Sergeant, Greater Glasgow Safer Communities, Police Scotland
In last year’s Community Justice Glasgow Annual Reporter (2020-21) in the article ‘Breaking the Cycle Between Addiction & Offending – Positive Outcomes for Glasgow’ – CLICK THE PICTURE LINK BELOW TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE – we provided an update on what was new with the service and what was making the difference. In this update we will tell you about some of the outcomes over the year and the findings of an evaluation of the service.
The Positive Outcomes Project (POP) is a unique, partnership-based outreach team consisting of officers from Police Scotland, addiction workers from Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (GCHSCP) and Sacro lived experience peer mentors. The project, which aims to break the cycle between addiction and offending, currently offers two addiction support services
The core POP team support persistent male offenders aged 16 years and above, who reside within the Glasgow City boundary and commit offences due to a dependency on alcohol and / or drugs.
POP Plus consists of two Custody Peer Mentors (CPM’s) who use their lived experience to navigate and direct detainees of the Glasgow police custody suites, to suitable support agencies for addiction issues, welfare rights, housing, bereavement, mental health etc.
One of the aims of POP Plus was to improve police detainee’s access to support and recovery initiatives. Analysis over a 6-month period found that:
- Around 33% of detainees approached by the CPM’s requested further support – compared to the 3% when spoken to by police staff.
- The CPMs referred detainees on to around 33 different support organisations. Traditionally there were just 3 referral options for support available to the Criminal Justice Services Division (Police Scotland).
Another outcome for POP and POP Plus was to reduce offending behaviour linked to substance misuse. Preliminary analysis of custody admissions has shown that:
- 17.5% more POP and 21.5% more POP Plus Service Users reduced their custody admissions when they engaged with either service – compared to those that did not engage with the services offered.
Over the last year, the POP service was also evaluated by Dr Danni Glover (Community Justice, Glasgow). The findings included;
- POP is indeed a unique service due to its partnership between Police Scotland, HSCP and lived experience 3rd sector staff who equally share case management and information sharing as well as placing a strong emphasis on lived experience mentors as a key pathway to recovery.
- Preliminary analysis of Justice Star data revealed that POP Service Users felt they had improved the most in the areas of “Living a Crime Free Life” and “Drugs & Alcohol” which corresponds to the expertise and specialisms of the POP staff.
- Service User interviews highlighted:
- All clients were very positive about their interactions with the POP addiction workers. This was linked to their ability to be open with the addiction workers, the perception that POP workers did not “give up on them”, the intensive knowledge the addiction workers had about their specific needs and the wealth of resources they were able to link them into.
- The clients were universally positive about working with the lived experience staff. The specific interventions instigated by the lived experience staff, along with the trust input and feedback from those who had been in similar situations as the clients, ensured the clients “bought into” the project and empowered continued engagement.
- The clients cited many positive engagements with the POP officers. This was linked to the fact that POP officers spent time talking to them and not reducing them only to their addiction or offences and did not look to arrest them for sharing.
In March 2022, POP and POP Plus were awarded a further 3-years funding from the CORRA Improvement Fund. This money will support the continued employment of the POP Recovery Co-ordinator and two new Custody Peer Mentors.
Tom Jackson, Head of Community Justice Glasgow commented:
“The Positive Outcomes Project plays such a key part in reducing the risk of further offending amongst a cohort of hard-to-reach people with some very complex needs. The way the service has stuck with and supported people over the years has been first class – the preliminary analysis of the Justice Star Outcomes showing ‘living a life free of crime’ as on of the most improved areas is testament that. I am so pleased to see that the service has secured 3 years further funding to continue their excellent work and continue to grow and develop this truly unique service.”
