The government has published national standards for the provision of social care services in the three special hospitals Ashworth, Broadmoor and Rampton.
The standards follow recommendations in last year's Lewis Report, which reviewed social work in the three hospitals, plus recent Social Services Inspectorate reports into the individual social work services.
The Lewis Report recommended that the social work service within the three hospitals should be reconfigured into a social care service that allows for the employment or secondment of people other than social workers who have specialist skills and knowledge in dealing with mentally disordered offenders.
Such specialists would include probation officers, and those with skills in child protection work, learning difficulties or disabilities, welfare rights and benefits, and rehabilitation.
Standards 1 and 4 stress the development of multi-agency public protection panels (Mapps) to provide agencies with a concern for in-patients with a community forum for assessing and managing risk.
n Social Services Inspectorate, National Standards for the Provision of Social Care Services in the High Security Hospitals from www.doh.gov.uk/scg/highsecurity.htm
LGA issues child protection warning about obese children
Conduct: Jacinta Hofstetter says GSCC has pro-employer bias
Details of government consultations
02 October 2008
Private Member Bills
25 July 2008
Government Legislation
25 July 2008
