The 12th Health & Justice Summit

The focus of this year’s Summit is ‘Healthy Humane Justice’.

Over the 2 days, we will explore the essential components of a holistic approach to improving health and equitable access to care for people in contact with the justice system.

We will examine current barriers and enablers of quality healthcare access within prisons and community-based justice and look at the evidence for upstream early intervention, targeted public health, and good modern primary care, including the evidence for adopting an inclusion health approach where there is multiple disadvantage and intersectionality.

We will unpick what works in effective drug and alcohol treatment and recovery, and evidence-based best practice for mental health care. We will also explore the evidence for personalised care, gender-specific approaches, and reasonable adjustments in the justice system, and look at how relational trauma-informed practice, kindness, hope and compassion together with addressing wider determinants of health are key building blocks of good health and wellbeing for both staff and patients.

We will examine learning from international systems and give a platform to the latest research aligned with the theme and key topics of the conference – which are:

• Patient participation
• Equitable access
• When things go wrong
• Developing and supporting the workforce
• Growing the next generation
• International justice
• Emerging issues and areas of change within the justice landscape
• Research snapshots

See the ‘Key Topics’ section below for more detail on these.

 

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Key Topics

 

Patient participation

Patient perspectives, co-production in research and service design, and peer-led roles as enablers to improve healthy prison communities and health and care delivery in prisons and community justice settings.

 

Equitable access

How can we address digital disparity and widening inequity of access to patient care and information in prisons? Will prison security support AI and other IT solutions for greater connectivity and continuity of care? Can equivalent access to targeted screening, diagnostics services, and new medicines be achieved? Would better coding by clinicians improve clinical outcomes? Is there evidence for standardised introduction of prescribing software to improve cost-effectiveness, evidence-based prescribing and medicines safety? How can we improve the safety, access and quality of care in the Remand setting? What is the evidence for impact on quality of care and safety of remote consultations? How can we reduce preventable ‘hurry’ in prisons to improve patient safety and staff experience? Can we better match numbers and flow through the justice system with health needs? What does good look like for personalised care, gender-specific approaches, and reasonable adjustments for people with neurodiversity? How can we better identify and meet the needs of people with acquired brain injury in contact with the justice system? Can people grow old healthy in prison? Do we recognise cultural differences in healthcare presentations? How can clinical and non-clinical teams work most effectively for the enablement of patient care? Can we build agility into health needs assessments and commissioning to meet the demands of changing populations in the custodial setting? What are the health risks of current mainstream models of care for patients in the community-based justice system?

Can we afford equitable access to better treatment offers for drug and alcohol dependence? Should prisons be included in local public health partnerships to support inclusive recovery communities and cities?

 

When things go wrong

Recognising and responding to ill-treatment, ethical issues of segregated prisoners, Freedom to speak up – what are the main reasons that this doesn’t happen? Safety incidents, deaths in custody, Coroners’ Inquests and Prevention of Future Death Reports. Is PSIRF effective at improving care and reducing recurrence of patient safety incidents in an overburdened prison system? Can there be a re-think to the current adversarial approach to Coroner’s Inquests? Are there lessons from other industries and countries that we can apply to improve the impact of PFD and other investigation reports? Who is accountable when healthcare quality suffers as a result of an overstretched prison and probation system, inequity of electronic healthcare information system, or staffing that is unmatched to demand as a result of outdated health needs assessments?

 

Developing and supporting the workforce

Can we build a diverse inclusive workforce, optimising skill mix and creating career opportunities for all professionals in the healthcare team? Is there breadth of expertise and experience still valued within the multi-disciplinary team? Is there a case for cross-organisational posts and portfolio careers to support staff development and retention? How can we support teams to improve and foster civility, kindness, curiosity and compassion? Can professional values be maintained in high-risk low quality environments or do staff become like their environments? Is there corporate responsibility for staff stress and burnout in secure environments rated as inadequate? What are the most cost-effective evidence-based interventions to protect against staff sickness and address burnout, compassion fatigue, moral injury, and the problem of staff retention? Should there be formal clinical supervision for all healthcare professionals working in secure settings? Are we misusing the term 'resilience' to compensate for poor working environments? Can remand prisons provide a psychologically safe environment? How can we be assured of high-quality induction and individual needs-led clinical supervision of new health care professionals working in prison - do we have effective and appropriate preceptorship arrangements in place?

 

Growing the next generation

How can we incorporate health in justice into medical and nurse education? How can we overcome risk-related barriers and negative perceptions to develop a more consistent approach to supporting nursing students in prisons? Is there a case for developing inclusion health specialist generalists in primary care? Is there a case for cross-organisational posts and portfolio careers to support staff development and retention? Can we develop joint academic/clinical posts in justice health care?

 

International justice

What can we learn from international justice systems about healthy humane justice? Torture and ill-treatment: do we do any better in the UK? Prisoners of conscience and international arrest warrants. How should the UK respond to international incarceration issues?

 

Emerging issues and areas of change within the justice landscape

How will the demographics change within the justice system after the sentencing review and with the progressing work of the Women’s Justice Board?

 

Research snapshots

Pre-recorded short presentations summarising research projects aligned with the theme and key topics of the conference.