Criminal justice and forensic services

The criminal justice liaison and diversion team provides an innovative screening service available at several points within the criminal justice system. This allows early detection and assessment of offenders with mental health, learning disability, substance misuse or other vulnerabilities, to ensure appropriate and effective outcomes.

NHS England has invested extra funding in order to create this full liaison and diversion team, serving people of all ages and all vulnerabilities. Learn more on the NHS England website.

Who does the team support?

The service is aimed at those who come into contact with the criminal justice system because they have committed, or are suspected of committing, a criminal offence and: 

• may be acutely or chronically mentally ill and need to be assessed under the Mental Health Act
• may have neuroses, behavioural and/or personality disorder
• have a history of contact with mental health services
• have a learning disability
• have an issue with substance misuse
• have other relevant vulnerabilities.

How does the team operate?

The criminal justice mental health team assesses people in police custody at Derby, Chesterfield and Buxton police stations, magistrates courts in Derby and Chesterfield, and Derbyshire probation services. It also works with youth offending teams.

The team carries out screening to identify whether an individual has vulnerabilities. They will then support vulnerable individuals to access their first appointment and begin the process of giving them advice to improve their health outcomes and reduce their chances of re-offending. That advice could be about direct health-related matters or issues like housing or finance.

The team also provides a prompt response to concerns raised by police and the courts. It can provide key information without unnecessary delay to help police and courts when charging and sentencing vulnerable people.

It can also act as a point of referral for service users to make sure that they know about treatment and rehabilitation appointments.

In particular, the team specialises in community sentence treatment requirements - learn more on the community sentence treatment requirements page.

Where is the team based?

The team is based at three locations - one in Chesterfield and two in Derby. Across those three bases there are teams of nurses and engagement workers.

How do I contact the team?

The team can be contacted by calling 01332 268490.

Our team at the Kedleston Unit provides a gender-specific low-secure service for males.

The team delivers intensive, comprehensive, multidisciplinary treatments and care for patients who demonstrate disturbed behaviour in the context of a serious mental disorder and must be in a secure setting.

The service is commissioned by NHS England. Referrals come from regional medium-secure units, prisons, Ministry of Justice recalls and acute adult wards. There are 20 beds at the Kedleston Unit: Curzon ward is an eight-bedded assessment ward and Scarsdale ward is a 12-bedded rehabilitation ward.

Referral criteria

• Males 18 years and above
• Must be suffering from a mental disorder, and detained under the MHA 1983 (not section 2)
• Must require treatment in a specialist low-secure service
• Will usually have complex and challenging forensic and mental health needs.

External referrals should be addressed to Referral Panel, The Kedleston Unit, Kingsway Hospital Site, Derby DE22 3LZ or sent to the secure email address dhcft.derbyshireforensicspoa@nhs.net

The Kedleston Unit team are members of the Royal College of Psychiatrists' Forensic Quality Network. They are active members in service review and sharing of good practice through the network.
 

Downloads

Kedleston Unit inpatient guide

Security information for visitors

Information for patients/visitors/carers
 

Contact

Kedleston Unit
Kingsway Hospital
Kingsway
Derby
DE22 3LZ

Telephone: 01332 623700 ext 33267.

In 2019, we introduced a new community-based forensic service. This service is county wide over Derbyshire and provides a community focus for supporting individuals whose serious offending behaviour occurred while mentally unwell.

What does the FCMHT do?

The overall aim of the service is to provide and promote high quality comprehensive mental health care in supporting individuals with their mental health, whilst collaboratively understanding their criminogenic and risk related needs, working with external agencies to safely manage public protection. The service is specifically designed for individuals with a primary diagnosis relating to their mental health, who pose or have posed a significant risk to others and this risk is clinically defined as related to their mental health.  This may include individuals who have a dual diagnosis. 

The value of the FCMHT will seek to reduce the risk of offending behaviour by adopting a holistic, whole person and contextualised approach to understanding an individual's mental health challenges and the acquisition/evolution of forensic needs across the life span.

The FCMHT aims to support individuals to develop a functional formulation of their presentation, both in terms of their mental health needs and their criminogenic and risk-related needs. Working collaboratively and cooperatively with the people who use our service, we aim to promote well-being and quality of life, reduce and/or manage risk and enhance social inclusion. 

The team will provide a meaningful, collaborative approach to the appropriate management and treatment for people who access the service, providing support and assistance (including full working and joint working as appropriate), specialist risk assessment and links with other agencies. These assessments will be holistic and incorporate specific recommendations regarding the potential risk of harm to others, appropriate measures to manage any identified risk factors and the early management of risk indicators.

The team will aim to achieve, through working flexibly with individuals, their optimum level of functioning, and to support them in their therapeutic engagement using:

• Formulation and functional analysis.
• Understanding the impact of trauma, victimisation and adversity.
• Mental health needs including symptom management. 
• Risk management. 
• Relapse prevention 
• Physical health needs. 
• Recovery focussed work. 
• Practical support e.g., accommodation, finance and employment/training. 
• Crisis prevention and management.
• Individual and carer needs led assessment. 
• In-reach to in-patient wards and prison establishments
• Social needs and improve social network. 
• Interpersonal relationship skills. 
• Liaison with outside agencies (including MAPPA, MOSOVO, local Community Mental Health Teams, Criminal Justice Liaison and Diversion Service, Prison in-reach service, Probation, Housing)
• Discharge planning.

Service Hours and Contact for FCMHT

The hours of operation are Monday to Friday 9am-5pm. The team does not operate over weekends and bank holidays. However as per the Trusts CPA policy, all individual care plans will detail a contingency plan of care for out of hours.

Forensic Community Mental Health Team
Kingsway West House
Kingsway Hospital
Derby
DE22 3LZ

Tel:  01332 623793

Team email address: dhcft.forensiccmht@nhs.net 

FCMHT Referral Criteria and Form

The team will accept referrals for people whose mental health has resulted in a formal diagnosis (no referral will be accepted for diagnosis alone) that relates to serious offending behaviour. However, referrals for non-convicted behaviour, will be considered if there is strong evidence of current risk of harm to others and for which appropriate treatment is available through community service provision.

The team will also consider referrals for people who may have additional disorders such as Autism and ASD alongside their primary mental health diagnosis, advice and support can be sought from specialist services within Derbyshire Healthcare, such as the Forensic Support Team. Reasonable adjustments will be made, and appropriate aids used to optimise communication, assessment and to establish an enabling environment. The team can attend CTR as deemed necessary. 
 
Serious Offending examples may include (list not exhaustive):

• Homicide/attempted murder,
• Wounding with intent,
• Rape/attempted rape/sexual assaults,
• Fire setting (reckless or with intent to endanger life).

For a referral to be accepted, ALL of the following must be applicable:

• There must be actual or potential serious risk from the person to others,
• The risk must be related to their mental health diagnosis. 
• The persons assessment/management can only be met by the specialist skills/facilities of the community forensic service.

The FCMHT operational model incorporates a mixture of parallel and integrative models of care in liaison with generic services as follows:

• Level 4 – With the Forensic Community Mental Health Team taking full responsibility for care of the patient, including full CPA responsibility.  
• Level 3 – FCMHT joint working with the generic mental health services. Discussions around lead agency would be dependent on the individual case considering the clinical need and risk management. This would be clearly identified at assessment phase.  
• Level 2 – By offering a single assessment, consultation, advice and guidance or period of assessment, for example, to undertake a structured risk assessment, with the referring team retaining responsibility. Time specific. 
• Level 1 – Tracking individuals who are who are in secure or specialist hospital placements or prisons and will require FCMHT services on their return to Derbyshire.

The FCMHT will not usually consider referrals for people who:

• Who are unwilling to engaged with the FCMHT, especially in the absence of the MHA framework. 
• Whose primary problem may be drug dependency/substance misuse
• Who engage in violent and anti-social behaviour that is not driven by their mental health condition. 

Individuals who are not subject to MHA provisions should only be referred to FCMHT if they are willing to engage with the assessment by the FCMHT. In these circumstances, and if the individual is deemed an imminent/high risk to others, then the referring team could consider assessment under the Mental Health Act or police intervention may be deemed more appropriate resource for such individuals.

Individuals may not be regarded as the province of the Forensic Community Mental Health Team simply because they have a criminal history. Further details are contained in the FCMHT Operational Policy.

What professionals make up the FCMHT?

The Forensic Community Mental Health Team is comprised of the following: 

• Mental Health Nurses 
• Consultant Forensic Psychiatrists 
• Forensic/ Clinical Psychologist
• Enablement workers
• Occupational Therapists
• Service Manager
• Area Service Manager
• Medical Secretary/Team Administrator 

The team will provide specialist forensic support for individuals who would previously have been seen through the Trust’s neighbourhood teams.

Referral Form for the Team