Scottish Government

VWISG/18/05

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Progress Summary Paper February 2005

1. Group has now met three times (minutes of second meeting attached).
2. The remit, aims, and objectives of the pilot have been agreed and have informed the drafting of the job description and person specification. The procedure for inviting applications and application forms are now also being finalised.
3. Pilot areas will now be identified based on COPFS areas and districts. Meetings will be arranged locally with key stakeholders including agencies and multi agencies in order to assess suitability for pilot areas, based on criteria such as:

1. Meetings are being closely co-ordinated with Margaret Allison, field officer in order to avoid duplicating meetings and ensure compatible outcomes.
2. The aim is to begin the recruitment process by the end of March. The sub group will continue to meet to oversee and monitor the implementation of the pilots and establish an evaluation in parallel.

3. SEJD
   Victims and Witnesses Unit
   23 February 2005

ANNEX
VULNERABLE WITNESSES IMPLEMENTATION STEERING GROUP - VULNERABLE WITNESS OFFICER PILOT SUB-GROUP

Note of 2 ^nd meeting held on Wednesday 1 December 2004 in St Andrew's House, Edinburgh

Present:
Susan Bolt, SE Victims and Witnesses Unit (Chair)
Frank Russell, Victim Support Scotland
Maggie Mellon, Children 1 ^st
Alastair Graham, ACPOS
Rosie Porterfield, ACPOS
Bernadette Edgar, Scottish Court Service
Justin Farrell, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
Carol McDivitt, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
Frances Roberts, Scottish Children's Reporter Administration
Anne Keenan, Law Society of Scotland
Wilma Smith, SE Victims and Witnesses Unit (Secretary)
Isobel Gifford, SE Victims and Witnesses Unit

Apologies:
Sue Moody, Victim Information and Advice
Lindsey Anderson, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service
Raymond McMenamin, Law Society of Scotland
Nigel Whitelaw, Scottish Court Service
Moira McKinnon, Association of Directors of Social Work

Welcome and Introductions

1. Susan Bolt welcomed everyone to the second meeting of this sub-group and asked members to introduce themselves again for the benefit of those who were not at the last meeting and those who were substituting for absent members. Susan asked that the table of group member contact details be circulated again with the minutes for final check of completeness and accuracy.

Minutes of last meeting and matters arising

1. Amended minutes of the last meeting were circulated with the agenda incorporating a proposed amendment from Neil Paterson, Victim Support Scotland. This was agreed by the group and no other amendments were proposed.
2. There were no matters arising other than those already covered by items on the agenda.

Vulnerable Witness Officer Pilot - revised paper VWOP/02/04

1. Paper VWOP/01/04 had been revised following changes agreed at the first meeting and was reissued as paper VWOP/02/04 for final discussion at this meeting. Sue Moody of VIA was unable to attend this meeting but submitted some comments on the paper in advance which were tabled for members to consider.
2. The following points were considered:-

1. Section	Paragraph	Comment	Action
   Aim of the pilot	3	Members asked to agree aim	Agreed.
   Objectives of the Pilot	4, 1 st bullet	Broadened out to take account of the discussions at the last meeting	Agreed
   	4, 3 rd bullet	Not clear what "co-ordination of input" means.	Delete "of input of and linkages"
   	4, 4 th bullet	"Additional needs" is too broad. It was noted that this reference was intended to cover both the identification of additional needs, eg. more court preparation or regular monitoring of child's support needs; and, whether once identified, those needs can be met.	Change to "additional relevant needs"
   	4, 7 th bullet	"Level of demand for support of child witnesses" should be changed to "level of demand for support from child witnesses". It was noted that this was to distinguish demand from numbers.	Agreed
   Methodology	5, 2 nd sentence	Not clear. Not necessary as this point is made elsewhere in the paper.	Agreed to delete entire sentence.
   	5, 5 th sentence	Uneasy with the idea of VWO carrying out work at a case level. VWO will be a contact if things go wrong, act as a co-ordinator and may have to get involved in individual cases to see if it's a specific problem to that case or a problem in the system. Depending upon the specific problem, the officer will have a role in directing and co-ordinating support for that case.	Agreed to amend sentence to read "In certain circumstances it might be necessary for the officer to be involved in the strategic direction of specific cases."
   	No particular sentence, but in relation to information sharing	It was agreed not to put any specific references in to what information could or could not be shared, and noted that both the pilot evaluation and role of the officer included monitoring information sharing and whether this presented any problems.	Agreed this was covered by role of officer
   Roles of a vulnerable witness officer	10, 2 nd bullet	In line 1, delete "with" and replace with "between".	Agreed
   	10, 2 nd bullet, 5 th sub-bullet	Discussed role of "independent advisor or champion" which was still unclear	Agreed to insert " VWO who will be able act on their behalf".
   	10, 2 nd bullet	It was noted that the production of information would depend upon a budget and any budget related delays on work should be avoided.	Agreed to replace "produce" with "gather"
   	10, 6 th bullet, 2 nd sentence	Delete "and societies" as this is unnecessary.	Agreed and noted that Law Society could provide a list of Deans.
   Local Steering Group	11	It was discussed that chairs of local Steering Group should be chosen on basis of qualities as an individual rather than job title and could therefore come from a variety of backgrounds. However, it was noted as before that members of the judiciary would be able to offer authority and neutrality from other agencies involved.	Agreed that as report did not assume or specify any particular job holder, no change was required.
   	11	It was noted that further work is required to clarify role of steering group and its relationships with VWO and the sub groups	Noted

Pilot Areas

1. The group was asked for suggestions for geographical areas in which to base pilots, including consideration of local steering group arrangements and co-location and accommodation arrangements. It was agreed that the areas should be selected first.
2. It was agreed that Aberdeen would appear to be an ideal base for a pilot as it has a good mix of city and rural areas and a full -time High Court provision from spring 2005. It was agreed to check if McInnes proposals were being piloted in this area.
3. Other areas worth considering were Central (Alloa/Falkirk/Stirling) which also included an urban/ rural mix, and Glasgow. Central has the Youth Justice pilot, and Glasgow has a number of pilots and a High Court Management Board.
4. It was agreed that the Victims and Witnesses Unit will find out whether there are any other pilot type exercises going on in these areas in order to avoid overload, although also bearing in mind that any area that is already participating in a pilot scheme of any kind will probably also have good connections already in place.
5. Another important point to note was that the High Court covers all of Scotland and cases can come from other sheriffdoms where different support teams had prepared the witness for the case. It may be better if the pilot only covers cases involving local witnesses where the local support networks had done the preparatory work.
6. It was agreed therefore that local fiscal and residency of the witness be key criteria for the pilot in any given area, and that the variety of borders be considered carefully to get the tightest boundary for the pilot areas. It was agreed that proposals of particular sheriffdoms be discussed with the Sheriff Principal and consideration of areas includes key decisions on the extent of jurisdiction, how wide an area they cover and the types of proceedings to be covered. It was suggested that the pilot tie in with the implementation phases of the legislation, ie. Children solemn and hearings, followed by summary and adult vulnerable witnesses.
7. It was also agreed to consult with the Vulnerable Witness Field Officer in relation to information gathering about local accommodation and equipment for the provision of special measures for child witnesses
8. It was agreed to look into options as above for having pilots in Grampian/Aberdeen, Central and Glasgow.

Secondment of Officers

1. A draft job description and associated application forms were circulated at the meeting. The job description is based on Paper VWOP/02/04 and had been discussed with the Executive's secondment unit. The secondee will continue to be paid their current salary and the Executive will reimburse their parent organisation.
2. It was agreed that members would provide the Victims and Witnesses Unit with examples of their individual organisations' application forms, salary scales and job descriptions to try to get a best fit for all agencies before the posts are advertised.
3. It was agreed to add health workers and police support staff to the list of potential secondees and that the Anne would check the position with regard to the secondment of legal practitioners. It was agreed that the V & W Unit would check the following with the internal secondment unit:

• Private sector secondees
• temporary contracts
• Local vs national recruitment within agencies, including possible re location and transfer costs

1. It was agreed that regardless of the organisation from where the officer is seconded, or the organisation where the officer is based, the role of the officer will be discrete; they will use Executive IT systems; and, access to information from the parent and host organisations will be on partnership basis.
2. It was noted that there will need to a Disclosure Scotland check on those offered a secondment.

Date of Next Meeting

1. The next meeting, due to take place on 12 January, was not now suitable to all members and it was agreed that the timing of the next meeting would be reviewed in light of the work now required to be done before members meet.

Scottish Executive
6 December 2004