Government invests £19.4m in liaison and diversion services

Revolving Doors Agency today welcomed the government’s decision to increase its investment in criminal justice liaison and diversion services as part of its efforts to ensure help is available in police stations and courts across the country.

The decision was announced in yesterday’s written statement by minister of state for care services Paul Burstow MP to parliament. Funding for 2012-13 will be £19.4 million, a significant increase from the original investment of £5 million for 2011-2012 announced by the minister at the Thinking Local, our national conference held in March last year .

Dominic Williamson, our chief executive, said: “Care minister Paul Burstow’s statement yesterday shows the government is continuing to honour its commitment that anyone who ends up in police custody or in court will have their mental health, learning disability or other unmet needs considered and will be helped to access the treatment and support they need. This is a crucial step towards ending the revolving door of crisis and crime that fuels so much reoffending and wastes so much public money.”

In his statement Paul Burstow said, “Liaison and diversion services aim to ensure that wherever offenders are in the criminal justice system, their health needs or vulnerabilities are identified and assessed and they are linked to appropriate treatment services.”

Revolving Doors particularly welcomes the minister’s assertion that liaison and diversion services will be “accessible to all offenders – whether adult men or women, children and young people, and whether they have a mental health or substance misuse problem, learning disability or personality disorder.”

This will be particularly important for individuals who traditionally find it hard to get help, including people with mental health problems which fall below the threshold for statutory mental health services, those who experience mental health problems at the same time as drug or alcohol issues, and young adults making the transition from young people’s to adult services.