Annex G
CRIMINAL JUSTICE INTERVENTIONS PROGRAMME
(CJIP)
Home Office CJIP briefing note—September
2003
INTRODUCTION
1. The Criminal Justice Interventions Programme
(CJIP) is a Home Office programme, "live" since April
2003 and due to run for three years. Its aim is to make the most
of opportunities provided by the criminal justice system to get
drug-misusing offenders into treatment and out of crime.
2. The overarching aim is to reduce crime
by solving the underlying problem: that many problem drug users
frequently commit crime to feed their habit.
3. Key partners to the Home Office are the
criminal justice agencies such as the police, Prison Service,
probation officers and the courts, along with the Department of
Health, the National Treatment Agency and treatment service providers
and those who provide linked services such as housing and job-seeker
support. Also on the front line are Drug Action Teams, who are
provided with the funding and take responsibility for implementation,
co-ordination and delivery on the ground.
4. In the first year, 2003-04, the programme
is rolling out its various components in the 25 Drug Action Team
areas across England which cover 30 police Basic Command Units
with high levels of acquisitive crime, normally property crime
such as burglary, shoplifting, robbery and so on.
5. Key messages about the programme
are:
— It provides an opportunity for everyone
to win: problem drug users get help through treatment and support,
communities suffer less crime and the taxpayer saves money as
criminal justice costs are reduced.
— It has strong governmental commitment—including
from the Prime Minister himself—because of its potential
for reducing crime and creating safer communities.
— It calls for a step-change in the
way Drug Action Teams and partner agencies currently work because
it creates a "joined up" approach to case management
and information sharing.
— It builds on things that currently
work in some areas as well as introducing new features and setting
consistent standards and ways of working.
— It contributes to restoring public
confidence in the criminal justice system.
— It aims to stop the destructive cycle
of drugs, offending and prison.
— A critical element of the programme
is delivery of a broad range of effective treatments, which is
cheaper and more effective than putting problem drug users through
the criminal justice system repeatedly without support to help
them kick their habit.
— Treatment is not a soft option:
orders imposed by the courts usually involve a strict monitoring
regime and some drug users will be directed to treatment in addition
to prison rather than instead of it.
— Treatment works: not just residential
treatment or methadone prescribing but also a wide range of less
intense alternatives, such as counselling or acupuncture.
— Its most innovative and challenging
element is the creation of multi-agency local teams working together
and sharing information to provide continuity in the monitoring
of and support for offenders who might otherwise "fall between
the gaps".
— Significant new funding—some
£440 million over three years—is being provided to
help national and local partners to play their part.
— The programme is being trialed to
evaluate how it operates on the front line, both in terms of the
individual elements and as a whole. During these trials, we will
be considering any changes needed to ensure effective implementation.
As with any major new initiative there may be a need to make some
operational changes before being rolled out nationally.
THROUGHCARE AND
AFTERCARE
6. An essential objective of the programme
is to ensure that, while individual interventions are expanded,
there is a step-change in the delivery of an end-to-end system
for drug misusing offenders. The two elements of the programme
that do that are throughcare and aftercare.
7. "Throughcare" is the term used
to describe arrangements for managing the continuity of care provided
to a drug misuser from the point of arrest through to sentence
and beyond. Integrated teams in the DATs will support this by
adopting a case management approach.
8. "Aftercare" is the package
of support that needs to be in place after a drug misusing offender
is released from prison, completes a community sentence or leaves
treatment. It is not one simple discrete process which involves
only treatment but includes access to additional support with
issues which may include housing, managing finance, family issues,
learning new skills and employment.
9. The key messages are:
— Development of a throughcare system
and aftercare provision is central to successful delivery of this
new approach because it cements together the other steps of the
programme.
— It is dependent on the right people
sharing the right information at the right time so that treatment
and support can be targeted and delivered effectively.
— The biggest challenge is to achieve
a step-change in the way the partner agencies and Drug Action
Teams work together, so that attitudes and ways of working support,
rather than hinder, effective case management.
— It will be achieved in phases, beginning
this year with 25 DAT areas where there are high levels of acquisitive
crime, which means that it will be available to drug misusing
offenders who live in, or are returning to, those locations.
— Success depends not just on links
between criminal justice and treatment organisations but also
on "wraparound" services and support programmes that
help with housing, employment and so on.
10. This new integrated approach introduces
a holistic package that is the culmination of all the different
initiatives within the programme, providing total care and support.
DATA COLLECTION
AND INFORMATION
SHARING
11. The way and extent to which data is
currently obtained and shared varies across the key partnerships
involved in delivering CJIP. The programme aims to link these
processes so that more accurate and comprehensive data is available
and so that the information allows individual cases to be monitored
more effectively.
12. The key messages are:
— Current data on interventions in
the criminal justice system varies widely and there is little
compatibility between the IT and processes used by the various
agencies.
— There is a strong combined will among
the partners to overcome these problems so that everyone can work
more effectively to benefit problem drug users and service providers.
— Significant progress is being made
but it will take some time to put in place systems to ensure easy
sharing of information and capturing of statistics.
— An early success has been the successful
trial of a new electronic data entry and collection system for
drug testing in police custody suites and this will go live in
September across all 30 Basic Command Units.
— Certain baseline information is already
available, against which future statistical comparisons can be
made, but work is underway on improving this.
— Early benefits will primarily be
around the greater ease in sharing information about individual
cases to ensure end-to-end monitoring and consistency.
UPDATE ON
THROUGHCARE AND
AFTERCARE
13. Work to date includes (within the 30
BCU/25 DAT areas):
— identifying "Pathfinder"
sites where teams are moving ahead swiftly to demonstrate case
management in action so that we can quickly identify best practice,
how practical issues have been overcome and use that learning
to increase the pace of delivery in other sites;
— CARATs database brought up to date
by Prison Service and now providing discharge information;
— outline draft protocol and guidance
agreed on managing information flows between community and prisons
and vice versa and being road tested in Manchester between Manchester
Drug Services working in Court and HMP Styal and Forestbank;
— contract let for research and production
of guidance manual on best practice for throughcare and aftercare—preliminary
findings in December 2003, and final report in March 2004;
— case management processes and integrated
teams to be in place in 80% of the 25 DATs by December 2003;
— guidance issued in April 2003 on
the establishment of criminal justice integrated teams;
— further guidance issued in June 2003
on implementation of throughcare, aftercare and application of
funding drawn up jointly between CJIP, NPD , Prison Service Drug
Strategy Unit and the National Treatment Agency (NTA);
— set of workshops for practitioners
held;
— Aftercare and Throughcare Taskforce
Group established comprising of all the key players (met on 6
May and 4 July);
— funding allocations for 2003-04 notified
to the 25 DATs;
— CJIP staff participating with NTA
and NPD in the CARATs review.
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