National Strategy for Community Justice: Review Consultation

The current model for Community Justice came into operation on 1 April 2017, underpinned by the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016 (the Act), which places duties on a group of statutory partners to engage in community justice planning and to report against a set of nationally-determined outcomes.

 The Act also established Community Justice Scotland and required Scottish Ministers to produce a National Strategy for Community Justice, an Outcomes, Performance and Improvement Framework and Guidance for Local Partners to support the delivery of the new model.

 On 27 September 2021, the Scottish Government published a targeted consultation seeking views on the National Strategy for Community Justice. The consultation formed part of the statutory review of the strategy.

There were 52 responses to the consultation. Of these the majority were received from groups/organisations and 12 were received from individuals.

 Overall, respondents were broadly supportive of the ambition of the current strategy and its usefulness in helping to establish the model of community justice, but some responses are critical of its clarity, impact and implementation structures. The key themes emerging from the responses to the consultation included:

• Broad support for a shorter, more accessible strategy
• The need to provide greater clarity of roles, responsibilities and actions for community justice partners
• Clarity regarding connections between the strategic priorities and the work of local, national and third sector partners and alignment to existing structures and strategies
• More prominence to trauma-informed practice, the needs of victims, partnership working and pandemic recovery
• The need to reflect the voices of people with lived experience of the justice system, their families, victims and communities, in the planning, development and delivery of services

The Scottish Government's analysis of responses to the National Strategy for Community Justice: Review Consultation has now been published.

The responses contributed to the Scottish Government concluding that a revised strategy was required. A public consultation on proposals for a revised strategy is currently being prepared, taking into account the learning and conclusions from the review. This consultation will be published in due course.