Operations Manager, Community Payback Services and Neighbourhood Improvement and Enforcement Service (NIES), Glasgow City Council
At Neighbourhoods, Regeneration & Sustainability Services over 2022-23 we have continued to rebuild the capacity of unpaid work delivery. There has been much to do with the aftermath of the Covid 19 Pandemic still being felt in terms of an accumulative backlog of sentences that were not able to be carried out safely over that period now needing to be delivered and the increase in Court Work to clear the backlog resulting in more new people being referred to the Community Payback / Unpaid Work service that we deliver.
Despite the difficulties our staff have stepped up and we have worked with our partners in Criminal Justice Social work and SACRO , who also delivered Unpaid Work placements over 2022-23, through the Unpaid Work Providers Forum, to progress solutions such as efforts to increase the number of personal placements available and increasing the hours / days that we deliver our services.
We have also continued to work towards supporting improvements in the personal outcomes for the people who come into our service. Our staff are now using tools such as the Let’s Get Communities Connected App (commissioned by Community Justice Glasgow and developed by Glasgow Girls Club) to signpost to services that can help address some of the underlying needs and issues that may have led that individual into offending in the first instance.
We are also working with our partners in the Greater Glasgow & Clyde NHS (Health Improvement) to deliver a continuous programme of health inputs. A two-day event is planned, with pop sessions from a range of Health Board commissioned and 3rd Sector Health Services which we hope will include:
- Gambling Harms
- Alcohol Awareness
- Sexual Health
- Smoking Cessation
- Financial Wellbeing
- Possible: Dental Health
- Mental Health Services
- Step-by-step guide to GP registering and & support clients
All of the people serving a Community Payback Order with us at the time will be able to visit the event and will be able to get information, participate in taster sessions or make appointments outwith the event to further engage with services. This is particularly important as we know there are significant barriers to engaging with services amongst the cohort of people who come into our service and that improving health outcomes is a protective factor that will reduce the risk that they will re-offend.
We will use the feedback to help us plan what is most useful and desirable for the cohort we are working with and put in place an event calendar to provide these services/inputs on a routine basis. I will update you on this in out next update – WATCH THIS SPACE
Our clients will also be taking part in small focus groups about their experience of employability support. With external facilitators from the Centre for Civic Innovation conducting the research. The learning from the focus groups will be used to inform employability strategy going forward.
We have also been exploring the potential for Community Payback clients to access the Multiply Funding available to improve adult numeracy skills.
You can CLICK THE VIDEO LINK or SCAN THE QR CODE below to watch a short film about how a Community Payback Order can help someone turn their life around.
We know that Community Sentences are much more effective at reducing the risk that a person will re-offend compared to a short-term prison sentence – see FIGURE 1 below which shows a comparison of reconviction rates (reconviction within 1 year of completion of sentence) for short term prison sentences against a Community Payback Order which you can see is consistently lower – note that 2023 figures for the 2020/21 cohort were not available at time of publishing. This is because a Community Payback Order is designed not only to be punitive but to be rehabilitative and address the underlying drivers of offending.
In addition, there is a clear community benefit to Community Payback Unpaid Work, FIGURE 2 below shows the number of hours committed to community work that would not otherwise have been carried out over the last few years. This was heavily impacted over the Covid Pandemic (restrictions and Court backlogs) but as you will see they are steadily rising again and we are working towards getting them back to and beyond pre-Covid levels.
Below you can see just a one examples of that community benefit – as they say ‘a picture speaks a thousand words’
- Worksite Name: Boden Street Primary School
- Work Requested: General enhancement work, painting.
- Number of client unpaid work hours on site: 224 hours
- Loads/Tonnage removed – 7 link tips / 12 cage van loads / 3.5 tonnes
General environmental enhancement of area. Cutting back shrubbery encroaching onto footpaths and removing weeds and silt build up from footpath itself. Re-establishing kerb edges. De-littering. Preparation and painting of railings to enhance the area. Creating a usable play/garden area for the nursery children.
Feedback on work completed:
“Nominee – The team have done a great job. They were polite and well-mannered at all times. It has made a huge difference to the area.”
Service Users
“I enjoyed being part of the work and making the area better for the local area”.
“It was good to work on something that you could see the benefit of”.
For more information or to read more about our work you can CLICK THE PICTURE LINKS below or SCAN THE QR CODES to access previous articles:
