Probation in Scotland: past, present and future

Abstract

This chapter offers an account of the distinctive features of criminal justice social work in Scotland. It employs a historical perspective to describe how probation practice and its organisation and ethos have evolved and in so doing aims to capture criminal justice social work in transition. The first section of the chapter examines the organisation and practice of probation prior to and following the Kilbrandon Report and the Social Work Scotland Act 1968, including the impact of generic arrangements for service delivery on social work with offenders. This is followed by a discussion of the centralisation of funding of criminal justice social work services and the introduction of national objectives and standards in the 1990s in the context of a broader policy commitment to penal reductionism. More recent developments in policy, practice and training are then discussed. These developments include the emergence of protecting the public by reducing reoffending as the key aim and task for criminal justice social work agencies and evolving approaches to developing effective practice to this end.