SASW satisfaction as Scottish Government backs retention of local authority role in criminal justice social work
SASW has welcomed the Scottish Government’s response to the consultation on overhauling criminal justice social work after ministers backed the retention of a 32 local authority model for delivering services.
The decision means councils are likely to retain their role in offering criminal justice social work (CJSW) despite fears they could have this stripped from them. Instead the local authority model will be augmented by the establishment of a national body and a board for community justice.
SASW said the decision meant partnerships already forged between criminal justice social workers, employers and directors of social work would no longer be in jeopardy.
The role of the national board will be to:
• Provide leadership and a strategic vision for Community Justice in Scotland;
• Offer expert advice to Scottish Ministers and COSLA leaders as required;
• Provide oversight of the delivery of a new national performance, improvement and outcomes framework for Community Justice in Scotland;
• Identify and advising on how justice and non-justice resources can be aligned to improve outcomes for Community Justice;
• Manage any services which have been identified and agreed as being best delivered on a national basis.
Commenting on the plan, SASW Professional Officer Tim Parkinson, who lobbied hard for local authorities to retain their role in CJSW, said: “I believe this is a positive outcome for criminal justice social work in particular and for the social work profession in Scotland in general.
“The threats that a single national agency could potentially have offered in terms of the fragmentation and separation of the profession, and the capacity for easily de-professionalising and eventually privatising criminal justice interventions were in many people’s minds, including many of our members who are regular contributors to SASW’s Criminal Justice Forum.”
SASW joined a number of other organisations, including the Association of Directors of Social Work, at most of a series of national consultation events and visited more than 20 of the 32 local authority criminal justice social work services. Mr Parkinson said the visits helped “to ensure our response was comprehensive and covered the practicalities in urban rural and remote communities”.
He thanked members “who contributed to the consultation and who gave real case examples and statements which brought the SASW response to the consultation to life in a very practical way”.
He added: “I think this demonstrates that if all concerned professionals and bodies in social work take part and make their voice heard, then policy makers can be influenced.”