Social work leaders warn funding shortfall as Scotland expands community sentences

Scotland’s strategy to cut prison crowding involves extending the presumption against custodial sentences and boosting community disposals. Social Work Scotland warns that justice social work (JSW) services, already handling a growing workload, could be stretched beyond capacity if the number of community-managed offenders rises. In 2024/25, Scottish courts issued 16,500 Community Payback Orders, a 14% increase from pre-pandemic levels, and JSW completed nearly 30,000 reports, the highest since 2016/17.

COSLA calculates that each offender costs about £5,400 per year, meaning 500 more cases would add roughly £2.78 million annually. Justice Secretary Neil Gray has proposed making social-work reports mandatory for all short-term custodial considerations, a move Social Work Scotland says must be backed by sufficient resources to avoid lower-quality assessments.