Review of Justice Social Work Statistics in Scotland – survey of users 2023

The results from the survey of users of justice social work statistics in Scotland in spring/summer 2023.


Summary of recommendations

From the data user review and discussions with main stakeholders, the following recommendations are being proposed for the future of justice social work statistics:

  • improve the timing of published data – from 2024 onwards, the report will be split in two. This will allow some of the data to be in the public domain three to four months earlier.
  • 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.
  • tables to be streamlined to allow filtering to make it easier to select different years and geographical breakdowns.
  • 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.
  • possible changes to the data collection method, possibly extending the use of ProcXed.NET data platform to make data transfer between local authorities and Scottish Government more efficient.
  • investigate and review the requests for additional data that relate to justice social work statistics.
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