Community Justice in East Lothian

What is Community Justice?

The Scottish Government in the National Strategy for Community Justice (2022) describe community justice as:

“principally about organisations working together to ensure that people who have offended address the underlying causes of their behaviour, and pay back to the community where appropriate. It aims to encourage rehabilitation, reduce reoffending, and protect the public, leading to fewer victims and safer communities”

The model for Community Justice came into operation in 2017, underpinned by the Community Justice (Scotland) Act 2016.  The Act requires community justice partners for the area of a local authority to publish a Community Justice Outcomes Improvement Plan (CJOIP), setting out which national outcomes are a priority for action and planned actions required to achieve or maintain the national outcomes, and any other locally-determined outcomes. The priority areas for action in East Lothian are detailed below.

There are several National publications that guide community justice work in East Lothian:

• The National Strategy for Community Justice (2022) published by the Scottish Government which details 4 National Aims (aligned with 13 Priority Actions).
• The National Strategy for Community Justice Delivery Plan (2023) published by the Scottish Government and contains time limited deliverables and will be refreshed annually.
• The Community Justice Performance Framework (2023) published by the Scottish Government which details 9 National Outcomes (and 1 High Level National Indicator & 9 National Indicators).
• The Community Justice Improvement Tools (2023) published by Community Justice Scotland. There are 23 items of ‘Local Evidence’ suggested to drive local improvement.

Community Justice in East Lothian

Community Justice is led by a group of local services in East Lothian. These services include:

• East Lothian Health & Social Care Partnership (Adult and Justice Social Work, NHS Lothian Substance Use Service)
• East Lothian Council (Community Justice Lead Officer, Children’s Wellbeing and Justice Team, Housing Options Team, East Lothian Works)
• Police Scotland
• Scottish Prison Service
• Third Sector Partners (Volunteer Centre East Lothian & Access to Industry)

The Group’s vision is:

“To promote equality and drive local community planning activity to improve outcomes for people wherever they are on the justice pathway.”

Priority areas for action in East Lothian

The Community Justice Group published a Community Justice Local Outcome Improvement Plan for 2024 and the following projects have been delivered:

• The ‘Understanding the Views’ Project (by partners Access to Industry)
• The Participation & Engagement Strategy which coordinated lived experience and communication work
• The ‘Arrest Referral’ Service (by partners APEX Scotland)
• The ‘Referral Pathway’ Project that embedded referral pathways across service areas
• Restorative Justice services for victims of crime
• The ‘Remand Prison Release’ Project which helped people being held on remand access support when leaving prison

A new Community Justice Local Outcome Improvement Plan will be published later in 2026

Local advice and support services 

Community Justice Scotland's website provides a directory of support organisations and community interventions..

This can be accessed via their website here:  Community Justice Scotland.

Contact us

If you would like a full copy of any of the following documents:

• Community Justice Outcome Improvement Plan
• Integrated Impact Assessment
• Community Justice Annual Reports

please email: communityjustice@eastlothian.gov.uk