The Bradley Report and the Criminal Justice workforce - Centre for ...

The Bradley Report andthe Criminal Justice workforceTackling mental health and learning disabilities in the Justice systemIn April 2009, The Bradley Report (Lord Bradley’sreview of people with mental health problems orlearning disabilities in the criminal justice system)was published. The Report, commissioned bythe Secretary of State for Justice, made some 82recommendations.The Bradley Report can and should lead to majorchanges in the way individuals with mental healthissues and those with learning disabilities in thecriminal justice system are supported and treated.If implemented, it can not only improve the mentalhealth of offenders but also make communities saferand ultimately reduce the costs to the taxpayer.Thirty of the 82 recommendations have directimplications for the criminal justice workforce. ThisSkills for Justice and Sainsbury Centre for MentalHealth briefing paper outlines four key areas wheresignificant activity is needed to develop the Justicesector workforce to meet the ambitions and aimsarising from the Bradley Report.We highlight the changes needed in the approach totraining individuals across criminal justice agencies,and make recommendations as to how to take thework forward.In November 2009, the delivery plan for meetingthe challenges outlined in the Bradley report waspublished (Improving Health, Support Justice: thenational delivery plan of the Health and CriminalJustice Programme Board), and both Skills for Justiceand Sainsbury Centre welcome the strong focus onskills and workforce development, and look forwardto working with government and employers ondeveloping these approaches.Why focus on the workforce?Criminal justice agencies rely on the skills,knowledge and understanding of their workforce todeliver effective and efficient services to offenders,victims, survivors, witnesses, and the public atlarge. Around half a million people work in theJustice sector, which is under constant scrutiny, frompoliticians, inspectorates, the media and the public.High standards are demanded within a constantlychanging and challenging environment. A flexibleand highly trained workforce is key to achievingthose standards. The four key challenges for thecriminal justice workforce to implement the report’srecommendations are:Training in mental health and learning disabilityawareness: practitioners across the system needlearning and skills development in mental healthand learning disability so they can recognise anddeal appropriately with people who have mentalhealth and learning disabilities.Working together, across agencies: criminal justiceservices need to join up their thinking and tacklethe issues of mental health and learning disabilitiesthrough multi agency approaches, such as thosein Public Protection Teams, so that as individualsgo through the system they are treated bothconsistently and fairly. We also need to exploreways of working better with organisations in healthservices and social care, to ensure that referrals anddiversions are made at the right time.Communication and information sharing: agenciesneed to share information better and faster. They

2require a better understanding of what informationis needed by each agency and when, so thatindividuals are not constantly reassessed and rediagnosed,or shuttled between services due to lackof information. This would also ensure a reduction induplication of effort and maximise efficiency.National workforce planning: we need a centralisednational strategic approach to provide impetusacross the sector to work together, and to ensurethat high standards of performance and servicedelivery will be met by a highly trained and flexibleworkforce.1.Are people across the Justice sectorreceiving the appropriate and rightamount of training in terms of mentalhealth and learning disabilities?The Bradley Report identified a number of areasof good practice in this area, but made the pointthat there is not yet a consistent approach. Thereis a great deal of investment in the skills of theworkforce across Justice, but inspectorate reportshighlight repeatedly the need to meet the mentalhealth needs of offenders, and those at risk ofoffending. Skills and knowledge are needed atall levels to ensure fair treatment of vulnerableindividuals and to enable diversion from offending.We support the recommendations in the BradleyReport on training for policing teams, the judiciary,court staff and all those dealing with individualsat risk of offending. We believe that betterunderstanding and awareness of mental healthissues will support wider efforts to ensure thatpeople are treated in the most appropriate way,and diverted from the criminal justice systemwhere possible.The Government’s Delivery Plan states that: ‘Trainingand development will focus on all front-line criminaljustice staff across the pathway and also healthstaff working within these areas. This will ensurethat there is appropriate staff competence at theinterface between health services and the criminaljustice system. Where possible, training should bedelivered jointly between services to encouragepartnership working, and developed in conjunctionwith service users’ (para 2.33). As a response tothis, we would like to see the adoption of a sharedapproach to tackling the needs of offenders andvulnerable people, based on the level of contact withindividuals.This could be delivered through a tiered frameworkapproach with initial awareness raising andunderstanding of referrals delivered across theboard to all those in contact with individuals, at Tier1. This would include those working in frontline andpublic facing roles, for example: court clerks, policecommunity support officers, neighbourhoodpolicing teams and immigration officers. Morespecialist learning and development could beembedded into training at higher levels. Tiers 2and 3 may be more appropriate for those requiringgreater understanding of the needs of offenders andThe tiered framework approachTier 4specialist training for those inCriminal Justice Mental Health TeamsTier 3understanding the needs of and workingwith individuals, issues of dual diagnosisTier 2knowledge and understanding of rangeof referrals and treatmentsTier 1general awareness raising and assessment skills

3how to deal with them, such as prison officers,youth offending team workers and offendermanagers, while Tier 4 training might be moresuitable for staff in the proposed Criminal JusticeMental Health teams.The development of a tiered system of learningand development reflects current good practice insubstance misuse and also within the Children’sWorkforce Common Core operating in England. Bothof these approaches identify the key competenciesand skills required and outline a set of jointstandards to which all individuals working in thoseareas must perform.A joined up and joint approach of this type woulddeliver significant changes and improvements in theway those working with offenders, in all agenciesand at all levels, tackle their needs in terms ofmental health. It would also meet the ambitionin the delivery plan of establishing ‘a minimumstandard of awareness and understanding acrosscriminal justice agencies’ (para 2.34).2. Are we working together to supportpeople with mental health needs?We believe that the most effective solutionshould not be for each service to train in silosbut for a shared approach to be implementedacross the criminal justice system. Joining up thedevelopment and delivery of training packages,pooling training budgets and carrying out joint localworkforce planning and commissioning could allhelp to establish long term links and to improveunderstanding among justice and health agencies.We would also recommend engaging with the thirdsector, with service user groups and with communityorganisations in delivering and commissioningtraining. We support Lord Bradley’s call for courtsto work closely with health and local authoritiesand develop planned service agreements. Suchservice level agreements should have a strongfocus on skills and training through commissioningstandards.But working across justice agencies alone will notbe enough and we would encourage joint workingacross other sectors and public facing roles, suchas those in health care, education, housing andsocial work. Employers in the Justice sector haveseen the benefit of multi agency approaches totraining and development through extensive projectwork across England. A recent project – Joining upJustice – delivered formal learning and developmentopportunities to individuals across the SouthEast. One of the additional benefits of the projectwas the informal learning and understanding thatparticipants gained from working with people fromother agencies and gaining an understanding of thechallenges of working that they faced.3. How can we communicate informationmore effectively and efficiently?The Bradley Report recognised the need to shareinformation better and faster across all the agenciesinvolved in offender health care, improving theunderstanding of individuals across Justice aboutwhat non-criminal justice agencies need from themand why, accounting for the differing needs ofagencies and also meeting the needs of those goingthrough the criminal justice system.Agencies need to work together on developingcommunication and information sharing protocolsthat take into account the different needs ofeach agency but still deliver timely and accurateinformation about an individual, based on properrisk assessment and an understanding of thebounds of confidentiality. Sharing informationmay have an impact on commissioning strategies,which may affect the delivery of externallycommissioned programmes, such as rehabilitation

4and resettlement. Consideration should be givento the role and responsibilities of third sectororganisations in this case.Skills for Justice have worked with Justice sectororganisations across Scotland to provide jointtraining and development about informationsharing. The benefit of this approach was themulti agency delivery, by the sector, to the sector,bringing enhanced awareness of the informationneeds and demands of agencies across Justice, aswell as building long term links between individualsand agencies. This approach should now bereplicated across the UK’s other jurisdictions.Ensuring that all public services coming intocontact with vulnerable individuals work toconsistent standards, and that they have the rightcommunication channels and information to hand,will ensure better outcomes for all.4. Working together,leading from the topSkills for Justice and Sainsbury Centre support theestablishment of the National Programme Boardand the National Advisory Group for implementingthe Bradley Report. We recognise that without thisvaluable national focus it will be hard to implementchange. But change will not happen unless theworkforce is adequately prepared to deliver it.We recommend that the NPB and the NAG thinkwidely about individuals’ skills needs and theoverall planning and makeup of the workforce.People-planning should be at the heart of thenational delivery plan. The development ofnational workforce guidance and the use ofnational occupational standards would enableconsistency in performance and assessmentacross Justice, health and other local services.We believe that this national lead, combined witha collective approach to dealing with mental healthamong offenders, and a shared core of trainingand development, is the right way to tackle thisissue. Delivery of this kind, at a range of levelsappropriate to need, would be of tremendousbenefit to those working in the Justice system,as well as those in contact with it and ultimatelythe wider public. An approach of this type coulddeliver real change in the way we tackle the needsof individuals with mental health issues or learningdisabilties in Justice.Published: March 2010Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health134–138 Borough High Street,LondonSE1 1LBT 020 7827 8300F 020 7827 8369www.scmh.org.ukCharity registration no. 1091156.A Company limited by guarantee registeredin England and Wales no. 4373019.Skills for JusticeCentre CourtAtlas WaySheffieldS4 7QQT 0114 261 1499www.skillsforjustice.comSkills for Justice is a company limited by guaranteeregistered as JSSC in England and Wales, no.4826715. Charity registration no. 1107141(England and Wales) and SC38928 (Scotland).