Growth and development.pdf

FifeIn a move to integrate children’s services Fife Council has established a Children’s committee.A recent HMI report commented that the Education Service had made good progress inpromoting joint working with other services, particularly Social Work. The quality and range ofsupport for pupils with special educational needs was said to be a strong feature.4. Performance: Criminal JusticeKey ActivitiesThe proportion of social enquiry reports reported to courtwithin target time2000-2001 QuartileProportion of social enquiry reports submitted to the courts 96.3 3by due dateThe time taken to complete community service orders1999-20002000-2001Number of social enquiry reports submitted to the courts 1,891 1,836 75.1 3during the yearNumber of community service orders made during the year 331 306 12.5 3Average length of community service (hours) for orders 154 2completed during the yearAverage hours completed per week 3.7 32000-2001per 10,000QuartileThe rate of social enquiry reports submitted to courts was relatively low in 2000-2001; theproportion of reports which were submitted by the due date was lower than in many otherauthorities. The rate of community service orders made was also relatively low. The averagelength of hours for orders was relatively long and they took longer to complete than in manyother authorities.The Council has systems in place to monitor the performance of its criminal justice service andadherence to national standards. It has recently appointed a planning and performance officer,and intends to:• improve co-ordination of information;• use the LSI-R risk assessment tool to monitor change in offender characteristics and evaluatethe impact of its services;• provide all workers with feedback on their performance; and• develop a database to capture information from the risk assessment framework, so that riskanalysis can be monitored.The Council has established a specialist project to work with sexually aggressive young people.It has two specialist workers located within the community protection team and managed jointlyby the criminal justice and children and families services. It provides joint risk assessment withthe police and develops personal change programmes for the young people, based on goodpractice in Scotland and abroad.As one of two pilot sites in Scotland, the Drug Treatment and Testing Team is being externallyevaluated in order to help inform the future of the Drug Treatment and Testing Order.131