (any custody centre location). The referral routes to the Complex Needs Co-ordinator broadened over time and started to include referrals from: • Non-Fatal Overdose meetings; • Bail Supervision Officers (for those assessed as suitable for Bail Supervision but not given Bail Supervision by the court); • Support to residents held on remand; and • Support for people released from a short-term sentence. The role, to date, has worked to create a ‘no wrong door’ offer of support to people by providing assertive outreach to people with multiple and complex needs (who have difficulty engaging with mainstream services) and referring those with less complex needs into the right support service, assisting with navigation through the cluttered landscape. The Complex Needs Co-ordinator role relied heavily on both Floating & Intensive Housing Support Services during the reporting period, services commissioned and funded by PKC, and delivered by third sector organisations Turning Point, Simon Communities, and Churches Action for the Homeless. These services are available to residents throughout the P&K area alongside other third sector services such as Tayside Council on Alcohol. Learning from the complex needs project has highlighted that the support needs of those following arrest, released from remand and released from a sentence, are similar, with the most common requests for support being: • Housing. • Mental health. • Substance use.
Page 4
• Benefits. This test of change was extended further to include the recruitment of a Complex Needs Project Lead from August 2024 to 31 March 2026. However, this post ended ahead of time in July 2025 due to the realignment of the Safer Community Team. Work is currently underway to explore opportunities to extend the Complex Needs Project test of change for a further 12 months, (for financial year 2026-27), with a view to exploring opportunities to mainstream the project thereafter. • Bail Supervision focusses on reducing re-offending and affording the person the opportunity to change their behaviour and address unmet need. The eligible age for Bail Supervision within P&K changed in January 2022, from only being available to 16 to 26-year-olds, to anyone aged 16 and over. Additional staff were recruited to accommodate this change. Community Justice Assistants (CJAs) support the service, in addition to the dedicated support from the PKC Young People’s Service. Extending the eligible age range provides wider service access and provides the court with an alternative to remand across the age range, where possible, minimising the negative impact for families and children (in line with The Promise). • Electronic Monitoring: Electronic monitoring provides the opportunity for people to remain in the community and with their families (where appropriate) and continue in employment whilst at the same time disrupting and breaking cycles of offending behaviour. A series of electronic monitoring multi agency training sessions were delivered locally during the reporting period to improve understanding and confidence in electronic monitoring. • Diversion from Prosecution (DfP) Scheme: CJSW continued to offer DfP, delivered on a one-to-one basis by a CJA. The CJA explores behaviour which may put the person at risk of committing further offences and offers practical support and advice. The DfP Scheme offers swift intervention, which can interrupt a cycle of offending and/or prevent further offending. The person does not receive a conviction for the alleged offence, which can impact on longer-term employment opportunities. • Right Track (Structured Deferred Sentence), run by CJSW, works with young people aged 16 to 26 and gives them the opportunity to engage in intensive support provided by a Right Track Officer, prior to attending court for final sentencing. The scheme helps ensure that custody is only used where necessary. The service enables the young person to work on their chaotic lifestyle and develop a more structured way of life prior to sentencing.
Page 5
• One-Stop Women’s Learning Service (OWLS), CJSW, in collaboration with other services, offers women a safe space where they can access crucial services, improve their mental health and wellbeing, as well as address the reasons for their offending behaviour. This wraparound service builds the self-confidence and self-esteem of women, enabling them to become more involved in their community. The co-production and joint delivery of services improves access opportunities to services for women. • Evolve Men’s Service, a project targeted at men given a supervision requirement, was initially a test of change which operated from the Neuk (a trauma informed space within P&K). The project delivered by CJSW works with men in a trauma informed manner, using a combination of intensive one to one work, and a focussed programme of group work which include activities designed to increase positive life chances and pro-social decision making for males who offend. It helps them find purpose, improve their wellbeing, and rebuild relationships within their communities. Learning from the Evolve project was used to determine wider applicability across the broader justice service and the Evolve support started to be available to all males in contact with CJSW during 2024/25. • Connectere, a trauma groupwork intervention, was initially trialled within Evolve during 2023. It was introduced to the wider team following an independent evaluation of the programme by research author Dr Briege Nugent Brown during 2024-25 and received positive feedback from both participants and staff. • Caledonian Programme is an integrated approach to addressing domestic abuse perpetrated by adult male offenders and improving the lives of women and children. It combines a court-ordered programme for men, aimed at changing their behaviour, with support services for women and children. • Unpaid Work is one of the most common requirements of a Community Payback Order. Individuals have the opportunity to pay back for their offending by doing work that benefits the community and learn vital new skills in the process. Unpaid work continued to use the Westbank Hub as a base during the reporting period, providing opportunities to link people in with employability opportunities available on-site, eg forklift and telehandler training. • Prisoner Release work commenced before the COVID-19 pandemic to improve co-ordination of prisoner release to seek better links between prison and housing, eg, information sharing three months prior to release to help manage housing needs. This work progressed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the early prisoner release programme. Fortnightly multi-agency meetings commenced in August 2021 and continued to run fortnightly thereafter.
Page 6
These meetings were attended by CJSW, Safer Communities Team, PKC Housing team and the Integrated Drug Alcohol and Recovery Team (IDART), all working together to manage risks, provide support and to address unmet need. The meeting frequency was set to allow agencies time to react to anyone who received short sentences or was being released early. This work developed further during 2023-24 with the launch of a Voluntary Throughcare Co-ordination test of change in March 2023 providing an opt out model to improve uptake of support for release. The initial test sites were HMP Perth and HMP Glenochil. The approach was extended to P&K releases from all prison establishments in 2024-25 during the Scottish Government’s Prison Emergency Early Release (June/July 2025) and included work to pre-register people with a doctor. • Child Impact Assessment Project is aimed at children and young people with someone close to them on the justice journey who often report to being Not Seen, Not Heard, Not Guilty. PKC, in conjunction with Families Outside, received funding from the Scottish Government’s United Nations Convention on Rights of a Child (UNCRC) Innovation Fund (administered by the CORRA Foundation) with a view to changing the narrative locally. The Child Impact Assessment Project supports PKC’s commitment to delivering on The Promise and the UNCRC. The project was funded from 9 October 2023 to 6 December 2024 and sought to change the narrative to being Seen, Heard and Supported via multi agency awareness raising and incorporating the Child Impact Assessment toolkit into key processes. The P&K pilot is currently the largest Child Impact Assessment pilot in progress in Scotland. In addition to the delivery of multi-agency training during 2024-25, a range of resources were developed to support practitioners utilising the toolkit locally. These included: • Child Impact Assessments: The Toolkit (including Roles and responsibilities guide, Information sharing pathway, Frequently asked questions). • Child Impact Assessment Training - Perth and Kinross. • Community Justice - Your rights when someone is arrested / goes to prison. • Child Impact Assessment - Resources available for download (posters).
Page 7
A young person’s steering group was formed at Perth Academy during the reporting period and helped to guide the project, including developing a range of resources targeted at young people and also supporting a Child Impact Assessment launch event held on World Children’s Day on 20 November 2024. The Child Impact Assessment Launch Video from the event can be found on the PKC YouTube page. The steering group has continued on as a peer support group. Although funding for the work ended in December 2024, the steering group continue to meet to promote the availability of the toolkit and continue efforts to change the narrative for our young people locally. 4. Conclusion 4.1 The Community Justice Progress Report 2024-25, illustrates the positive work being undertaken by both statutory partners and third sector organisations. 4.2 Efforts have been made, and are ongoing, with partners and third sector organisations, as echoed in our CJOIP, to work in partnership towards achieving the shared aim of reducing re-offending by supporting those who have committed offences, and to also support those impacted by crime – the families and victims/survivors. It is the intention of the Partnership to build on this progress, thereby ensuring the communities in P&K remain a safe place to live. 5. Impact Value Assessment 5.1 This report has been classified as being an operational report and as such does not require a full Impact and Value Assessment. 6. Appendices 6.1 Appendix 1 – Glossary of Terms.