In November 2023, the SPA's Independent Custody Visiting Scotland (ICVS) team were awarded a Gold Award by the national Independent Custody Visiting Association (ICVA) to recognise the high quality of work undertaken in Scotland.

Independent custody visiting schemes ensure that the public have oversight of a high pressure and often hidden area of policing. These awards demonstrate how local schemes use volunteer feedback to make change and ensure that police custody is safe and dignified for all.

Meeting the requirements of the ICVA Quality Assurance Framework (QAF) was daunting at first, despite previously achieving Silver.

I thought - how am I going to get all this evidence submitted with other work commitments, and should I just aim for Silver again or be more ambitious and try to reach for Gold?

I was lucky enough to get help from the wider team and set myself a target of completing a level per day.

There were challenges along the way in some areas and I was unsure if we could meet these. However, with the support of ICVA, I was able to develop new policies and update old ones.

I have since set myself new targets for the coming year as the QAF provided a great platform for ensuring the scheme is running to a high standard outwith the award process.

I am beyond proud of my team of regional coordinators and all our volunteer Independent Custody Visitors across Scotland.

They are so passionate about what they do, and now that we have reached the ambitious target of Gold, it provides us with the right tools to develop further and help ICVS constantly evolve to ensure the rights, entitlements and dignity of persons in custody are being adhered to across Police Scotland's custody estate.

Kirsty Scott, National Manager

Independent Custody Visiting Scotland