Item 11 - Community Justice Partnership Update Report
West Dunbartonshire Council · 19 February 2026
Back to Community Planning West Dunbartonshire Management Board — 19 February 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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Management Board Meeting Community Planning Partnership Highlights and Issues Report FOR INFORMATION ONLY X FOR DECISION Name of Partnership Community Justice Partnership (CJP) Date of report 22/01/2026 Name and email of lead contact Lesley.James@west-dunbarton.gov.uk 1 Highlights of activity and progress since last meeting Working/Steering Group Updates: Arrest Referral Scheme The meeting with Police Scotland Custody Division and East Dunbartonshire (ED) went ahead but it is clear there is no cross over for a shared pathway, residents of ED don’t tend to come to WD instead they are likely to be held in Coatbridge. Numbers of WD residents being supported by the scheme remain disproportionately (and concerningly) low compared with level of need and intersectionality that underpins offending. New alcohol and drug services providers are now operating in WD ‘With You’ meetings are in the diary to meet with the new providers with an invitation to be part of the Arrest Referral Scheme Working Group. The chair of the ARS working group is working closely with police custody staff and concern hub staff to look at sharing of information under the auspice of ‘Public Task’ with a view that this should support the referral pathway with meaningful engagement with services for those who would benefit from it at the point of arrest. Custody to Community (C-C) 1. Emergency Early Release of Prisoners The early release of prisoners remains underway and will be underway until April 2026. Whole systems communication pathways have been established with partners to ensure that challenges and pressures to services can be fed back to the Scottish Government. WD Justice Services has contributed to the Survey to quantify impact of Emergency Early Release (EER) being undertaken by Social Work Scotland. Staff from homelessness services are reporting a strain on services as many residents who are being released are homeless, due to the housing crisis in WD this is placing stress on a service which is already stressed. ITEM 11
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There remains open communication between the Custody-Community Vulnerability/Risk management & Victim Safety Planning Group. The Community Justice Co-ordinator is triaging the EER prisoner names and requesting veto information for those we would have concerns about being released. This process is further alerting colleagues in Children & families social work and Violence Against Women and Girls services to potential releases to allow for timeous victim safety planning. Wider services are being alerted to support prisoner risk/vulnerabilities management and housing needs prior to release. 2. Custody to Rehab (C2R) “Proof of Concept” The Custody to Rehab agenda is going very well and there have been many referrals to the pathway. The CJ Co-ordinator approached Community Justice Scotland (CJS) to request further places in line with demand, and this was granted. CJS have removed the cap on placements, and we can refer as many residents as per demand. To date 14 referrals have been made to the pathway with 4 residents admitted to rehab establishments. Local C2R Guidance is currently being written to support process and protocol for the pathway to ensure that the process is robust and clear for all potential referrers. 3. Talking About Mental Health Toolkit Community Justice NHS GGC have been working in partnership with Penumbra who have created a “Talking about Mental Health” toolkit for those working with justice populations. The Community Justice Co-ordinator has been trained to deliver the materials and a workplan is currently being developed to support the wider roll out of the resource in the locality. There will be a targeted approach to training delivery and will include justice services and closest partners in the first instance i.e. social work staff and housing 1st staff. The workplan will be available by mid-February with a view to the training being rolled out in May 2026 Prevention and Early and Effective Intervention 1. The use of Diversion in both adult and youth justice context: ‘Understanding Youth and Adult Diversion’ whole-systems development sessions have been held in December 2025 with another pending in February 2026. A specialist input to Education services took place in November 2025 to ensure that the voices of education colleagues are captured as part of outcome improvement planning activity. The sessions will shape and support enhancing the use of Diversion and contribute to supporting the national and local community justice outcome improvement plan. A workplan will be developed following the session in February detailing identified improvement activity. 2. Framework for Risk Assessment, Management & Evaluation (FRAME) and Care and Risk Management (CARM) (multi-agency) FRAME/CARM training was delivered to to Justice and Children and Families social workers in October 2025. Next steps will be supported by CYCJ and will include the development of local guidance including process, protocol and governance. A short life working group has been created to undertake writing the local guidance and the guidance should be available by May 2026.
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3. Justice services have introduced a safeguarding protocol for sharing risk and concerns around child protection and violence against women and girls. To support the safeguarding of children, young people and vulnerable adults affected by domestic abuse, justice services are triaging the names of those due to be released from prison (planned releases) with our partners in VAWG and children and families’ services to ensure effective victim safety planning and safeguarding. This process has proved to be both effective and beneficial in terms of best – safe practice. 4. ‘With You’ new drug and alcohol providers in WD can work with young people from aged 16 years. This wasn’t the case previous and it is hoped that as part of EEI young people can be referred to services at the point of need not chronological age. Women in Justice A workplan is underway to undertake embedding the recommendations from The Discovery report. This plan will be a whole-systems plan involving all justice services from the point of arrest through to prosecution. There is a clear training gap for understanding violent resistance and the CJ Co-ordinator is developing this training as part of outcome improvement planning. It is anticipated the training will be ready for delivery as part of 16 Days of Action for VAWG 2026. The WiJ working group is considering the National Women’s Health Plan and where it fits with locality planning and women in justice services. Authentic Voices A decision was taken at the CJP in November 2025 to disband the AV working group as this activity is now firmly embedded into all work strands which is the gold standard the CJP had hoped to achieve. AV work will be reported on for each working group and any wider CJP activity. Heath Needs Analysis NHS GGC WD Justice Services are collaborating with NHS GGC to better understand the health needs of community justice populations. Phase 2 of the project has commenced with data transfer and seeding activity is underway. Focus groups and qualitative activity has been arranged with the justice team and justice service users has commended. Reporting is expected in spring/summer 2026. Community Based Sentences WD Justice Services has developed pre/post measure to ensure that the voices of service users are captured for all community-based sentences. This is being collated using Microsoft Forms and will be analysed annually as part of outcome improvement planning. Caledonian Systems Steering Group The group has been developing a Standard Operating Protocol (SOP) between partners to ensure effective communication and agreed protocols to manage risk and ensure the safety of victims as paramount. The SOP is being developed in a partnership approach, and each partner has contributed to its development. The 1st draft of the SOP has been referred to other strategic partner i.e. the VAWGP and the MARAC steering group for scrutiny and agreement.
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The group is working closely with further considering protocols regarding breeches of orders and responding to breeches timeously to ensure that the men who are on the programme are engaging a meaningful way and that risk is always considered in a dynamic manner and shared with relevant partners i.e. justice and children and families’ social work. A template has been developed and created to ensure robust meaningful information sharing between justice and Police Scotland – the template is under consideration at this time. Recording as part of Domestic Abuse EEI is under development and the Caledonian steering group is contributing toward this Children & Families Social Work to ensure that service generated risk and trauma is mitigated. As part of a partnership approach with the Child Protection Committee the working group is considering the incorporation of multiagency chronologies as part of best practice to ensure that all significant information is shared with relevant stakeholder partners. The group is developing protocols around ensuring contribution to the chronologies as standard practice for those who are part of the Caledonian men’s programme. Employability WD Justice Services are working closely with Working 4 U “Fairer Futures” Proof of Concept. W4U have secured money from the Scottish Government until March 2026 to support justice populations with a routes out of poverty agenda. There has been much development and implementation work undertaken and there will be a targeted approach to service provision operating through 7 separate work strands: 1. Community to Rehab 2. Caledonian men’s group 3. WSSS women’s groups 4. Community based sentences 5. Education & Higher Education 6. Youth Justice 7. Justice Throughcare The proof of concept will seek to engage with services users to support them to a position whereby they see employability as a viable option, cognisant of the challenges and barriers faced by the justice population. Training, Learning & Development 2026 9th March 2026 – Justice and Partners Information & Awareness Raising Session 23rd April 2026 – Dash-Ric Multi-agency 19th May 2026 – Penumbra – talking about mental health toolkit 30th June 2026 - Penumbra – talking about mental health toolkit 13th August - Dash-Ric Multi-agency 17th August - Justice and Partners Information & Awareness Raising Session 8th September - Penumbra – talking about mental health toolkit 12th November - Dash-Ric Multi-agency
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23rd November - Justice and Partners Information & Awareness Raising Session 8th December – DAAMH -I Training 2 Outline of any issues/risks and how these are being managed Currently justice services are scrutinising the impact of the EER of prisoners and what this means in terms of pressure and capacity for services. The ongoing housing crisis will potentially face further stress as a ripple effect of this activity. Concerns will be escalated through the CJP and wider governance structures. Budgets and capacity are an ongoing issue for community justice – this is a national issue and hopefully we will see a bigger investment in community justice with the presumption towards liberty and away from custodial sentences. Issues or risk will be identified and assessed in the Strategic Needs and Strengths Assessments and identified at working/steering groups. These will be reported to the CJP for escalation where necessary. 3 Outline of the main outputs expected before next meeting Progress reporting updates from all working groups. 4 What are your requirements of partners in the Community Planning Management Board to achieve the outcomes of the DIG? To support the CJP to deliver locally on the ‘National Strategy for Community Justice’ at a local level. To support the CJP with the uncertainty (nationally) regarding funding and budgets to support the local delivery of the strategy. The CJP will be required to identify funding to deliver the local CJOIP and associated activities. 5 Please outline any good news story you wish to share The local Community Justice Outcome Improvement Plan will be reviewed at the next community justice partnership in February. Much progress has been made with the strategic plan – so much so that we are asking for a pause on all development work in 2026-2027 to allow for the embedding of current developments and improvement activity.
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Development work that requires embedded 2026-2027: The Women in Justice Discovery Report Health Needs Analysis recommendations Head Injury Research Recommendations Youth and Adult Diversion development session outcome improvement activity. Fairer Futures Learning Report and recommendations Community to Rehab learning report and recommendations Children’s Care and justice (Scotland) Act 2024 – fulfilling statutory duties Reflection and Review of the current strategy: Care Inspectorate Self-evaluation Jan-April 2027