Outcome evaluation of offender Liaison and Diversion trial schemes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Liaison and Diversion Trial Schemes in England: an evaluation of impact on reconviction, health service utilisation and diversion from the criminal justice system
IRAS ID
212737
Contact name
Emma Disley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
RAND Europe
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
212737, IRAS Project ID
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 8 months, 31 days
Research summary
Liaison and Diversion (L&D) services aim to identify people experiencing mental health problems and learning disabilities (among other vulnerabilities) as they pass through the criminal justice system (CJS) to ensure their health and other needs are known about and that they are referred to services to address their needs. NHS England recently launched a National Model for L&D services to ensure consistent provision across the country. The National Model was launched in 10 sites in 2014 and rolled out in 12 further sites in 2015. Additional expansion of some original sites made a total of 25 L&D sites in 2015 (across 32 NHS Trusts). The research team conducting this study previously evaluated the implementation of the National Model in the wave 1 sites.
The extended evaluation will aim to assess whether the National Model for L&D has any impact on conviction rates, diversion from the criminal justice system or the use of health services, particularly, A&E, drug treatment, mental health treatment and outpatient services. The research will run from September 2016 to May 2019.
For service users in all sites, the study will compare reconviction rates, diversion outcomes and use of healthcare services for 12 months before and 12 months after implementation of the L&D service. For wave 1 sites only, the researchers will compare service users’ outcomes to those of a similar group of people who have not received the National Model L&D service.
The researchers will supplement these quantitative comparative data with telephone interviews with staff in the 25 sites. In addition they will conduct an economic evaluation to estimate the short and longer term costs and outcomes of L&D services compared with no L&D services from the perspectives of the NHS, CJS and society in order to determine where there is a net benefit from the service.
REC name
East of England - Essex Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EE/0420
Date of REC Opinion
31 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion