L&D services provide a prompt response to concerns raised by the police, probation service, youth offending teams or court staff, and provide critical information to decision-makers in the justice system, in real time, when it comes to charging and sentencing these vulnerable people. L&D also acts as a point of referral and assertive follow up for these services users, to ensure they can access, and are supported to attend, treatment and rehabilitation appointments.
Liaison and Diversion is a process in Youth Justice and Criminal Justice Systems whereby people of all ages with mental health problems, a learning disability, substance misuse problems and other vulnerabilities are identified and assessed as early as possible. Following screening and assessment, individuals are offered access to appropriate services including, but not limited to:
- mental and physical health care
- social care and/ or substance misuse treatment.
Information from liaison and diversion assessments is shared appropriately with relevant agencies so that informed decisions can be made on issues of diversion, charging, case management and sentencing.
Liaison and Diversion Services are intended to improve the health and criminal justice outcomes for adults and children who come into contact with the Criminal Justice System; where a range of complex needs are identified as factors in their offending behaviour. Liaison and Diversion Services will ensure that these individuals can access appropriate interventions in order to reduce health inequalities, improve physical and mental health, tackle offending behaviour including substance misuse, reduce crime and re-offending, and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Criminal Justice System.
Our aims
- Improved access to healthcare and support services for vulnerable individuals through effective liaison with appropriate services and a reduction in health inequalities
- Diversion of individuals, where appropriate, out of the youth and criminal justice systems into health or other supportive services.
- Delivery of efficiencies within the Youth and Criminal Justice Systems
- The reduction of re-offending
Our service is for
- People who use our service are for adults and child and young people over the age of 10 (the age of criminal responsibility)
- They must be in contact with the criminal justice system
Useful resources
There are other support services available that you might find helpful:
Safe Havens
Our Safe Havens provide out of hours help and support to people and their carers who are experiencing mental health crisis of emotional distress.
Advocacy
An advocate can speak on your behalf if you are unable to speak for yourself, they support you to say what you want to say. Under the Care Act 2014, the Mental Health Act and the Mental Capacity Act, certain people are legally entitled to an advocate.
Medicines.
Find out more about mental health conditions, treatments and medications.
Carers
There is lots of information on services available to support carers in our carers section.
Mind
When you're living with a mental health problem, or supporting someone who is, having access to the right information is important. Mind has lots of information and support on their website.
Rethink
Mental illness can affect many areas of your life. Rethink Mental Illness provides information and support on many aspects of daily life, from physical health to work and education.
Your views matter
We are committed to providing the best possible experience for people who use our services, their carers and families, our staff, and other partners such as GPs and commissioners. Improvement is important to us and we are always looking for ways to make the services we provide better.
One of the ways we do this is by asking people to share their experiences through our Your Views Matter surveys. This feedback is really valuable and helps us to make positive changes that ensure our services are always delivering high quality care and support.
Please complete one of the short surveys below, selecting the survey that applies to your most recent contact with us.
We are not able to identify you from your survey responses, they are anonymous. Please don’t add any personal information that could identify you or a member of our staff in any of the free text boxes.
If you would prefer to speak to someone directly about your experience, please contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service.
Help us improve our website
Please take a moment to share your thoughts and help us enhance our website by completing our short survey here.