Working in partnership: making it happen for high risk personality disordered offenders

Pages171-179
Published date10 August 2015
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JFP-03-2015-0023
Date10 August 2015
AuthorCaroline Logan,Jo Ramsden
Subject MatterHealth & social care,Criminology & forensic psychology,Forensic practice
Invited paper
Working in partnership: making it happen
for high risk personality disordered
offenders
Caroline Logan and Jo Ramsden
Dr Caroline Logan is Lead
Consultant Forensic Clinical
Psychologist at the Greater
Manchester West Mental
Health NHS Foundation
Trust, Manchester, UK
and University of Manchester,
Manchester, UK.
Dr Jo Ramsden is Consultant
Clinical Psychologist at the
Leeds and York Partnership
NHS Foundation Trust, UK.
Abstract
Purpose The implementation of the Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) strategy requires partnership
between NHS providers and custodial and community-based practitioners in the National Offender
Management Service (NOMS). What this partnership looks like is dependent on the nature and resources of
involved services. However, what it is meant to achieve reduced reoffending, a more knowledgeable
workforce, and a more engaged client group is clearer. It is fundamental to the OPD strategy that these
outcomes are delivered through partnership so as to minimise harmful transitions between services, and to
effectively share the expertise required for the holistic case management of personality disordered (PD)
offenders. The paper aims to discuss these issues.
Design/methodology/approach The implementation of the OPD strategy is ongoing, and data will be
forthcoming in due course that will allow for the empirical test of the hypothesis that working together is better
than working separately. However, with the emphasis on public protection and workforce development,
some of the crucial partnership issues may remain less well understood or explored. This paper overviews the
services in which the authors are involved, describing their initiation and operation.
Findings The paper articulates how NHS/NOMS partnerships have been developed and experienced.
Practical implications The paper concludes with a discussion of a number of principles for partnership
work in relation to the OPD strategy.
Originality/value This paper is intended to assist developing services to make the most of collaborative
working across the PD pathway in England and Wales.
Keywords Collaboration, Personality disorder, Probation, Partnership working, High-risk offenders,
OPD strategy
Paper type Case study
The Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) strategy has been in existence in England and Wales
since 2011 (Joseph and Benefield, 2012). The strategy is jointly funded by the National Offender
Management Service (NOMS) and NHS England (NHSE). It is a government initiative to improve
the provision of treatment and other psychologically informed interventions to male and female
offenders who present in a way that is consistent with a personality disorder (PD) diagnosis
and for whom there is a belief that this presentation is directly linked to their risk of harm and
recidivism (e.g. Howard and McMurran, 2012). Efforts have been made to address the needs of
this group previously (e.g. the Dangerous and Severe Personality Disorder Programme; Atkinson
and Tew, 2012; Duggan, 2011; Tyrer et al., 2010). However, a new and national approach was
thought necessary not only to reach a much larger number of offenders across the entire
offender rehabilitation pathway but to do so in demonstrably effective ways in terms of reducing
recidivism, improving the wellbeing of offenders, and creating a workforce more skilled and
confident in working with PD service users. Several years on, the OPD strategy is now being
operationalised through multiple partnerships between NOMS and NHS providers in a great
Received 20 March 2015
Revised 16 April 2015
Accepted 16 April 2015
DOI 10.1108/JFP-03-2015-0023 VOL. 17 NO. 3 2015, pp. 171-179, © Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2050-8794
j
JOURNAL OF FORENSIC PRACTICE
j
PAG E 17 1

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