The way offenders are supervised in the community is to be overhauled to cut high re-offending rates.

The Scottish Government plans to create a national body to oversee criminal justice.

Local authorities will have to support offenders in the community and help them into work, housing and training.

The development follows the announcement by the head of the Scotland Prison Service (SPS) of a shake-up in the way prisoners are treated. Chief executive Colin McConnell said keeping prisoners in custody will no longer be the "sole raison d'etre" of the service and the focus should instead be on helping offenders to change their ways. He wants inmates to be treated more kindly, with individualised programmes and help offered to integrate them in communities.

Currently, short-term prisoners, in particular, are offered limited support and few education programmes. The new vision, based on the findings of a review commissioned in June last year, was presented at the SPS annual conference in Glasgow. It is likely to be controversial with some, as it calls for inmates to be respected as individuals and offered tailored services.

Scotland has one of the highest rates of imprisonment and recidivism of any country in western Europe. Of the 47,000 people convicted in 2009/10, some 30% were reconvicted within one year. More than one in five had 10 or more previous convictions.

The new national model will replace the eight regional Community Justice Authorities (CJAs) which have an annual management budget of about £1 million.

In future, one body is expected to have national oversight of the monitoring of offenders in the community, including sex offenders and those on licence following life sentences, but it is expected to allow the 32 local authorities to run community justice on a day-to-day basis.

Each local authority will have to produce a plan on how it will tackle re-offending and will be held to account on delivering that by the central agency.

The move to create a national oversight is expected to be controversial because of fears of centralisation.

Sandy Riddell, president of the Association of Directors of Social Work, said it would not oppose national oversight, but would want to see local delivery and accountability. "We believe that local services for criminal justice have to be locally led, otherwise we will not see the changes required in services," he said. "The main issue is how we get the balance right.

"For most of those involved in re-offending we know there are very strong links to poor housing, inter-generational unemployment, substance misuse and low aspirations about what life has to offer. We will join up the services so the offender doesn't have to, because we know for some of these people, organising housing and other support can be so challenging that can lead to re-offending."