Criminal justice social work statistics in Scotland: 2015-2016
National-level information on criminal justice social work activity in Scotland, including data on criminal justice social work services and social work orders.
6 Statutory/voluntary throughcare
6.1 Criminal justice social work departments are expected to provide a throughcare service to all those who are subject to statutory supervision on release from prison. This includes people serving sentences of four years or more (or six months or more for sexual crimes) as well as those subject to an extended sentence or supervised release order. Throughcare begins at the start of the sentence and is implemented through the Scottish Prison Service's integrated case management process. Voluntary throughcare services are also available to those who are not subject to supervision on release from prison. These services may be requested while in custody or up to 12 months after release.
6.2 Commencements for statutory throughcare in custody have fluctuated around the 1,000 mark over the past five years, with 1,040 cases in 2015-16 ( Table 32). Forty-five per cent involved determinate sentences of four years or more, while supervised release orders and extended sentences accounted for 27 and 15 per cent respectively.
6.3 The number of commencements for statutory throughcare cases in the community totalled between 1,000-1,100 between 2009-10 and 2014-15 but fell below 1,000 in 2015-16, to 970 ( Table 1). Twenty-seven per cent of all cases commenced in 2015-16 related to supervised release orders, while parole and non-parole licences accounted for 19 and 21 per cent respectively ( Table 33).
6.4 The statutory custody- and community-based throughcare caseload totalled 5,800 individuals on 31 March 2016, down from the peak of 6,000 in 2014 but still historically high ( Tables 1, 32 and 33). The custody-based caseload is 58 per cent of the total.
6.5 The number of completions of statutory throughcare cases in the community was 980 in 2015-16. The trend for completion numbers has been fairly flat over the last five years with the total between 900 and 1,000 in each year since 2011-12 ( Table 33).
6.6 The number of voluntary throughcare cases fell by 5 per cent between 2014-15 and 2015-16 to 2,500. Numbers have generally fluctuated between 2,500 and 2,700 over the last seven years ( Table 1).
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