Any Other Relevant Information

Interventions suitable for

Military Veterans (UK military (Royal Navy, Army, Royal Air Force)

Programme title and provider

Veterans Mentoring Service, SACRO

Details of all Specific national or local scheme/intervention(s) available

Sacro’s Veterans Mentoring Service is a service for military veterans who are currently in or are at risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system. The aim of the service is to enable the service user to enjoy sustainable, independent living.

Possible Outcomes

Address alcohol and drug addictions
Address physical and mental health issues with assistance of partnership agencies
Access support services in your local area
Keep appointments with other agencies
Enhance life and social skills, e.g., financial budgeting, housekeeping, cooking
Complete paperwork and make phone calls
Reintegrate into the community
Access education or training
Find employment opportunities.

Process for Assessment and/or inclusion in scheme/intervention

Self-referral or via social work, Scottish Prison Service, a voluntary organisation or any stakeholder working with veterans. Once the referral is accepted by all parties, the veteran will be requested to attend for an assessment.

During this assessment, an action plan will be devised taking into consideration all aspirations and wishes of the veteran. It is expected that the engagement with the paid mentor will be somewhere between 6-12 months, during which time all points raised in the action plan will be addressed.

Exit Phase: Once the engagement with the paid mentor has ceased, the veteran will be matched to a volunteer mentor to continue with planned support for a further 4-6 months.

During this phase, it will be expected that coping strategies, problem solving skills and natural supports will be sufficiently in place to allow the veteran to exit the service with any prior appropriate onward referrals being made.

Maturity Assessments

As of 26 January 2022, new guidelines on the sentencing of young people require the Court to focus on rehabilitation as the primary consideration, and seeks to reduce reoffending amongst young people (age 18-25). A young person is someone who was under the age of 25 at the date of their guilty plea or finding of guilt. Whilst rehabilitation should be the primary consideration in sentencing of young people, this doesn’t mean that public protection shouldn’t apply too.
Young people may struggle to engage with groups and would benefit more from 1:1 interventions – this may be a consideration for you when assessing Caledonian suitability for men under the age of 25, for example. Young people might find it difficult to comply with a CPO or other community order. We should also be aware that imprisonment can inhibit maturation – being in custody strengthens criminal identity. Young people involved in the justice system have less developed brains than typical adolescents, so part of the CPO action plan should be to support the young person to achieve maturity.
We have developed a screening checklist that we use with all service users that meet the criteria – which starts with people aged 18-25 who were under 25 at the date of their guilty plea or finding of guilt. Only one pre-disposing factor on the checklist needs to be present to consider the possibility that the normal development of the brain may have been delayed (beyond adolescence).

Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occurred in childhood (0-17 years). For example:
• experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect
• witnessing violence in the home or community
• having a family member attempt or die by suicide

Also included are aspects of the child’s environment that can undermine their sense of safety, stability, and bonding such as growing up in a household with:
• substance misuse
• mental health problems
• instability due to parental separation or household members being in jail or prison

Opportunity to Think

An ‘Opportunity to Think’ is our Diversion from Prosecution Pack. This was developed as we had no concrete intervention for working with Diversion cases with almost all cases stating that no further work was required or referrals on to other agencies.

The Diversion from Prosecution Guidance states that there are three main benefits:
• It allows the individual an opportunity to get support to deal with the issues, personal to them, that led to the alleged offence
• It avoids unnecessary contact with the criminal justice system
• The individual does not receive a conviction for the alleged offence

In putting this pack together there were a few core ideas:
• That the service user should get support to deal with the issues personal to them
• The pack should be relatively short and time limited
• It should be easy to use and understand
• It should be useful to the service user
• It should be about cooperation, working together
• It should focus on change but also the service users wellbeing
• It should be about understanding what went wrong and why it went wrong
• It should hopefully help the service user avoid coming into contact with the justice system again

The language was deemed important, to make it as unthreatening as possible to try and encourage buy-in from service users

Survive and Thrive Course

From July 2023 Justice Social Work services will co-facilitate the Survive and Thrive course with NHS Lothian. Survive and Thrive is a popular and effective psycho-educational course for people who have been affected by interpersonal trauma. The Survive and Thrive course consists of 10 weekly sessions and it aims to help you gain a psychological understanding of your difficulties and you will learn strategies that can help you cope better.

Arrest Referral

The Arrest Referral scheme, delivered by APEX, is a voluntary process available to adults at the post-arrest, pre-conviction stage of the Justice Pathway. Support offered includes matters relating to employability, finances, mental health, physical wellbeing and addictions.