National Care Service - justice social work: overview

Key Facts

Staffing

• In 2020, there were 937 main grade or senior justice social workers, up from 898 in 2011.

Diversion from prosecution

• In 2019-20, there were 1,990 cases commenced for diversion from prosecution covering 1,930 individuals.

Criminal justice social work reports

• There were 28,500 criminal justice social work reports submitted in 2019-20. This was eight per cent lower than in 2014-15.

Social work orders

• Total community payback orders imposed fell between 2015-16 and 2018-19, before a small rise of two per cent in 2019-20 to 16,800.
• The numbers of drug treatment and testing orders fell by 14 per cent between 2018-19 and 2019-20, to 520, around the same as in 2015-16.

Throughcare

• There were 1,900 statutory throughcare cases commenced in 2019-20.
• There were 2,000 voluntary throughcare cases commenced during 2019-20. With 1,800 individuals who received assistance during this year.