COUNCIL officers say there is “a lot of hard work to be done” after a report revealed social workers in West Dunbartonshire are failing to meet criminal justice targets.

A public performance report from West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership (WDHSCP) detailed the department’s “poor performance” in ensuring unpaid work orders began within seven days of a sentence during July and September of 2017.

Just eight of 75 unpaid work orders commenced within a week in the three-month period, a rate of 11 per cent, which falls well short of the 80 per cent target.

Beth Culshaw, WDHSCP chief officer, moved to settle concerns surrounding the service’s performance when she said: “We recognise there is still work to do. For example, we have already addressed issues in our criminal justice service by employing more staff to help address the low numbers of unpaid work orders being completed.”

At a meeting of WDHSCP last Wednesday, it was revealed 82 per cent of social work reports were submitted to court on time in the second quarter – falling short of a target of just under 100 per cent.

However, 84 per cent of new community payback orders attended an induction within five working days of sentence, meaning the service is exceeding its 80 per cent target in this area. Chief social work officer Jackie Irvine confirmed the department is working hard to deal with the substantial case load.

She said: “We have also put some social work staff into court three days a week and, two days a week, we have a criminal justice social worker signing off community payback orders.”

The report showed the partnership was performing well in some areas, such as providing services to children, adults and elderly residents in West Dunbartonshire.

Referrals to the child and adolescent mental health service are comfortably meeting the 18-week target with children being referred at six weeks.

All children who left care went on to further education, training or employment and more than 90 per cent of looked after children were cared for in the community. Almost 100 per cent of children in West Dunbartonshire had the support of a named person.

Staff also provided more than 8,000 hours of homecare to help residents who need support and care in the area remain in their own homes.

Ms Culshaw added: “Overall, we’ve seen good progress in our services and I would like to thank our staff for helping us achieve a very positive performance report. “It’s through their dedication and care we are seeing great results in our services.”

The report was approved for publication and Councillor Marie McNair, convenor of WDHSCP, concluded the discussion on performance by saying: “[It is] a very good report but [there is] a lot of hard work to be done.”