Source · Select Committees · Justice Committee
Recommendation 22
22
Accepted in Part
Paragraph: 80
Publish monthly data on prisoners awaiting mental health inpatient transfers, including waiting times.
Recommendation
HMPPS and the NHS should gather and publish monthly information for every establishment (without naming establishments to protect patient confidentiality) on the number of prisoners awaiting transfers to inpatient care for mental illness and for how long they have been waiting.
Government Response Summary
The government states they already gather and monitor monthly data on transfers, using it to address delays, but explicitly rejects publishing this data publicly due to patient confidentiality concerns.
Paragraph Reference:
80
Government Response
Accepted in Part
HM Government
Accepted in Part
In June 2021 NHS England and NHS Improvement published Transfer and Remission Guidance setting out a 28-day timeframe for transfers from prison to hospital and in April 2021 developed a data input portal. This enables providers of mental health services in prisons to submit transfer and remission data which is analysed against the relevant timeframes. This analysis enables NHS England and NHS Improvement to identify, understand and address any delays in transfers and remissions, and any areas where improvement is needed. Monitoring of the monthly data is ongoing and if timeframes are breached, targeted work will be carried out with local and regional teams and NHS funded providers. This data is not published as it is not possible to do so without potentially identifying individual patients/prisoners due to the small numbers in each establishment. Access to relevant data is available to commissioners and providers. The Mental Health Casework Section (MHCS) in HMPPS has a small but significant part to play in the transfer and remission process of restricted patients. MHCS works to published timeliness targets for all its key decisions including prison transfers, as set out in their performance framework14 and similarly reports to stakeholders quarterly on performance against these timeliness targets.