Developed by the Health and Criminal Justice Programme Board, it builds on Lord Bradley's 2009 review of mental health and learning disability in the criminal justice system.
It aims to ensure:
• liaison and diversion services which assess individuals health needs in all courts over the next five years.
• Staff are trained across the criminal justice system to identify where health issues may need to be addressed and share information across the different elements of the system that come into contact with that individual.
• Offenders have access to the same levels of healthcare as everyone else.
• Continuity of care is improved by developing care pathways that enhance health and social care provision and contribute to the delivery of justice.
Specific mental health aim’s are to remove the obstacles of effective cross-agency working and create a far more coherent and integrated system irrespective of which agency or sector employs them.
In the next six months the Department of Health plans to:
• undertake a full impact assessment of the costs and benefits of the policies proposed in this plan.
• scope the feasibility of, and make a decision on, transferring health services in police custody.
• develop a comprehensive research strategy to underpin the work of the delivery plan, including looking at the costs, benefits and impacts of deliverables on other services.
• publish World Class Commissioning guidance on commissioning services for offenders.
• start the reduction in the current delay in producing court psychiatric reports by producing a national template and supporting guidance.
• pilot and evaluate a new learning disability screening tool.
• identify changes needed to underpin delivery of the 14-day standard for the transfer of mentally ill prisoners under sections 47 and 48 of the Mental Health Act 2007.
The network will be producing a briefing for members on the plan. In the meantime, you can access full details on the Department of Health’s website.