Recommendation 64

HM Government · verbatim extract Deferred

The Government welcomes the Committee’s recognition of the work we have supported through funding of Violence Reduction Units and trauma-informed practice (TIP). However, we would like to clarify some of the findings in the report. The Committee’s report implies that £17m was invested in TIP for frontline professionals, however this was only one of three types of interventions eligible for investment through the Early Intervention Fund and accounted for £2.6m. In 2021/22 the Home Office invested £17m into early intervention and prevention programmes, delivered via Violence Reduction Units (VRUs) to support young people at high risk of involvement in serious violence. Of this, £2.6m went to seven VRUs to deliver trauma informed training to frontline workforces who support children, and young people at risk of involvement in serious violence. These projects trained over 14,000 frontline professionals from different sectors. Many VRUs continue to deliver TIP programmes, both directly to police as well as other frontline professionals. The Home Office also commissioned the Early Intervention Foundation (EIF – now ‘Foundations’) in 21/22 to carry out research into the TIP models VRUs implemented as there is currently limited research and evaluation of TIP.22 To help bridge this gap, the Home Office is also co-funding the Youth Endowment Fund’s (YEF) current TIP grant round. The aim of this grant is to find, fund and evaluate trauma informed practice programmes or approaches in England and Wales delivered in youth justice, education, and children’s social care services.23 While we recognise TIP is seen as a promising, innovative and increasingly popular approach, there is also limited robust evidence of its impact and a broad diversity of approaches in relation to its implementation. Therefore further pilots, research and evaluation should be carried out in order to better understand effectiveness and implementation before it is scaled up significantly. In regard to the Committee’s recommendation that the Home Office works with stakeholders to establish training and guidance on trauma-informed policing, the Home Office has shared insights and lessons learned from the delivery of its trauma-informed work with the College of Policing. The College of Policing is the professional body for policing in England and Wales. It was established in 2012 and it sets standards, provides training and shares good practice to reduce crime and keep people safe. The College provides quality assurance for all accredited training programmes delivered in forces which includes the initial entry training for all police officers. The College also regularly reviews the policing curriculum to ensure that it remains fit for purpose. More widely, the College has secured £1.8m from the Cabinet Office Evaluation Accelerator Fund to evaluate the implementation, impact and cost- effectiveness of police- led drug diversion. Uniquely, the research looks at both crime and health outcomes. It aims to assess whether police drug diversion reduces reoffending and unplanned hospital admissions, and increases entry into drug treatment and, if it does have these benefits, how and why diversion produces them. The work is being carried out by a partnership led by the University of Kent, and involves the Department of Health and Social Care, the National Police Chiefs’ Council and several police forces. The project is funded until March 2025. Whilst training standards and the national policing curriculum are set by the College of Policing, forces also provide local training and development at several different levels ranging from initial entry, leadership and ongoing development to reflect and reinforce organisational values. Local training is the responsibility of individual chief officers, according to policing needs and priorities. Decisions about local police training are a matter for Chief Constables and Police and Crime Commissioners, who are best placed to make decisions based on their knowledge of the local area. 22 https://www.eif.org.uk/report/understanding-the-potential-of-trauma-informed-training-in- violence- reduction-units 23 https://youthendowmentfund.org.uk/grants/trauma-informed-care/ Cannabis We support cannabis-based products for medicinal use (CBPMs) where there is an evidence base that it can be an effective form of treatment for managing conditions or symptoms. We welcome the ACMD conducting a further assessment of CBPMs following on from its 2020 report. However, we are concerned that there is currently a lack of access on the NHS for patients with a genuine medical need. Access continues to be a problem despite the high-profile cases of Billy Caldwell and Alfie Dingley—two children with severe and rare forms of epilepsy who have received medical cannabis to treat their conditions.