News

Mentally Disordered Offenders (MDO) Teams Update

10th Dec, 2008

Staffordshire Probation Area has probation officers in two multi-agency teams in the north and south, working alongside health and social care colleagues.  These teams provide a valuable resource to courts, field teams, Approved Premises and MAPPA.

Because the teams are not located within probation premises and systems, it is difficult for colleagues and management to get a clear picture of what the teams do, apart from what is gleaned through direct contact or presentations to teams, courts, etc.  Both teams have been working on ways of collating information on their workload, and a short report on this was recently presented to the Senior Management Team.

This reveals that both teams have a high demand.  In the north there were 259 referrals between October 2007 and September 2008, with most coming from probation or courts.  In that period, there were almost 800 contacts with service users, chiefly for assessments, co-working or care co-ordination.  Most of the interventions related to referrals on or care planning, and there are also MAPPP work, meetings and training provision and attendance.  18% of the service users were female,a nd 10% minority ethnic.  Half were aged between 25-40, and two thirds lived in Stoke, most of the rest being North Staffordshire.

Figures from the south are currently less detailed, but show annual referalls in 2006-07 at about 260.  In that time period most of these came from Chase, where the team is based, but the team report an increasing number of referrals from South East Staffs, as the move to a full time Probation Officer has allowed more of a presence.  Much of the work consists of court liaison contacts, mental health screenings and PSRs.  The MDO South team are working on drawing up some case studies which can be used for future training and information to probation teams, sentencer liaison meetings, Judges, LCJBs, Police, etc, which will illustrate the multi-agency dimension which is the strength of the MDO teams.

A good deal of training/awareness raising already takes place in these settings with positive outcomes.  Saul Molloy has also developed a resource/workbook for offender managers and is in the process of rolling this out to teams to assist and support Offender Managers working with offenders who have mental health issues.

For more information on MDO work please contact Saul or Kevin Bettany via staffs.probation@staffordshire.gov.uk.