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National Objectives for Social Work Services in the Criminal Justice System: Standards - General Issues
CHAPTER 10: LOCAL LIAISON WITH THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
137.In order to ensure that 100% funding arrangements work well, it is essential for local authorities to develop good liaison arrangements with sentencers and other agencies working in the criminal justice system including court administrators, procurators fiscal, the police and the prison service. Such arrangements will enhance the effectiveness of social work's contribution to the criminal justice system, encourage joint initiatives where appropriate, and assist the achievement of objectives across the full range of service provision, including those concerned with support for victims and crime prevention.
138.The arrangements best suited to each court area will depend on local circumstances, particularly the size of the area and the scale and diversity of operations.
139All authorities must have arrangements in place for liaison with sentencers. These may require further development to include regular contact between sheriffs, either as a group or through a nominee, with the court liaison officer appointed by the local authority. Local authorities should consider ways in which the judiciary can be provided with up-to-date information about the services and programmes available in the community for use by the courts.
140In addition to working liaison arrangements designed to deal with day to day problems as they arise, there is also a need for liaison on more strategic issues on a regular but less frequent basis. For instance, the Sheriff Principal(s) and local sheriffs may find it helpful to have a meeting once or twice a year with the Director of Social Work of Chief Social Work Officer to discuss generally the pattern of services being provided. The kind of issues which could be discussed would include the amount and range of services provision; whether it was enough to meet the needs of the courts and of sufficiently high quality; the priorities which should apply within any of these services; the information required by sentencers about the outcome of disposals and issues arising from this information especially the impact of supervision on offending behaviour; and factors to be taken into account in the forward planning of services.
141It is important for local liaison arrangements to include procedures for contact with district courts.
142While it is essential to maintain effective liaison arrangements between local authorities and sentencers, it is also necessary to ensure liaison with other agencies in the criminal justice system. Local authorities will also want to have periodic meetings with (a) the prison service to assist the provision of throughcare services, (b) the procurators fiscal, to consider shared interests in such matters as diversion from prosecution, the prosecution of particular types of accused persons eg. child abuse cases, services related to bail and breach procedures and (c) with the police, to consider for example services to the victims of crime and crime prevention. Court liaison officers also have an important contribution to make to the smooth administration of court business through regular liaison with Clerks of Court. As with the judiciary, consideration should be given to the need for two-tier liaison arrangements with at least some of these agencies, namely, arrangements for dealing with day-to-day problems and strategic liaison for dealing with policy matters and major or persistent problems. Local authorities should consider inclusion of independent sector organisations in these liaison arrangements whenever their contribution or interests are affected.
143It would be for local consideration whether there would be benefit in combining arrangements for liaison with individual agencies in the criminal justice system with periodic meetings involving representation from a number of these agencies to discuss strategic issues of common concern.
144.Where any of the participants in these arrangements encounter difficulties in arranging or maintaining effective liaison they should draw this to the attention of SWSG.
145These arrangements are contained in the SWSG document entitled 'Arrangements for Monitoring and Evaluation by SWSG The Professional Audit of Standards of Operation and Management of Community Service' (June 1990).
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