Victims Taskforce papers: November 2024
These papers relate to the Victims Taskforce meeting on 21 November 2024.
Part of
A victim-centred approach to justice in Scotland: scoping and modelling project - update to the Victims Taskforce – November 2024 (paper 2)
Introduction
1. This paper provides the Victims’ Taskforce with an update on the Victim-centred Approach to Justice in Scotland: Scoping and Modelling Project. This work was developed by the Victim-Centred Approach workstream of the Victims Taskforce. The project was led by independent contractor Journey Associates Ltd, who were appointed in February 2023 following a tendering process.
2. The project was overseen by a steering group whose membership and roles evolved over the course of the eighteen month project. Most recent steering group members include:
- Kate Wallace, Victim Support Scotland (co-chair)
- Emma Forbes, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (co-chair)
- Colin Spivey, Parole Board for Scotland (co-chair)
3. The Steering Group was supported by various Scottish Government colleagues including, most recently, Rebecca Aitken, Kiranpreet Kaur Saggu, and Lucy Smith who provided the secretariat.
4. The final report from Journey Associates, along with an Executive Summary, is provided as Paper 3. (Victim-Centred-Approach_-Report_Final_27Nov2024.pdf)
Background
5. The aim of this project was to explore potential models of service delivery that were scoped and costed and that align with the goal of providing a victim-centred approach. The project related to all crime types and was underpinned by placing the needs of the victim-survivor and witness at the centre of delivery and minimising re-traumatisation, in line with the Victims’ Taskforce vision (approved May 2022).
Victims Taskforce vision
“Our vision is that victims and witnesses will be treated with fairness, compassion and in a trauma-informed manner in which their safety and well-being is a priority.
They will have access to consistent, appropriate and timely information and support.
They will be able to understand their rights, have confidence that these rights will be upheld and be able to participate effectively.” (Victims Taskforce Papers: May 2022)
‘As Is’ mapping and exemplars
6. Initial phases of the project involved desk work as well as range of participative techniques with national and international projects; criminal justice agencies; victims and survivors organisations and victims and survivors themselves to capture the following:
- Detailed examination of good practice from several jurisdictions in Scotland, the UK and across the world– referred to as exemplars;
- Journey mapping information that details victim-survivors’ journeys across the justice system – referred to as ‘As Is’ mapping;
- Pain points – information from victims and survivors about the parts of the system that cause upset, distress and can be re-traumatising.
Recommended propositions
7. It was recognised throughout this project that there a number of activities going on in various organisations within the criminal justice system to improve the experiences of victims-survivors and mitigate the negative impacts of the system itself. A number of propositions emerged as key features of a ‘victim centred approach’ in criminal justice in Scotland. These propositions are systemic changes that were identified as being required across the whole system. Further work was undertaken with project participants to refine, test and prioritise these.
8. The project has been hugely collaborative with over 140 people involved over the last eighteen months.
9. Project participants included victim and survivors themselves as well as representatives from the following organisations:
- Action Against Stalking
- ASSIST (West of Scotland)
- AMIS (Abused Men In Scotland)
- AMINA Muslim Women’s Resource Centre
- Brake
- Central Advocacy Partners
- Children 1st
- Community Justice Scotland
- COSLA
- Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority
- Crown Office and Procurators Fiscal Service (COPFS)
- Law Society of Scotland
- NHS Education Scotland (NES)
- Parole Board for Scotland
- Police Scotland
- Rape Crisis Scotland
- Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research
- Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service (SCTS)
- Scottish Government
- Scottish Prisons Service
- Scottish Women’s Aid
- Shakti Women’s Aid
- West of Scotland Regional Equality Council
10. A wide range of crime types were represented in the project, these included: cyber crime, domestic abuse, hamesucken, homicide, human trafficking, rape, stalking, traffic crime, unlawful entry, violent crime and attempted murder.
11. A series of 14 propositions for change emerged from the participant groups along with secondary data analysis, these would facilitate a more victim-centred justice system. These propositions were further refined using participatory approaches:
- implement a shared purpose across criminal justice agencies
- move to an opt-out referral process
- enhance the profile and activities of victim support organisations
- create a single point of contact (SPOC)
- enhance standards of service across criminal justice agencies
- introduce a Victim Passport to enable data sharing
- humanise the criminal justice system
- enable victim-survivors to give their best evidence
- support victim-survivors after the trial
- protect victim-survivors from the adverse effects of the media
- create a pathway through the criminal justice system
- reduce time to court
- review parole and release processes
- balance the criminal justice system
Prioritising propositions for modelling and costing
12. Further work with participants refined, tested and prioritised these propositions. A number of propositions emerged as having a significant role in progressing a more victim-centred approach to the criminal justice system. They are:
- implement a shared purpose across criminal justice agencies
- move to an opt-out referral process
- create a single point of contact (SPOC)
- introduce a Victim Passport to enable data sharing
- humanise the criminal justice system
13. An update was provided to the June 2024 Victims’ Taskforce meeting that endorsed the approach that the remaining three principal propositions should be taken forward into the modelling and costing phase using a theory of change approach, detailed narrative and a visual flowchart. Principal propositions 2, 3 and 4, were further developed in this way as potential solutions:
- move to an opt-out referral process
- create a single point of contact (SPOC)
- introduce a Victim Passport to enable data sharing
Propositions 1 and 5 were considered more suited to a positioning paper.
14. Further details of each of these solutions is provided in the Journey Associates report that accompanies this paper (see Appendix 1). Indicative costs have been provided for the SPOC and the Victims’ Passport at over £600K each and around £450K for the opt-out referral. It should be noted that these costs are indicative only at this stage and do not include savings made through more efficient ways of working. Initial work to identify potential funding sources to enable these solutions to be fully developed and implemented has highlighted some potential funding sources and it is proposed that they are pursued in the next phase.
15. Principal recommendations:
Principal recommendations
1) ‘Opt-out’ referral process or similar for support - to ensure victims are aware of their rights and can make a choice
Journey Associations highlights the rights of all victims to accessing support to recover from their experiences. As such it recommends replacing the current opt-in referral system with an opt-out (terminology a working title only and would need to be finessed once the approach is bottomed-out). This would bring Scotland in line with other jurisdictions in the UK as many police forces in England and Wales and Northern Ireland operate an opt-out mechanism as standard across all crime types. Referrals would be made to the single point of contact (multi-agency team, see below) and victims-survivors would be supported to make an informed decision about whether they would like to receive support.
The project found that victim-survivors have rights to support that are not being addressed as most are not referred for support, and that the current system of opt-in isn’t working well for some crime types. This means that many people are being excluded from access to support that could make their experience smoother, easier and less distressing and retraumatising. It would also mean less attrition throughout the process. It is posited that to be victim-centred, the criminal justice system has a duty to ensure that referrals are maximised.
2) Make a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) a standard service
Build on good practice already in existence in the sector to develop a multi-faceted SPOC for all victims and witnesses.
There are different levels to this as outlined in the report, a digital portal “one stop shop” where victims can access comprehensive information about the criminal justice system if they would prefer to navigate the system themselves complemented by a multi-agency grouping of support organisations for those that require to be supported through the process. In addition criminal justice agencies are recommended to provide SPOCs or named contacts that would act as key contacts for victims themselves and/ or victim support organisations. Access to SPOC is mentioned across multiple previous reviews. There is good practice in the sector that can be built upon and extended to ensure the appropriate level of support is provided to victim-survivors of all crime types.
3) Enable streamlined data sharing through a Victim Passport (Gateway and Journal)
It is recommended that further work is undertaken to develop a proof of concept for a Victims Passport, that is a single repository of information with data-sharing facilities to minimise the number of times a victim/survivor must re-tell their experience. It would also streamline and simplify access to information.
4) Co-create a shared purpose aimed at ‘humanising the criminal justice system’.
The report calls on leaders within criminal justice agencies to document the collective aim of their agencies to humanise the system and deliver a victim-centred approach to justice.
Enabling recommendations
5) Capitalise on the interconnectivity of the three principal recommendations by ensuring future developments are progressed in close sequence.
6) Gather baseline data to demonstrate return on investment by identifying and gathering data on a range of indicators to quantify saving and benefits from the new approaches.
7) Review capacity in the sector to ensure adequate support for victims-survivors
8) Ensure a victim-centred design approach to developing solutions
9) Maintain momentum through continued engagement of stakeholders
10) Ensure an approach of digital resources being complemented by in-person support
11) Act now/ act with urgency to demonstrate intention
12) Increase understanding across the criminal justice system
13) Progress the non-predominant propositions, so that is to ensure that the following are progressed:
a. enable victim-survivors to give their best evidence
b. support victim-survivors after the trial
c. protect victim-survivors from the adverse effects of the media
d. create a pathway through the criminal justice system
e. reduce time to court
f. review parole and release processes
g. balance the criminal justice system
Conclusions
16. This project represents the most comprehensive, contemporary study of the current criminal justice system in Scotland, as experienced by victims and witnesses of a range of crime types as well as those who work within the system. The findings reinforce those of many previous studies that have been undertaken over the last few years.
17. Therefore, many of the issues faced by participants in this project are persistent and longstanding. Importantly, this project also found that negative experiences have been amplified by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and that this is still impacting on victims-survivors experiences of the criminal justice system. Action should be taken to ensure that future contributors don’t feel their contributions are unheard or tokenistic.
18. There is an appetite for change - staff in victim and survivor organisations and criminal justice agencies want the system to improve - the willingness to collaborate and high levels of participation across the project has demonstrated this.
Recommendations
19. Victims’ Taskforce members are asked:
- to note the contents of the final report from Journey Associates
- to endorse the proposed solutions put forward in the Journey Associates report
- agree that further work should be carried out to further develop these solutions
20. More specifically the taskforce is asked to:
- endorse the establishment of a victim-centred approach programme board with the oversight responsibility for the development of a prioritised and sequenced programme of work covering all recommendations from the Journey Associates report and outlined above. The programme board would have responsibility for reporting back to the taskforce and would establish a combination of workstreams (for more comprehensive solutions) and short-life task and finish groups where appropriate to take solutions through to delivery phase. The format of the programme board should be finalised by the VCA Workstream’s Governance Group.
- endorse the establishment of 3 initial workstreams to take forward the priority propositions including the identification of potential funding opportunities:
- establish a Single Point of Contact (SPOC) – further modelling work including a business case should be developed
- move towards an opt-out/ automatic referral process – it is recommended that Police Scotland, Scottish Government and Victim Support Scotland (along with other victim and survivors organisations) take this forward initially
- enable streamlined data-sharing through a Victims Passport – further work is undertaken to develop a ‘proof of concept’
- endorse the establishment of a short life working group (it is suggested that this is made up of some Victim’s Taskforce members) to co-create a shared vision and purpose across the criminal justice system that humanises the system.
- endorse the establishment of a short life working group to finalise the ‘As Is’ journey maps that have been created during this project so they are a shareable resource and identify pathways through the criminal justice system from victims’ perspectives.
- Create an action that workstreams 2 and 3 as well as organisations represented on the Victim’s Taskforce identify and report back all activities that are ongoing that align with the recommendations outlined in the final report. This will enable a workplan to be developed that avoids duplication of effort, ensures a system-wide approach and identifies gap areas.
Next steps
1. This work marks the end of the Journey Associates work and it’s report including Executive Summary will be published as part of the papers for this Taskforce meeting.
2. The steering group that oversaw this work will be formally closed and all material gathered from Journey Associates.
3. Further concluding sessions are being planned to present the final report to victim-survivors and staff from victim support organisations who were involved. This will provide an opportunity to thank contributors for their input along with a reflection on the project and an opportunity to update next steps.
4. The Steering Group would like to extend it thanks to everyone involved in this project as many victims, survivors and staff within criminal justice agencies and victim/survivor organisations were very generous with their time and sharing their expertise.