Learning disability nursing in the criminal justice system: achieving justice for all – understanding need and enabling change for young people in the youth offending team and resolution and understanding for victims

Abstract

Purpose – The learning disability nursing role in the multi-professional Youth Offending Team (YOT) enables the recognition, acknowledgement and understanding of the needs of people entering the Criminal Justice System (CJS) and provides a platform to ensure appropriate identification, assessment, planning and delivery of care ensuring successful completion of the Order and subsequent recidivism and reduction in reoffending. The purpose of this paper is to share the experience of working with young people who have committed a crime and are found to have unmet or undiagnosed additional needs. Design/methodology/approach – This paper seeks to consider how learning disability nursing skills compliment the range of expertise in the multi-professional YOT and discusses the case of a young woman and her experience of the CJS from pre-sentence to completion of the Order. Findings – Working together enables effective care delivery to ensure the needs of the person are recognised, understood and acted upon and achieves a balance between welfare for the person and justice and understanding for the victim. Originality/value – This paper’s value is to demonstrate that recognition of need enables the appropriate intervention and delivery of care. Through working together a reduction in young people returning into the CJS as well as building skills and understanding in staff working with young people with additional needs can be achieved.