Argyll & Bute CJS Annual Report 2023-2024
Argyll and Bute Council · 16 April 2025
Back to Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership - Management Committee — 16 April 2025 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Community Justice Outcome Activity Across Scotland Local Area Annual Return Template April 2024 Community Justice Scotland Ceartas Coimhearsnachd Alba Community Justice Outcome Activity Across Scotland Local Area Annual Return Template Reporting year April 2023 – March 2024
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1. Background This reporting template has been developed in discussion with community justice representatives from local areas. This template is designed to enable local areas to report on progress towards the community justice outcomes. 2. Statement of Assurance and Data Usage The information submitted to CJS using this template will be used by CJS in its role to monitor, promote and support improvement in, and keep the Scottish Ministers informed about, performance in the provision of community justice. In line with provisions in the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), CJS will use appropriate data to ensure that there is continuous reporting, development and progress towards the national outcomes. By providing data to CJS you are consenting to its use by CJS as indicated. Community Justice Partnerships should be aware that any information held by CJS is subject to statutory Freedom of Information obligations. Completion of the template can help local partnerships to fulfil their requirements under s23 (1b) of the Act by using the developed content to inform the production of the publicly facing summary statement of annual progress. 3. General principles of the template The template and guidance have been developed using the following principles: • Support CJS in developing the evidence base for local community justice activity and progress across Scotland within the reporting year • Support CJS to comply with their duties set out in the Act, Sections 26-30 • Support local partners to comply with their local reporting requirements set out in section 23 of the Act.
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4. How to fill in the template The return should be completed and consulted on with partners involved in community justice in your local area. In line with the Act this includes statutory partners, third sector bodies involved in community justice in relation to the area, and such community bodies other persons as partners consider appropriate. CJS expects that completion of this template will be a collaborative effort. This template incorporates guidance to support completion, with the text (in blue) providing reflective prompts to consider when developing your answer, which can be deleted and replaced with your response. These should be considered together through the development of your answer rather than addressed individually. There is no expectation that areas will return substantial numerical data. It is likely that local areas will not have the national data indicators set out by the Community Justice Performance Framework at the time they are completing this template. It is not anticipated that CJS will routinely use or refer to local level national indicator data in the context of the national outcome activity annual report. If in developing the national report it becomes apparent that local-level data may support further analysis of particular outcomes, for example in identifying potential recommendations, exploring data outliers, or areas for further development, we expect this to be taken forward in discussion with the relevant local areas and partners. Instead, we want partners to focus on the qualitative evidence drawn from their activity and insights about impact. Relevant local supporting evidence from the CJS improvement tool that will supplement the national indicator data has been specified under each national outcome in this template. We would encourage partners to develop the response to this template in conversation with each other and view it as an opportunity to reflect on your strengths and needs in partnership. Where the template asks for evidence, a written response will suffice and there is no expectation that you send additional supporting documentation – if there are any aspects CJS is unclear on, it will be our responsibility to request clarification where necessary. If any response or evidence requires details about people with lived experience (e.g. evidence in respect of someone’s life story) please DO NOT include any identifiable personal or sensitive information (as outlined in Schedules 2 & 3 of the Data Protection Act 1998) as CJS does not require such information. If this is unavoidable then please ensure that the data is fully anonymised. If you have any queries about completing the template, then please email CJSImprovement@communityjustice.scot.
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1. Community Justice Partnership / Group Details Name of local authority area/s Argyll & Bute Name and contact details of the partnership Chair Name: Pippa Milne Email: pippa.milne@argyll-bute.gov.uk Telephone: 01546 604350 Contact for queries about this report Name: Mary Holt Email: mary.holt@argyll-bute.gov.uk Telephone: 07733101313 2. Template Sign-off from Community Justice Partnership / Group Chair Enter the name of the chair to confirm that the local community justice partnership representatives have agreed this return as an accurate record. It should be returned to CJS by 27 September 2024. For the purpose of submitting this return to CJS ensure you have agreement from community justice partners. For the purpose of publishing this template as part of your s23 duty (publish a public- facing annual report on progress towards national and local outcomes) you should follow local governance arrangements. Date: 16th October 2024 Name: Pippa Milne
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3. Governance Arrangements Last year, we asked partnerships to describe their governance structure for community justice arrangements and include links to wider community planning. Please describe any substantive changes since your previous answer. There are no substantive changes. However, Argyll and Bute CJP are reviewing how we continue to strengthen cross policy governance arrangements. 4. The year overall This section should be used to reflect some of the a) challenges/negative implications and b) opportunities/positive implications from the reporting year on the community justice partnership. This can include impact on the improvement activity, partner collaboration, and delivery of services. Challenges / Negatives Describe some of the negative impact(s) and/or challenge(s) your community justice partners/hip faced in the reporting year. You may include how the partnership responded to these. The summary of the activities below are presented in line with our Community Justice Pathways Leadership and Strategic Planning Pathway Argyll & Bute Community Justice Partnership has undertaken a range of activities during 2023- 2024 to develop our local model for community justice. Increasing strategic planning and operational scoping activity by employing a full-time Community Justice Coordinator (previously part-time) who has worked across the multi-disciplinary services, baselining against the four national Aims including: ➢ Scoping and creating local baselines against the national aims, priority actions and outcomes ➢ Identifying any potential capacity for improvements ➢ Supporting with scoping implementation of improvements (for people leaving prison) ➢ Consulting with a range of third sector services ➢ Monitoring changes in national policy, legislation, guidance and communications ➢ Developing an improved understanding of aligned strategic priorities with Violence Against Women, Alcohol and Drugs and Children, Families and Justice and Health and Social Care Partnership, Chief Officers Group Public Protection and Clinical and Care Governance ➢ Developing an improved understanding of the defined Argyll & Bute Community Justice Pathways and what a community justice place-based approach may look like Always a challenge is the geographical spread of Argyll & Bute, the availability of and equity of access to statutory and third sector services and support, particularly in remote and island communities.
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Staff recruitment and retention across A&B is also a long-standing area of challenge for CJP membership. The pressures across public and third sector post lockdown are at times critical, with tight finance and resources operating within a savings environment due to reducing/flat lined budgets. Developing our local community justice plan across an ever-changing complex strategic planning landscape has been a particular challenge for 2023-2024. The following areas were identified as risks/challenges to delivery of improvements: ➢ Restrictions in national and local funding ➢ Difficulties in recruiting, particularly in remote and island areas ➢ A crisis in the availability of housing ➢ Changes in legislation and statutory guidance ➢ Changes in social work (justice) dictated by the Home Office. Eg. ViSOR ➢ The impact of policy initiatives, for example, early release from prisons ➢ Ongoing Cost-of-Living crisis ➢ Uncertainty caused by the development of the National Care Service ➢ Changes in judicial practice and processing These critical elements that are aligned to improving community justice outcomes provide multi-faced challenges, these will be considered as part of developing our CJ Strategic Needs and Strengths Assessment. During 2023-2024 a range of key local plans were being refreshed including Community Planning Partnership Local Outcome Improvement Plan, Alcohol and Drugs Partnership strategy refresh and the Corporate Parenting Plan. The activity to refresh the Health & Social Care Strategic Plan also started towards the latter end of 2023-2024, beginning with the update of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. Whilst improving community justice outcomes are reliant on a collaborative partnership approach, creating meaningful criminal justice partner baselines with an improved understanding of needs of the population with justice, is key. We need to understand the scope and detail of local strategic needs and strengths assessments with finite resources is a continuing challenge. Whilst Community Justice Scotland Targeted Resources templates are exceptionally comprehensive and helpful, they are extensive. An area of challenge for the CJP is how we develop a meaningful CJ SNSA that’s place-based and is underpinned by key elements across these 9 separate Targeted Resources.
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Point of Arrest During 2023-2024, Police Scotland were engaged with the Information Commissioner around the processes and consent for Arrest Referral, only in July 2024 was the refreshed national approach launched. In the meantime, locally Community Justice Coordinator, ADP Coordinator, Third Sector Addictions Manager and Police Scotland L Division Inspector explored opportunities to review current arrest referral numbers and consider interim activity we could pursue. Nationally, the Community Justice Coordinator and Police Scotland Inspector engaged with Police Scotland Custody Suite leads, a team of less than 5 covering the whole of Scotland. Some areas of clarity were provided: ➢ Argyll & Bute citizens are held in custody suites mainly out with the local area therefore the need to develop a strategic needs and strengths assessment that clearly reflects these unique elements ➢ As a guide, some information was shared verbally, which showed that addiction accounted for only 10% of identified presenting vulnerabilities with Police Custody ➢ Information relating to With You (formerly We Are With You) was absent from Argyll & Bute based Custody Suites, identified following local meeting with the Custody Sergeant arranged by L Division Inspector The finite national resources contribute to the challenges with baselining this Community Justice Pathway, we have requested the following information, our Police Scotland national Custody Suite colleagues have acknowledged our request and are working on it during 2024- 2025. ➢ The numbers and location of arrest and custody suite (if held) ➢ The breakdown of presenting issues recorded ➢ Person profile (Age, Gender, etc) We hope this, and other key data and information, can be provided and analysed as part of the development of our CJ SNSA during 2024-2025. The Community Justice Partnership recognises the inclusion of national activity within the Scottish Government Community Justice Delivery Plan, how that translates at a local level remains a challenge. Argyll & Bute does not have high levels of crime, our discussions on the key statistical information (out with the national CJ Performance Framework), as part of developing a section related to Crime within HSCP JSNA provided clarity for the CJP. We need to focus on developing the related community justice narrative within the Strategic Plan, the baseline of the HSCP JSNA available by September 2024. Argyll & Bute Community Justice Partnership will prioritise this element of the CJ SNSA to ensure that, when published on 1st April 2025, alignments are embedded.
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Through Prosecution (incorporated into Community Sentences from 2024) In developing our Community Justice Pathways we have incorporated our previous Through Prosecution Pathway within our Community Sentence Pathway as the priority focus is around the delivery of Justice Social Work Diversion. During 2023-2024, the Community Justice Coordinator continued to attend the COPFS Community Justice Forum (North Strathclyde). A new chair provided a refreshed approach, enhancing and improving the membership and content/context of discussions. As with previous years annual reports, how this forum informs at a local level is yet unclear. Argyll & Bute welcome the acknowledgement from the Chair of this Forum that COPFS and Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service are not unaffected by the geographical challenges. Challenges remain, as reported last year, in relation to information sharing arrangement for ‘Bail Opposed’ between COPFS and JSW. During 2023-2024, a local SNSA (utilising CJS former template) was completed as far as possible, COPFS responded to a request for information to complete the template advising this will be passed to an internal group, working towards the national Diversion Action Plan through SG Strategic Group. At Court Pathway As reported last year, Justice Social Work and delivery of court-based services is again impacted by the geographical spread in relation to having a physical presence within the wide range of courts that our citizens appear in, including in West Dunbartonshire, Inverclyde and Renfrewshire. It is impossible to deliver an ever-present onsite court-based service across Argyll & Bute, however, there is a slightly increased presence of Justice Social Work throughout 2023-2024. Argyll & Bute Courts are not full-time, custodies will only appear if the Court is scheduled to sit, otherwise they are heard at courts in different local authorities. There is an issue around the time of day that people who are due to appear arrive at Argyll Courts, which often is in later afternoon. This presents challenge for Bail assessments to be undertaken and, dependant on the outcome, how people will get back home. Whilst the Community Justice Partnership can be assured of being well informed by Justice Social Work reporting on their court-based business, there is a gap in knowledge around those negotiating the courts who are not involved with Justice Social Work. This will be an area of priority focus in our developing CJ SNSA and creating an improved understanding of the services operating across our courts, example would be third sector Addictions. Linked to this is the request from Community Justice Scotland to enhance the service data within their Judicial Hub project, the diverse nature of a geography that is populated by a wide range of third sector and other small community-based organisations. One of our challenges from 2024 is how we create a comprehensive service mapping exercise across Argyll & Bute and consult regarding the requirements to keep the Judicial Database updated following upload to enhanced information. In reality, this work is likely to span across 2024-2026.
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We have been unable to ascertain the numbers associated with the court backlogs, this is unhelpful during a time when Justice Social Work funding formula and Performance Management are being scrutinised nationally by Scottish Government and the Care Inspectorate. There continues to be a gap in SCTS representation on the CJP, we hope by involving local courts in the development of our CJ SNSA, those alignments will become clearer and representative appointed. We note this is a national issue and welcome any updates from Community Justice Scotland Community Sentences Pathway: The areas of risk, noted on page 6, were identified through detailed discussions on the pressures on Justice Social Work in the scoping of national Aim improvements for our CJ Plan. The national issues with LSCMI means that only now are we able to consider what data and information contained contributes to our developing CJ SNSA, this is however reliant on the quality of the reporting tools. As is evident from the CJ National Indicator information, the demands on Justice Social Work are ever increasing, the Community Justice Partnership will continue to monitor with quarterly updates from the appropriate representatives. Custody to Community Pathway During 2023-2024, the Community Justice Partnership (led by HSCP Children, Families and Justice representatives), commissioned a pilot service to provide support to people with liberation planning and return to community. This excluded people subject to Justice Social Work Statutory Throughcare, just those eligible for Voluntary Throughcare. From signing of the contract, recruitment and implementation preparation took place between October 2023 and March 2024, unforeseen delays related to PVG process extended this start up period. First referrals and prison visits began towards the end of March 2024. Lomond and Argyll Advocacy Service were directly commissioned to deliver a Community Justice Advocacy service that explored a human rights-based approach to pre-liberation and return to community model planning. This rights-based model was first introduced to Argyll & Bute via our ADP, who commissioned LAAS to deliver a Recovery Advocacy Project, linked to the delivery of the Medically Assisted Treatment Standards. At the time of writing this annual report (August 2024) the Community Justice Partnership are reviewing the first quarterly report for the project. For 2023-2024, the challenges with delays in recruitment were the main issue. Some structural, process and communication challenges have developed during 2024-2025, these will be contained in our next annual report. Another challenge was understanding how the national approach to recommissioning Voluntary Throughcare services will translate for Argyll & Bute. Historically, the exceptionally low engagement numbers for Argyll & Bute are evidence of a postcode lottery, due to the geographically diverse landscape providers stated they were unable to support people back to all areas. We continue to have concerns and look forward to engaging with the new national providers during 2024-2025 to ascertain how they will support us to delivery community justice improvements through development of bespoke pathways.
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Community Justice/Youth Justice Our intention to review the interface between youth and community justice continued during 2023-2024, however, we were unable to establish the CJP multi-agency Youth Justice Sub- Group due to capacity and resource challenges. There are overlaps with Children’s Services/Strategic Forums and the range of legislative and policy changes also contributed to the challenges. Argyll & Bute Youth Justice approach is under development and will be considered as part of our developing SNSA. Strengthening CJP understanding and engagement with Planet Youth activity will also be considered. Community Justice/Violence Against Women & Girls/Equally Safe Over the last few years, Argyll & Bute CJP have been focusing on how we streamline and enhance our strategic planning and local delivery, particularly in relation to the national Equally Safe Standard Priority 4 ‘Men desist from all forms of violence against women and girls and perpetrators of such violence receive a robust and effective response.’ During 2023-2024, the 2022-2023 jointly commissioned research with the VAWP, was submitted. Highlight reports were submitted to the HSCP Strategic Leadership Team and the Chief Officers Group for Public Protection. Initial responses were collated from Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis, internally we applied theme structures across the recommendations. The challenges with this remain how we meaningfully collaborate across policy areas and governance groups locally on identifying what improvements we can implement and what requires national action. The research, by Dr Anni Donaldson, was informed through interviewing women with lived experience of domestic abuse and multi-agency staff groups, it is rich with experiential evidence from a place-based perspective. Community Justice Coordinator and Violence Against Women Partnership Chair continued work closely to align the shared policy priorities, work began on the refresh of the Equally Safe Plan for Argyll & Bute, due for publication 2024-2025. Community Justice/Alcohol and Drug Partnership On behalf of the Community Justice Partnership, the Community Justice Coordinator continued to work closely with ADP Coordinator, Chair and Third Sector Addictions Manager to align, rationalise and improve our understanding of joint priorities. This expanded across a number of ADP sub-groups including; Residential Rehab and Drug Death Reviews Moving into 2024-2025, this has expanded to the RADAR and MAT Standards Sub-Groups and ADP Strategy Steering Group. The ADP will be developing their refreshed SNSA and local Strategy during 2024-2025, the CJP are committed to collaborating to address challenges of duplication and streamline shared priorities by creating an improved understanding the inextricable links between addiction and justice. Positives / Opportunities Describe some of the positive impact(s) / opportunity(ies) your community justice partners/hip faced in the reporting year. You may include how the partners responded to these.
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Leadership and Strategic Planning Pathway The activity around strategic and operational scoping is continually enhancing collective CJP knowledge, understanding and insight of strategic and operational delivery requirements. This was an opportunity to develop our Community Justice Pathways and baseline what they currently look like. Increasing opportunities to engage with local third sector providers has significantly contributed to this. What became particularly clear is how critical third sector involvement in planning processes is – their connections with people within the justice system, their knowledge of individual’s life circumstances, etc. Third sector operate across a range of local planning forums and case conference meetings, etc within Argyll & Bute, including with Justice Social Work, Addictions, Housing, etc. However, further considerations are required by the CJP on how we strengthen those arrangements for people involved in the justice system out with statutory services, but accessing third sector and wider community services. Our plans to take forward service mapping activity will contribute to this. At each of our CJP meetings during 2023-2024 we reviewed progress of the development of our local plan, in the context of newly available local and national information, and each time adjusted approaches to Community Justice Pathway improvement planning. Point of Arrest Whilst progress was delayed due to national issues around information sharing, the initial discussions were an opportunity to connect with the national team within Police Scotland Team responsible for custody suites. This provided an insight, whilst limited, to some of the local challenges for Police Scotland. Through Prosecution (incorporated into Community Sentences from 2024) As noted by Justice Social Work, under Priority Action 1 below, an internal audit process was established, following publication of the national Thematic Review of Diversion, which has shown successful results. The embedding of Justice Outcome Star and subsequent reporting will enhance the CJP understanding of needs and challenges of those completing Diversion. The change of Chair and different approach for the North Strathclyde COPFS forum brought an opportunity for increased collaboration with enhanced group membership and information sharing. Although, at the time of writing this report, a new chair was being appointed. At Court As noted below by Justice Social Work (Priority Action 5), the appointment of two new sheriffs in local courts led to open dialogue from Justice Social Work so that there is a shared understanding of the services offered as part of community sentences. The gap in knowledge that exists for those not involved with Justice Social Work is an opportunity for the CJP to improve their understanding and gaining third sector knowledge and experience are critical in that. The gap in relationship between the CJP and Victim Support operating within the courts and Women’s Aid & Rape Crisis knowledge and understanding of the impact of court processes on victims will also be considered.
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The request from CJS to increase the organisations within the Community Interventions and Support Directory is also viewed as an opportunity for 2024-2026. Community Sentences Pathway As noted below by Justice Social Work (Priority Action 5) there are a range of opportunities being explored and implemented including workforce development and dialogue with the judiciary. As part of the progression of our local CJ SNSA activity planned from 2024 and reporting requirements into the CJP, there’s an opportunity to develop an enhanced multi-agency understanding of the population served by Justice Social Work. This will also create an improved understanding of those who are not to establish how the CJP can develop an approach to population within the justice system. Custody to Community Pathway There have been a range of opportunities, which began with the establishment of the ISA between SPS and Council’s providing weekly liberation and remand information. Community Justice data collection is supported by Justice Social Admin support, who record available information on whether they are statutory throughcare or being released with a Community Payback Order, etc. They also record whether the person has been previously known to Justice Social Work and why – this allows for soft insights into reoffending at an individual level. Housing forward the remand lists which are distributed to Justice Social Work reps when case is open. The relatively small numbers leaving custodial back to Argyll & Bute, this is a manageable internal task carried out for the CJP. Argyll & Bute now have data and information from May 2020 and this will contribute to the development of the CJ SNSA from 2024-2025. There are a range of enhanced information collection activities underway, to align addictions and mental health data to the current spreadsheet. This began in 2024/2025. The commissioning of Lomond & Argyll Advocacy Service to deliver a rights-based voluntary throughcare service (partly funded by JSW and attributable to 2024-2025 JSW statistics) is a significant opportunity. As noted above, operational from April 2024, with both postholders recruited having lived experience of the justice system so have solid knowledge of the challenges. As the project has developed, the realisation from that delivering equity of access to services across the complex landscape of Argyll & Bute is not straightforward. One of the key highlights was the engagement and support for the project within our lead prison HMP Greenock, who continue to play a key role in high take up rates. They supported the Community Justice Coordinator and facilitated a multi-agency meeting with A&B reps from Addictions (statutory and third sector), Housing, Justice Social Work alongside the LAAS CJ Advocacy Service reps. The learning from this project will inform opportunities during 2024-2025, which might present as challenges initially. Of the 16 liberated by the end of July 2024, 14 provided explicit consent (via HMP Greenock and Low Moss Link Centres) to be referred to LAAS CJ Advocacy Service. With the new nationally commissioned voluntary throughcare service due to begin April 2025, the CJP will have a focus on how that service will assist the CJP to deliver on improvements.
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Community Justice/Youth Justice- Violence Against Women & Girls/Equally Safe-Alcohol & Drugs Partnership, etc. The opportunities to work together to improve our understanding across local policy areas is critical activity in preparation for the development of our SNSA from 2024-2025. The cross-policy alignments and reviewing links to our existing governance groups has been as equal an opportunity as a challenge. This type of activity is likely to be continual, however, activity that began in 2023-2024, and continues into 2024-2025, will result in community justice strategic plan alignments with the refreshed HSCP Strategic Plan (CJ already referenced in 2022-2025 plan), Alcohol and Drugs Partnership Strategy, Equally Safe and Corporate Parenting Plans. A review of the Chief Officers Group for Public Protection is underway, and Community Justice reporting is part of those considerations.
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Priority Action One Enhance intervention at the earliest opportunity by ensuring greater consistency, confidence in and awareness of services which support the use of direct measures and diversion from prosecution Nationally determined outcome: More people successfully complete diversion from prosecution1 Local Evidence • Mechanisms are in place to understand the views of people undertaking diversion from prosecution and are used to support improvement. (not available - included as an improvement action linked to local CJ Plan) • Mechanisms are in place to understand the views of people supporting the delivery of diversion from prosecution and are used to support improvement. (not available - included as an improvement action linked to local CJ Plan 2024-2027) 5. What activity has taken place to increase successful completion of diversion? What impact has there been as a result? In developing your answer to this question, you should engage with the relevant local partners involved in the planning, development, delivery and monitoring of activity. We would encourage you to reflect on engagement and collaborative activity rather than solely single service delivery. For this Priority Action, you may wish to consider involvement from the following partners and stakeholders: • Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) • Police Scotland • Justice Social Work • Third Sector • Health • Skills Development Scotland • Scottish Fire and Rescue Service • Any other partners as relevant Over the past year Justice Social Work has undertaken improvement activity to develop and enhance the quality of diversion from prosecution services offered. A baseline audit was undertaken during 2023 using the care inspectorate case file audit tool. Following this an improvement action plan was developed which included a number of key areas and actions for improvement. The audit was repeated during 2024 and significant improvements were noted 1 National Indicator: Number of diversion from prosecution: • assessments undertaken • cases commenced • cases successfully completed
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across all key areas, including quality of assessment reports, timescales, information sharing, quality of action plans, and quality of completion reports. Whilst Justice Social Work is the sole agency that delivers diversion from prosecution, there is clear evidence of joint work with partner agencies where relevant to individual need. This has involved joint work around Adult Support and Protection, anti social behaviour, mental health, addictions, education, children and families social work, housing and benefit maximisation work. Numbers being referred from the Procurator Fiscal for Diversion from Prosecution has remained high during 2023/24, following a large increase in referrals during 2022/23. Further work has been identified for the year 24/25 around increasing the use of Justice Star within Diversion from Prosecution to better capture the needs of this diverse client group that have spanned the age range of 16 – 80 years, and the full spectrum of offending behaviours. The Community Justice Partnership will continue to monitor the national developments from the SG Diversion Group and how that impacts locally. In particular the forthcoming revised national Diversion Guidelines. Justice Social Work will provide updates to the Community Justice Partnership with regards to the Local Evidence progress.
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Priority Action Two Improve the identification of underlying needs and the delivery of support following arrest by ensuring the provision of person-centred care within police custody and building upon referral opportunities to services including substance use and mental health services Nationally determined outcome: More people in police custody receive support to address their needs2 Local Evidence: • There is an effective relationship between community justice partners, Alcohol and Drug Partnerships (ADPs) and police custody centre for local population. (not available - included as an improvement action linked to local CJ Plan) • Referral pathways and support are in place from police custody centre for local population (not available - included as an improvement action linked to local CJ Plan) 6. What activity has taken place to support people in police custody to access support? What impact has there been as a result? In developing your answer to this question, you should engage with the relevant local partners involved in the planning, development, delivery and monitoring of activity. We would encourage you to reflect on engagement and collaborative activity rather than solely single service delivery. For this Priority Action, you may wish to consider involvement from the following partners and stakeholders: • Police Scotland • Local Authority • Justice Social Work • Third Sector • Health • Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service • Any other partners as relevant During 2023-2024, Police Scotland were engaged with the Information Commissioner around the processes and consent for Arrest Referral, only in July 2024 was the refreshed national approach launched. In the meantime, locally Community Justice Coordinator, ADP Coordinator, Third Sector Addictions Manager and Police Scotland L Division Inspector explored opportunities to review current arrest referral numbers and consider interim activity we could pursue. Nationally, the Community Justice Coordinator and Police Scotland Inspector engaged with Police Scotland 2 National Indicator: • Number of referrals from custody centres
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Custody Suite leads, a team of less than 5 covering the whole of Scotland. Some areas of clarity were provided: ➢ Argyll & Bute citizens are held in custody suites mainly out with the local area therefore the need to develop a strategic needs and strengths assessment that clearly reflects these unique elements ➢ As a guide, some information was shared verbally, which showed that addiction accounted for only 10% of identified presenting vulnerabilities with Police Custody ➢ Information relating to With You (formerly We Are With You) was absent from Argyll & Bute based Custody Suites, identified following local meeting with the Custody Sergeant arranged by L Division Inspector The finite national resources contribute to the challenges with baselining this Community Justice Pathway, we have requested the following information, our Police Scotland national Custody Suite colleagues have acknowledged our request and are working on it during 2024- 2025. ➢ The numbers and location of arrest and custody suite (if held) ➢ The breakdown of presenting issues recorded ➢ Person profile (Age, Gender, etc) We hope this, and other key data and information, can be provided and analysed as part of the development of our CJ SNSA during 2024-2025. The Community Justice Partnership recognises the inclusion of national activity within the Scottish Government Community Justice Delivery Plan, how that translates at a local level remains a challenge. With regard to the Local Evidence updates will be provided to the Community Justice Partnership by Police Scotland and ADP reps, supported by the Community Justice Coordinator.
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Priority Action Three Support the use of robust alternatives to remand by ensuring high quality bail services are consistently available and delivered effectively Nationally determined outcome: More people are assessed for and successfully complete bail supervision3 Local Evidence • Mechanisms are in place to support a high quality bail assessment. (available – will be reported to CJP) • Referral pathways are in place that support identified needs of people on bail supervision. (available – will be reported to CJP) 7. What activity has taken place to increase the use of bail, and support people to access services to address needs while on bail? What impact has there been as a result? In developing your answer to this question, you should engage with the relevant local partners involved in the planning, development, delivery and monitoring of activity. We would encourage you to reflect on engagement and collaborative activity rather than solely single service delivery. For this Priority Action, you may wish to consider involvement from the following partners and stakeholders: • Defence Agents • Police Scotland • Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service • Third Sector • Justice Social Work • Crown Office and Procurators Fiscal Service • Judiciary • Employability, Education and Training services • Housing • Health • Any other partners as relevant 3 National Indicator: Number of: • assessment reports for bail suitability • bail supervision cases commenced • bail supervision cases completed
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During 2023/24 Justice Social Work has seen an increase in the completion of bail assessments and bail supervision orders.( Increased from 15 assessments in 2022/23 – 57 in 23/24 and orders 2 in 22/23 – 15 in 23/24) There continues however to be a wide disparity in the conversion from assessments completed to orders imposed. Latest data indicates that the conversion rate during the reporting period is 26.3%. The reasons for this are unclear as no information is given as to the decisions made in Court. Anecdotal evidence indicates that a number of cases are released on standard bail, on occasions prior to the bail assessment being submitted. Within Argyll & Bute, Justice Social Work aim to complete bail assessments on those identified via the bail opposed information received from the PF. Due to the part time criminal business Courts that operate across Argyll & Bute, many of the bail assessments are undertaken on those appearing in Courts outwith our local area. We are therefore at a disadvantage of not having ready access to defence agents and are reliant on Geoamey allowing telephone access to complete bail assessments meaning access to the person is not immediate. This may go some way to understanding the low conversion rate and the cases that are released on standard bail prior to assessments being submitted due to unavoidable delays. The remand population for Argyll & Bute does not appear to have to have been impacted by the introduction of bail supervision with numbers on remand being relatively static throughout the year, with lows of 16 in June 23 to highs of 25 in May and September 23. This is an area that requires further monitoring to fully understand what impact of increasing bail supervision orders and assessments is having on our remand population. Justice Social Work will provide updates to the Community Justice Partnership with regards to the Local Evidence progress.
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Priority Action Four Strengthen options for safe and supported management in the community by increasing and widening the use of electronic monitoring technologies No nationally determined outcome. Progress in delivering this priority action should be evidenced with reference to any relevant local activity. 8. What activity has taken place in your area to increase the use electronic monitoring technologies? What impact has there been as a result? This priority action was identified by Scottish Government as requiring nationally-driven actions as set out by the community justice strategy delivery plan. Given this is a developing area that does not have a national outcome, CJS do not expect many local areas to have undertaken significant activity in relation to it, however we recognise that some local areas, for example those involved with EM pilot projects, may want to report on their activity. The use of Electronic Monitoring in Bail and as a requirement of CPO’s is small. This is considered in all relevant cases, however due to the geography of A&B this has not been a priority area for us to develop. Despite recommendations for EM bail being made, we are not seeing a high take up of this by the Courts ( please refer to section 3 on bail supervision). Examples of where EM has been imposed as a requirement of a CPO is mainly in domestic abuse cases where it has been used to exclude away from victims addresses. Caution has to be taken with this however due to not inadvertently disclosing victim addresses, if this is not known to the perpetrator. In all cases where such a restriction is being considered, permission is sought from the victim. Electronic monitoring does continue to be used as stand alone Restriction of Liberty Orders and as conditions of Parole Licences where relevant. The CJP will continue to monitor the use of EM in Argyll & Bute, as part of CPO’s and wider, reflections on whether our diverse geography contributes to the low usage by the judiciary. This continued into 2024/25.
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Priority Action 5 Ensure that those given community sentences are supervised and supported appropriately to protect the public, promote desistance from offending and enable rehabilitation by delivering high quality, consistently available, trauma-informed services and programmes Nationally determined outcome: More people access services to support desistance and successfully complete community sentences4 Local Evidence • Availability of local programmes to support desistance from domestic abuse and sexual offending. (not available - due to lack of national funding) • Availability of referral pathways to support the needs of local population on community disposals.(available - will be reported to CJP) • Mechanisms are in place to understand the views of people with experience of community disposals to support improvement. (not available - included as an improvement action linked to local CJ Plan) • Mechanisms are in place to understand the views of the community justice workforce with regard to supporting the needs of people subject to community disposals to support improvement. (not available - included as an improvement action linked to local CJ Plan) 9. What activity has taken place that will support people serving sentences in the community to desist from offending, address their needs, and help them successfully complete their sentence? What impact has there been as a result? In developing your answer to this question, you should engage with the relevant local partners involved in the planning, development, delivery and monitoring of activity. We would encourage you to reflect on engagement and collaborative activity rather than solely single service delivery. For this Priority Action, you may wish to consider involvement from the following partners and stakeholders: • Justice Social Work • Police Scotland • Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service • Third Sector • Health • Any other partners as relevant 4 National Indicator: Percentage of: • community payback orders successfully completed • drug treatment and testing orders successfully completed
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Within Argyll & Bute we have had had newly appointed Sheriffs in both Dunoon and Oban Sheriff Courts. There has been open dialogue with the sentencers from JSW so there is a shared understanding of the services that are offered as part of community sentences. To ensure a consistent trauma informed approach is taken by JSW, all staff have been trained and accredited in DBT approaches during 2023. DBT is an intensive, structured, skills-based cognitive-behavioural program that enhances emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and interpersonal skills. DBT already includes several of the additional components of effective CBT programs (e.g., interpersonal skills, emotion regulation skills) and it has shown its effectiveness among difficult-to-treat populations, such as those with borderline personality disorder, comorbid substance use disorders, psychopathy, and antisocial personality traits. It also links well with the main RNR (Risk, Need and Responsivity Principles). This will be used as a basis for all intervention work across the service and will be tailored to the individual’s needs as identified in Case Management Plans. It is anticipated that this will ensure consistency of service provision across Argyll & Bute. JSW have adopted a proactive approach to dealing with non compliance and breach of community sentences, using welfare checks, core groups and multi agency meetings to understand the root cause of non compliance and put strategies in place to try and avoid recurrence unless there is a high risk to public protection. With regard to the Local Evidence, this is included as part of our local CJ Plan, however, the availability (and delivery) of sexual offending and domestic abuse programmes is out with the control of Argyll & Bute, at this point, without significant additional funding to support.
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Priority Action 6 Ensure restorative justice is available across Scotland to all those who wish to access it by promoting and supporting the appropriate and safe provision of available services No nationally determined outcome. Progress in delivering this priority action should be evidenced with reference to any relevant local activity. 10. What activity has taken place to make restorative justice available to people and support them to access it, and what impact has there been as a result? This priority action was identified by Scottish Government as requiring nationally-driven actions as set out by the community justice strategy delivery plan. Given this is a developing area that does not have a national outcome, CJS do not expect many local areas to have undertaken significant activity in relation to it, however we recognise that some local areas, for example those involved with RJ pilot projects or who commission their own RJ services locally, may want to report on their activity. Decision made by CJP to monitor the national progress, however, without significant additional funding, at this point, it’s not possible for Argyll & Bute to deliver.
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Priority Action Seven Enhance individuals' access to health and social care and continuity of care following release from prison by improving the sharing of information and partnership-working between relevant partners Nationally determined outcome: More people have access to, and continuity of, health and social care following release from a prison sentence5 Local Evidence • Health and social care circumstances/care plans are reflected in collaborative plans for release. (partially available – no standard approach for voluntary throughcare. Development in progress 2024/25) • Referral pathways and information sharing arrangements are in place to support timely access to health and social care supports upon release. (partially available – no standard approach for voluntary throughcare. Development in progress 2024/25) 11. What activity has taken place to support people to access health and social care support after release from prison, and what impact had there been as a result? In developing your answer to this question, you should engage with the relevant local partners involved in the planning, development, delivery and monitoring of activity. We would encourage you to reflect on engagement and collaborative activity rather than solely single service delivery. For this Priority Action, you may wish to consider involvement from the following partners and stakeholders: • Police Scotland • Scottish Prison Service • Health • Skills Development Scotland • Local authority • Third Sector • Any other partners as relevant Health and social care needs of those requiring services are identified during pre release planning and this is done on a case by case basis. Of note is the growing number of elderly prisoners who require packages of care in the community, or nursing care. JSW refer to adult services at the earliest opportunity and work closely with them to ensure appropriate packages of care can be sourced. JSW work closely and commission an Autism consultant in appropriate 5 National Indicator: Number of transfers in drug/alcohol treatments from: • custody to community
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cases. Mental health services can be difficult to access, particularly forensic services in the West of Argyll. The commissioning of Lomond & Argyll Advocacy Service to deliver a rights-based voluntary throughcare service (partly funded by JSW and attributable to 2024-2025 JSW statistics) is a significant opportunity. As noted above, operational from April 2024, with both postholders recruited having lived experience of the justice system so have solid knowledge of the challenges. As the project has developed, the realisation from that delivering equity of access to services across the complex landscape of Argyll & Bute is not straightforward. One of the key highlights was the engagement and support for the project within our lead prison HMP Greenock, who continue to play a key role in high take up rates. They supported the Community Justice Coordinator and facilitated a multi-agency meeting with A&B reps from Addictions (statutory and third sector), Housing, Justice Social Work alongside the LAAS CJ Advocacy Service reps. The learning from this project will inform opportunities during 2024-2025, which might present as challenges initially. Of the 16 liberated by the end of July 2024, 14 provided explicit consent (via HMP Greenock and Low Moss Link Centres) to be referred to LAAS CJ Advocacy Service. With the new nationally commissioned voluntary throughcare service due to begin April 2025, the CJP will have a focus on how that service will assist the CJP to deliver on improvements.
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Priority Action Eight Ensure that the housing needs of individuals in prison are addressed consistently and at an early stage by fully implementing and embedding the Sustainable Housing on Release for Everyone (SHORE) standards across all local authority areas Nationally determined outcome: More people have access to suitable accommodation following release from a prison sentence6 Local Evidence • SPS admissions and liberations information is shared with relevant partners to support suitable accommodation planning. (available – collated information since May 2020) • Proportion of admissions where housing advice was provided. (not available - SPS responsibility. Local indicator could be developed) • Percentage of people leaving prison who have been housed by the local authority and have maintained tenancy for more than 1 year (not available – included in CJ Plan activity) 12. What activity has taken place to support people to access suitable accommodation following release from prison, and what impact had there been as a result? In developing your answer to this question, you should engage with the relevant local partners involved in the planning, development, delivery and monitoring of activity. We would encourage you to reflect on engagement and collaborative activity rather than solely single service delivery. For this Priority Action, you may wish to consider involvement from the following partners and stakeholders: • Scottish Prison Service • Housing Services • Other housing providers/landlords • Justice Social Work • Health • Third Sector • Any other partners as relevant Housing emergency declared by A&B. JSW and SOPU have an excellent working relationship with A&B’s Housing SOLO to secure suitable accommodation options for MAPPA cases released on licence. Pathways are in place to identify housing and public protection needs at 6 National Indicator: Number of: • homelessness applications where prison was the property the main applicant became homeless from
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an early point in the pre release process to ensure sufficient time is given for the identification of properties and ERA’s to be undertaken and risk mitigation strategies to be explored. This can be challenging in small rural communities where SOPU and JSW are easily identifiable in visiting properties. Extra caution is therefore required to avoid outings of individuals. JSW and housing work in collaboration during pre release planning for any other service users due to be released on licence taking into account needs, risks and any victim issues. The requirement for housing support is also discussed at this stage and JSW work closely with Carrgorm to identify needs and appropriate supports. Argyll and Bute Council Housing Services continue to engage with the national SHORE review and attend the Housing Hub meetings to share best practice with other local authorities. In terms of the general prison population, Housing is engaging with LAAS to ensure suitable accommodation and support are provided on release. Whilst this annual report is up to end of March 2024, it is worth noting that both Justice Social Work and Housing have been consistently involved with the LAAS since April 2024 to progress the pathway planning model for Argyll & Bute, further detail will be provided in our next annual report. Through the data collection and learning from the commissioned voluntary throughcare service with LAAS during 2024/2025, there will be an improved understanding of the Custody to Community Pathway, with housing being one element. This is being monitored via CJP during 2024/2025.
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Priority Action Nine Enhance individual's life skills and readiness for employment by ensuring increased access to employability support through effective education, learning, training, career services and relevant benefit services Nationally determined outcome: More people with convictions access support to enhance their readiness for employment7 Local Evidence • Effective links between the Local Employability Partnership (LEP) and Community Justice Partnership supports: i. local employment, education and training providers to respond to the needs of those with convictions ii. local employment, education and training providers are confident and competent in providing effective conviction disclosure support iii. local employers to develop more inclusive recruitment processes and employ people with convictions. • Referral pathways are in place to connect people to appropriate services and support: i. at commencement of, during and at the end of a CPO ii. following release from custody. 13. What activity has taken place to support people to access employability support, and what impact had there been as a result? In developing your answer to this question, you should engage with the relevant local partners involved in the planning, development, delivery and monitoring of activity. We would encourage you to reflect on engagement and collaborative activity rather than solely single service delivery. For this Priority Action, you may wish to consider involvement from the following partners and stakeholders: • Local Authority employability services • Skills Development Scotland • Third Sector • Scottish Prison Service • Scottish Courts and Tribunals Services • Any other partners as relevant 7 Links with National Indicator: Percentage of: • those in employability services with convictions
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Benefit maximisation is offered to all those eligible who are working with JSW via welfare rights workers within Argyll & Bute Council and Carrgorm. JSW also links with various employability services across A&B and other agencies such as venture trust and local initiatives such as the Tullichan Trust and Spark Your Purpose. The CJP will progress strategic alignment to the Argyll & Bute Employability Group during 2024/2025 to explore opportunities. Justice Social Work will provide updates to CJP via Community Sentencing reporting.
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Priority Action Ten Enhance community integration and support by increasing and promoting greater use of voluntary throughcare and third sector services Nationally determined outcome: More people access voluntary throughcare following a short term prison sentence8 Local Evidence • Mechanisms are in place for partners to support people serving short term sentences. (not for people without Justice Social Work support – in place though commissioned LAAS CJ Advocacy Project 2024-2025) • Proportion of people liberated from short term custody: i. made aware of support ii. accepting support offer iii. with a co-ordinated pre-release plan in place. (not for people without Justice Social Work support – in place though commissioned LAAS CJ Advocacy Project 2024-2025) • Mechanisms are in place to understand the views of people accessing voluntary throughcare to support improvement. (not in place – part of local CJ Plan) • Mechanisms are in place to understand the views of community justice partners in delivering voluntary throughcare to support the needs of people leaving short term custody. (not in place – part of local CJ Plan) 14. What activity has taken place to support people to access voluntary throughcare? What impact had there been as a result? In developing your answer to this question, you should engage with the relevant local partners involved in the planning, development, delivery and monitoring of activity. We would encourage you to reflect on engagement and collaborative activity rather than solely single service delivery. For this Priority Action, you may wish to consider involvement from the following partners and stakeholders: • Police Scotland • Justice Social Work • Scottish Prison Service • Third Sector • Health • Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service • Integration Joint Boards • Any other partners as relevant 8 National Indicator: Number of: • voluntary throughcare cases commenced
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The commissioning of Lomond & Argyll Advocacy Service to deliver a rights-based voluntary throughcare service (partly funded by JSW and attributable to 2024-2025 JSW statistics) is a significant opportunity. For 2023/2024, there was no formal process in place for offering people access to voluntary throughcare in Argyll & Bute. Learning from the project will feature in our 2024/2025 annual report. There is a range of local data and statistics collated, relating to notified liberations for 2023- 2024, national statistics from Justice Analytical Services show a significant increase in the use of custodial during 2023-2024. This is slightly above pre lockdown levels, and the stark increase could be related to backlog of trials, although that’s unclear and further analysis is underway during 2024-2025. Comparing prison population data the biggest noticeable increase is in sentence types 2 years – under 4 years, this moved from a monthly figure of 5 (at end of March 23) to 12 (at end of March 24) Of the 33 notified releases during 2023-2024, 58% (19) were open to Justice Social Work (statutory throughcare and community payback orders). 39% (13) were previously known to Justice Social Work (orders, reports, etc) and only 3% (1) had never been known. This contributes to a soft indicator of prevalence of reoffending. Other locally derived community justice statistics show that of the releases in 2023-2024, 2 people were released twice in the year and 20 of those appeared on Liberation Notifications for the first time in 2023-2024. The net number of people involved was 27. One of the key highlights was the engagement and support for the project within our lead prison HMP Greenock, who continue to play a key role in high take up rates. They supported the Community Justice Coordinator and facilitated a multi-agency meeting with A&B reps from Addictions (statutory and third sector), Housing, Justice Social Work alongside the LAAS CJ Advocacy Service reps. Initial intentions were to advise the people in prison of the service availability via Email A Prisoner, HMP Greenock Link Centre suggested a process where email is sent to them, leaflet is provided and consent requested. A much more efficient and effective process. Some early indicators available from April-July 2024 show: • Of the 16 made aware of the LAAS CJ Advocacy Service, 14 gave explicit consent for a referral. • An additional referral via community services was made, for a woman recently released from prison • Of the 15 referrals, 13 actively engaged (April-June) Some other extracts from the LAAS Q1 2024-2025 report are below. The service advised they do not record ethnicity of clients:
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Closed Cases There were 5 cases closed during this quarter Length of Involvement At present the average length of involvement is 79 days however as the project is still new, this number and those in the table below may not be an accurate reflection of case length due to the small sample size. These numbers are likely to change as the project continues and we have a larger number of closed cases to sample. Length of Case Involvement (in days) Number of Clients <30 2 30-60 4 60-90 2 90-120 4 120+ 3
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Focus of Work Access to Information 1 Rights Respect and Recovery Support 2 Substance/Alcohol Issues 5 Signposting to other services 3 Finance/Benefits Issues 3 Family/Relationship Issues 1 Housing 11 Access to Legal Services 1 Engagement with Social Work Services 1 Engagement with NHS Services 4 Employment issues 1 Loneliness 1 Health and Wellbeing 3 Isolation 1 Access to Recovery Focused Treatment 4 Not recorded 3 Our advocates assisted with a range of issues in this quarter. The most common focus of work was around housing, with 85% of clients who engaged with advocacy reporting issues with housing. The second most common focus of work was around substance and alcohol issues with 38% of clients who engaged with our services reporting issues with substances and/or alcohol. In this quarter we signposted 3 clients to other services. The table below details the issues that clients reported to our advocates.
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Priority Action Eleven Deliver improved community justice outcomes by ensuring that effective leadership and governance arrangements are in place and working well, collaborating with partners and planning strategically No nationally determined outcome. Progress in delivering this priority action should be evidenced with reference to any relevant local activity. Local evidence: • Mechanisms are in place to support engagement in each local authority, specifically: o a community justice outcomes improvement plan (CJOIP) (draft in progress) o a participation statement (draft in progress) o an annual report on progress towards nationally and locally determined outcomes. (available) • Mechanisms are in place to support an effective interface between national partner organisations and their local representatives within Community Justice Partnerships. (some evidence) • Evidence of mechanisms to engage non-statutory partners in strategic planning (some evidence) • Use of the Care Inspectorate 'self-evaluation guide to support quality improvement for community justice in Scotland', with focus on Leadership and Direction (planned from 2024-2025) 15. How has your partnership worked to develop local leadership and enhance strategic planning and collaboration? What impact had there been as a result? Scottish Government have indicated that activity to delivery in relation to this priority action should be built into the work of partners to progress the 9 national outcomes. We encourage partners to reflect on what local activity has taken place to develop engagement, collaboration, and demonstrate leadership in community justice partnership working. For example, this could include development as a partnership, engagement and joint working with other local strategic partnerships, or other relevant activity. If any self-evaluation activity has been undertaken, this may support development of this answer. Please refer to challenges and opportunities sections above in Question 4 on the challenges, positives and opportunities in these Partenerships. Community Justice/Youth Justice Community Justice/Violence Against Women & Girls/Equally Safe Community Justice/Alcohol and Drug Partnership
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Priority Action Twelve Enhance partnership planning and implementation by ensuring the voices of victims of crime, survivors, those with lived experience and their families are effectively incorporated and embedded No nationally determined outcome. Progress in delivering this priority action should be evidenced with reference to any relevant local activity. 16. How has your partnership worked to understand and incorporate the voices of victims of crime, survivors, those with lived experience and their families into partnership planning and implementation? What impact has there been as a result? Scottish Government have indicated that activity to delivery in relation to this priority action should be built into the work of partners to progress the 9 national outcomes. We encourage partners to reflect on what local activity has taken place to enable participation of people accused or convicted of offences, their families, victims of crime and other stakeholders in community justice strategic planning, delivery and impact monitoring. JSW have organised video conferencing facilities on one occasion over the past year for victims to observe tribunal hearings under the Parole Board (Scotland) Amendment Rules 2021 which came into effect on 1st March 2021. Jointly funded local research with Violence Against Women Partnership (Delivering Equally Safe fund) on the impacts of women experiencing domestic abuse and multi-agency responses was received in May 2023. Dr Anni Donaldson, Transforming Responses to Violence Against Women and Girls, Domestic Abuse in Argyll & Bute, was being discussed in governance groups during 2023-2024. An action plan on publishing and taking forward is underway during 2024-2025. Due to changing leads, it’s been difficult to establish links with Victim Support, this is an area for improvement during 2024-2025. The is a significant gap with engagement and involvement of lived/living experience. All of the above are addressed in our developing local CJ Plan.
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Priority Action Thirteen Support integration and reduce stigma by ensuring the community and workforce have an improved understanding of and confidence in community justice Nationally determined outcome: More people across the workforce and in the community understand, and have confidence in, community justice9 Local Evidence • Community justice partner contribution to joint activity across policy areas to tackle stigma. 17. What partnership-driven activity has taken place to improve understanding of and confidence in community justice across the workforce and local community? In developing your answer to this question, you should engage with the relevant local partners involved in the planning, development, delivery and monitoring of activity. We would encourage you to reflect on engagement and collaborative activity rather than solely single service delivery. For this Priority Action, you may wish to consider involvement from the following partners and stakeholders: • Other local area strategic partnerships (e.g., Community planning, Alcohol and Drugs, Violence Against Women and Girls, Health Integration Joint Boards, etc.) • Third Sector • Any other local or national partners as relevant There has been no activity relating to this in 2023-2024, it is included in our developing local CJ Plan. 9 National Indicator: Percentage of people who agree that: • people should help their community as part of a community sentence rather than spend a few months in prison for a minor offence
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18. Look ahead for your local area. Please tell us what the next steps are for your partnership. Reflective questions to consider in developing your answer: What are the next steps for your partnership? What opportunities are there? What barriers and/or risks? The key next step for the A&B CJP is to finalise the local plan for consultation and move forward with implementation of identified achievable improvements. What opportunities are there? A&B CJP are already exploring a wide a range of opportunities with the membership as noted throughout this annual report and are committed to progressing these. The refreshed national documentation provides a focused and diverse strategic planning landscape and A&B CJP is committed to strengthening the local strategic oversight, planning and delivery of community justice services that lead to improved outcomes for those in, or around the edges, of the criminal justice system, victims and families. Taking opportunities to widen the membership of A&B CJP will continue to be pursued to strengthen the knowledge and expertise that contribute to reducing offending and reoffending through delivery models that incorporate holistic assessment of needs, ease of access to services and that is trauma-informed and responsive. What barriers and/or risks? The main barriers and risks are around finance, resource, and delivering to remote, rural and island communities while the collective potential of A&B CJP membership is becoming better understood, members are operating within an environment of reducing budgets within public sector, separate funding streams, formulas and associated constraints will impact on capacity for improvement, without additional funding. Delivery of restorative justice services at a local level, as an example from the national strategy, will not be possible without national additional funding/resources. A&B CJP are confident that the activity underway in relation to: data collection; evidence base; and, completion of a range of Strategic Needs & Strengths Assessments will provide a solid baseline to identify what improvements can be delivered locally within current resources, and what is out with our ability to deliver. The wider improvements within the criminal justice system, including COPFS in relation to quicker marking targets (all within 4 weeks) and SCTS in relation to reducing court backlogs, all have a potential impact for Justice Social Work in particular in relation to Diversion, Court related work and new Community Sentence orders. A&B CJP is committed to developing a performance framework that will ensure we are able to address any barriers and/or support any improvement activity. The potential for an increasing Justice Social Work workload will be of particular interest to the A&B CJP
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The range of legislation which impacts on community justice outcomes, particularly the Bail and Release (Scotland) and Children’s Care and Justice (Scotland) Act alongside the Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill amongst others, will have a local impact across several portfolio areas. A&B CJP will continue to develop and strengthen the strategic planning relationships and give careful considerations to the local impacts and ultimately how it contributes to improving community justice outcomes. The introduction of the National Care Service and how that aligns and impacts the statutory duties and deliverables of the A&B CJP will also be a key consideration during the next few years. As noted throughout this report, commissioning and delivering services across the diverse geographical expanse of Argyll & Bute is challenging, A&B CJP is committed to developing an improved understanding through creating meaningful place-based baselines to inform the potential for improvement in the next few years. As noted on page 6 these are also identified as barriers for the CJP to monitor: ➢ Restrictions in national and local funding ➢ Difficulties in recruiting, particularly in remote and island areas ➢ A crisis in the availability of housing ➢ Changes in legislation and statutory guidance ➢ Changes in social work (justice) dictated by the Home Office. Eg. ViSOR ➢ The impact of policy initiatives, for example, early release from prisons ➢ Ongoing Cost-of-Living crisis ➢ Uncertainty caused by the development of the National Care Service ➢ Changes in judicial practice and processing