Making Justice Work Programme

Public Service Improvement Conference

24 November 2011

Making Justice Work – the vision

The Scottish justice system will be fair and accessible, cost-effective and efficient, and make proportionate use of resources. Disputes and prosecutions will be resolved quickly and secure just outcomes

How did we get there?

MJW: National Performance Framework

and outcomesNational Outcome Intermediate Outcomes

9 – We live our lives safe from crime, disorder and danger

A - We experience low levels of crime

B – We experience low levels of fear, alarm and distress

C - We are at a low risk of unintentional harm

11 – We have strong, resilient and supportive communities where people take responsibility for their own actions and how they affect others

D – Our social and cultural values promote pro-social behaviours

E – We have high levels of public confidence in justice institutions and processes

F – Our public services are fair and accessible15 – Our public

services are high quality, continually improving, efficient and responsive to local people’s needs

G – Our institutions and processes are effective and efficient

H – Our public services respect the rights and voice of users

MJW: Benefits framework

Business benefits

Social & end-user benefits

Reduced system costs

Increased capacity for change and

improvement

Fair and equitable

justice system

Quality assured justice

Affordable access

Improved user

experience

Increased public

confidence

Reduced system

time/ delays

Enabling benefits

What’s so hard about that?

• Baselining• Shared understanding• Culture of collaboration• Governance framework

If it’s so hard, why bother?

What the judges tell us

“The Scottish Civil Courts provide a service to the public that is slow, inefficient and expensive. Their procedures are antiquated and the range of remedies they can give is inadequate. In short, they are failing to deliver justice. Public confidence in our system is being eroded.”

Lord Gill, Report of the Scottish Civil Courts Review, 2009

What the numbers tell us

• ‘Churn’ costing £40m a year• 1/3 of civilian witnesses don’t

turn up• 90% of police in court don’t give

evidence• In 6 weeks, 300 people due for

trial in court were in custody for other offences

• Cost per case for tribunals – from £1,300 to £11,000

Benchmarking - the easy stuff

Example of benefit – Reduced system time/delaysTable 1: Four Key Performance Indicators – Quarterly Performance April 2011 – June 2011 National and Local Board

Level: national, or named local board

%age disposed of within 26 weeks

RAG Status

%age received by COPFS within 28 days

RAG Status

%age taken & implemented within 4 weeks

RAG Status

%age dealt with within 20 weeks

National 72.6%   86.5%   86.2%   77.2%

Argyll & Clyde 68.1%   92.8%   94.4%   74.2%

Ayrshire 71.3%   86.0%   91.6%   72.3%

Central 78.4%   87.4%   81.7%   78.5%

Dumfries & Galloway 82.4%   94.5%   94.8%   85.3%

Fife 81.4%   84.3%   86.0%   85.6%

Glasgow & Strathkelvin 70.1%

 87.9%

 78.0%

 84.0%

Grampian 74.3%   84.8%   89.3%   73.9%

Highland & Islands 85.5%   84.2%   86.1%   89.3%

Lanarkshire 62.4% 92.9% 87.2% 62.4%

Lothian & Borders 67% 76.9% 84.4% 71.1%

Tayside 82.6%   82.9%   90.8%   84.0%

Quality – the hard stuffExample of benefits• Improved user experience• Increased public confidence

Confidence with different aspects of delivery of the criminal justice system - comparison over time SCJS 2009/10, 2010/11

Quality – the hard stuffExample of benefits• Improved user experience• Increased public confidence

• 73% - everyone has access to the system if they need it

• 57% - doesn't treat you differently depending on where you live

• 56% - effective in bringing people who commit crimes to justice

• 49% - good standard of service for witnesses • 45% - good standard of service for victims• 42% - cases dealt with promptly and

efficiently

Confidence with different aspects of delivery of the criminal justice system - comparison over time Scottish Crime and Justice Survey 2010/11

Learning Points• Collaborative design of benefits • Multiple sources of measurement• Not necessarily more information but

better use of existing data sources• Look across the system • Getting better at getting better• Spend time at start to get right

benefits and measures• If you can do it in Justice, you can do

it anywhere!