Justice social work - reports and court-based services: practice guidance

7. Quality Assurance:

The provision of good quality services is an expectation of those working within or coming into contact with justice social work. Whether it is the court report being delivered in good time to court or the court based worker providing an update to the court on someone’s progress on a current order the impact of this should lead to improvements in practice.

Each JSW service should have a system in place to monitor, review and evaluate practice in relation to report writing and the delivery of court based social work services. This should be designed to collate data on the quality of these services and any action required to improve this where required.

7.1 Justice Social Work reports

JSW managers should monitor the standard of reports regularly by:

• considering the implementation of a peer review model quality check of reports to develop a collective responsibility for continuous improvement. The following article might be a useful reference for this ; https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310734620_Peer_review_Supporting_reflective_practice_and_connection_between_social_workers
• reviewing samples of reports by undertaking regular audit. To assist with this a suggested basic audit tool is attached at Annex 3 which can be adapted to suit local priorities
• reviewing reports where the sentence was custody in order to determine that all available information on the feasibility of community disposals was conveyed to the court
• requesting regular feedback from court on the quality of reports
• considering learning and recommendations from any inspection reports to ensure consistency in practice

7.2 Provision for court-based social work services

S27(3) of the 1968 Act places a responsibility on the local authority to provide officers to the court. In practice, this duty sits with JSW and as such local managers will arrange for staff to be available to the court as required. This is likely to mean that priorities will need to be determined through consultation with SCTS which takes account of available resources. JSW managers will decide how to allocate resource to court based social work services most effectively, basing this on throughput of cases, the demand for reports and the anticipated demand for services across all types of court in their area.

The benefits of having business support staff dedicated to covering court based JSW administrative tasks cannot be understated and should be considered in any planning for service needs at court.

Most sheriff courts have an established liaison meeting which brings together all operational services within the court to discuss current practices and any issues related to court proceedings. JSW managers should ensure representation at these meetings. This would allow for early identification of any issues associated with service delivery by JSW within the court.

The benefits of being involved in regular liaison with the court are:

• it provides an opportunity to raise operational issues of mutual interest
• it offers a chance to share information about the nature and scope of services which JSW and its voluntary sector partners make available to the courts
• a forum to receive information on how justice social work services within court are performing
• sharing of information about services under development by key partners and how these contribute to policy, planning and practice

Good communication with court based partner organisations in relation to day to day practice is integral to the promotion and understanding of the role of court based social work service provision. The quality of the service provided by court based social work staff is enhanced by working in partnership with those other services working within the court ensuring the JSW role continues to be highlighted and valued within the court processes.