Growth and development.pdf

A relatively low rate of social enquiry reports was submitted to courts in 2000-2001. A highproportion of reports was submitted by the due date. The rate of community service ordersmade was also relatively low. The average length of orders was longer and they took longer tocomplete, compared with other authorities.Highland is part of the Northern Partnership which includes Aberdeenshire, Aberdeen City andMoray. Highland’s criminal justice service has recently undergone fundamental reorganisationaimed at linking strategy and operations more closely.The Northern Partnership is one of the three Pathfinder projects developed as part of theGetting Best Results initiative which aims to integrate quality and effectiveness across all fourorganisations. The partners have established a series of professional practice groups to considerhow quality can be achieved and evidenced, and are currently assessing potential qualityassurance structures. The use of the level of service inventory and the Scottish Executive riskassessment framework will allow all the councils to gather outcome-based information.The Northern Partnership Provider project, established under the Scottish Executive’s GettingBest Results Initiative, is designed to improve the quality of criminal justice social work delivery,with emphasis on quality assurance. A quality assurance tool has been developed which is nowused across the Partnership. Practice development groups are producing common practice andprotocols across the Partnership.5. FinanceService Area(£000)Children’s Services £6,054 £6,405 £6,056 £5,604Community Care £30,769 £30,446 £32,152 £32,628Adult Offenders £87 £1,589Other SW Services £3,882 £8,489 £3,897 £9,054Total £40,705 £45,427 £42,105 £48,875Spend per headSpend per head £217.77 £234.30Quartile 3 2Funding for criminal justice services is paid directly by the Scottish Executive and it amountedto £1,632,244 in 2000-2001.Unlike most other authorities, the Council spent below GAE in 2000-2001 on children’s servicesbut over GAE on other social work services. Spend per head on social work services isrelatively high.GAE1999-2000Final netOut turn1999-20001999-2000GAE2000-2001Final netOut turn2000-20012000-2001148