Guidance for Local Partners in the New Model for Community Justice

Appendix F

Model Template for Local Planning

MODEL TEMPLATE FOR A COMMUNITY JUSTICE OUTCOMES IMPROVEMENT PLAN (advisory only)

THE PLAN MUST BE SUBMITTED TO COMMUNITY JUSTICE SCOTLAND AND PUBLISHED BY THE STATUTORY PARTNERS BY 31 MARCH 2017 and annual progress reported annually thereafter. The first annual report should be prepared and published by 30 September 2018 covering the period April 2017 - March 2018. This approach should be followed for future years.

A model community justice plan template is given below to assist with the preparation of the plan. Please note that this is advisory only and plans may include additional information to that specified below.

Plan area

Name of relevant local authority area (or areas if plan relates to more than one local authority)

Contact details for the statutory partners for more information (this can either be a nominated contact for all the local statutory partners or a contact for each statutory partner as locally agreed)

List who are the partners who were involved in preparing the plan (statutory and
non-statutory) - this could be by means of partners logos on the document

Plan content

This should make clear where the plan:

Specifies all the national common outcomes and the relevant common indicators you will use from the OPI Framework. Explain if there are any common indicators you will not use and why

Links to the National Strategy for Community Justice and shows what improvement actions will be used for each outcome

Aligns to the Local Outcomes Improvement Plan for the area

Specifies locally agreed additional outcomes and indicators in relation to access to services for designated persons - as outlined in chapter 2 of this guidance

Specifies other additional locally determined outcomes and indicators for community justice as agreed by statutory partners

The plan should also:

Provide demonstrable evidence of local community justice needs and priorities to be addressed in the plan including any additional local outcomes to be achieved and timeframes for action. A Community Justice profile for the local area would provide the context for this work

Designing Community Justice Interventions to include in the plan

The "5 Step Approach" is a useful to tool to design and evaluate community justice interventions

Provide examples of any logic modelling approaches used to support the development of the plan

Demonstrate collective action/shared services approach - identify who is going to be responsible for what

Show how the plan will drive improvement

Show how actions will be resourced

Prepare a Participation Statement (this can be published as a separate document to accompany the plan or as part of the plan)

Show how joint working with local third sector and community bodies involved in community justice has taken place:

Outline the steps taken to achieve the participation of third sector and community bodies involved in community justice locally. This could refer to meetings, public events or other engagement and consultation activity - online or by other methods - held locally which will contribute to the development of the plan.

Show where services are being jointly commissioned and/or delivered as part of this plan. N.B. This should only refer to those being commissioned collaboratively as part of this plan. It is not intended to cover services provided by the statutory partners as part of their statutory duties unless partners feel that it is appropriate to the local community justice context to highlight those. We wish to minimise unnecessary double reporting for statutory partners.

You may also wish to show how joint working with private sector and other relevant local stakeholders has taken place (specify as locally appropriate)

Outline consultation activity undertaken with Community Justice Scotland (this may particularly apply in relation to any improvement recommendations made by Community Justice Scotland to the statutory partners in a local authority area).

Confirm review and governance arrangements for the plan

Outline how you will review the plan and when.

Plan Process

The plan process must demonstrate:

Compliance with Equalities and Human Rights legislation - with particular reference to an equalities impact assessment of the proposed plan. The equalities impact assessment process to be agreed locally.

How the plan will address the needs of victims, witnesses their families and children as well as the needs of designated persons as outlined in the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016.

Plan Governance

The plan must specify:

Who has developed and authorised the plan

Date of approval of plan by statutory partners

Review arrangements (date/process)

Annual monitoring and reporting arrangements on progress achieved towards meeting agreed outcomes

Publication - location ( e.g. website) and date of publication

Submit the plan to Community Justice Scotland by the end of March 2017 and report on progress annually thereafter

Plan progress report (annually after the publication of the plan)

Specify:

How each common outcome is being achieved (by reference to relevant common indicators and the improvement actions in the National Strategy)

How near the common outcome is to being achieved

Whether the outcome needs to continue to be a priority for action

What improvement action will be taken (individually or jointly) to achieve or maintain achievement of the outcome

Progress on the achievement of any locally determined outcomes in relation to locally determined indicators

Progress on the achievement of any improvement actions determined by Community Justice Scotland where appropriate

The engagement with local third sector and community bodies in the review

The Self-Evaluation Framework developed by the Care Inspectorate may assist in undertaking the review process

Submit an annual performance report on the plan to Community Justice Scotland [subject to confirmation of CPP LOIP progress report dates]

Review and prepare a new plan when determined appropriate to do so by the statutory partners (or when triggered by the creation of a new national strategy, OPI framework or Local Outcomes Improvement Plan for the local authority area)