What is Community Justice?
The Scottish Government in the National Strategy for Community Justice (2022) describe community justice as:
“principally about organisations working together to ensure that people who have offended address the underlying causes of their behaviour, and pay back to the community where appropriate. It aims to encourage rehabilitation, reduce reoffending, and protect the public, leading to fewer victims and safer communities”
The model for Community Justice came into operation in 2017, underpinned by the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016. The Act requires community justice partners for the area of a local authority to publish a Community Justice Outcomes Improvement Plan (CJOIP), setting out which national outcomes are a priority for action and planned actions required to achieve or maintain the national outcomes, and any other locally-determined outcomes. The priority areas for action in East Lothian are detailed below.
There are several National publications that guide community justice work in East Lothian:
- The National Strategy for Community Justice (2022) published by the Scottish Government which details 4 National Aims (aligned with 13 Priority Actions).
- The National Strategy for Community Justice Delivery Plan (2023) published by the Scottish Government and contains time limited deliverables and will be refreshed annually.
- The Community Justice Performance Framework (2023) published by the Scottish Government which details 9 National Outcomes (and 1 High Level National Indicator & 9 National Indicators).
- The Community Justice Improvement Tools (2023) published by Community Justice Scotland. There are 23 items of ‘Local Evidence’ suggested to drive local improvement.
Community Justice in East Lothian
Community Justice is led by a group of local services in East Lothian. These services include:
- East Lothian Health & Social Care Partnership (Adult and Justice Social Work, NHS Lothian Substance Use Service)
- East Lothian Council (Community Justice Lead Officer, Children’s Wellbeing and Justice Team, Housing Options Team, East Lothian Works)
- Police Scotland
- Scottish Prison Service
- Third Sector Partners (Volunteer Centre East Lothian, Access to Industry & Heavy Sound)
The Group’s vision is:
“To promote equality and drive local community planning activity to improve outcomes for people wherever they are on the justice pathway.”
Priority areas for action in East Lothian
The Community Justice Group published a new Community Justice Local Outcome Improvement Plan for 2024 and the priority areas identified for action are:
- More people in police custody receive support to address their needs.
- More people with convictions access support to enhance their readiness for employment.
They have identified a Stretch Aim which is:
- More people access voluntary throughcare following a short-term prison sentence.
New areas of work
To help the Group meet the priority areas for action they have developed new pieces of work to be delivered over the coming years. These are:
- The ‘Understanding the Views’ Project – this is the implementation of the “Listening Tool”, developed by partners Access to Industry
- The development of a Participation & Engagement Strategy to coordinate living experience and communication work
- The implementation of an ‘Arrest Referral’ Service, delivered by APEX Scotland
- The implementation of a ‘Referral Pathway’ Project that will embed pathways across service areas
- The exploration of ‘Restorative Justice’ Service delivery options for victims of crime
- The implementation of an ‘Remand Prison Release’ Project
Contact us
If you would like a full copy of the Community Justice Outcome Improvement Plan 2024 please email: communityjustice@eastlothian.gov.uk