Service Manager, Justice Services, Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership
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The Scottish Government established the national criminal justice Recover, Renew, Transform (RRT) programme in March 2021 in response to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on the justice system. One of the tasks of the Recovery of Community Justice and Prevention of Offending subgroup was to explore breach of licence and recall to prison processes. This was to further understanding of recall and related processes to reduce the number of people being recalled to custody, where appropriate.
https://www.gov.scot/publications/justice-vision-priorities-closing-down-report/documents/
In March 2021, the Care Inspectorate undertook a review across four local authority areas to consider community justice practice in this area with a focus on:
- Identifying potential barriers to reintegration
- Seeking assurances that community justice Social Work contributions to breach and recall processes were operating as they should
Glasgow justice services participated as one of the four local authorities in this review. These areas were selected based on size of available sample, service model and geographical spread. Selection was not based on any concerns regarding perceived service delivery risk. As part of the review, the views of individuals were gathered across Scotland who had been recalled to prison following breach of their throughcare licence conditions.
The scope, findings and key messages from the review were published in September 2021 and are detailed in the Care Inspectorate ‘Community Justice Social Work Throughcare Review’. https://www.careinspectorate.com/images/documents/6295/FinalDraftRpt_ThroughcareReview_Sep2021_V04_Website.pdf
Within Glasgow, and prior to the review, there had been an increased level of scrutiny and development activity within Throughcare practice. In 2018/19 a local audit was undertaken in relation to Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) provision in the City and focused on:
- Processes associated with the provision of materials for MAPPA meetings.
- Standard of risk management and contingency planning frameworks.
A city wide Throughcare group was established in 2019. This provided a vehicle for gathering issues and learning within Glasgow justice services and informing key priorities for the service. This group continues to meet regularly to monitor and review progress around the action plan put in place on the back of the care inspectorate report. This includes ongoing audit activity and also feeds into national reporting mechanisms as well as disseminating any national changes or developments to front line justice staff. Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Throughcare activity are also highlighted through monthly reporting performance frameworks and are also monitored by the Integrated Joint Board (IJB) scrutiny committee on a quarterly basis.
