27 January - Mental Health Network webinar - governance during the COVID-19 pandemic

This week’s session was joined by Kate Davies, Director of Health and Justice, Armed Forces and Sexual Assault Referral Centres, NHS England. Kate gave a presentation on the current landscape and priorities around offender healthcare in England. She said NHSE will be launching a new health and injustice integrated framework, containing 12 principles setting out a population and place-based approach for health and justice commissioning.

Overheard during the discussion:

“Our mental health trust provides services across a number of systems and places; this model carries a risk around continuity of care and discharge. The ICB will be focused on continuity of care but patients might not always return to the area they previously lived in.”

“The focus needs to be on people not taking a step backwards just because they have left

prison. There is a real focus on culture change to ensure health can be seen as a way of

preventing reoffending, as well as focusing on decreasing health inequalities.”

“We find benefits in a centralised approach, where there can be expertise, knowledge and risk management. Working within systems it is important to ensure pathways of care, and relationships are key to this. [Reflecting on the figures for people with mental health problems in prisons] the official figures may not reflect the reality. The goal is to discharge people in a better condition than they came in, and this is a goal to work towards.”

“Prevention is so important in making this work, and brings wider benefits to society and the treasury. We have invested in crisis teams which are part of a prevention agenda, but these are inconsistent across the country.” [Stressing the importance of funding at different levels – whether providers, place, systems or nationally – and the benefits for these different approaches].

These meetings are by invitation only. For further details, visit our events page.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about these webinars, please contact: events@good-governance.org.uk