The Care Inspectorate has today backed a drive to make community justice in Scotland safer, fairer and more inclusive.
It follows the launch of a new strategy to break the cycle of offending by strengthening community justice, announced today by Justice Secretary Michael Matheson.
The Care Inspectorate played a key role in developing a new self-evaluation model to help partners improve the way services are delivered in a community justice setting.
Care Inspectorate chief executive, Karen Reid, said: “The Care Inspectorate supports and welcomes the Scottish Government’s vision that community justice in Scotland can be and should be safer, fairer and more inclusive.
“We were commissioned by the Scottish Government to develop a new guide to self-evaluation to help partners in their efforts to strive for continuous improvement and excellence across community justice services. We were asked to undertake this piece of work based on our experience and knowledge in this area, and it has been a very successful example of stimulating true collaboration across a range of key partners. It is designed as a useful tool to help partners ask some key questions of themselves and ultimately help them improve the quality of services across Scotland.
“We hope the guide offers a useful approach for partners in striving for excellence in community justice, and will also serve statutory partners and third sector partners as a guide for planning and achieving positive outcomes for those with lived experience of community justice.”