Public Protection
Within Justice Social Work part of our role is to work with individuals and assess their risk to individuals/members of the public and put strategies in place to reduce the risk they present. For Justice Social Work we have this responsibility as 'Lead Agency' where individuals are on Community Payback Orders or subject to post custody supervision (licence/parole).
Justice Social Work cannot do this work in isolation and work routinely with partners through Multi Agency Public Protection Arrangements (MAPPA) to assess, plan and provide interventions for those subject to MAPPA procedures.
The Multi-Agency Public Protection Arrangements were established in 2007 under the Management of Offenders (Scotland) Act 2005 and places a duty on Local Authorities, Police Scotland and the NHS as 'Responsible Authorities' to work together to assess and manage the risk of individuals subject to these procedures. However, there are also a number of agencies with a 'Duty to Cooperate' who actively support MAPPA plans, actions and assessments and include (but are not limited to); Housing Services and other Registered Social Landlords; Children's Services Social Work; Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA); Electrinic Monitoring Service Providers and Social Security Scotland.
The criteria for MAPPA is:
- Registered Sex Offenders who are subject to notification requirements under the Sexual Offences Act 2003
- Mentally Disordered Restricted Patients
- other Risk of Serious Harm Offenders
The vast majority of individuals which Justice Social Work takes 'Lead Agency' responsibility for within South Ayrshire (and nationally) are Registered Sex Offenders subject to notification requirements.
The national guidance for MAPPA can be found here.
South Ayrshire is part of the South West Scotland MAPPA area and more information as well as the link to the MAPPA annual report can be found here.
