Agenda item

To receive a presentation from NHS England.

We welcomed Hong Tan, head of Health in the Justice System, NHS England to the meeting. He delivered an excellent presentation on Health Inequalities amongst Offenders and Ex-Offenders – Mental Health Issues.

To illustrate this point Hong Tan provided the following statistics:

By the early 1990’sit was recognised that there was a need to divert offenders with mental health problems or learning disabilities to be diverted away from or within the criminal justice system. In 2009 the Ministry of Justice commissioned Lord Bradley to review people with mental health problems and learning disabilities in the criminal justice system. His report contained 82 recommendations including Liaison and Diversion.

There were 22 providers in London delivering Liaison and Diversion across 25 sites (in Courts and Custody). These services aim to improve early identification of a range of vulnerabilities, (mental illness, substance misuse problems, personality disorder and learning disabilities), in people coming into contact with the Youth or Criminal Justice Systems.

This was followed up by the Independent Commission on Mental Health & policing led by Lord Adebowale in 2013. This review included 28 recommendations in respect of Leadership, ‘On the Frontline’ & Interagency working. Two key recommendations were:

·         Recommendation 26: All police custody suites to have access to L & D services in line with the Bradley recommendations;

·         Recommendation 23: No person should be transferred in a police van to hospital.

More recently the Department of Health through NHS England had commissioned MOPAC and the Met Police to run a Street Triage Pilot to:

·         Reduce the number of detentions made under s136 of the Mental Health Act 1983;

·         Reduce the time police officers spend dealing with incidents involving people with mental illness; and

·         Ensure that people with mental illness were referred to the appropriate services to support their needs.

There were a number of challenges and Opportunities facing those who were commissioning to Improve Health Inequalities. These were as follows:

The big need is to ensure that the three arms which will be commissioning services work closely together.

The NHS Commissioning Board is responsible for ‘Commissioning of health services for people in prison and other places of detention.’ (through 10 Local Area teams). Services provided in the following places:

·         Prisons,

·         Police Custody,

·         Sexual Assault Referral Centres,

·         Immigration Removal Centre,

·         Secure Training Centres, and

·         Secure Children’s Homes.

Clinical Commissioning Groups are responsible for ‘Commissioning the majority of health services for offenders managed in the community or released from custody.’ These services are provided to:

·         Children and Young people on court orders and released from secure estate,

·         Adult offenders managed by probation.

The third group responsible for commissioning services are local authorities who are responsible for ’Commissioning public  health and care services for offenders managed in the community or released from custody.’ These include drug and alcohol treatment services for offenders not in prison or places of detention.

The Committee noted the report and thanked Hong Tan for his thought provoking presentation.