The Role of the Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Crown Court Setting: Towards a Best Practice Model

Abstract

Over the last two decades, since the Reed Report (Reed, 1992), there have been countless well-intentioned initiatives to support a formal, professionalised liaison role for those appearing in court with mental health needs, and also for an effective service to support diversion from the Criminal Justice System. Despite this, the Bradley Report (Bradley, 2009), and many other scholarly publications over the years, noted that such initiatives appeared doomed; starting out brightly and fizzling out quietly. This was mostly contingent upon some combination of weak strategic and operational support and funding over the long term, resulting in difficulty in ensuring appropriate staffing and/or being haunted by difficulties around multi-agency collaboration. In response to the Bradley Report and the resulting 82 recommendations that were accepted in full, there has been a concerted effort to identify a nationally co-ordinated response to the problem of supporting offenders with mental health needs through the criminal justice process (see Durcan et al., 2014; Rogers and Ormston, this volume). The need for an effective liaison role in the Courts is central to this current effort.