Service Manager, Justice Services, Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership
Community Payback Orders are a sentence passed down by Scottish Courts and are a direct alternative to a prison sentence. In the community, an Unpaid Work Order is often a significant part of the Community Payback Order (CPO) disposal.
As well as the opportunity for someone convicted of a crime to pay back to the communities in which they have caused harm, a CPO Unpaid Work Order is also an opportunity for services to engage with people, provide supports that contribute to a lower risk of re-offending and provide the offender with an opportunity to develop new skills and opportunities around employability.
Supported by Justice Social Work Services, in Glasgow over 2022-2023, there were different services providing unpaid work opportunities:
- Neighbourhoods, Regeneration and Sustainability (NRS) which offered team placements and undertook improvement works in communities across the city. You can read about some of that work in the article ‘Community Payback – Updating Unpaid Work’
- Various Personal Placements provided by charitable organisations, for example charity shops and community cafes.
The Unpaid Work requirement is measured in hours and can range from 20 to 300 hours. Personal placements are recognised as a very positive option for those undertaking UPW. Personal placements provide an opportunity for individuals to develop new skills and support local communities, working directly with a third sector organisation, often with social enterprises. There is a strong focus within personal placements for individuals to learn and develop new skills as this can contribute to sustaining future employment opportunities which is a vital factor in reducing reoffending. This may lead to opportunities for individuals to volunteer or gain employment with organisations where they have completed their unpaid work hours. For examples of this you can see articles in previous editions of the Annual Reporter – CLICK ON THE PICTURE LINKS BELOW if you would like to read all about these:
The benefits to the host organisation are also important, providing a resource in terms of people hours, support from social work justice services and, potentially, a unique community connection through the relationships forged between the individual and the organisation.
Glasgow has developed a personal placement action plan, which included the commissioning of a short film to demonstrate the positive impact of community sentences for the judiciary, the public and other stakeholders. This film was developed by the Creative Change Collective with valuable input demonstrating the benefits from those who have undertaken personal placements and the organisations that have hosted them. You can see the film by CLICKING ON THE VIDEO LINK below or SCANNING THE QR CODE:
Regular information/question and answer sessions with the film being shown have been delivered over 2022-23 and have offered an opportunity for any potential placement providers to ask questions about the process and provide reassurance about taking a personal placement forward. Attendance at these sessions has been from social enterprises, voluntary organisations and faith groups across Glasgow and can be hosted for any service that may be interested at a day/time that suits following contact with the team involved.
For many years in Glasgow, personal unpaid work placements have provided opportunities for tailored work experiences for individuals, thereby increasing the likelihood of desistance from offending, development of employability skills and increasing community engagement and cohesion.
Client feedback was taken between 2022/23 in the first year of the roll out of ‘Your Voice’ – a service user based survey used within Justice Services in Glasgow – which highlighted positive feedback regarding service users’ experience of unpaid work within justice services as well as ongoing challenges around employability opportunities which continues to a be a significant focus of unpaid work action plans. Some examples of quotes/ feedback from service users include:
“It was arranged well and the staff were nice people.”
“You could train people for gaps in the job market.”
“The people within the shop were supportive and made my placement a lot less daunting.”
“I was given a rewarding job to help the community and I am happy I helped out.”
You can read more about Your Voice in the article ‘Your Voice – Ready for Feedback’.
Glasgow Justice services are committed to the unpaid work resource for the benefit of both service users and the community and will also be working with Community Justice Glasgow to host an employability support/visibility event later this year. I will update you on that in the Annual Reporter for 2023-24.