Criminal Justice Programme Board: terms of reference

Purpose

This board will have delegated authority and will provide the delivery and accountability mechanism for TCPs 1 and 3. This will enable partners to assess progress, monitor delivery and ensure cross-sector working. The board’s role is to ensure programmes are on track, make cross-sector connections and resolve issues before progress is reported to the Criminal Justice Board.

Aims and objectives

The programme board forms a key part of the collaborative reporting and accountability cycle. It ensures programmes are on track for delivery and that effective joint working is taking place both across justice sector boundaries, but also with other delivery partners and stakeholders. It monitors progress across the programmes and holds deep dives into areas of particular concern.

The role of the board is to challenge and adapt any aspects within the identified programmes that do not deliver on the ambitions of the Vision for Justice. It also ensures accountability across programmes in which objectives are shared and responsibilities clearly allocated across the sector.

The board has a number of levers available to ensure the successful delivery of the programmes. These include: 

• recommending where remedial action is required by programme directors to ensure delivery is on track
• escalating major delivery concerns to justice partner leadership where decisions are required on accelerating or stopping activity
• advising on whether the actions across the programmes remain necessary for transforming the sector in light of changing conditions
• through the use of soft power to ensure a cross-sector collaborative approach in delivering the Vision

A common accountability framework is being established with key milestones and agreed metrics of success which will be regularly reported to the board.

Chair

The chair for this board will be Cat Dalrymple, Director of Justice in the Scottish Government.

Membership

Membership of the board will consist of representatives from a range of criminal justice partners as well as Scottish Government. The current membership of this board is detailed on the group page.

The membership of this board will be reviewed every six months to ensure it remains up to date and effective.

Accountability

This board will report to the Criminal Justice Board.

Meetings

The board will meet on a monthly basis and these meetings will take place virtually via Microsoft Teams.

Resource and support

Secretariat support including papers and updates will be managed by the Portfolio Management Office. Advance notice will be provided to members who may be asked to provide updates from their areas.

Email will be used for submitting requests and circulating information to members. 

An action log will be issued following the meeting to capture actions and decisions made during the meeting; members may be requested to provide updates on progress of actions between meetings.