The NHS Lothian Serious Offender Liaison Service (SOLS) is based at the Orchard clinic and takes referrals from anywhere within the NHS Lothian area. The team provides clinical consultation, assessment and management advice to help criminal justice agencies manage complex and/or high risk violent and sexual offenders in the community. The aim is to provide clinical support to multi-agency partners. The service will take referrals from out with Lothian and Borders, but as with any out of area forensic referral, there is a charge for those assessments.
The primary remit of the service is to provide clinical input for violent and sex offenders who have personality disorders and/or sexual deviations managed by criminal justice social work or the police. We also take referrals from other agencies. We provide consultation, assessment and management advice. We do not provide psychological treatment or case management. We aim to reduce risk and improve risk management through helping frontline staff to implement psychologically informed interventions and management strategies. The service is staffed by a Consultant Forensic Psychiatrist, a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, and a Consultant Forensic Clinical Psychologist.
What will happen after a referral is made?
Within 1 or 2 months we will arrange a detailed case discussion meeting. The referrer and other professionals involved will be invited to meet with us for 1 to 2 hours. We will provide consultation and advice on understanding offending behaviour, clinical issues, risk assessment and risk management. At this meeting a decision will be made as to whether a full clinical assessment is required or not. The detailed case discussion meetings will usually be arranged at the Orchard Clinic, but in some cases these discussions may take place elsewhere, for example during our regular meetings with criminal justice social work and police teams. After the case discussion meeting we will produce a report, unless we are going to undertake a full assessment.
Will legal reports be undertaken?
We can produce psychological and/or psychiatric reports, for example in relation that could be used in applications for Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), criminal proceedings and child protection proceedings. But, as with any other legal reports prepared by the forensic mental health service, there will be a fee charged for such work. We cannot prioritise cases based on short legal timescales, as our primary remit is to help criminal justice agencies to manage concerning high risk offenders in the community.
The service focus is on violent and sexual offenders with personality disorders and/or sexual deviations. We realise it is difficult for professionals from a non-clinical background to apply such labels, so if a case is unusual, complex, concerning or high risk, we encourage an initial discussion with us.
We will consider individuals where there appears to be a risk of serious physical and/or psychological harm to others through sexual abuse, non-sexual violence, stalking, domestic violence or fire-raising. We envisage that in most cases individuals will have convictions for these offences, but we will provide input if individuals have not been convicted where there are concerns about such risks.
If a case is already involved with a specialist criminal justice service (such as the Community Intervention Service for Sex Offenders (CISSO) or the Caledonian Team), then those services must be consulted before a referral to SOLS. If a case is already in contact with mental health services, then the clinician(s) already involved should be consulted before making a referral.
Who to refer
- Those who appear to be a risk of serious physical and/or psychological harm to others through sexual abuse, non-sexual violence, stalking, domestic violence or fire-raising.
- If any NHS service (including mental health ones) have concerns about a case they are managing in relation to violence or sexual risk management issues, we will accept referrals from those services for case consultation to facilitate multi agency discussions on risk management.
Who not to refer
- Offenders needing assessment or treatment for mental illnesses and learning disabilities, as they are managed by mainstream mental health services (anyone referred for this will be redirected to the relevant service i.e. The Orchard Clinic / Forensic Learning Disability Service).
How to refer
Any potential referral should be discussed with SOLS staff first. This could be at a MAPPA meeting, at another multi-agency meeting, over the telephone, or by email. If the referral seems appropriate, then SOLS will ask for a written referral via email or through the post (see details below). We do not need long detailed referral letters, but it is useful to get copies of relevant documents (e.g. sentencing reports, reports on offences, risk assessments). The service does not want to create a lot of work for referrers, so is just looking for documents which are readily available.
Contact details:
SOLS
The Orchard Clinic
Royal Edinburgh Hospital
Morningside Terrace
Edinburgh
EH10 5HF.
Telephone: 0131 537 5866
Email: Loth.solsteam@nhs.scot
