Issue details

The GM Collaborative Commissioning project is working to understand and improve health support for children and young people in touch with the criminal justice system.

This programme forms part of GM’s Health and Justice Strategy, and is funded by NHS England.

The scope has been determined by local knowledge about the high correlation between children and young people in the criminal justice system, and their complex (often unmet) mental health and communcaition needs. This high level of correlation was highlighted by Professor Eddie Kane’s research for the GM Health and Justice Strategic Review in 2018.

As a result, and as part of the overall project, we are piloting the provision of additional speech and language capacity within youth justice services, recognising the high levels of young people who the services work with, with communication, speech and language needs. Year One of the pilot in 2019/2020 showed the value of additional SALT capacity, and flagged up some more detailed themes which we are continuing to explore in further years.