National Strategy for Community Justice: Review Consultation

6. Consultation questions

The consultation is made up of 12 questions that are grouped into the following sections:

• Overview of strategy
• Aims and priority actions
• Impact
• Looking forward
• Other

To support respondents, additional information relating to the focus of each question is provided below. This includes context on the purpose of the question and suggestions that respondents may wish to consider when answering, though they are of course not required to do so.

Overview of strategy

Q1: How would you rate the clarity and accessibility of the strategy?

Response options: Very unclear, Quite unclear, Neither clear nor unclear, Quite clear, Very clear.

• Please explain your response further

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• Whether or not the strategy is easy to understand.
• If the strategy is written and structured in a way that clearly sets out the direction for community justice in Scotland.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• Is content structured in a way that makes sense? For example, is it easy for a user to find specific information of interest to them?
• Is the length of the strategy appropriate?

Q2. To what extent do you agree/disagree that the strategy provides sufficient information on the following aspects of community justice?

• Explaining what is meant by “community justice”
• The evidence that supports the role of community justice within the justice system
• The strategic context, including interaction with other relevant strategies.
• How the strategy is delivered
• How lived experience informs priorities and delivery
• The importance of supporting victims of crime
• Examples of good practice from local Community Justice Partnerships

Response options: Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly agree.

• Please explain your response further.

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• If the scope of the strategy is appropriate.
• If specific aspects of community justice are covered in sufficient detail.
• If specific aspects within the strategy require improvement.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• Does the strategy, particularly the section “What is community justice”, provide adequate background and context.
• Would further information on specific aspects be useful or potentially make the strategy less focussed?
• Have there been any changes to community justice since the strategy was published in 2022 that mean specific aspects are no longer fit for purpose?

Aims and priority actions

Q3. i) To what extent do you agree or disagree that, taken together, the four national aims capture the most important aspects of community justice?

Response options: Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neutral, Agree, Strongly agree

Q3. ii) Of the four aims, are there any that you consider to be either particularly important, or unimportant, with regard to capturing the most important aspects of community justice?

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• Whether or not the overarching four aims continue to reflect your strategic priorities in 2026.
• If any of the aims are no longer fit for purpose or need to be refined.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• Are there any aspects of community justice that are not represented in the four aims but are of a high enough importance that they should be?
• Are the four national aims of equal importance, or are any more/less important in the delivery of community justice?

Q4. How useful do you think the current priority actions are in contributing to the achievement of national Aim 1 (Optimise the use of diversion and intervention at the earliest opportunity)?

1. Enhance intervention at the earliest opportunity by ensuring greater consistency, confidence in and awareness of services which support the use of direct measures and diversion from prosecution.

2. Improve the identification of underlying needs and the delivery of support following arrest by ensuring the provision of person-centred care within police custody and building upon referral opportunities to services including substance use and mental health services.

Response options: Not at all useful, Not very useful, Neutral, Quite useful, Very useful.

• Please explain your response further.

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• To what extent priority actions 1 and 2 are useful in achieving national Aim 1 (Optimise the use of diversion and intervention at the earliest opportunity).
• If any of the priority actions are not considered useful and, if so, why.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• What practical measures can be attributed to each priority action and to what extent have these been useful or successful.
• Have there been any changes relating to diversion and early intervention since the strategy was published that mean these priority actions are no longer fit for purpose?
• How each priority action contributes to achieving the relevant national aim, rather than on any delivery challenges.
• What is the relative importance of each priority action compared to others within this national aim?

Q5. How useful do you think the current priority actions are in contributing to the achievement of national Aim 2 (Ensure that robust and high quality community interventions and public protection arrangements are consistently in place across Scotland)?

3. Support the use of robust alternatives to remand by ensuring high quality bail services are consistently available and delivered effectively.

4. Strengthen options for safe and supported management in the community by increasing and widening the use of electronic monitoring technologies.

5. Ensure that those given community sentences are supervised and supported appropriately to protect the public, promote desistence from offending and enable rehabilitation by delivering high quality, consistently available, trauma-informed services and programmes.

6. Ensure restorative justice is available across Scotland to all those who wish to access it by promoting and supporting the appropriate and safe provision of available services.

Response options: Not at all useful, Not very useful, Neutral, Quite useful, Very useful.

• Please explain your response further.

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• To what extent priority actions 3, 4, 5 and 6 are useful in achieving national Aim 2 (Ensure that robust and high quality community interventions and public protection arrangements are consistently in place across Scotland).
• If any of the priority actions are not considered useful and, if so, why.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• What practical measures can be attributed to each priority action and to what extent have these been useful or successful.
• Have there been any changes relating to community interventions and public protection arrangements since the strategy was published that mean these priority actions are no longer fit for purpose?
• How each priority action contributes to achieving the relevant national aim, rather than on any delivery challenges.
• What is the relative importance of each priority action compared to others within this national aim?

Q6. How useful do you think the current priority actions are in contributing to the achievement of national Aim 3 (Ensure that services are accessible and available to address the needs of individuals accused or convicted of an offence)?

7. Enhance individuals' access to health and social care and continuity of care following release from prison by improving the sharing of information and partnership-working between relevant partners.

8. Ensure that the housing needs of individuals in prison are addressed consistently and at an early stage by fully implementing and embedding the Sustainable Housing on Release for Everyone (SHORE) standards across all local authority areas.

9. Enhance individual's life skills and readiness for employment by ensuring increased access to employability support through effective education, learning, training, career services and relevant benefit services.

10. Enhance community integration and support by increasing and promoting greater use of voluntary throughcare and third sector services.

Response options: Not at all useful, Not very useful, Neutral, Quite useful, Very useful.

• Please explain your response further.

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• To what extent priority actions 7, 8, 9 and 10 are useful in achieving national Aim 3 (Ensure that services are accessible and available to address the needs of individuals accused or convicted of an offence).
• If any of the priority actions are not considered useful and, if so, why.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• What practical measures can be attributed to each priority action and to what extent have these been useful or successful.
• Have there been any changes relating to community justice services since the strategy was published that mean these priority actions are no longer fit for purpose?
• How each priority action contributes to achieving the relevant national aim, rather than on any delivery challenges.
• What is the relative importance of each priority action compared to others within this national aim?

Q7. How useful do you think the current priority actions are in contributing to the achievement of national Aim 4 (Strengthen the leadership, engagement, and partnership working of local and national community justice partners)?

11. Deliver improved community justice outcomes by ensuring that effective leadership and governance arrangements are in place and working well, collaborating with partners and planning strategically.

12. Enhance partnership planning and implementation by ensuring the voices of victims of crime, survivors, those with lived experience and their families are effectively incorporated and embedded.

13. Support integration and reduce stigma by ensuring the community and workforce have an improved understanding of and confidence in community justice.

Response options: Not at all useful, Not very useful, Neutral, Quite useful, Very useful.

• Please explain your response further.

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• To what extent priority actions 11, 12 and 13 are useful in achieving national Aim 4 (Strengthen the leadership, engagement, and partnership working of local and national community justice partners).
• If any of the priority actions are not considered useful and, if so, why.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• What practical measures can be attributed to each priority action and to what extent have these been useful or successful.
• Have there been any changes relating to community justice partnership working arrangements since the strategy was published that mean these priority actions are no longer fit for purpose?
• How each priority action contributes to achieving the relevant national aim, rather than on any delivery challenges.
• What is the relative importance of each priority action compared to others within this national aim?

Q8. Thinking about the role the strategy has in the planning, delivery and reporting of community justice services, do you think the current number of priority actions is too low, about right, or too high?

Response options: Too low, About right, Too high.

• Please explain your response further.

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• Whether or not the strategy is sufficiently focused to support the planning, delivery and reporting of community justice services (primarily at a local level).

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• The links between the strategy’s priority actions and the performance framework’s nationally determined outcomes.
• The capability of community justice partnerships to plan, deliver and report using the strategy with the resources available to them.

Impact

Q9. Which elements of the strategy do you find most useful relative to your interest in community justice?

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• The section or sections of the strategy considered most useful for particular users or stakeholders, and why this is the case.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• Which sections of the strategy are most relevant to you or your organisation?
• If in a delivery role, which sections of the strategy have the greatest positive impact on your or your organisation’s work?

Q10. Which elements of the strategy do you find least useful relative to your interest in community justice?

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• The section or sections of the strategy considered least useful for particular users or stakeholders, and why this is the case.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• Which sections of the strategy are least relevant to you or your organisation?
• If in a delivery role, which sections of the strategy have the least impact on your or your organisation’s work?
• Are there any sections of the strategy you consider to be unhelpful?

Looking forward

Q11. Taking into account the likely resources available over the next 5 years, what do you believe are the three main community justice priorities over the next 3-5 years?

Response options: Priority 1, Priority 2, Priority 3.

• Please explain your response further

The purpose of this question is to ascertain:

• Respondents’ future priorities for community justice.
• Whether or not these priorities are already incorporated into the strategy.

When answering this question respondents may wish to reflect on the following:

• What are the greatest opportunities for the provision of community justice in the next 3-5 years?
• What are the greatest challenges to the provision of community justice in the next 3-5 years?
• What actions will have the greatest impact in helping to “shift the balance” between custody and community justice and support rehabilitation in the coming years?

Other

Q12. Do you have any other comments on the National Strategy for Community Justice that were not captured in the previous questions?

This question gives respondents an opportunity to share any views or comments on the strategy not covered earlier.