How we do it

Justice social work: inspection of community payback orders 

In our overview report published December 2021, we presented the key findings aggregated across all five inspections.

Between September 2018 and November 2020, we completed five inspections of justice social work services with a particular focus on community payback orders in these areas:

  • Scottish Borders
  • West Dunbartonshire
  • Inverclyde
  • Dumfries and Galloway
  • Aberdeen City.

We produced an inspection guide for this activity. In summary the inspection methodology involved:

  • submission of a self-evaluation by each local authority area
  • review of a representative sample of relevant records of people who were or had been subject to a community payback order
  • interviews with people currently subject to a community payback order
  • focus groups and interviews with members of staff, partner agencies and stakeholders, and senior managers, chief officers, elected members with responsibility for community justice social work
  • verbal feedback to the local authority on findings based on the analysis and evaluation of all aspects of the inspection
  • publication of an inspection report for each participating local authority area that included evidence-based evaluations of key quality indicators using a six-point scale.

Community justice partnerships: supported and validated self-evaluation 

Between 2018 and 2020, we worked in partnership with Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) to support the implementation of the new community justice model through a validated self-evaluation approach. We carried out assurance activities across the following five community justice partnerships, one of which incorporated three local authority areas:

For more information on the supported and validated self-evaluation methodology please refer to our guidance and additional information. In summary our activity included:

  • support and guidance from a strategic inspector for partnership areas to undertake self-evaluation
  • submission of a self-evaluation by the partnership
  • analysis of the submitted documents by the Care Inspectorate/HMICS team
  • follow-up activities with the partnership to explore any areas of uncertainty (these included visits, interviews and focus groups)
  • verbal feedback on the findings to each partnership based on the analysis of all the evidence gathered
  • publication of the validation letter.

Community justice social work: throughcare review 

The Scottish Government established the national criminal justice Recover, Renew, Transform (RRT) programme in response to the ongoing impact of Covid-19 on the justice system in Scotland. One of the tasks of the Recovery of Community Justice and Prevention of Offending sub-group was to explore breach of licence and recall to prison. This was to further understand recall and related processes to reduce the number of people being recalled to custody, where appropriate.

In March 2021, the Care Inspectorate received a request from the sub-group to undertake a focused piece of work relating to breach of licence/recall to custody. The strategic justice team undertook a review of throughcare with a primary focus on community justice social work practice.

The review sought to:

  • identify potential barriers to reintegration; and
  • seek assurance that community justice social work contributions to breach and recall processes were operating as they should.

As part of the review, we also gathered the views of individuals from across Scotland who had been recalled to prison following a breach of their throughcare licence conditions.

We published a report of our findings in September 2021. The report contains more detail on the methods we used.

Our collaborative work with scrutiny and improvement partners 

We have a long-standing commitment to contribute to inspections of prisons and other institutions led by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in Scotland (HMIPS). Over the past three years, our contribution has been led by the strategic justice team with support from other strategic colleagues as appropriate. Throughout 2020/2021, we contributed to HMIPS Covid-19 liaison activities through on-site visits and remote contact with community agencies.

Throughout 2021/2022, we will continue to work with scrutiny and justice partners to contribute to the thematic prison review of risk management, progression and early release.  

A separate piece of collaborative work will focus on the extent to which community justice partners are delivering on national priorities relating to early intervention and prevention.

In July 2023, we commenced a joint thematic review of prison-based social work, in partnership with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in Scotland (HMIPS). This thematic review will consider the strengths and challenges in the governance, leadership, and accountability of prison-based social work services in Scotland. The full Terms of Reference for the review can be found here. This work will conclude in April 2024.

 


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Our support to local partnerships

Our support to local partnerships

Each strategic inspector acts as link inspector to one or more local authority areas across the country. The key purpose of the link inspector role is to fulfil the Care Inspectorate’s ‘general duty of furthering improvement in the quality of social services’ in relation to local authority social work services. This duty is set out at section 44(1)(b) of the Public Services Reform (Scotland) Act 2010.

The link inspector role has a degree of complexity because few social work services are now provided on a standalone basis. Most are now planned, delivered and monitored through partnership arrangements. Regardless of their specialist area, link inspectors engage across the broad spectrum of social work and care services for adults and older people, children and young people and justice services in their link areas.

The key areas of activity for link inspector work are:

  • monitoring the performance and quality of social work services
  • monitoring the performance of partnership public protection arrangements
  • identifying factors which are supporting social work services to deliver good or improved outcomes, and any barriers
  • highlighting risks to the delivery of positive outcomes by social work services, and the potential impact of those risks
  • identifying good practice within social work service and disseminating this more widely
  • supporting the efforts of local authorities and partnerships to build capacity for continuous improvement.

The Care Inspectorate also provides relationship managers for each council area, with responsibility for assurance and improvement work in relation to regulated services. There is a relationship manager for adult services and one for ELC. The link inspector and relationship managers work closely together.

More information about the relationship manager role can be found here.

You can get information about the link inspector for a particular local authority area by e-mailing the strategic support team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Information on the link inspector role for local authorities and partnerships can be found here.

 


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Justice

Our approach

The Care Inspectorate was tasked by the Scottish Government to lead on scrutiny and assurance to support the implementation of the community justice model and provide up-to-date scrutiny and assurance of justice social work.

The Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 introduced the current model of community justice. The Scottish Government outline the priorities in the national strategy for community justice.

The Act also established a national body, Community Justice Scotland to oversee community justice and introduce requirements to achieve national and local outcomes. These are highlighted within an Outcomes, Performance and Improvement Framework (OPIF).

The Scottish Government also commissioned the Care Inspectorate to develop a guide to self-evaluation for community justice in Scotland. The self-evaluation guide aligns to the national strategy and the OPI Framework (OPIF).

The guide is primarily for community justice partnerships to support continuous improvement. It also informs our approach to scrutiny and assurance of justice social work.

Since the strategic justice strategic team was established in 2018, we have undertaken a range of scrutiny, assurance and improvement activities in collaboration with a number of partners. We published an overview report in December 2021 which details our work and summarises the key findings.

How we do it

For detail on the methods we have used below, follow this link.

  • Justice social work: inspections of community payback orders
  • Community justice partnerships: supported and validated self-evaluation
  • Community justice social work: throughcare review
  • Our other work with scrutiny partners

Getting involved

We are committed to meaningfully involving people with lived experience of the justice system in our scrutiny, assurance and improvement activities. We want to develop an ethical, person-centred approach that promotes best practice. A pilot approach was developed in partnership with a national third sector agency. However, intended activities were disrupted by Covid-19. We aim to progress this work in 2022/23.

If you have any questions about our work please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

 


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Our quality assurance role

Our quality assurance role

The strategic inspection team supports learning and improvement in social work services and partnerships by providing an additional level of scrutiny to reviews which they carry out. The review processes which we quality assure are:

You can find more information in the links below:

 

 


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More information

Background

Phase 1 of our programme of joint inspections of adult support and protection services has now concluded, having taken place during 2020-23. The purpose of Phase 1 of the programme was to provide baseline information across the 26 adult protection partnerships not previously inspected in 2017/18. The intention was to follow this programme of inspections with a second phase of scrutiny and/or improvement activity, informed fully by Phase 1 findings.

We are now undertaking further scrutiny across Scotland, at the request of Scottish Ministers and in line with the Scottish Government-led improvement plan.

Phase 2 commenced on 1 August 2023 and will last two years. This phase of the programme will blend scrutiny activity with improvement support and include close collaboration with adult protection partnerships.

Scrutiny approach

Phase 2, first year

The programme provides assurance on the ongoing protection and risk management for adults at risk of harm. The first year of Phase 2 will include revisiting the six adult protection partnerships that were subject to adult support and protection inspections in 2017/18. We will use the inspection methodology we employed in Phase 1. These inspections will focus on key processes and leadership (see our quality indicator framework).

The first year of Phase 2 will also involve further development of the adult support and protection quality improvement framework by inspection partners, with input from stakeholders across the sector.

Phase 2, second year

Activity in the second year of Phase 2 will provide assurance of improvement and will include those partnerships that received inspection reports during Phase 1 where areas of weakness outweighed strengths. Some additional partnerships may also be revisited to provide assurance of improvement.

Additionally in this second year, indicators related to early identification of risk, early intervention and a trauma-informed approach will be applied on a voluntary basis with a select group of partnerships, which will augment their planned self-evaluation processes.

Scrutiny partners

The inspection programme will be led by Care Inspectorate in collaboration with His Majesties’ Inspectorate of Constabulary Scotland (HMICS) and Healthcare improvement Scotland (HIS).  Each scrutiny agency has identified dedicated staff with appropriate levels of experience and expertise in adult support and protection. This scrutiny and assurance will be undertaken in the context of health and social care integration.

Phase 2 inspection focus

The focus of our joint inspection will be on: 

  • independent scrutiny and assurance of how partnerships ensure that adults at risk of harm are kept safe, protected, and supported  
  • providing assurance to Scottish Ministers about how effectively partnerships have implemented the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007
  • taking the opportunity to identify good practice and support improvement more broadly across Scotland
  • providing a quality assurance framework for the adult support and protection community to use for multi-agency audit, self-evaluation and improvement activity.

Purpose of activity

The purpose of this programme of joint inspections is to seek assurance that adults at risk of harm in Scotland are supported and protected by existing national and local adult support and protection arrangements. The programme is one element of the Scottish Government-led improvement plan.

The partnership briefing document relating to phase two, first year inspections was prepared by the inspection team to give you an overview of the joint inspection programme and is available on our website. The documents below are referenced within the partnership briefing document.

The joint inspection team has made a number of other documents available to support partnerships. Each partnership will receive the relevant documents at the appropriate time.

Our inspections take account of the adult support and protection code of practice. For us to understand the degree to which partnerships were progressing with implementation we issued a single question survey. The survey was shared with Chief Social Work Officers, adult protection committee conveners and lead officers. The question was 'Please briefly describe your partnership’s approach to key processes, including the role of the Council Officer, around inquiries/investigations in light of the revised Code of Practice'. Please find our summary findings from that survey.

A communication and engagement strategy is available in relation to our Phase 2, first year quality improvement framework (QIF). The QIF is being designed in collaboration with the National Implementation Group and other stakeholders. Key elements of this will be used to inform our supported self-evaluation activity in Phase 2, second year.

We are at the very early stages of developing Phase 2, second year methodologies and will aim to include any relevant updates and material here when it is appropriate to do so.

Please email any enquiries to the joint inspection team at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.


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