Young offenders in transition from child to adult services
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Transition of care in young offenders with ongoing mental health problems across England
IRAS ID
192731
Contact name
Swaran Singh
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 5 months, 1 days
Research summary
Young offenders with ongoing mental health problems compose a large proportion of the youth justice system. Approximately 25% to 81% of young people within criminal justice agencies present with psychiatric mental health problems.A number of young offenders with mental disorders experience several transitions across agencies in the criminal justice system and mental health services that add great amounts of stress into their lives. Little knowledge exists about transitions from forensic child to adult services for young offenders between 16 and 20 years. Yet previous research (TRACK,2010) on transitions from general child mental health services to adult services has emphasised that the transition process is poorly planned and executed due to lack of coordination among agencies, discontinuity of care alongside young peoples’ disengagement from services, long waiting lists, and rigid referral criteria set from adult services. This study aims to track young offenders between 16 and 20 years within 7 medium secure units for adolescents in London, Kent, Manchester,Southampton, Northampton, Birmingham and Newcastle who are about to reach the transition age boundary and to cross forensic adult services. We are going to follow this group’s transition care pathway for 6 months in order to explore their personal experiences on transition with face-to-face interviews. Specifically, young offenders who were inpatients in adolescent forensic mental health units who reached the transition age will be identified with case note surveys.Then, they will be interviewed to reflect on their transition experiences. In-depth interviews will be conducted with health-care providers and young offenders’ families too. The results from this study will help to recognise the barriers and facilitators to smooth and effective transition and then, to identify what needs to be changed and improved to better deliver mental health services to young offenders.The findings will also help to design effective coordination among agencies facilitating the transition process.
REC name
West Midlands - South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/WM/0446
Date of REC Opinion
22 Jan 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion