Criminal Justice Social Work Services
Scottish Local Authorities have a legal duty to provide Criminal Justice Social Work Services under Section 27 of the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968. The Scottish Government funds these services through grants awarded annually to eight Scottish Community Justice Authorities.The South West Community Justice Authority is responsible for distributing funding for Criminal Justice Social Work for North Ayrshire, South Ayrshire, East Ayrshire and Dumfries and Galloway.
We work to National Objectives and Service Standards, and prepare reports for the courts and supervise offenders in the community who are subject to statutory orders and licences.
The main aims of the service are to:
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reduce re-offending behaviour;
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improve community safety;
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reduce the unnecessary use of custody.
We work in together with East and South Ayrshire Council's to improve our service, and in 2002 the Ayrshire Criminal Justice Social Work Partnership was established. The Partnership is responsible to a joint board the "Criminal Justice Joint Committee", which is made up of elected members from the three Local Authorities. It allows us to pool resources, enabling greater service specialisation. Managers from each Local Authority are responsible to the Partnership Manager who leads the Partnership. Our Manager is responsible for the operation of North Ayrshire Criminal Justice Social Work services, and some Pan Ayrshire services.
We provide the following Criminal Justice Social Work Services:
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Court Social Work Services;
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Social Enquiry Reports for the Courts;
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Bail Supervision;
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Community Service Orders (unpaid work);
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Supervised Attendance Order (imposed for fine default)
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Probation supervision;
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Drug Treatment and Testing;
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Structured deferred sentence work;
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Diversion from Prosecution;
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Throughcare services for offenders sentenced to custody, including preparation of home background reports, home detention curfew assessments, pre-release work, supervision of offenders released on parole and other statutory supervision licences and voluntary after care supervision.
For information on our Criminal Justice Social Work Teams.
For further information about Criminal Justice Services in North Ayrshire, contact Jim McCrae, Locality Manager, Criminal Justice Social Work Services, Social Services Headquarters, 4th Floor Cunninghame House, Friars croft, Irvine. 01294 317784.