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National Objectives for Social Work Services in the Criminal Justice System: Standards - General Issues
CHAPTER 8: PARTICIPATION OF THE INDEPENDENT SECTOR
Introduction
117.Local authorities have a responsibility to make best use of available resources in the community to assist supervision and to promote community participation. These resources may come from a range of sources including in particular voluntary organisation, but also from the private sector. They may make relevant services available in such fields as housing, employment, mental health, and addictions.
118.Within a context of well-organised local authority service provision, the special strength of voluntary organisations lies in their ability to innovate, to encourage community involvement through, for example, the use of volunteers, and to offer choice to service users and service providers. In particular, voluntary organisations have made a significant contribution to the development of addiction counselling and treatment programmes, employment and job training services for offenders and ex-offenders, the provision of supported accommodation, and the development of family support and befriending services. A more recent innovation has been the development of partnership arrangements between voluntary agencies and local authorities, to provide specialist services and programmes within the framework of statutory supervision; in such programmes the local authorities retain general responsibility for the supervision of an offender's order or licence, whilst the programme or service is delivered by a voluntary agency.
119.Under 100% funding arrangements, local authorities continue to hold statutory responsibilities for the supervision of and provision of criminal justice social work services. They are however encouraged to make the most effective use of existing voluntary organisations and to stimulate new initiatives from these organisations where this seems appropriate.
General Principles
120.Local authorities should involve other organisations in order to increase and strengthen community participation in the provision of criminal justice social work services and crime prevention.
121.Such organisations must work closely with statutory agencies and each other, and take account of central and local government policy; they are nevertheless free-standing organisations with responsibility for establishing their own aims and objectives and systems for ensuring accountability, efficiency and effectiveness.
Providing Services
122.Local authorities are required to ensure the provision of efficient and effective social work services in the criminal justice system, and, to this end, must consider the contribution which the independent sector might make in the direct provision of such services.
123The local authority should concentrate on the direct provision of services which:
123.1Entail the statutory supervision of offenders including the development of innovative approaches to this task; and
123.2Require the skills of professionally qualified social work staff;
124.in doing so they should avoid the duplication of services, resources and facilities which are adequately provided by the independent sector.
125The independent sector should seek to:
125.1Initiate and develop specialist services which complement those provided by the local authority;
125.2Provide services necessary to fill gaps in existing provision;
125.3Respond positively to service proposals on outline specifications devised by local authorities; and
125.4Develop innovatory projects to meet identified needs.
Planning
126.Local authorities are required to produce strategic plans in respect of criminal justice social work services. These plans should reflect the contribution which local and national organisations may make to service provision in accordance with the principles outlined above.
127.Local authorities should make every effort to involve the independent sector at an early stage in the planning process, taking account of existing services and, where service shortfalls are identified, whether they might be met by independent sector organisations. Independent organisations may take the initiative by presenting their proposals to local authorities. It is essential that local plans clearly reflect the extent of consultation with the independent sector in the full range of service provision.
Monitoring and Performance
128.Where independent sector organisations are providing services for a local authority they must, like the local authority, provide an efficient and effective service in accordance with National Standards. They therefore have a responsibility to monitor and evaluate their own performance, and the local authority will also require to satisfy itself that the services are being efficiently and effectively provided. Effective monitoring and evaluation requires:
128.1Clear objectives to be set;
128.2Key performance indicators to be agreed
128.3Systems for data collection and storage to be established and maintained; and
128.4Systems for measuring the extent to which objectives are achieved to be set in place.
129.It is also essential that arrangements for service provision by independent sector agencies include agreement about the formal procedures to be adopted for securing efficient and effective use of these services and for monitoring and evaluating performance and outcomes. They should also include opportunities for joint discussion of any action required to improve the nature of the services or the manner in which they are managed or delivered.
Training
130.Independent sector organisations are responsible for the provision of training opportunities to their staff either from their own resources, or by procuring such training from others.
131.Staff and volunteers in the independent sector should be trained to the extent necessary to ensure that services are delivered and managed to the required standards.
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