JUST a fraction of criminals ordered to carry out unpaid work as punishment start within seven days of a court order.

New figures showed last year West Dunbartonshire Council managed the goal in just 15 per cent of cases, down dramatically from 64 per cent the year before and well below an 80 per cent target.

The use of community payback orders (CPO) has increased in the past two years and some orders were delayed for months before the alternatives to jail got underway.

In contrast, almost 80 per cent of people on CPOs attended an induction session within five days of sentencing.

The figures were revealed as part of the annual public performance report from West Dunbartonshire Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP), approved for publication at their board meeting last Wednesday.

It shows a mixed picture on other services while Care Inspectorate surveys of homes and services in West Dunbartonshire have found them all good to excellent in the past year.

Other figures in the report include:

- Number of emergency admissions are down slightly while attendance at A&E or minor injury units held stable;

- The mean number of weeks for referral to child and adolescent mental health services is just seven, well below a target of 18;

- Almost 98 per cent of MMR jabs are given at five years, 95 per cent at 24 months.

The report also shows prescribing costs per weighted patient are £173.07, down from £181.10 the year before.

At the board meeting, the authors said they had worked to make it accessible to a wide section of people despite it being a “complex system” of departments and services.

Wendy Jack, interim head of strategy, planning and health improvement, said: “This is our attempt to make it more user friendly. We laid it out based on how we organise our services.

Councillor Marie McNair said: “We actually perform very well.”

Some of the report authors noted how complex the numbers could be. An 11 per cent improvement in the number of people supported to be independent represented a huge amount of work to achieve that, they said.