Question reference: S5W-33343
- Asked by: Liam Kerr, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
- Date lodged: 18 November 2020
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Current status: Answered by Humza Yousaf on 2 December 2020
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to question S5W-33096 by Humza Yousaf on 16 November 2020, whether it considers that the response from the Interim Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service answered the question asked regarding when the Throughcare programme in prisons, which was suspended in July 2019, will recommence; for what reason this information was not provided, and whether it will provide an indicative date or timescale for when the Throughcare programme will recommence.
Answer
The decision by the SPS to suspend their Throughcare Support Service (TSS) is an operational matter, and rightly a decision for SPS management to make – and not for Scottish Ministers to direct. The response from the Interim Chief Executive of the SPS in the answer to S5W-33096 indicates that the SPS will keep the issue of throughcare support under consideration as part of recovery from COVID, but has not set a timescale.
Whilst the SPS do not have Throughcare Support Officers in place, work to support individuals in preparing for their release does continue, whether that be through Personal Officers, Link Centres, facilitating access by a range of partners, data sharing, and effective release management. SPS have established weekly reports to each local authority in Scotland detailing new entrants and scheduled releases from prison, to help local services plan activities to support to prison leavers.
This Government has maintained substantial annual funding to third sector throughcare services across Scotland, and increased investment in these services to £3.7m in 2020-21, which has supported the expansion of the offer of New Routes throughcare service to eligible male prisoners of all ages. These services are continuing to work in partnership with the SPS to offer prisoners voluntary throughcare support, and are working flexibly to continue to offer support to individuals in the community despite COVID.
Furthermore, prisoners released from long sentences or with specific post-release orders are placed under supervision of Criminal Justice Social Work, and all short sentence prisoners are entitled to request voluntary throughcare support from their local authority up to 12 months after their release.