Prison social workers in Scotland raise concerns about role

Social workers in some Scottish prisons do not understand their role and suffer from the effects of weak leadership, according to the Social Work Inspection Agency.

SWIA inspected every prison offering social work services in Scotland and found that, although some professionals were well managed and had a clear remit, others were not properly supported by management and were unclear about the outcomes of their work for prisoners.

“Good performance was characterised by local services having a clear, up-to-date remit for their work and a competent, well established and well managed staff group,” said Alexis Jay, SWIA’s chief social work inspector.

“Services that did not perform as well tended to be unclear about what they were there to do, had experienced staff recruitment or retention difficulties, and had weaker leadership and oversight from senior managers.”

The 14 councils responsible for each prison-based team will be required to produce an action plan to address areas for improvement identified in the reports, SWIA said.

SWIA will draw together the local findings and information from interviews with prisoners and social work staff and publish a national report by the end of the year.

What do you think?Join the debate on CareSpace

Keep up to date with the latest developments in social care. Sign up to our daily and weekly emails

Related articles

Half of Scottish councils only help people with high needs