Redesigning the Community Justice System: Analysis of Consultation Responses

Annex 1: The Consultation Questions

All options

1. Which option(s) do you think is more likely to meet the key characteristic (set out on pages 15 and 16 of the consultation) that, if integral to any new community justice system, are more likely to lead to better outcomes?

a. Strategic direction and leadership to drive forward performance improvements and deliver public services that protect victims and communities and meet the needs of people who offend

b. A focus on prevention and early intervention

c. Better and more coherent person-centred opportunities for supporting desistance, which focus on developing the capacities and capabilities of offenders to enable them to make a positive contribution to their families and communities

d. Clearer lines of political, strategic and operational accountability for performance and mechanisms to support continuous improvement

e. Effective local partnership and collaboration that brings together public, third and private sector partners, including non-justice services, and local communities to deliver shared outcomes that really matter to people

f. Strategic commissioning of services that are based on a robust analysis of needs, evidence of what supports desistance and best value for money

g. A strong and united voice that represents community justice interests with the judiciary, public and media

h. Better data management and evaluation to assess organisational and management performance, including the impact of services

i. Involvement of service users, their families and the wider community in the planning, delivery and reviewing of services

j. Provision of an overview of the system as a whole, including consistency and breadth of service provision

k. Better integration between local partnership structures, services and organisations working with offenders and their families

l. A more co-ordinated and strategic approach to working with the third sector

m. A strategic approach to workforce development and leadership for criminal justice social work staff that is based on evidence of what supports desistance and builds expertise, capacity and resilience and encourages collaborative working with other professionals towards shared outcomes

n. Greater professional identity for community justice staff which builds on their existing values and provides well defined opportunities for career progression

o. Ability to follow innovation nationally and internationally, as well as develop and share evidence based good practice

2. Which option(s) will result in the significant cultural change required to redesign services so that they are based on offender needs, evidence of what works and best value for money?

3. Which option(s) will result in improvements in engagement with, and quicker access to, non-justice services such as health, housing and education?

4. Do you think a statutory duty on local partners will help promote collective responsibility for reducing reoffending among all the bodies who work with offenders? If not, what would?

5. Under options A and B should funding for criminal justice social work services remain ring-fenced?

6. Are there specific types of training and development that would be beneficial for practitioners, managers and leaders working in community justice? Who is best placed to provide them?

7. Is there potential for existing organisations such as Scottish Social Services Council, Institute for Research and Innovation in Social Services and knowledge portal Social Services Knowledge in Scotland to take on a greater role in supporting and developing the skills and expertise of professionals working with offenders?

8. What do you think are the equalities impact of the proposals presented in this paper, and the effect they may have on different sectors of the population?

9. What are your views regarding the impact that the proposals presented in this paper may have on the important contribution to be made by businesses and the third sector?

10. Are there other options, or permutations of the options presented in this paper, which should be considered? Please provide details.

Option A: Enhanced Community Justice Authority (CJA) Model

11. What are your overall views on retaining CJAs but changing their membership and functions?

12. Will appointing a chair and expanding the membership of the CJA Board to include the Health Board help remove any potential conflict of interest and promote collective responsibility for reducing reoffending?

13. What do you think of the alternative proposal for all Board members to be recruited through the public appointments system based on skills, knowledge and experience?

14. Do the proposals under Option A give CJAs sufficient levers and powers to reduce reoffending efficiently and effectively?

15. Do you think CJA's should be given operational responsibility for the delivery of criminal justice social work services? Do CJAs currently have the skills, expertise and knowledge to take on these functions?

16. Should CJAs geographical boundaries remain the same? If not how should they be redrawn?

17. Do you agree that the Scottish Government should retain the current arrangements for training and development? Should they be reviewed for effectiveness?

18. What could be done differently to build expertise, capacity and resilience in the community justice sector and ensure evidence based good practice is shared widely?

Option B: Local Authority model

19. What do you think of the proposal to abolish CJAs and give the strategic and operational duties for reducing reoffending to local authorities?

20. What do you think will be the impact on consistency of service provision, good practice and the potential to plan and commission services across boundaries (and hence value for money) of moving from eight CJAs to 32 local authorities?

21. Do you think there is still a requirement for a regional partnership, provision or co-ordination role (formally or informally) in this model? If so, how would it work?

22. What do you think would be the impact of reducing reoffending being subsumed within community planning, or other local authority planning structures?

23. Do you agree that functions such as programme accreditation, development of good practice, performance management and workforce development should be devolved from the Government to an organisation with the appropriate skills and experience?

24. What are your views on the proposal to expand the functions of the Risk Management Authority to take responsibility for improving performance?

25. What are your views on the proposal to set up a national Scottish Government/ Convention of Scottish Local Authorities Leadership Group to provide national leadership and direction?

Option C: Single Service model

26. What are your views on the proposal to abolish the eight CJAs and establish a new single social work led service for community justice?

27. What do you think of the proposal to incorporate the functions of the Risk Management Authority into a new single service?

28. What do you think about grouping local delivery around the three Federation model currently employed by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and police?

29. Does the approach to strategic commissioning and procurement provide a good balance between local and national service priorities and needs?

30. Do you think that placing a statutory duty on local partners and a strong Chief Executive negotiating on behalf of the new single service will help facilitate access to mainstream non-justice services?

31. What do you think of the proposal to establish a dedicated community justice unit as part of the new service?

32. Any additional comments