Partnerships for correction services

Plans for a single agency for correction services in Scotland are
likely to be dropped in favour of a partnership-based approach, the
Convention of Scottish Local Authorities has revealed.

Cosla chief executive Rory Mair said that the outcome of talks with
the Scottish executive was likely to be a compromise model that was
“more partnership and less structural”.

He said that if the partnership-approach compromise was given the
go-ahead, practitioners should not breathe a sigh of relief but
start working immediately on getting their own house in
order.

“We have to deal with the real internal issues,” he said. “The
partnership system has to work.”

Negotiations began in 2003 following the commitment by the Scottish
Labour Party and Scottish Liberal Democrats to consult on proposals
for a single agency to deliver custodial and non-custodial
sentences in Scotland.