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Community Services - Bracton Centre
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The Forensic Community Service is available to patients discharged from secure services and covers the boroughs of Bromley, Bexley and Greenwich.
It is primarily for patients who require a specialist forensic package of aftercare and are usually subject to monitoring by the Ministry of Justice following a conditional discharge under the Mental Health Act.
The level of service involvement is determined by a combination of a service user’s current mental health, historical factors, the nature of offending behaviour and the degree of risk posed, as well as the specific criteria of the local service.
Our service performs the following functions:
- Coordinating care and socially supervising mentally disordered offenders in the least restrictive setting.
- Overseeing, monitoring and coordinating the discharge of mentally disordered offenders from secure forensic inpatient settings.
- Ensuring the safe and sustainable transition of service users to the community from secure care.
- Caring for and supporting patients who require specialist interventions to address mental health and criminogenic needs, and to reduce the risk of relapse and reoffending.
- Providing consultation and training to local mental health teams and external agencies.
- Safely managing the transition from forensic outreach services to general adult community services.
- Providing specialist advice and support to forensic hostels and supported accommodation.
- Reception phone number: 01322 294300
- Service hours: Available 24-hours
Our aims
We aim to provide assessment, treatment, rehabilitation and aftercare to service users with a mental disorder and associated offending and risk behaviours.
A robust risk management plan is delivered within the framework of the CPA. The overall aim is to integrate patients successfully back into local services when the risks are considered to be manageable.
The two main pathways are an enhanced support model (Specialist Community Support Plus) and a standard model (Forensic Outreach).
The pathways aim to:
- Provide a recovery-focused approach
- Safely transition patients from secure care
- Promote recovery, social inclusion and effective risk management.
- Move people on to more local services in a safe and supportive manner when ready
Our team
Forensic Community Services are a multidisciplinary team. This means we are a group of professionals who specialise in different areas of medicine but work together to make decisions about how to care for patients.
How to access this service
To access this service, you must:
- Have been discharged from either medium or low-secure mental health services
- Be aged 18 or above
- Present with a severe mental disorder or personality disorder
- Have a history of serious violence or risk of severe violence, arising from a mental disorder
- Require multi-agency management (e.g. MAPPA, Probation, MARAC, MoJ)
- Be subject to MoJ restrictions and Conditionally Discharged or under the framework of the Mental Health Act
- Require specialist forensic placement
The following types of violent incidents are likely to meet the criteria for Forensic Community Service involvement:
- Homicide
- Attempted homicide
- Grievous Bodily Harm (GBH)
- Wounding with intent
- Fire-setting with intent to endanger lives
- Rape, attempted rape or indecent assault
- Other serious offences
Referrals
We do not accept referrals for people with any of the following diagnoses:
- Learning disability
- Substance misuse
- Neurodevelopmental disorders
- Where psychological disorders are secondary to physical health illness
- Acquired brain injury
With some individuals admitted to secure services who have a learning disability or Autism Spectrum Disorder but no associated mental disorder, referrals should be made directly to the Community Forensic LD/ASD Team via slm-tr.slpforensicreferrals@nhs.net.
We do not normally work with service users committing less serious offences, such as Actual Bodily Harm, fire-setting without intent, minor sexual offending, acquisitive offences or offences against property.
However, we do so in circumstances where the above offences suggest an escalation of risk associated with a mental disorder.
How to contact this service
Email: oxl-tr.forensicoutreachservice@nhs.net
Referral email: slm-tr.slpforensicreferrals@nhs.net
Public phone number: 01322 294300
Available 24-hours
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