Launch of the North London Forensic Consortium

A new partnership between the five NHS providers of secure mental health services in north London aims to provide the best possible care to patients and, wherever possible, to provide care close to home so that patients can maintain links with their families and friends.

The North London Forensic Consortium, which is led by Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust, is the largest of a number of new provider collaboratives across England which will be launched on 1 October.

Jinjer Kandola, CEO of Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust said:

“We are very proud to be leading the North London Forensic Consortium (NLFC) provider collaborative which is taking on commissioning responsibilities for adult secure mental health patients across north London.

“The consortium intends to build on our achievements as a New Care Model pilot, which included a reduction of 40 independent sector placements, releasing significant new investment into local NHS frontline clinical services.

“The aim of the NLFC is to ensure that patients in north London can access our outstanding range of services, enabling them to remain closer to their friends, family and carers – which is proven to have a significant positive impact on patients’ wellbeing.” 

The Consortium is made up of:

• Barnet, Enfield and Haringey Mental Health NHS Trust – lead provider
• West London NHS Trust
• East London NHS Foundation Trust
• Central North West London NHS Foundation Trust
• North East London NHS Foundation Trust

During its pilot phase, the partnership succeeded in meeting the aspirations of the NHS Five Year Forward View for Mental Health and the NHS Long Term Plan for fewer external placements, reduced length of stay, investment in new community services, and providing care closer to home.

Case Study

Mr S has been in various adult secure units since 2003 including Rampton and Broadmoor and has been in continuous adult secure inpatient care for the last 8 years. 

The NLFC clinical reviewer began engaging with Mr S in April 2018, attending CPA’s, consulting with Mr S and producing a new pathway formulation. Initially, a plan was made to repatriate Mr S back to BEH Specialist Services and he was accepted for a low secure admission. However, given the progress in his recovery the NLFC clinical reviewer liaised with BEH Specialist Services and together explored his suitability for an accelerated discharge direct into the community.

Mr S was assessed by the BEH Community Choices Partnership (CCP), an NLFC commissioned provision, who agreed to a community discharge. The clinical reviewer engaged Mr S’s locality Community Mental Health Team to source suitable forensic accommodation, and completed assessments/funding panels for this process. CCP engaged with Mr S while he was an inpatient and built up a good working relationship and following a trial period of overnight leaves was conditionally discharged via a mental health tribunal to his own accommodation with aftercare in place to support him.

Watch the video explaining the changes to how Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism services will be delivered

Watch the video explaining the changes to how Mental Health, Learning Disability and Autism services will be delivered (easy read version)