College Centre for Quality Improvement

• To improve the quality of the delivery of care in Forensic Mental Health Services

• To create an active forum for communication and sharing of good practice between Forensic Mental Health Services as a means to addressing the current relative isolation of these services

• To provide a national benchmarking service

Forensic mental health services in the UK, currently focusing on Standards for Medium Secure Units, with a view to expansion.

• Service standards: Members invited to a consultation workshop on 1st edition of standards for medium secure units. Services invited to contribute to the development of further standards for forensic services.

• A detailed service evaluation and report: The project team supports each member to complete a self-review and then organise a peer-review visit, where other practitioners visit the service. Data is collected via interviews and a local report written, detailing the extent to which the unit has met the service standards. 

• An organised visit to another service: Staff from member services are invited to review another service as members of a peer-review team. They are supported by a member of the central project team. Staff learn valuable lessons from seeing good practice elsewhere and engage in frank discussion about problems and explore potential solutions. Teams also learn about the standards and their rationale by using them to evaluate a service.

• Report of aggregated findings: Aggregated data from all participating units are summarised in a national report, which will allow members to benchmark their service against others.  The report also provides a helpful list of ‘experts’ to contact for advice on specific issues.

• Network newsletter and E-mail discussion group: The newsletter provides policy news, a project update and papers written by members describing initiatives taking place. The E-mail discussion group is a speedy way to access the experience and knowledge of other members. The list can also be used to advertise events and job vacancies.