NAAN News

June 2010

On 15 June the Government announced that the implementation of the Vetting and Barring Scheme would be halted to allow for a full review of the Scheme. However, the new safeguarding regulations introduced in October 2009 will continue to apply. See the ISA website for further details.

ACPO, the Department of Health and the NPIA have just produced Guidance on responding to people with mental ill health or learning disabilities.

March 2010

The Home Office has published the Summary of Responses to the PACE Review.

A Briefing Paper on this has been sent to NAAN members and can be downloaded from the member-only section of the website.

The Government has also  recently published updated guidance and supporting materials on Information Sharing, applicable to both children and vulnerable adults. These can be downloaded from the Every Child Matters website.

The ISA has now published full Guidance on the Vetting and Barring Scheme

February 2010

The Goverment has recently published Healthy Children, Safer Communities, a cross departmental strategy to improve the health and well-being of children and young people at risk of offending and re-offending.

A Briefing Paper on this has been sent to NAAN members.

December 2009

Following  much public discussion, the Government has published revisions to the Vetting and Barring Scheme. This will reduce the number of people who will need to register. 

See the ISA website for further details.

November 2009

The Goverment published:  

Improving Health,Supporting Justice:The National Delivery Plan of the Health and Criminal Justice Programme Board

This plan, developed in response to the Bradley Report, aims to improve the health and well being of offenders, in particular those with mental health problems and learning disabilities.NAAN is in discussion with both the Home Office and the Department of Health about the implications for the delivery of appropriate adult services. 

A Briefing Paper on this has been sent to NAAN members.

September 2009

PACE update

The Home Office was due to publish a summary of responses to the PACE Review Consultation by the end of April, but this has  been postponed several times. The latest deadline of the end of August has now passed and the publication of responses is now due by the end of the autumn. No date is given for the publication of the Government's response to the Consultation, and it seems increasingly unlikely that we will see anything substantive before a General Election.

The PACE Review consultation paper was published on 28 August 2008. NAAN sent its response to the Home Office on 20 November. To download a copy of NAAN's response and to see full details of the Review, see the PACE section at the bottom of this page.

July 2009

Mark Perks started work as NAAN's Development Officer.

June 2009

NAAN has appointed Mark Perks as the new Peripatetic Development Officer. Mark will be starting work in early July and will be supporting members in a variety of ways, concentrating on standards, training and scheme development.

Grev Wallington is the new NAAN Chair.

May 2009

The Bradley Report

Lord Bradley's Review of people with mental health problems or learning disabilities in the criminal justice system was published on 30 April. The Executive Summary can be downloaded here.

Keeping the Right People on the DNA Database  

Following the European Court of Human Right's decision in December 2008, the Home Office issued a consultation on this issue Further details can be found on the Home Office website. The closing date for receipt of responses was 7 August 2009.

March 2009

A delay to the full implementation of the ISA run Vetting and Barring Scheme (VBS)  was announced on 19 March. The Ministerial Statement can be downloaded here. Further details of the Scheme can be found by following the ISA link on the Links page of the website.

December 2008

Lis Pritchard was interviewed about NAAN and the PACE Review for the December edition of the Children's Legal Centre's journal  ChildRIGHT. The interview has been made available by the Children's Legal Centre and can be downloaded here.

November 2008

The Prison Reform Trust published its final report from the No One Knows project. Prisoners' Voices highlights the lack of support and the poor treatment that prisoners with learning disabilities or difficulties receive throughout the criminal justice system.  This final report builds on earlier reports such as the No One Knows report on police responses to suspects with learning difficulties which was discussed at the NAAN Conference earlier this year. 

October 2008

The Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at King's College London has published a highly critical report on the introduction of the Criminal Defence Service (CDS) Direct  and the Defence Solicitor Call Centre (DSCC). The report can be downloaded here: 

CDS Direct: Flying in the face of the evidence

January 2008

The Commission on the Future of Volunteering published its report Manifesto for Change on 28 January 2008. 

2006

Centrex produced Guidance on the Safer Detention and Handling of Persons in Police Custody