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.