Other Open Recommendations

Senior Officers are responsible for ensuring improvements are prioritised within their respective areas of ownership, meaning work can progress concurrently and independently across all areas without the need for prioritisation between workstreams. Given the scale of work ongoing it is impracticable to update on all progress and therefore below represents a selected sample of recommendations from improvement plans relating to Custody only.

31 recommendations and 6 AFD remain open.

Following a meeting with CJSD on 16 April 2025, led by Superintendent Partnerships, Governance & Improvement, the Division are developing a refreshed approach and methodology aimed at (i) improving planning and preparations for forthcoming HMICS Inspections and (ii) the management of recommendations across the entire Custody portfolio.

CJSD have identified a number of improvement themes and actions particularly around quality assurance and auditing processes. Other themes concentrate on the development and maintenance of the Custody Estate which will require longer term solutions.

Recurring Themes from Inspections
These have been captured in the Divisional checklist to ensure local work is directed towards each at the time of pre-inspection. In addition, they have been fed into the 2030 Strategy work as some require longer term solutions. Lastly, those recurring themes are being added to our Organisational Learning Group agenda for discussion / decision / progress on a Divisional basis.

The themes identified cover the following:
Record keeping quality/consistency, recording checks, compliance checking and quality assurance processes
Estates development and/or maintenance
Cleaning products and standards – training and accessibility
Examine resourcing models
Sharps bins – accessibility and general maintenance in collaboration with Health.

Divisional Healthcheck – template
This has been launched in the North Region for the first time in advance of the forthcoming Highlands and Islands Inspection. Its impact will be assessed once we have received the first set of results, but the intent is to support a continuous regime of internal auditing and quality assurance. We have met informally with HMICS Inspectors and updated them on our planned approach.

Closing recommendations and Evidence Submission Form (ESF) guidance
We are currently completing work to change the focus of our closure reports, seeking to prioritise the strength and depth of our submissions, particularly as they relate to the ‘Evidence of Impact’ section. Responses in future closing reports will be layered at operational, tactical and strategic levels, to better reflect the breadth of work being completed.

A summary of the status of ongoing work is provided below.

D&G – 1 recommendation open Status Target Dates
R05 Custody Staff Training and Guidance Requires partnership working. Progressing with obtaining guidance/ standards from HSCP and working via Estates to provide training to outsourced cleaning services. July 2024
June 2025
Tayside – 2 recommendations open Status Target Dates
R2 Custody Supervisors Lines of Accountability Defined for Adverse Incidents Work is complete. ESF submitted to HMICS but further evidence requested before HMICS support this for discharge. This is being collated. March 2024
June 2025
R8 Collaboration with Healthcare partners recording of information on escort records An ESF has been drafted and is ongoing final checks before submission to HMICS. Has required partnership working to achieve closure. June 2024
June 2025
Fife – 8 recommendations open Status Target Dates
5 recommendations requiring Estates work.

Other recommendations featuring our themes of cleaning, sharps bins and quality and consistency of record keeping. We set a milestone date of March 2025 to confirm Estates changes are to be taken forward as part of the wider Estates Masterplan. This has now been confirmed with timescales now aligned to future work. March 2026 (Estates)

June / July 2025 for others

Ayrshire – 3 recommendations Status Target Dates
Delay of Release Policy
Recording issues
Sharps Bins Ongoing
The delay release policy was submitted for closure but HMICS rejected due to recurring issues and lack of evidence of impact. This will be addressed through our renewed pre-inspection work and improved approach to collectively address recurring themes. June 2025
Argyll & West Dunbartonshire 5 recommendations open Status Target Dates
Maintenance of estate
Resource model
QA and Auditing
Sharp Bins
Cleaning Ongoing June 2025 /
September 2025