Justice social work: Self-evaluation of performance, quality and outcomes

Aim 2 of the National Strategy for Community Justice is to “Ensure that robust and high-quality community interventions and public protection arrangements are consistently available across Scotland”. In relation to community sentences, there is an associated priority action to “Ensure that those given community sentences are supervised and supported appropriately to protect the public, promote desistence from offending and enable rehabilitation by delivering high quality, consistently available, trauma-informed services and programmes.”

Key to delivering on these intentions, and the overarching aim, is the ability of justice social work services to demonstrate that the supervision and support offered to those on community sentences is of a high quality. To develop an overview of what was working well and where improvement was required in this regard, the Care Inspectorate undertook a national review, using a self-evaluation approach between September 2024 and March 2025.

The review sought to:

  • evaluate the extent to which justice social work services were able to evidence performance, quality and outcomes in relation to community-based sentences.
  • explore the factors that impacted justice social work services’ ability to confidently and robustly demonstrate the effectiveness and impact of community support and supervision.

As part of this work, all 32 local authority justice social work services completed a structured self-evaluation in which they considered their current approaches to gathering and reporting on performance, quality and outcomes and the factors that were enabling or hindering this work.

Thereafter, we undertook a range of activities to validate the self-evaluations in six local authority justice services. This allowed us to better understand the strengths and challenges at a local level. The activities included:

  • a review of documentary evidence referenced in the local authority self-evaluation
  • focus groups and interviews with senior leaders, operational managers and staff
  • focus groups and interviews with people on community sentences

We published a report of our findings in May 2025. The report contains more detail on the methods we used.


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Thematic review of prison-based social work

In July 2023, we commenced a joint thematic review of prison-based social work services, in partnership with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons in Scotland (HMIPS). Phase 1 of this thematic review considered the strengths and challenges in the governance, leadership, and accountability of prison-based social work services in Scotland and highlighted areas for improvement. The review sought to explore:

  • governance, leadership and direction
  • partnership working, including commissioning arrangements and resourcing
  • policies, procedures, and guidance
  • management and support of staff
  • performance management and quality assurance

As part of the review, we gathered the views of people in custody who had been working with prison-based social work services. Other activities included:

  • a series of scoping meetings with stakeholders including the Scottish Government, the SPS, Social Work Scotland, the Risk Management Authority, and Community Justice Scotland
  • a review of relevant strategies, policies, guidance, procedures and other documentation relating to prison-based social work services
  • a staff survey distributed to all prison-based social work staff
  • focus groups and interviews with key partners.

We published a report of our findings in April 2024. The report contains more details on the methods we used.

Evaluating the quality of prison-based social work practice was outwith the scope of this first phase of the review. Within the report, a commitment was made to a further phase of work in this regard. In the longer term, this will aim to consider the quality of prison-based social work practice, the efficiency of collaboration with community-based justice social work services, and effectiveness in delivering intended outcomes for people.


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Community justice social work: throughcare review

During 2021 the Care Inspectorate as part of the national criminal justice Recover, Renew, Transform (RRT) programme undertook a specific piece of work on behalf of the Recovery of Community Justice and Prevention of Offending sub-group. The focus related to breach of licence and recall to prison with a primary focus on community justice social work practice. This was to further understand recall and related processes to reduce the number of people being recalled to custody, where appropriate.

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.

Due to the restrictions in place as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, all activities were carried out remotely. Activities included:

  • position statement outlining strengths, challenges and areas for improvement was submitted by each area and reviewed by the justice team
  • staff survey for all staff supporting delivery of throughcare support
  • review of a representative sample of relevant records of people who had been subject to each type of statutory throughcare licence
    • focus groups with social work staff
    • survey and interviews with people from across Scotland who had been recalled to custody following breach of their licence conditions
    • structured feedback to the justice social work services involved in the review
    • publication of a national report highlighting strengths, challenges and areas for improvement.

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


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Joint review of diversion from prosecution

In this joint review, we sought to assess the operation and impact of diversion from prosecution in Scotland. Working in partnership we provided an overview of diversion practice from a policing, prosecution and justice social work perspective, highlighted what was working well and explored any barriers to the more effective use of diversion.

The review was carried out by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS), HM Inspectorate of Prosecution in Scotland (IPS), the Care Inspectorate, and HM Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland (HMIPS) (the scrutiny partners).

We considered:

  • the extent to which the police, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) and justice social work, alongside other community justice partners, shared a vision for diversion from prosecution and collaborated on a strategy for delivery, while respecting the important principle of independent prosecutorial decision-making
  • the effectiveness of systems and processes that supported diversion from prosecution and the progress made in implementing the national guidelines on diversion
  • the extent to which the impact of diversion was understood and the intended outcomes were being achieved

We considered the individual and collective roles that the justice partners play at the various stages in the diversion process:

  • the Standard Prosecution Report (SPR)
  • the decision to divert
  • the referral to justice social work
  • the suitability assessment and the response by COPFS
  • the diversion intervention
  • the completion report and the response by COPFS
  • communication with the accused
  • communication with the complainer.

In support of our review, we gathered evidence from a range of sources including:

  • a review of relevant strategies, policies, guidance, procedures and other documentation relating to diversion from prosecution
  • analysis of data on diversion
  • a survey of all community justice partnerships in Scotland regarding the operation of diversion from prosecution in their local area
  • extensive interviews with those involved or with an interest in the diversion process
  • a review of cases in which an initial decision to divert the accused from prosecution had been taken by COPFS, as well as some cases in which diversion did not appear to have been considered.

We published a report of our findings in February 2023. The review report provides more detail on our methods and full details of our findings and recommendations.


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Community justice partnerships: supported and validated self-evaluation

Between 2018 and 2020, we worked in partnership with His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) to support the implementation of the national 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:

In summary our activities 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.

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