Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland: 2023-24 – Part 2

Annex C Consultation

A data user review of justice social work statistics was conducted in 2023 and published on the Scottish Government website. This was done with the aim of engaging with a wide range of current and potential users of the data. The six main recommendations of the review were:

1. Improve the timing of published data – from 2024 onwards, the report should be split in two. This would allow some of the data to be in the public domain three to four months earlier.

2. Commentary to be changed to reflect some of the requests e.g., key points at the beginning of topics and more graphs/infographics to break up text.

3. Tables to be streamlined to allow filtering to make it easier to select different years and geographical breakdowns.

4. There were a number of requests asking for more data linkage. This would first require a review and likely changes to existing information governance arrangements, to ensure any future work in this area is compliant with data protection regulations.

5. Possible changes to the data collection method, possibly extending the use of the ProcXed.NET data platform to make data transfer between local authorities and Scottish Government more efficient.

6. Investigate and review the requests for additional data that relate to justice social work statistics.

This year the recommendations 1 to 3 have been completed. The publication has been split and the commentary reflects a number of the requests. The work of additional tables has also been progressed and now allows the user to more easily identify and select the data they want. During 2025, it is hoped that more data can be placed on the Scottish Government's open data platform, the website for open access to Scotland's official statistics.

Recommendations 4 and 5 will be progressed in 2025. Out of the 13 data requests supplied for recommendation 6, the five below have been progressed to completion.

1. More timely statistics to support community justice strategy – the splitting of the publication has met this request.

2. Justice social work conversion data – a need for unit level data to see how preferred options compare to main outcomes – the aggregate collection provides this and is available in the additional tables and at local authority level from the justice social work reports.

3. More regular updates on local authority data – this is not possible at the moment as the data collection is not an automated process and the burden on local authorities would increase considerably. There is other management information on community sentencing that is more timely by Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service – Official Statistics and Scottish Government Justice Analytical Services Criminal Disposals Dashboard.

4. Unpaid work hours to support monitoring the system – there has been a new publication. Community Payback Orders – Unpaid Work or Other Activity Requirements – May 2024 was published for the first time in August 2024.

5. Where services are shared, could they be split by local authority area – this is always requested but it is dependent on the management information system being able to provide this.

The rest of the requests for recommendation 6 will be investigated further in 2025.

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We are always interested to hear from our users about how our statistics are used, and how they can be improved.

Enquiries

For enquiries about this publication please contact:

Alan Fleming, Justice Analytical Services

email: Justice_Analysts@gov.scot

For general enquiries about Scottish Government statistics please contact:

Office of the Chief Statistician

e-mail: statistics.enquiries@gov.scot

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.

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