Prison-based Social Workers and Customer & Business Support staff deliver a statutory and duty social work service to people in custody at HMP & YOI Polmont, and are employed by Falkirk Council. They are based in the Social Work Unit (SWU) in the Activities 2 building in the establishment, and provide a statutory social work service to:
- People convicted of sex offences, serving 6 months or over
- People convicted of offences against children
- People with life sentences
- People with a long term sentence (4 years or more)
- People subject to Supervised Released Orders
- People with extended sentences
- Recalls to custody and young people convicted under Section 208 of The Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act
- People with an indeterminate sentence
The prison-based SWU also provides a duty service to all people in custody.
Prison-based Social Workers also:
- Provide reports to the Parole Board for Scotland and the Parole & Life Sentence Review Division
- Undertake risk assessments using national, accredited risk tools for people with the above sentences at key stages in their custodial journey
- Undertake some child and adult protection tasks
- Attend Integrated Case Management, Case Conferences
- Deliver offence-focused interventions for some people in custody, aimed at addressing and reducing offending behaviour
- Provide a professional social work contribution to relevant multi-disciplinary, risk management planning groups / meetings in the establishment
The SWU is made up of:
- 4 Social Workers
- a Senior Social Worker
- a Team Manager
- 2 Customer & Business Support staff
The SWU can be contacted at: