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The Scottish Prison Service lacks "national strategy or vision" with many prisoners unable to access social work support, a key aim of the Scottish government.
So says a report from the Social Work Inspection Agency, which says that while more than half of prisons and councils in Scotland had formal agreements over social work services, the remainder relied on informal agreements.
Despite the prison service trying to standardise agreements "for some years", inspectors, who reported after looking at prisons and young offenders institutions across Scotland, criticised the pace of change and "inconsistent leadership" on the issue.
It said there was "no national strategy or vision for the service overall" and concluded that "there had been inconsistent leadership in concluding this matter and this needed to be addressed urgently."
While the prisoner population was growing, reoffending rates have reached a 10-year high, the report said. Social work services have been seen by the Scottish government as a key way to breaking the cycle but while serious offenders had a better chance of seeing a social worker, "the vast majority of prisoners were not accessing social work support in prison".
"While there is good work being done by motivated social work professionals, there needs to be a strategy and vision for the service overall," said Alexis Jay, the chief social work inspector. "We urge central and local government and the Scottish Prison Service to conclude this quickly."
The report also concluded that many prisoners were caught up in the "revolving door" of prison, "often for very short periods and not having enough time to make use of any services in the prison, not just social work."
The prison service said that a strategy, agreed with ministers, councils, social workers and the service would be implemented in April.
The Scottish government has also said there was support on release for shorter-term offenders.
"We accept the need for co-ordinated action to break the cycle of reoffending and we are tackling this through the multi-agency reducing reoffending programme," a spokesman said.
"Part of that initiative is a community reintegration project to help inmates bridge the gap between prison and the community."
While inspectors called for more consistency, they said that prison services did in general help many prisoners "change their life for the better."
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