AN ADDITIONAL £400k is to be spent on social services to support monitoring offenders across North Ayrshire.

Additional central government funds will be used to increase the Justice Social Work service workforce to maintain “confidence of the courts, victims and the general public” and respond effectively to the increased demands.

Health partnership meeting papers state: “The additional government funding for Justice Services of over £400,000 for 2021/22 is welcomed and will allow us to expand our workforce and capacity.

“We will also liaise with the third sector as we look to commission services to increase capacity. The additional funding from the Scottish Government will allow us to expand our services to address demand.

“We have commenced recruitment of additional staff in line with this.The current government funding arrangements for local authorities takes no cognizance of the position in Ayrshire, where we have a range of Partnership Services.

“We have arranged a meeting with the Scottish Government to try to address this funding issue.”

A range of shared Justice Social Work Services are hosted by North Ayrshire and operate across Ayrshire – established approximately10 years ago to try and develop specialist services to meet the specific needs of particular groups – including women involved in the justice system and sex offenders.

Justice social work services in North Ayrshire engage with approximately 450 service users at any given time. Statistics show that North Ayrshire had the third highest number of probation orders per 10,000 population in Scotland at 64 per 10,000 population.