Scottish Advisory Panel on Offender Rehabilitation (SAPOR): annual report 2024-2025

1. Chair’s Foreword

Following Covid and subsequent justice system recovery there have been fewer evidence informed programmes in recent years being submitted to the panel for consideration for accreditation. However, there is very much a sense of the tide turning with the SAPOR team supporting programme development in prisons and in the community. Evidence informed programmes contribute to crime reduction as part of a broader rehabilitative strategy in Scotland and can make a difference. We are keen to see imaginative approaches to the design and delivery of programmes. From 2025 onwards we will be looking afresh at our accreditation criteria to ensure that we reflect upon our own policies and practices to best serve those involved in programme development and delivery to make a difference in reducing reoffending. Our one size fits all approach to accreditation is looking increasingly anachronistic with different programmes with different levels of evidence around their efficacy. There are implications of this for, for example, our approach to evaluation. Recent discussions at the SAPOR have raised issues such as the sometimes over reliance upon psychometric testing promoted by the programmes industry. SAPOR strives to take a more rigorous and robust approach to empirical evidence. We want to see a more integrated approach to programmes situated within a broader suite of interventions which together make the most significant contribution to reducing reoffending. The panel are also concerned about access to programmes for prisoners and for those under supervision in the community. We are looking to service providers to develop more innovative approaches to address the lengthy ‘waiting lists’ for programmes e.g. with the use of peripatetic programme delivery teams and modular approaches to programmes whereby programmes could be started in prisons and completed in the community. Also the overreliance upon psychological assistants and prison officers in the delivery of programmes is another barrier to delivery that we will be seeking opportunities to work with programme designers and delivery teams to address, again with a view to improving the access to programmes for those who need them. So, in short we have plenty to engage with over the coming years, but if we work together we can make a difference to crime reduction in Scotland.

We intend making a step change in how we undertake our work in supporting the development and delivery of programmes with a key emphasis on improving access over the next year.

Professor Graham Towl

Chair of the Scottish Advisory Panel on Offender Rehabilitation