Contracting between professionals who work with offenders with personality disorder

Abstract

The Offender Personality Disorder (OPD) Pathway is a national initiative which co-commissions health and probation services to work in partnership to enhance the criminal justice case management of high risk men and women who are identified as having indicators of personality disorder. To support the implementation of the pathway, the Yorkshire and Humberside Personality Disorder Partnership (YHPDP) offers psychologically informed case consultation and case management support. As part of this scheme, contracting has been used in the relationships between psychologists and offender managers in the NPS. This paper offers a definition of contracting before offering a rationale for its use when supporting probation staff who work with offenders with personality disorder. A practical guide is then provided to support offender managers, managers, psychologists or supervisors to implement contracting in their practice supporting staff. Finally, a case study is discussed to illustrate the role and impact of contracting on psychologically-informed risk management.