National Community Justice Strategy and Performance Framework: impact assessments

Community Justice Performance Framework: Equality Impact Assessment

Title of Policy

Community Justice Performance Framework – Revision

Community Justice Performance Framework

Summary of aims and desired outcomes of Policy

The Community Justice Performance Framework (CJPF), published in March 2023, supersedes the Outcomes, Performance and Improvement Framework (OPIF) published in 2016, and is a requirement of the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 (“the Act”)

The CJPF is aligned to the National Strategy for Community Justice (“the strategy”) which was revised in 2022. Specifically, the outcomes included in the CJPF align directly with priority actions contained within the strategy, reframing these in a way which will allow related progress and performance to be assessed. These outcomes are:

1. More people successfully complete diversion from prosecution.

2. More people in police custody receive support to address their needs.

3. More people are assessed for and successfully complete bail supervision.

4. More people access services to support desistance and successfully complete community sentences.

5. More people have access to, and continuity of, health and social care following release from a prison sentence.

6. More people have access to suitable accommodation following release from a prison sentence.

7. More people with convictions access support to enhance their readiness for employment.

8. More people access voluntary throughcare following a short term prison sentence.

9. More people across the workforce and in the community understand, and have confidence in, community justice.

In aligning with the priority actions, the outcomes are directly linked to the four overarching aims of the strategy:

• Aim 1 - Optimise the use of diversion and intervention at the earliest opportunity.
• Aim 2 - Ensure that robust and high quality community interventions and public protection arrangements are in place across Scotland.
• Aim 3 - Ensure that services are accessible and available to address the needs of individuals accused or convicted of an offence.
• Aim 4 - Strengthen the leadership, engagement, and partnership working of local and national community justice partners.

Compared to the previous version, the CJPF has been significantly streamlined, with a clear focus on robust and measurable indicator data. Furthermore, where possible, national indicator data will be centrally sourced by the Scottish Government and disaggregated to local partners. This should allow community justice partnerships to focus on delivery and improvement, and ensure that the data used are high quality and consistent.

As with the strategy and its accompanying delivery plan, the CJPF is designed to complement the Scottish Government’s Vision for Justice in Scotland published in 2022, which sets out our vision for a just, safe and resilient Scotland.

Directorate: Directorate for Justice

Team: Community Justice Division: Strategy Team

Executive summary

Community justice is principally about organisations working together to ensure that people who have offended address the underlying causes of their behaviour, and pay back to the community where appropriate. It aims to encourage rehabilitation, reduce reoffending, and protect the public, leading to fewer victims and safer communities.

The population in contact with the criminal justice system is a vulnerable one in health and wellbeing terms, and we must work with partners to improve the mental and physical health and wellbeing of those who come into contact with the justice system.

Diversion from prosecution prevents an individual entering the wider criminal justice system by addressing the underlying causes of offending, and helps to ensure people get access to the drug, alcohol and mental health services they need. It is especially effective when the diversionary intervention is complemented by work designed to address the underlying issues which contributed to the offending behaviour. Evidence has shown that this lowered contact, particularly for young people, reduces their likelihood of further involvement in offending.

The strategy, which underpins the CJPF, has the potential to impact any person who comes into contact with the justice system and people with different protected characteristics may experience the justice system differently. Rather than creating new policy, the CJPF is primarily a technical document which focusses on the measurement of performance and outcomes linked directly to the policies set out in the strategy.

As part of the work to revise the OPIF and replace it with the CJPF, an EQIA was undertaken to assess any potential impacts of the provisions, whether positive or negative, on people with protected characteristics. The core of the EQIA comprised of a desk-based review of key datasets maintained by the Scottish Government and external organisations.

The impact of the strategy, and by extension, the CJPF, on service users is intended to be equally positive or equally neutral with regard to the protected characteristics. The policy intention is to promote person-centred services which will take account of the characteristics of the person in need of the services. In the preparation for this EQIA, sources of primary and secondary data have been identified in the framing exercise, and subsequently sources have been explored, and additional sources of data have been identified.

In developing this EQIA the Scottish Government was mindful of the three needs of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) – eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation, advance equality of opportunity between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not, and foster good relations between people who share a protected characteristic and those who do not.

Background

The Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 requires the Scottish Ministers to publish a national performance framework in relation to community justice, setting out nationally determined outcomes which are to be achieved in each local authority area, and national indicators which are to be used in measuring performance against these.

The Act requires community justice partners for the area of a local authority to publish a Community Justice Outcomes Improvement Plan (CJOIP), setting out which nationally determined outcomes are a priority for action and planned actions required to achieve or maintain the nationally determined outcomes, and any other locally determined outcomes. Community justice partners for each local area are also required to publish an annual report on progress towards achieving the outcomes.

The Act also requires Community Justice Scotland (CJS) to review the performance framework from time to time, and at least every 5 years. If CJS makes proposals for the revision of the framework, the Scottish Ministers must either publish a revised framework reflecting its proposals (with or without modifications) or confirm that the framework will not be revised. CJS formally submitted proposals to Scottish Ministers on 29 September 2022 for the revision of the framework. CJS carried out extensive stakeholder engagement to develop these proposals.

Following receipt of CJS’s proposals, modifications were made before a revised framework (the CJPF) was published on 31 March 2023, replacing the OPIF. As required by the 2016 Act, CJS was consulted by the Scottish Ministers in relation to those modifications.

The Scope of the EQIA

This EQIA assesses the impact of the CJPF on individuals, with a focus on the following protected characteristics:

• Age
• Disability
• Sex
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Gender reassignment
• Sexual Orientation
• Race
• Religion/Belief

This EQIA was undertaken through a desk-based review of key datasets maintained by the Scottish Government and external organisations. The potential impact of the policy on each of the protected equality groups was considered using information contained in the Scottish Government's Evidence Finder, together with data provided by the Scottish Government’s Justice Analytical Services Division.

The revised strategy was the subject of two public consultations, a series of associated virtual workshop sessions and numerous engagements with partners. Due to the close links between the CJPF and the strategy, these consultations consequently form part of the evidence base for considering the relevant equalities impact assessments. Furthermore, a broad range of stakeholders have therefore been engaged in relation to the policies underpinning the CJPF, including national organisations, local authorities, Community Justice Partnerships (CJPs) and third sector organisations, including victims organisations.

In addition to this EQIA, impact assessments were conducted in relation to specific policies within the strategy and performance framework in accordance with relevant guidance. The performance framework also relates to more than one organisation. Each of these organisations will have their own internal policies and it is not the aim of this EQIA to examine these.

Key Findings

The CJPF applies to anyone proceeding through the community justice system and does not target or include specific provisions for any of the protected characteristics. While the EQIA has found that framework is impact neutral with regard to most of these characteristics, it has also identified some positive equality impacts. This has provided reassurance that the CJPF is not discriminatory and is not likely to negatively impact service users that have any of the protected characteristics.

People serving community sentences:

While there is variation, and measures are not targeted at a specific group, those serving a community sentence are more likely to be:

• Male rather than female, which in large part is because there are generally a lot more males in the justice system
• Under 40 years old
• Unemployed and economically inactive.

Although it is the case that individuals of all ages will benefit from improvement in community justice service planning and delivery, stronger pre-release planning may also ensure that elderly prisoners released have more timely access to services they may require for support or specialist equipment upon release. Such an improvement could also benefit disabled people in the justice system through better identification of needs and the delivery of support, particularly for those with mental health issues.

It was also determined that the CJPF could help promote improved relations between sexes, as serving sentences in communities as opposed to being on remand or in prison for short custodial sentences helps support families and relationships. This mitigates the damaging and disruptive impacts of short periods in custody on work, home and family life.

Victims of crime:

The types of crime which may be experienced are affected by many of the protected characteristics, including; gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, disability, and religion.

Gender has a particular impact on the way violent crime is experienced. Women are more likely than men to have experienced partner abuse (including psychological as well as physical abuse). The 2019/20 Scottish Crime and Justice Survey (SCJS), however, found that for the first time since 2014/15 there has been a difference in the likelihood of experiencing violent crime by gender, with males found to have a higher likelihood (3.1%) than females (2.0%).

Hate crime in Scotland includes crime motivated by race, disability, sexual orientation, and religion. Racially motivated crime remains the most commonly reported hate crime, followed by sexual orientation aggravated crime.

The SCJS estimates that 15% of disabled people were victims of at least one crime in 2019/20, compared to 11% of non-disabled people.

Gaps in evidence:

While the EQIA has identified new data that can be collected to inform the CJPF, it has also highlighted that there are still gaps in the evidence base for this area. This includes the collating of data of people that report having a disability and that are serving non-custodial sentences - data which is collated for those serving a custodial sentence. This gap may need to be investigated further in the future with community justice partners.

Conclusion

The EQIA process has identified that, although largely impact neutral, the revised performance framework will have some positive equality impacts. In doing so, it has provided assurance that the performance framework is not discriminatory and is unlikely to give rise to any issues that would adversely affect service users with protected characteristics.

The CJPF, along with the strategy and the Vision for Justice, contributes to the national outcome on Communities – in particular the focus on living in communities which are safe. They recognise that there will always be a place for prison and that public protection is paramount, but equally recognise the evidence that community-based interventions and sentences can be more effective in reducing reoffending and assisting with rehabilitation than short term custodial sentences, leading to fewer victims and safer communities.

Although there has been an expansion of data collection to help inform the CJPF, the EQIA has also shown that there are still gaps in the evidence base for this area and this may need further investigation in the future with community justice partners.