Commission finds ‘adult bias' in offender diversion services

The nine-member commission, chaired by Lord Bradley of Withington and tasked with reviewing progress made since his 2009 review of mental health in the criminal justice system, highlighted concerns among youth offending and children’s mental professionals that new liaison and diversion services for young people are being too closely based on an adult model.

The Bradley Report Five Years On, published today, found professionals think NHS England’s national development programme for liaison and diversion services has an “adult bias” with “limited knowledge and understanding” of the needs of young people, as well as the different legislative and policy agendas.

Liaison and diversion services try to find alternatives to custody for young people convicted of offences but whose behaviour has been affected by a health problem such as conduct disorder, communication needs, autism, learning difficulties or substance misuse.

The national programme is trying to implement a model of liaison and diversion that can be applied to all ages of offenders, as opposed to the youth-specific model previously piloted in some areas. The commission says this poses a “major challenge” for the 10 pilot sites trying to develop a service for children and young people based on the new model.

The report says: “Most are building on what were adult-only focused services. For example, the London pilot is being deployed across 11 boroughs, only four of which had the youth justice liaison and diversion model.”

While supportive of the all-ages approach developed by NHS England, the commission says the national programme needs to recognise the different needs of children and the different nature of their liaison and diversion. It says this could be done by establishing a youth justice and mental health reference body.

The government has provided £75m to support the development and piloting of the national programme. Once the 10 pilot sites have been evaluated, a national launch is expected in 2017.

The independent commission included Sean Duggan, chief executive of the Centre for Mental Health, Lord Ramsbotham, former chief inspector of prisons and Christine Jones, lead for mental health and disability at the Association of Chief Police Officers.

This was the fifth and final report it has produced. A previous report raised concerns about the lack of co-ordination between the youth secure estate and adult prison system.