Service description
The service:
- Offers a care after custody service that seeks to improve the continuity of care of vulnerable people leaving prisons/Immigration Removal Centres (IRC)
- Supports service users’ transition to community-based services and safeguards health gains made whilst in prison/IRC
- Offer liaison, advocacy, signposting, and engagement with community-based health and support services
- Improves service users’ wellbeing, reduce inequalities and address health-related drivers of offending behaviours.
It aims to increase access to and uptake up of healthcare or relevant support services for individuals who have health vulnerabilities upon release from prisons or IRCs and ensures that the health needs of those individuals are met. It also helps to support a safe transition from prisons/IRC to community-based healthcare and support services.
The Reconnect service will provide up to 12 weeks pre-release and six months post-release person centred support, including:
- ‘Meet and greet’ at the gate
- Assertive outreach
- Digital guidance
- Form completion
- Systems navigation (booking/attending appointments, etc.)
- Substance misuse services
- Signposting to support from wider health and wellbeing services.
Referral criteria
- Individuals leaving secure/detained settings (prison/IRC) with an identified health vulnerability who would otherwise struggle to engage with community-based healthcare services and/or relevant support services
- Individuals with health vulnerabilities aged 18 or above who have left a prison/IRC within the last 28 days.