Enhanced Reconnect evaluation

Title: Enhanced Reconnect evaluation

Funded by: NIHR

Funding amount: £399,801

Location: UK

Dates: 1 April 2024 – 30 September 2025

Project partners: Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust, McPin Foundation, University of Cambridge, Northumbria University, University of Exeter, Centre for Mental Health, University of Huddersfield, University of Oxford

University of Plymouth PI:

Professor Richard Byng

University of Plymouth staff: Dr Evdoxia Chatzimladi , Laura Gill , Molly Webb

Summary

The challenge of providing support and bringing together the criminal justice and health and social care systems is enormous. Ongoing care from mental health services is limited and, despite improvements, 65% of individuals do not link back into community substance misuse services. Discontinuities of care are challenging, particularly for the 56% of people released without settled accommodation. Prison, and the time of release, provides opportunities for preventing problems and linking people back to services after release.

The Reconnect programme helps vulnerable prison-leavers link into services. An Enhanced Reconnect (ER) service is being tested for more complex people who may have an increased risk of harm to themselves or others. The project is carrying out five small studies and then, in a sixth study, it will look at all the results together. It is conducting familiarisation work to understand who is delivering the service and how people think it should be having its effect.

This pilot study involves conducting an evaluation to help understand what support vulnerable prison-leavers need to help them connect with services.

We are conducting interviews and virtual workshops with clinicians delivering the services, as well as the people involved in the planning of ER. Observation and qualitative interviews are being done to understand how the ER team members work together and with other services. Examination of ER records will look at how ER services are helping people and linking them into other services. The team is also working with ER sites to see how they can collect a minimum dataset to monitor longer term programme outcomes. It will also create case studies describing in detail how individuals are supported and respond to ER services.

Objectives

The evaluation will inform the potential for a national roll-out of the ER programme by determining if it works, who it works for, in what circumstances, how, and why.

This study addresses three main objectives:

Understand the value and impact of the ER service in achieving intended outcomes across sites.

Explore individual and organisational-level barriers and facilitators of ER delivery and implementation (service configuration and partnership arrangements across sites).

Identify infrastructural supports needed for successful ER implementation and delivery (support, policy, finance, training, supervision, standard operation procedures, equipment).

The Enhanced Reconnect service

Reconnect is a care after custody service that seeks to improve the continuity of care of people leaving prison or an immigration removal centre (IRC) with an identified health need. Reconnect services aim to improve the wellbeing of people leaving prison or an IRC, reduce inequalities and address health-related drivers of offending behaviours.

The ER service builds upon the Reconnect programme as an enhanced pathway of care. ER is the NHS England and NHS Improvement response to the management of high-complexity and high-risk offenders. The ER service works in collaboration with partners, including those from across government to support individuals that have been identified as high risk to the public and have complex health needs that may impact their risk of reoffending.

Community and Primary Care Research Group (CPCRG)

The CPCRG is intensively research active and has a strong proven track record of health services research.

Our research is often directed towards those individuals who are the most excluded or disempowered, have mental health problems and have difficulty accessing services.