Dr Ann Clark Queen Margaret University

 Scoping Speech and Language Therapy provision in Scotland’s Criminal Justice System  Research in HMYOI Polmont

 Most comprehensive survey of SLT provision in CJS to date.  A questionnaire completed by members of the RCSLT Justice SIG (Scotland) and other SLTs providing services in Scotland’s CJS.  Sought retrospective information on SLT activity over 2009/10 and 2010/11.  28 SLTs responded, 24 of whom are actively working in the CJS, representing 8/14 of Scotland’s Health Boards.  Of the 22 /28 SLTs, all but 1 were Band 6 and above, 13 were bands 7 or 8 → SLTs currently engaging with the CJS tend to be in more senior bandings.

LevelTypes of Input Specialist Service: for referred Individuals Programmes developed by the SLT following assessment are delivered directly by the SLT or “indirectly” via other people. Those providing “indirect therapy” are directed and supervised by the SLT. Evidence of effectiveness of the tasks/programme is also monitored and managed by the SLT. Targeted Services: targeting vulnerable, at-risk groups Build the capacity of others to support identification, maintenance, management or development of speech, language and communication and/or eating, drinking and swallowing skills in individuals’ (who are at risk or vulnerable) everyday lives. Universal Services: The level of the wider community Health Promotion / Prevention. Promoting participation. Developing supportive and inclusive communication environments. Enabling timely and appropriate access to “Targeted” level and/or specialist level services. From Communicating Quality 3: RCSLT (2006). Most common type of provision is specialist, followed by targeted and lastly universal → indicating the relative low awareness of the diversity of the SLT role and also where SLTs have managed to “negotiate” CJS involvement so far.

Hours worked (estimate) Hours worked (estimate) Number of clients seen in Number of clients seen Stage 1: Pre- offending Stage 2: Pre- disposal Stage 3: Community Sentences Stage 4: Custodial Sentence Management Stage 5: Community Reintegration TOTAL

 SLTs working at all stages of the CJS pathway – to some extent.  Most input is at “custodial sentence”, i.e. prisons, least input is “upstream” at pre-offending, predisposal and community sentencing stages of the CJS pathway.  Even although SLT value is clearly recognized in prisons, this is not translating into “downstream” community reintegration work aimed at preventing recividism.  The pattern of SLT input reflects the only dedicated (21 hours) SLT service in Scotland’s CJS – at HMYOI Polmont and HMP Cornton Vale.  In most stages of the CJS pathway “hours worked” has increased over just a year.  Interestingly greater hours worked has not translated in to more clients seen.

 The numbers of people “seen”, (i.e. receiving specialist level SLT) is extremely low given the number of people with SLCN we would estimate going through the CJS in Scotland.  Taking HMYOI Polmont as an example which according to Scottish Prison Services currently houses 760 young men, and using the consensus figure of 60% of prisoners having SLCN, this suggests ~ 450 offenders in Polmont are likely to have SLCN.  Of course not all of these people would need or benefit from “specialist” level SLT.  Nonetheless the number of clients “seen” represents a huge unmet need for SLT among those subject to Scotland’s CJS.

 90% of the SLTs (22) said that the service they provided, regardless of the type of service or stage, was done on an ad-hoc basis  10% (2) said CJS input protected within their current post.  Not surprisingly 100% of respondents agreed with the statement ‘do you think there are gaps in the SLT service?’.  Scotland’s CJS is getting most of it’s SLT input “for free” – an increasingly unsustainable position as cuts in our traditional “contracted” areas of service really start to bite hard.

 One SLT said: “Having just started in the prison system it feels like going back 20 years. There is a lack of understanding of our role by many prison officers. Also prisoners are defined by their crime and not assessed according to need. We could provide a much better service if we had more time”.

Extremely valuable for RCSLT campaigning at a national (Scotland) level and for local SLT leaders campaigning for services with their local CJS partners:  Exposed current strengths and weaknesses in speech and language therapy provision in Scotland’s CJS.  Provided useful intelligence to inform bids for local and/or national SLCN pilot projects in Scotland.  Helped to identify where the RCSLT, nationally, and service leaders, locally, might source business cases and case studies.  Identified where in the CJS pathway we need to target awareness-raising campaigns and what our ‘messaging’, re: universal/ targeted and specialist services, should be.  Given us a sense of scale of unmet need as well as defining the baseline from which to assess campaign progress.

 Polmont is Scotland's national holding facility for Young Offenders aged between years of age.  Sentences range from 6 months to life. The most common sentence length is years.  The contracted numbers are 760, with a maximum space for 830, making Polmont arguably the biggest YOI in Britain.  Research has consistently shown that around 60% of young people in contact with youth justice services have Speech, Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) ( Gregory & Bryan, 2011; Bryan, Freer & Furlong, 2007 ) = approx 450 young men with SLCN in Polmont  NB very few receive SLT provision

 Long history of interest in SLCN  2 days a week SLT service (14 hours)  HMYOI Polmont has already been the focus of a number of studies examining the communication skills of this population.  Developed self-report screening tool for all offenders detained for more than 3 months (Polmont Interview Schedule) - one of the first measures was developed to identify need in a systematic fashion (Hamilton, 1999, 2002).  Ideally suited for further research

 Myself, Karen Bryan, James Law and James Boyle are preparing a grant application to look at levels of SLCN and violence in Polmont.  In collaboration with Kate Donegan, Governor.

 Research shows 60% of young offenders have speech, language and communication needs.  SLTs currently provide in all parts of the CJS – to some extent  Although SLT hours are slowly increasing, there is a large unmet need for these young people.  The vast majority of SLT input is not a recognised or protected part of our SLTs’ jobs.  Need for more research to establish the impact of SLCN on young offenders’ ability to negotiate the CJS and reintegrate into the community.