New plan to help deal with modern justice

Academics from a Lancashire university are helping to shape the future of criminal justice.

The University of Central Lancashire has devised a scheme to provide tailored research projects addressing particular challenges faced by organisations in the sector.

The Preston-based institution has established the Criminal Justice Partnership to bring together a wide-range of skills to find new solutions to issues ranging from counter terrorism and human trafficking to mental health and criminal justice, policing and sex offender related offences.

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It was officially launched at the University through a conference attended by representatives from across the sector.

UCLan has already worked with Cumbria Clinical Commissioning Group to evaluate a pilot programme designed to tackle mental health challenges faced by the police and other agencies and with Lancashire Constabulary on a multi-agency sharing IT 
system.

Experts in law, mental health nursing, policing, psychology and social work are all involved in the Criminal Justice Partnership.

The Cumbria and Lancashire Community Rehabilitation Company is one of the organisations at the official launch of the Partnership.

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Director Phil O’Donnell said: “Criminal justice agencies in Lancashire have a long history of working collaboratively to reduce crime in our communities. The Criminal Justice Partnership, drawing on expertise from a number of academic disciplines, provides real opportunities to strengthen this critical work by ensuring it is rooted in evidence of what is effective.”

Dr Allison Jones, executive lead for the project, said: “This is an exciting initiative for UCLan.

“We have a wide range of expertise in this area and the Criminal Justice Partnership has created a vibrant community of academics and partners that can respond, in innovate ways, to the needs of the criminal justice sector.”

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