DUNDEE CITY Council has told ministers it wants to take back control of social work services for criminals.
More than 100 staff are involved in assessing and supervising offenders who are carrying out community sentences and when they have been released from prison. This cost £4.8 million in 2012/13.
Criminal justice social work services (CJSW) are currently planned by the Tayside community justice authority, which is one of eight regional bodies covering Scotland and includes Angusand Perth and Kinross as well as the city.
Last year a commission on women offenders recommended that a single, national community justice service be created instead.
The Scottish Government has been consulting on three options setting up the national service, strengthening the powers of the regional community justice authorities or abolishing the CJAs and returning control to local authorities.
Dundee councillors have backed arecommendation by social work director Jenni Tocher to support the latter option.
She said: “The seamless delivery of services to young offenders as they enter the criminal justice system has been aided by children’s services and CJSW being part of the same management team.”
This has also allowed a more coherent, family oriented approach towards female offenders with children. Officers are also working with the Violence Against Women Partnership to develop integrated services for offenders involved in prostitution or who have been the victims of domestic abuse.
Ms Tocher said the Tayside CJA had introduced an extra level of bureaucracy and a level of complexity to planning processes.
“At times there appears to be a duplication of activity, at officer level. Their added value has been questioned at a time when front line services are increasingly stretched.”
Bringing all services back under direct council control instead would help some of the vulnerable people in the city, who often had problems with substance abuse and mental health.
“The local authority model provides the best opportunity to develop synergies across the public sector and the genuine integration of services which aim to reduce re-offending and generally improve public life,” the director said.
grsmith@thecourier.co.uk