Types of report
The main aim of Justice Social Work reports is to assess risk and need associated with your offending. This will take into account public and victim safety, risk of re-offending and the risk of potential harm should you reoffend. Generally these reports help the Court decide on the most appropriate sentence or the Parole Board to decide how to manage your return to the community if you have been in custody. There are other reports that we do, such as reporting on progress to the court, misconduct or the suitability of an address for home leave, but the two main ones are Criminal Justice Social Work Reports and Home Background Reports.
Criminal Justice Social Work Report
This report is usually asked for by the Court to assist the Sheriff or Judges in sentencing. If we have been asked to write a report on you, we will contact you and discuss matters relating to your offending, your attitude about it, and your personal and domestic circumstances. We will look at any record of previous offending and assess what risks you pose to the community and victims. We will assess all community sentencing options available to the court and outline areas of work that we will do with you to support you to stop re-offending. The court may also impose other sentencing options. This report is prepared jointly with prison based social workers.
Throughcare Assessment for Release on Licence (TARL)
This is prepared for the Parole Board and it is a key document in assessing your suitability for early release from custody. As with the Criminal Justice Social Work Report above, we will consider the risk you pose to the community, especially in respect of past or potential victims, but we will also consider your conduct and progress within prison, any changes to your attitudes, stability of your release address and attitudes of those who will directly support you, such as family. This report will form part of a dossier of reports that will be presented to the Parole Board.
Other reports
There are also reports that are completed by separate specialist agencies or teams. These might be a Mental Health assessment or addiction assessment for example and are written by the agency likely to be involved in supporting you. We might, however include the conclusions from these assessments, in the reports that we write.
Community Payback Review Reports
This report is requested by the court for the purpose of monitoring your attendance, attitude and progress whilst subject to a community payback order.