Coronavirus (COVID-19)

This page is about the impact of Covid-19 and the responses of NAAN and its members. If you are looking for practical guidance on Covid-19, please visit these pages instead:

Guidance for AA scheme coordinators (requires organisational membership and login)
Appropriate adults: iKAAN (you can register for free if your scheme organisational membership)
Information for police
Information for family members

The impact of Covid-19

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had a huge impact on everyone – and this certainly includes children and vulnerable adult suspects, and the work of appropriate adults.

Demand for AAs

Demand for AA services in most areas reduced significantly in the early stage of the pandemic, especially for children. This reflects national police guidance around the necessity of arrests and detention and a general downturn in crime. However, some members report that in their areas did not seen meaningful reductions. As the pandemic continued, custody only saw a small overall drop in numbers, with volumes quickly returning to normal.

Availability of AAs

Many schemes suffered dramatic reductions in the availability of their AAs. Volunteers make up a huge percentage of the AA workforce. Many of these people are older and a more likely to have underlying health conditions. As a result, many have had to self-isolate or shield. In response, some YOTs (who are under a statutory duty to ensure provision for children) have turned to their staff to maintain a service. Provision for adults, as always, more difficult due to the lack of statutory provision. However, AA schemes remained operational throughout the pandemic. This is due to the dedication of coordinators, staff and the many volunteers that continue to attend despite the risks to them and their families.

Physical attendance by AAs

AA schemes across the country continued to attend custody to support children and vulnerable adults. This was ultimately a local decision for every area. But NAAN's early guidance was that appropriate adults should continue to attend custody, subject to three requirements:

Detentions/procedures are necessary (cannot be delayed or avoided)
Appropriate PPE is provided to AAs by police whenever it is needed
The custody environment is being run in a safe manner

If any of the three requirements are not met, the AA should decline to attend or remove themselves from custody. Our rationale for this position is as follows:

Our analysis of the PACE Codes makes it clear that core detention and interview related procedures cannot take place without an AA present and remain compliant with PACE
Given the nature of the children and vulnerable adults being supported, and the requirements of the AA role, physical presence is critical to achieving the outcomes of the role
Between March 2020 and May 2021, when legal advice and interview support was commonly being provided remotely, the physical presence of the AA is even more important in safeguarding rights and interests.
The police have a legal duty to take reasonable measures to ensure, so far is as reasonably practicable, that custody suites are safe and without risks to the health of AAs.
The three requirements reflect national guidance to police forces by the NPCC
AA schemes have a legal duty to adopt policies which protect their AAs where police have not taken reasonable measures

While there were some early issues, it appears that in most areas the three requirements are now typically being met. We have continued to monitor the situation and provide local support.

Changes in provision of legal advice

A joint interim protocol on interviews was agreed in March 2020 by the CPS, NPCC, Law Society, CLSA, and LCCSA. This supported the delivery of remote legal advice and interview support by legal representatives.

Issue arising from the protocol and its implementation became a major focus of NAAN's work. Click here to read more about the issues, our activies and the outcomes of this work.

Virtual remand hearings

The use of virtual remand hearings (where people remain at the police station and are dealt with via video link, rather than attending court) is expanding.

The process was used with children and vulnerable adults. This raised questions about risks to fairness and effective participation.

AAs do not have a role in virtual courts. At this point the person has ceased to be a suspect held under PACE and has become a defendant. However, a number of NAAN members reported being asked by police to provide support to children and vulnerable adults.

This role is outside that of an AA and has not been defined. If attending physical court, a child would have the support of a YOT court support officer, as well as access to other services. The question of support for vulnerable adults remains open.

NAAN raised the issue with the Ministry of Justice.

Responses to Covid-19

The National Appropriate Adult Network set aside it’s work plans to focus on a response. This includes three interlinked areas of activity:

Listening

While we were unable to run our normal professional development days, we have continuined to engage with our members via:

Online national members' meetings
Online surveys
Member advice service by phone and email.

Guidance

We developed a detailed coronavirus section in our guidance for AA scheme coordinators. This includes information on:

Working with stakeholders
Managing demand
Managing availability of AAs
Health and safety
Physical presence vs remote support

This platform has also allowed us to share with our members the following coronavirus guidance produced by other organisations, such as the Joint interim protocol on interviews and the charging protocol.

We have also been providing regular e-updates direct to our member schemes via email (a total of 15 in the month from 17th March) .

Representing

Coronavirus has shown us all how interlinked we are. It is now clear how critical each part of the justice system is to each other and the whole.

Since the pandemic began, we have been extremely glad of the network of contacts we’ve built up over the last few years. In fact, this network has developed even further. This has made NAAN well placed to ensure that AA work, and the children and vulnerable adults they support, are included in national responses.

Our representation work has included:

Weekly engagement with organisations critical to police custody, via a Home Office chaired operational partners group
Providing advice to the Crown Prosecution Service on amendments to the joint interview protocol, ensuring the needs for children and vulnerable adults to have an AA physically present are recognised
Direct engagement with other organisations including various police forces, Youth Justice Board, Association of YOT Managers, Youth Justice Legal Centre and the Standing Committee on Youth Justice.