National Care Service - justice social work: overview

Justice social work: background and context

Justice social work (JSW) services are currently part of local authorities, which are responsible for the delivery of community orders and related justice social work interventions, with support from partners including third sector organisations.

The range of services JSW provide includes:

• assessments and reports to assist decisions on sentencing
• court services to assist those attending court
• bail information and supervision services as an alternative to custodial remand
• supervising people on social work orders to tackle offending behaviour and its causes
• supervising people who are required to perform unpaid work for the benefit of the community
• prison-based justice social work services to those serving custodial sentences that involve statutory supervision upon release
• preparing reports for the Parole Board to assist decisions about release from prison
• throughcare services including parole, supervised release and other prison aftercare orders to ensure public safety.

The current model for community justice came into operation on 1 April 2017, underpinned by the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016, which places duties on a group of statutory partners to engage in community justice planning and to report against a set of nationally determined outcomes. This relies on effective partnership working at both local and national levels. Community justice partnerships in local authority areas are made up of a number of statutory partners and are supported by Community Justice Scotland, which was established in the above Act.