Key Facts
Budget
In 2007/08, expenditure on Social Work Services in Glasgow was £616 million with spending on services as follows:
Community Care £434 million
Children and Families £113 million
Criminal Justice £19 million
Fieldwork £36 million
Support Services £14 million
Children and Families
As at 31 March 2008, 3,019 children and young people were looked after by Glasgow City Council. This included:
- 1,859 children looked after at home, of which 1,289 resided with parents and 570 resided with relatives or friends.
- 1,160 children looked after and accommodated, of which 902 were in foster care; 16 children were placed with prospective adoptive parents; 136 were in residential units; 63 were in residential schools; 23 were in secure units; and 20 were in other specialist placements.
Community Care
A wide range of services are offered to people requiring help to live in the community, and their carers. As at 31 March 2008, 39,265 people were receiving a service following a community care assessment.
At any one time Social Work Services provides, either directly or purchased from private or voluntary sector providers:
- long term residential accommodation for around 5,000 adults of which around 4,300 are aged 65 or older.
- home care services for over 8,300 adults (a total of 80,000 hours each week) of which around 6,900 receive help with personal care.
People looking after someone can access a range of services through locally based centres and projects. It is possible to contact the Carers Information and Support Line 0141 353 6504 for information on local services or visit
www.glasgow.gov.uk/carers.
Those providing substantial and regular care should be offered an assessment of their needs. This is to ensure that the best support is offered to them in undertaking their caring role.
Addiction Services
Glasgow Addiction Services (GAS) organises and provides a range of services for people living in the city who are affected by drugs and/or alcohol, offering many specialised services that aim to meet the needs of individuals and families affected by drugs and/or alcohol. Services are delivered by nine Community Addiction Teams (CATs) that bring together both Health Addiction Services and Social Work Addiction Services within one team. There is also a joint addiction team for homeless people. These teams provide a wide range of services to adults, young people, families, carers, supporting 12,000 people including 6,300 on the methadone programme.
Each of the nine Community Addiction Teams (CATS) are able to access the following services:
- Treatment Options: Alcohol and/or Drugs
- Carers Services and Family Support
- Young Peoples Services
- Addiction Services to Offenders
- Needle exchange
- Harm reduction advice
- Community Rehabilitation Services
- Hospital services
- Service user involvement groups
- 24/7 drug crisis centre
- Training and employment
- Mental health services
CATs support, advise and assist individuals to think about ways in which alcohol or drugs are affecting their life, those around them and may have responsibility for. For more information please visit: www.glasgow.gov.uk/glasgowaddictionservices
Secondary Specialist Addiction Services include:
- residential rehabilitation beds commissioned from the voluntary/independent sector
- a 16 bed in-patient unit at Stobhill Hospital (Eriskay House)
- access to in-patient beds at Gartnavel and Southern General Hospitals
- modernised partial hospitalisation services that replace day hospital provision, for people who need extra support and monitoring while receiving treatment
- the health component of the 218 service for women (‘time-out centre’)
A range of community based rehabilitation services (seven in total) and Community Alcohol Support Services across the City are also commissioned.
Addiction Services to Offenders
Glasgow Addiction Services have five addiction/community justice hubs operating across the nine CATs. The addiction community justice workers will work with offenders who are in contact with the:
- Arrest Referral (AR) Service
- Throughcare Addiction Service (TAS)
- Persistent Offender Project (POP) and offenders on Probation Orders with a condition to attend addiction services.
In addition, CATs provide the main service link for treatment and care services for the Custody Cards initiative. CATs also offer support to arrestees/offenders/ex-offenders to make changes in their lives to reduce, or stop, their alcohol/drug use and reduce, or stop, their offending behaviour.
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Working with Offenders
The key objective of Social Work Criminal Justice Services is to achieve a reduction in re-offending, increase social inclusion of former offenders and support for victims of crime. The Council provides a range of services to the criminal justice system including:
- providing effective supervision of offenders in the community
- challenging offending behaviour and helping offenders realise the impact of their behaviour on themselves, their families, the community and their victims
- assisting with problems that may contribute to offending, for example, drug or alcohol misuse
- providing courts with a range of alternatives to prison in appropriate circumstances
- promoting community safety and public protection.
For the period between April 2007 and January 2008, these services included:
- supervising 6,292 people on probation, community service and Drug Treatment and Testing Orders
- supervising 1,949 people on Throughcare licences, bail or who have been fined
- supervising 1,508 people on Supervised Attendance Orders
- processing 15,724 reports to Court and 1,067 reports to Parole Boards
- supporting Glasgow Victim Support.
Useful Links
Care and Support
Glasgow Community Planning Partnership
Glasgow Council for the Voluntary Sector
Scottish Government Health Directorates