The NECS Health and Justice (H&J) Service is led by Nicola Seanor and Marie Cunningham. It provides commissioning support services and subject matter expertise to Health and Justice NHS England (NHSE) commissioners, providers and partners within the UK, by delivering a broad range of programmes, projects and bespoke services supporting health and social care systems across the English Criminal Justice Pathway.
Health and Justice specialist teams within NECS collaborate nationally with a range of healthcare and criminal justice partners that support children, young people, and adults across secure and detained settings. This includes prisons, Secure Childrens Homes, the UK’s first new secure school, Police and court liaison and diversion services, Immigration Removal Centres (IRCs) and Sexual Assault Referral Centres (SARCS).
Our specialist H&J team has a diverse range of backgrounds, including: Health and Justice commissioning, provider frontline delivery, clinical quality assurance, procurement, youth offending services, Police and Crime Commissioners (PCC) Secure Children’s Homes – working with Ministry of Justice to create the UK’s first secure school on the site of Medway Secure Training Centre, HM Prison and Probation Services (HMPPS) – Sexual Assault Referral Centres, NHS providers, transformation leads and project management.
Our offer
We are proud to be part of the NHS. In our fully integrated team H&J team, we offer support to our customers by providing services and solutions that enhance one other. This core strength is vital for offering the best outcomes to those in contact with the H&J system.
Our team has experience of project and programme management, commissioning and service improvement across criminal justice and health sectors, at both strategic and operational level.
The service has delivered H&J projects in collaboration with a range of partner organisations, including NHSE H&J teams (nationally and regionally), Police and Crime Commissioners, His Majesty’s Prison & Probation Service (HMPPS), the UK Health Security Agency, formally Public Health England, academic partners, healthcare provider organisations and Integrated Care Systems and Provider Collaboratives at ‘system’ and ‘place’ levels.
Specific support services available include:
- Specialist H&J expertise to partners, e.g., NHS England, academic partners, ICS (Integrated Care System), NHS providers
- H&J contract management support
- H&J workforce mapping and planning
- H&J Health Needs Assessments / Equality Impact Assessments / Data Protection Impact Assessments
- PMO (Programme Management Office), programme and project management
- H&J information and technology improvements
- Review and mapping of custodial and non-custodial pathways
- Recommissioning of H&J healthcare services
- H&J service reviews
- H&J clinical quality assurance
- Mobilisation of H&J healthcare contracts
- Implementation of the national Mental Health Treatment Requirements programme in community settings and Police custody suites
- Review of sexual assault referral centres for victims of crime
- Specialist H&J review of continuing health and social care delivery
- H&J training optimisation
- H&J specific procurement expertise
- Review of H&J primary care delivery
- Review of H&J mental health delivery
- H&J specialist Medicines Optimisation.
Our experience
- Long-term central programme and project management support to the National Quality Lead for NHS England Health & Justice Children Programme including the successful development, mobilisation, and implementation of the Framework for Integrated Care (SECURE STAIRS).
- Project management and mobilisation of the Secure Schools Programme in England.
- Co-authored open and inclusive recruitment guidance for those with lived experience into the Secure Estate with NHS England.
- Supporting the transition of H&J non-custodial services into an ICS including mapping provision of H&J services and providing practical support on implementing new commissioning models and workforce arrangements.
- Clinical service reviews of prison healthcare, directly informing re-procurement (including workforce requirements).
- Review of current service provision and recommendations for staff training and development plans to support neurodiverse individuals in the criminal justice system regionally. We are now project managing the implementation of these recommendations based on the success of the initial project.
- Completing multiple Health Needs Assessments for H&J settings, including workforce review.
- Delivery of a 3-phase review of new models of working and workforce development across prison healthcare in the Southwest.
- Developing a ten-year strategy for the implementation of the Framework for Integrated Care in Humber and North Yorkshire, including workforce baselining and training plan.
- A review of prison healthcare models to support effective recommissioning of 11 prisons across the region, including project managing mobilisation of 11 new services.
- Completion of clinical assurance visits to review pharmacy services in the North West and ongoing pharmacy assurance visits to prisons in the North East and Yorkshire.
- Training, support, and ongoing delivery of Continuing Healthcare assessments to prisons in the North of England.
- Benchmarking of pharmacy costs across the North of England prisons to deliver recurrent savings.
- Project managing roll out of Reconnect and MHTRs across the Southwest, including development of an MHTR Practitioner capacity model now adopted nationally.
- Implementation of NHSE H&J commissioned report recommendations.
“I’ve just re-read the female ND report, I would like to re-iterate my satisfaction of the quality and findings of the report. It offers some real actions to be taken in light of the findings. Good on you.”
Vanguard for the Framework for Integrated Care (Community)
The challenge In 2021, an opportunity arose for Humber and North Yorkshire Health and Care Integrated Care System (HNY HCP ICS) to bid for funding from NHS England’s national health and justice team alongside their partners, including the health, local authority and...