Scottish Government

gbr
getting best results: issue 3

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G BR Summary

This is the 3rd edition of the Getting Best Results newsletter. In this edition, we report back on the work of the GBR sub-groups, provide information on the people chosen to be the members of the Accreditation Panel and give a brief review of the Pathfinders' progress.

The GBR Steering Group met in late September to review progress to date. When we assessed the Group's current action plan, it was clear that many of the tasks set for GBR over the past two years had been accomplished or were nearing completion. The Group could have concluded that its work was coming to an end, especially in the light of the decision to establish an Accreditation Panel. However, it became clear in the discussions that we should now re-focus the work of GBR on directing and co-ordinating the effective practice agenda. There is a continuing role for it in increasing our understanding of the process of change in organisational culture and practice.

Much of the work of the past year has taken place in the GBR sub-groups with significant pieces of work arising from all four.

The report from the Accreditation sub-group resulted in the announcement by Scottish Ministers that an Accreditation Panel for criminal justice social work would be established. This newsletter provides information on the other members of the Panel and the plans for the work of the Panel.

Following the report of the National Standards sub-group, work on preparing revised National Standards is also planned for 2003. The work of the Monitoring and Evaluation sub-group is coming to fruition. The Staff Development and Training Sub-group had already completed its work with the Pathfinders.

One of the first tasks of the new criminal justice team within the Social Work Services Inspectorate was to visit the three GBR Pathfinders to discuss progress and future plans. A short note on each follows later in this newsletter.

With the work of the sub-groups mostly complete, the focus returns to the main Steering Group. It is currently reviewing its membership to fill some of the gaps that have arisen over the last year. The Group meets again this month and will set out its action plan for the next phase of work. There will be a report on this in the next newsletter.

Report from the GBR Sub-Groups

Accreditation Sub-Group

The previous edition of this newsletter reported on our plans for accreditation and provided information on the draft accreditation criteria. As well as drafting the accreditation criteria, the sub-group recommended the establishment of a Panel with a remit to 'work to reduce re-offending by promoting excellence in programmes in the community dealing with offenders, accrediting and encouraging effective approaches'.

The members of the Accreditation Panel have been chosen on the basis of their personal expertise and experience and the breadth of knowledge which they will make bring to the Panel. The criteria adopted for identifying suitable members included:

• A professional background in working with offenders on behaviour change;
• Appropriate academic qualifications (social work/psychology/criminology/psychiatry/social science);
• Academic/clinical research background;
• Experience of delivering/designing groupwork programmes for offenders;
• Professional experience of delivering/managing services to offenders;
• Experience of working with established Panels, e.g. the SPS Panel or Joint Panel for England and Wales.

Ministers have approved the nominations for the Chairman and prospective Panel members, and the first meeting of the Panel is being planned. The first phase of its work will be to review and agree the Panel's own working procedures. It is anticipated that the Panel will also want to indicate areas that it considers are a priority for programme development, as a steer to local services. These may well include a general offending programme, a sex-offender programme and a programme for women offenders, all priority areas where development work is currently progressing.

In time, the Panel will embrace accreditation of youth justice programmes and over the next two years there are plans for moves towards joint working with the SPS Panel.

Brief biographic details of the Panel members can be found at the end of this newsletter.

Monitoring and Evaluation Sub-Group

This sub-group has been responsible for commissioning two specific pieces of work:

• Stirling and Edinburgh Universities in partnership are currently preparing a reference document/handbook on monitoring and evaluation, which draws upon work undertaken by the Home Office. This is being adapted to reflect Scottish circumstances and to make it more succinct and accessible. It is envisaged that the reference handbook will be essential reading for those involved in designing new supervision programmes for accreditation. This work is due for completion by the spring.
• A briefing paper, enclosed as a supplement to this newsletter, is intended to provide a summary of the key points on monitoring and evaluation for all practitioners and managers.

Pathfinders

The Pathfinder Provider Initiative (PPI) started in 2000 to test new approaches and to feed the results back into the development process. Three very different Pathfinders were chosen to carry forward this initiative. They are:

Glasgow Partnership

A partnership project between NCH, APEX and Glasgow City Council aimed at tackling youth offending by targeting young people involved in offending, identified both via court procedures and the Children's' Hearing system. Through the Pathfinder, the agencies have explored the difficult and challenging agenda of developing partnership working between voluntary and statutory services. In order to take this forward, participants in the Pathfinder will produce a document that sets out the major lessons learned from the experience, along with helpful indications as to how learning during the Pathfinder has assisted with other developments of partnership work.

Dumfries and Galloway

The aim is to incorporate a Quality assurance agenda across all aspects of their service. They have turned the spotlight first on assessment, reviewing their practice and implementing some interesting innovations. A summary report will be produced shortly, outlining both process and outcomes. Key elements in their success have been development and regular re-evaluation of a SMART framework for review of assessment services and the integration of IT in the process.

Northern Pathfinder

Involving the four authorities of Aberdeen City, Aberdeenshire, Moray, and Highland, this is the only Pathfinder aiming to introduce quality-assured services across a grouping. A steering group comprising the service managers of the four authorities led to an organisational review and service audit. From this an action plan was established and an Implementation Manager appointed. Cross authority review groups have examined practice in key service areas and their recommendations are now being implemented.

Conclusion

The past year has been a productive one for the GBR initiative. More of the building blocks to support an effective practice agenda have been put in place. However, the year ahead promises major developments which are likely to have a direct impact on the way that criminal justice social work is delivered.

With best wishes for 2003.

If you wish to comment on any of the issues touched upon in this newsletter do not hesitate to contact Gus Rodger at the below address.

Members of the Accrediation Panel

Mr Alan Finlayson (Chairman): former Reporter to the Children's Panel for Lothian Region and a part-time Sheriff.

Ms Meg Blumsom: is Head of Offending Behaviour Programmes within the National Probation Service Directorate.

Mr Brian Fearon: retired as Director with responsibility for Social Work and Housing in East Dunbartonshire Council. He is a Tutor on the MSc/Advanced Criminal Justice course at Edinburgh University.

Ms Jo Knox: Depute Chief Inspector, Criminal Justice Social Work. She was previously a Lecturer in criminal justice social work at Edinburgh University.

Professor Gill McIvor: Professor of Social Work and Director of the Social Work Research Centre, based at Stirling University. She is a member of the SPS Accreditation Panel and advisor to the Joint Prisons and Probation Accreditation Panel.

Mr Philip Priestley: independent academic, consultant and writer with extensive experience in this field. He has worked as a probation officer and jointly with James McGuire doing research, teaching, training and writing in the area of social skills and offending behaviour.

Professor Peter Raynor: Professor of Applied Social Studies, University of Wales. Current duties include developing research and teaching in criminal justice and criminology. He is a member of the Joint Prisons and Probation Accreditation Panel.

Ms Morag Slessor: Consultant Forensic Clinical Psychologist, Forensic Community Mental Health Team, Forth Valley. She is a Member of the Parole Board for Scotland.

Mr Bill Whyte: Director Criminal Justice Development Centre. Was previously Director for MSc in Advanced Social Work Studies in Criminal Justice.

Mr Ed Wozniak: Head of Research & Evaluation Services with SPS. Professional background as a Psychologist who has published important papers and reports for SPS.