Throughcare Services
What is throughcare?
Angus Council Social Work Criminal Justice Service provides a throughcare service to people sentenced to custody (prison) by the courts. This service can be voluntary (you can choose to use the service) or statutory (you must use the service).
Throughcare services include:
- Support and information to an offender's family.
- Work with individuals to prevent them from offending.
- Advice and support to offenders about finding a job.
- Help with personal problems.
- Advice if an individual has alcohol, drug or gambling problems.
- Assistance with accommodation needs.
- Assistance with literacy (reading and writing) or numeracy (working with numbers) problems.
Voluntary throughcare
Individuals can choose to use our service if:
- they are sentenced to a custodial sentence of less than four years; and
- an extended sentence or a supervised release order has not been imposed.
The offender and their family are entitled to support from the point of sentence, while they are in prison, and for up to one year after they are released.
Statutory throughcare
Offenders must report to and be supervised by a member of staff from Criminal Justice Service if:
- they are serving a prison sentence of four years or more; or
- they are sentenced to an extended sentence or a supervised release order.
The throughcare process starts at the point the offender receives the custodial sentence.
During an individual's time in prison, the criminal justice social worker will contribute to the sentence planning process by sharing information relative to the assessment of risk and identifying issues which may influence the resettlement prospects of the prisoner.
Integrated Case Management (ICM)
The Integrated Case Management system provides the joint case management structure between the Angus Council Social Work Criminal Justice Service and the Scottish Prison Service for prisoners convicted of offences and sentenced to 4 years or more and subject to supervision on release, or subject to the notification requirements of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Also included in the ICM process are those prisoners subject to supervised release orders and extended sentences regardless of the length of sentence.
An offender subject to statutory throughcare will usually be released on a supervision licence and be supervised by a Angus Council Criminal Justice Social Work Worker unless they are released from prison at the end of their custodial sentence.
A supervision licence means:
- the offender must check the suitability of their address and any job with their social worker
- the offender must attend regular appointments as directed by their supervising officer
- the offender is not allowed to travel abroad (unless agreed by their supervising officer)
- the offender must not commit any other offences
Social workers can ask for additional conditions to a licence if it is assessed as necessary.
These extra conditions could include:
- the offender living where the social worker says
- the offender attending any treatment or programmes of work deemed necessary to tackle criminal behaviour
- the offender not visiting a particular address or area(s) or try to make contact with certain people
- the offender not living in a house or working with children under a certain age
- the offender must give information about where they work or live
Licences are strictly enforced. If an offender on licence gives the supervising social worker cause for concern or is charged with a new offence, they can be reported to the Scottish Government and recalled to prison to serve the remainder of the original sentence.