Professor Eddie Kane, the lead of the Centre for Health and Justice has worked with Emily Evans, Jurgen Mitsch & Tahseen Jilani on a new longitudinal study into the impact of liaison and diversion (L&D) schemes in police custody.

The research, which employed a pre–post service use design, has found promising results: Are Liaison and Diversion interventions in policing delivering the planned impact: A longitudinal evaluation in two constabularies? 

Liaison and Diversion (L&D) services identify people who have mental health, substance misuse, learning disability or other developmental vulnerabilities when they first come into contact with the criminal justice system as suspects, defendants or offenders. The service can support people through the early stages of the criminal justice pathway, refer them for appropriate health or social care or enable them to be diverted away from the criminal justice system into a more appropriate setting, if required. The aim is to improve overall health outcomes, reduce further police contact and re-offending rates and avert disorder-related crises.These NHS England (NHSE) funded schemes operate to a standard model and are now available in every part of the country. L&D sees teams of NHS staff located at police custody centres and courts in order to assess, divert or appropriately support individuals.

NHS records in two counties were searched for evidence that patients had been involved with L&D services while in police custody during the period July 2009–December 2017.  January 2009–July 2014 was defined as the pre-intervention period and any time after contact as the post-intervention period. Data from the Police National Computer were gathered for each period for these individuals, to assess their pre-post L&D contact offending histories. NHS Trust data were similarly gathered to assess their pre-post use of mental health legislation. 4,462 individuals were identified who had used L&D services in police custody.  

A very significant investment has been made into L&D services across the Health and Criminal Justice Systems and this study points to what appear to be related positive impacts. The findings appear to confirm that investments in L&D are worthwhile from an individual’s point of view but also from an economic standpoint. The reduction in offending post-intervention is statistically significant for all of the frequent, volume crime types examined in the study.

The detailed findings of the study can be accessed here.