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Breaking the Cycle: Better Help for People with Learning Disabilities at Risk of Committing Offences

Breaking the Cycle: Better Help for People with Learning Disabilities at Risk of Committing Offences. Glynis Murphy Professor of Clinical Psychology Univ of Lancaster. NW strategy for people with LD at risk of offences. Commissioned by Regional Task Force, about 18 mths ago

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Breaking the Cycle: Better Help for People with Learning Disabilities at Risk of Committing Offences

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  1. Breaking the Cycle: Better Help for People with Learning Disabilities at Risk of Committing Offences Glynis Murphy Professor of Clinical Psychology Univ of Lancaster

  2. NW strategy for people with LD at risk of offences • Commissioned by Regional Task Force, about 18 mths ago • Core group of about 8 people (incl. commissioners, psychologists, community nurse, rep from secure service, social services rep (ex-PO), etc) • Led by Martin Routledge, VP • Document ‘Breaking the Cycle’ went out to consultation (led by NWTDT) end of December ’05 • Comments by end of Feb 06

  3. Why is it important? • People at risk of offending very often end up in restrictive provision, sometimes 100s of miles from home • Secure hospital places increasing in number (private hospitals: almost 1000 LD places now) • Often people sent away because local services don’t know how to meet their needs • Often away for years • Not always formally detained • Not the least restrictive provision possible

  4. Why are local services struggling? • Insufficient knowledge and competence in CLDTs (health & social care) • Arguments over fair access to care & whose responsibility it is for people at risk of offending • Insufficient knowledge & confidence in staff in residential, day & employment services • Poor inter-agency coordination • Insufficient early intervention • Insufficient training in this area • Poor knowledge & analysis at Commissioning levels

  5. Who is it that needs better help? People with LD at risk of offending are: • Mostly male (maybe 20% female) • Have relatively good self-care & communication skills • Often have additional health needs (mental health; autism) • Often had very disturbed, disrupted & chaotic childhoods • Usually have had little consistent emotional support • Frequently ‘bounce’ from service to service & placement to placement • 3% of those known to CLDTs have convictions (McBrien et al 03)

  6. Breaking the CycleKey principles • Legal & civil rights – to act as citizens & to be held responsible for actions; to understand & exercise their rights in CJS • Independence – to learn new skills & not to live in more restrictive environments than necessary • Choice – Choice thru Person-Centred Plans; limits to choice • Inclusion – Need to be included in an ordinary life; need good support, tailored to needs, plus good risk assessment & risk management

  7. Effective strategies • Positive, person-centred emphasis, with good risk management • Least restrictive • Near to home (victim needs must be considered though) • Multi-agency: Positive partnerships between agencies (CJS probation, prison, police, youth justice teams, secure services, CAMHS, CLDTs, employment, residential) • Sense of shared responsibility across services • Good information: where are people detained?, how much is it costing?; what plans are there to bring them back nearer home?

  8. Support & services: Community Teams • Children’s and adolescent services – problems often known about at this stage. Need good interventions & coordination with adult services • Youth Offending Teams also see lots of people with LD: need to identify them & coordinate with adult services • Community support teams – ALL CLDTs (health & social services) should be able to provide for not so complex needs & low risk (eg basic CBT; risk assessment & management; care planning)

  9. Intensive Support Teams (can be virtual) • Intensive support teams – for more complex needs & higher risk people • To liaise with police, probation, courts, prisons • Provide rapid assessments for police, courts (eg on fitness to plead) • Support people through the CJS (police station, courts, etc) • Liaise with people in secure services • Arrange care packages • Provide assessment & treatment • Provide training for police, probation, courts, CLDTs, staff in res services

  10. Day, college & employment services • Building based, large day services are not the answer • Must be individualised day service- with supervision if necessary- could include college, employment, volunteering- has to be very carefully designed, well monitored, with good risk assessment + management

  11. Residential services:Where to live • Range of provision needed • Often struggle with families & group homes not good option • One and two person flats/houses better (+ support) • Independent living can be possible, with carefully graded, flexible support & on-call service • Specialist intensive support services • Emergency respite: small number of places needed for assessmt/ttmt • Secure service: Need small local low/medium places if poss • Need very small no. high secure (4 in NW)

  12. Vaughan’s diagram Hi secure Medium & low secure Intermediate services Ordinary community based services

  13. Medium/low secure services: what is needed? • Currently have 218 places in NW for 4.4 million general pop – but 50 ready to go – so only need max. 9 places per 250,000 population) • Secure services needs to work well: rehabilitative; active assessment & treatment; active discharge planning; good cooperation with local services; service users voice heard • Not be too large and distant

  14. Police: what is needed • Local police need to know about learning disabilities (not = MI) • They need to screen suspects at custody desk for LD • They need to have helpful guides – eg ‘Youre Under Arrest’, ‘Youre On Trial’ • They need to know local CLDT – one key contact is preferable • CLDT need to do training for them on LD, how to interview • They need to have an AA list (& good AA training scheme)

  15. Probation: what is needed • Local probation service needs to know about learning disabilities • They need to screen people for learning disabilities • They need helpful guides & simplified info for people with LD • They need to know their CLDT (one or two named contacts preferable) • CLDT need to do training for them on how to work with pwld • Probation could do some CLDT training • Probation need to do joint working with CLDT - joint assessments; joint treatment programmes

  16. Prisons (16 in NW!): what is needed • We need to know how many people with LD in prison? (probably <1% of prison population) • Prison should screen for LD • Prison should have some services geared for people with LD • Prison should know local CLDT (one or two named contacts are preferable) • CLDTs should do training for prisons on LD

  17. Consultation: comments from….. • Phil Shackell, Specilaist Commissioner NW – from Cumbria MDO group, NW catchment group • Maria Johnson on behalf of Blackpool LD services • Mark Horrocks on behalf of Salford LD services • Don Rowbottom & david Custance on behalf of Lancashire SSD • Jean Doherty on behalf of Wirral LD services

  18. Consultation: comments from….. • Gill Brown, Paul Withers & Mark Horrocks, on behalf of psychol-ogists in LD services • Tracey Dean, SALT, on behalf of speech therapy services (Burnley, Pendle & Rossendale PCT) • Mari Saeki, on behalf of NAS, Manchester • Wendy Silberman, National Development Team

  19. Comments • Welcomed as it focuses on needy group (Utopian?); excellent • Well researched & evidence based • Partnerships need to be at 3 levels: strategic, operational & individual • Needs high level commitment from other agencies (police, probation, etc) & welding into their key strategies • Needs to backed up by an Implementation Guidance document or it wont happen • Need leadership from SHA

  20. Comments • How do we get Partnership Boards to take an interest? • What do the Specialist Commissioners do? • Need more emphasis on diversion schemes (eg the Bolton MDO diversion scheme) • Need Link Worker for people in secure provision • Need more on role of Assessment & Treatment Centre • Need checklists for YOTs, CAMHS, Transitions workers, Connexions • Who would complete & review the checklists?

  21. Comments • Document too big - needs to be split into sections for the different services • Skills training is key – multi-agency skills training is key to multi-agency coordination – how will it be financed? • How could we train police, probation etc to screen for LD? • Need for training for CLDT members too • Need for autism training for all groups too

  22. Comments • Specialist teams would be great – BUT Is it realistic to think we could recruit to and/or fund new specialist teams?- others thought that this will create an elite team – we need to spread knowledge • Welcomed the alternatives to medium secure services – felt the step up/step down community services would be preferable, less restrictive & would help keep people out of Calderstones – but need more on pros & cons

  23. Comments • Can CLDTs take on lead role? Shouldn’t mental health, prisons, probation, police do more? • We need better info systems eg collated data on where people are across the Region • Need more on communication • Need more on role for advocates (& safety) • Need more on adolescents • Need more on women • Need more on ethnicity • HOW do we stop people being refused services?

  24. Comments • Need financial examination of costs, eg- current out-of-borough costs (need good info system!)- costs of intensive support residential services- costs of setting up small low/medium secure services- costs of setting up Intensive Support Teams- costs of training for LD staff & others

  25. What can be done……. • Some things we can easily do to the document:- minor alterations- shortening + dividing up • Implementation- some things could be done with goodwill & without extra cost:- CLDT liaising with police, probation, prisons & YOTs- providing some (eg a few days) joint/reciprocal training- setting up virtual specialist teams – eg community nurse, psychologist, SW, psychiatrist to lead on pwld at risk of offending- joined up information on who is in secure provision/out-of-borough services

  26. What can be done…….. • What needs more work &/or new funding- new specialist teams if we want them- local low secure provision- specialist residential services (step down from secure) - long term training (eg one year courses) • Funding from where?- out of borough placements- economic analysis • An implementation group with teeth: eg to review checklists & require action

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