Justice social work services continue to face challenges in demonstrating how the services they deliver help people to change and positively impact communities.
However, a new national review carried out by the Care Inspectorate also found that people using justice services report that the support and supervision they receive is having a positive impact on their lives.
The review evaluates how justice social work services evidence the performance, quality and outcomes of community sentences. It also sought to explore the factors affecting services’ ability to demonstrate effectiveness and impact.
All 32 local authority justice social work services submitted a self-evaluation and on-site validation activities were undertaken in six local authority areas. Participation and engagement from justice social work services demonstrated that most were confident and capable in planning and implementing self-evaluation.
Inspectors found that justice social work services are committed to driving improvement.
However, services are not systematically gathering and reporting quality or outcomes data, limiting capacity to demonstrate the effectiveness of community sentences.
Inspectors noted that significant barriers are hindering services’ efforts to evidence the quality and impact of their service delivery, which will require a sector-wide response.
Local barriers include restrictive information management systems, resource constraints, staffing issues and onerous reporting demands.
National barriers include the lack of a shared strategic approach and shared leadership and clarity regarding collective roles and responsibilities. There is also a need to overcome the limitations of the national data gathering and information sharing infrastructure.
Jackie Irvine, Chief Executive of the Care Inspectorate, said: “Our previous scrutiny activities found that justice social work services faced challenges in telling a cohesive, comprehensive story about the positive impact of their work.
“The findings from this review confirm this remains the case. This stands in contrast to the consistently positive messages we heard from people who use justice services about the impact of community sentences.
“There is a clear appetite across services to demonstrate outcomes and the real difference community sentences make in people’s lives.
“However, delivering transformational change to robustly evidence the impact and value of community sentences is beyond the scope of individual justice social work services. This will require a strong vision for justice, underpinned by investment and effective leadership at all levels.
“The Care Inspectorate remains committed to working with partners to support improvement informed by self-evaluation or other forms of scrutiny as appropriate.”
The full report can be read here.