Throughcare Services

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Glasgow City Council is committed to providing a range of robust services that can assist the individual and their families during and after the period of custody.

Throughcare services are provided within the framework of the National Objectives and Standards for Social Work Services in the Criminal Justice System.

These standards define throughcare as:

"The provision of a range of Social Work and associated services to prisoners and their families from the point of sentence or remand, during the period of imprisonment and following release into the community. The services are primarily concerned to assist prisoners to prepare for release and to help them settle in the community, within the law".

Key Objectives

to assist prisoners and their families to prepare for release and to resettle in the community
to work with prisoners after their release to reduce re-offending
to increase public safety through the effective supervision of prisoners released back into the community on supervision

The City Council has a centralised, dedicated prison throughcare team which covers the whole of the City. The throughcare team provide robust, community based supervision which ensures a return to court or custody of those:

who re-offend
whose behaviour causes concern
who breach orders imposed by the court or Parole Board.

Statutory supervision

Statutory supervision in the community ensures that practical issues which offenders may face, for example, help with addiction or homelessness and the avoidance of further offending are able to be addressed, whilst complying with conditions of an order.

Where individuals are placed in the community and subject to statutory supervision orders, Criminal Justice Social Work Services provide a range of reports on the individuals progress to courts, Parole Board or the Scottish Executive. In cases of non-compliance with statutory supervision orders, the individual can be returned to court or custody.

Some of the main types of statutory licences/orders are:

parole licences
non parole licences
life licences
extended sentence orders
supervised release orders
automatic conditional release licences and other short term licences - England and Wales
discretionary conditional release licences – England and Wales

For ex-prisoners returning to their communities after a long period in custody, there is normally a period of adjustment during which they try to re-establish themselves within families and their wider community.

Some ex-prisoners may have concerns about how they will be viewed by, for example, their wives, partners, children, parents, friends and neighbours. Others may be anxious about managing money or getting employment. Statutory supervision can help ex-prisoners address and resolve these issues.

Some of the main areas the City Council’s Prison Throughcare Team has helped ex-prisoners and their families examine successfully are: