Centre for Mental Health

Implementing Bradley report should be priority for government, says Sainsbury Centre

21 July 2009

Creating a national network of Criminal Justice Mental Health teams should be a priority for the NHS and the National Offender Management Service next year, according to a briefing paper published today by Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health.

The Bradley Report and the Government's Response echoes Lord Bradley's call for nationwide coverage of specialist teams to divert people with mental health problems to treatment and support at any stage of the criminal justice system. It calls for Criminal Justice Mental Health teams to become gateways to mainstream mental health services in the community. And it warns that the new teams could become 'silted up' if mainstream services do not take responsibility for working with offenders.

Sainsbury Centre director of prisons and criminal justice Sean Duggan said: "A national network of Criminal Justice Mental Health teams would be a vast improvement on the patchy provision of diversion schemes that exists now. They should be mandated in the 2010 Operating Framework for the NHS. And they should be funded jointly by the NHS and criminal justice agencies."

The Bradley Report and the Government's Response supports Lord Bradley's call for a 14-day maximum wait to transfer people needing urgent care from prison to hospital. But it warns that secure hospitals already hold record numbers of people and that better step-down care is vital to stop beds from being blocked.

The briefing paper also calls for the Bradley Report to be implemented with regard to the needs of all people with mental health problems in the criminal justice system. That includes age-appropriate arrangements for children and young people as well as action to tackle the over-representation of many Black and minority ethnic communities in both the mental health and criminal justice systems.

Sean Duggan said: "We support Lord Bradley's call for a review of mental health in the youth justice system. But this should not stand in the way of action being taken now to divert young people from custody to effective community services. And we must avoid the trap of implementing the Bradley Report 'colour blind' and overlooking the specific needs of people from a wide range of communities.

"The Bradley Report can and should improve the lives not only of offenders with mental health problems but also of their families, of victims and of communities.

"Short prison stays have a particularly disastrous impact on people with mental health problems and their families. They are both expensive and ineffective. We call on the Government to take action now to ensure the Bradley Report brings about the sea change that needs to happen if we are to stop wasting taxpayers' money in imprisoning people who can safely be kept out of custody."