Accountability
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who watches the watchers?")
Appropriate adults are an important part of the checks and balances of our criminal justice system. They help to ensure that people are treated fairly by the police. But to make sure the AA system works effectively, and to continually improve services, we also need accountability for appropriate adults.
The challenge
Accountability for professionals
Outcomes for children and vulnerable adults who are detained or questioned by police are affected by a range of people.
Reflecting the high risk of harm in this context, professionals are subject to systems of accountability and external scrutiny, aiming to ensure their compliance with the standards and regulations under which they operate.
For example:
- Police custody officers are primarily subject to inspection by HM Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMICFRS) but are also accountable to PCCs and sometime the IOPC;
- Healthcare professionals working in police custody are inspected and regulated by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Healthcare Inspectorate Wales;
- Police station legal aid solicitors are regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and legal representatives are accredited by the Legal Aid Agency.
Accountability for AAs
Unlike these other roles, appropriate adult provision is not subject to inspection or regulation. This means:
- It is more difficult to identify where children and vulnerable people are receiving high quality provision and where they are not;
- It is more difficult to identify the extent to which problems are caused by police versus appropriate adult provision;
- It is more difficult to increase confidence in appropriate adult provision.
NAAN is leading efforts to ensure greater accountability for AA provision.
We seek to work in partnership with Government, inspectorates, regulators, monitoring organisations, commissioners and professional bodies to improve accountability of appropriate adult provision, seeking to include oversight into existing arrangements where possible.
Our work developing widely respected, evidence-based, national standards has been designed with a future system of inspections in mind. Our development of a self assessment tool will support local areas in ensuring their provison is ready for such a system.
In addtition, in partnership with awarding body Gateway Qualifications NAAN offers an Ofqual-regulated qualification for appropriate adults.
National standards
Appropriate adults
NAAN publishes national standards for organised appropriate adult provision. These are approved by the Youth Justice Board (in relation to children), Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (in relation to adults), as well as the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners.
Self-assessment
NAAN also provides members with a national standards self-assessment tool. This allows managers/commissioners, coordinators and appropriate adults to evaluate their scheme's compliance with the standards. Self-assessments are an internal tool to help drive a scheme's performance. The result of self-assessments are not public information and do not have to be submitted to NAAN. Publication of self-assessment would likely limit its effectiveness in driving performance since it would discourage open and critical analysis.
Youth justice
Under the national standards for youth justice, Youth Offending Teams "should implement clear youth justice specific local policies and protocols covering: provision of persons to act as appropriate adults to safeguard the interests of children detained or questioned by police officers in line with the NAAN national standards". This does not apply to provision for vulnerable adults.
Monitoring
Supervision
This applies to frontline AA practitioners and is carried out by the local scheme coordinator. NAAN national standard 4.2 states that, "AA's individual development and support needs are quickly identified and effectively addressed". However, as there is no inspection of schemes, it is currently not known how many schemes meet this standard. A limitation of this measure is that it is not independent of the organisation providing the support.
Contract management
The main form of accountability for AA provision is currently through management or contract monitoring. Where a local authority (i.e. YOT or adult social care) runs its own AA provision, accountability is via the internal management structures. Where provision is contracted out, accountability is normally via regular contract monitoring reports and meetings. The focus of these tends to be on 'output metrics' such as how many times the scheme has attended and how quickly. Sometime providers will also be asked to provide a small number of case studies to show what outcomes they have achieved. A limitation of this measure is that it is not independent of the organisation responsible for ensuring provision.
Custody visiting
Independent Custody Visitors (ICVs) are volunteers attend police stations to check on the treatment of detainees and the conditions in which they are held and that their rights and entitlements are being observed. In one sense, they are the local eyes and ears of the HM Inspectorate. However, they are actually part of policing, in the sense that they are recruited, trained and managed by the local Police and Crime Commissioner, to whom they report. Their national body ICVA has been encouraging ICV schemes to consider issues around vulnerability and appropriate adults and in some areas this is happening. However, ICVs are not present in interviews, whether in custody or voluntary attendances.
Inspection
Appropriate adult inspections
There is currently no system of independent inspection of AA provision against the NAAN national standards (or any other standards). The following inspections are relevant to appropriate adult provision.
Childrens social care inspections
Ofsted is responsible for inspecting local authority children's services in England. In Wales the Care Inspectorate Wales is responsible. Although inspection reports focus on the experiences and progress of children who need help and protection (including safeguarding) and those in care who may have become involved in crime, they do not include the appropriate adult role in the context of social work. This is likely to be because the AA role is a statutory duty of Youth Offending Teams specifically.
Youth Justice Service inspections
HMI Probation leads the inspection of Youth Offending Teams (YOTs), also known as Youth Justice Services. Full Joint YOT Inspections include partner inspectorates covering health, children’s social care, education and training, and police. They are full members of the inspection team (and they contribute to inspection judgements) These inspections consider: organisational delivery; court disposals and out of court disposals. Although it is a statutory duty of YOTs, appropriate adult provision for children is not included in YOT inspections. Even if this were to change, appropriate adult provision for adults would clearly not be covered by YOT inspections.
Police child protection inspections
The police inspectorate (HMICFRS) carries out inspections of the child protection work of every police force in England and Wales. These inspections include looking at a small sample of cases involving children detained in police custody. These inspections often pick up issues related to the police's actions in relation to appropriate adults. For example, they have found that the attendance of appropriate adults at the custody office is timed to coincide with other events, such as interviews, rather than when the child is detained. However, they do not inspect the appropriate adult scheme itself. Their remit is to inspect the police (from which AAs must by definition be independent).
Police custody inspections
HMICFRS works in partnership with the prisons inspectorate (HMIP) to carry out inspections of police custody suites. These inspections involve spending significant time in police custody. They often pick up issues related to the police's actions in relation to appropriate adults. For example, they have found that the police often do not secure an appropriate adult for adults who meet the definition of mentally vulnerable. Voluntary interviews of suspects (a growing trend) are not within the scope of these inspections. They do not include inspection of appropriate adult schemes. Their remit is to inspect the police (from which AAs must by definition be independent).
Joint and thematic inspections
From time to time, there are thematic inspection reports that take a national snapshot. These might be by a single inspectorate or a Criminal Justice Joint Inspection (CJJI) involving more than one inspectorate. Some of these have covered or touched on appropriate adults, and these are highlighted below.
Examples from joint and thematic inspections
Appropriate adults for children in custody
2011 (CJJI)
"There was a lack of any credible assessment of the quality of service provided by Appropriate Adults... While there are forums at both local and national level to monitor Appropriate Adult provision, the quality of the service given was rarely raised, and the providers generally assessed this based on a lack of complaint from the police".
Learning disabilities in criminal justice
2014 (HMI Probation)
"Interview records show that the Appropriate Adult intervened when the police tried to test Michael’s understanding about being arrested. Although Michael knew he had been arrested he did not understood why or what it meant. The Appropriate Adult advised Michael and the police that he should be fully assessed by a CPN before being further interviewed. This helped with subsequent interviews as Michael had a better understanding of what he was being asked".
Welfare of vulnerable people in custody
2015 (HMI Constabulary)
"The detainee voice discussions identified the importance of AAs in helping people to understand better what was happening and in reducing anxiety. Failing to provide an AA was a concern for some detainees who regarded themselves as vulnerable, and they thought that this should be addressed as a priority".
Mental health in criminal justice
2021 (CJJI)
"Whether AA provision is sufficiently comprehensive is a longstanding question. A common argument from those who think AA provision is insufficient would be that only a small proportion of those recognised as having a mental health condition are provided with an
appropriate adult".
Neurodiversity in criminal justice
2021 (CJJI)
"Some individuals reported that they had not always been provided with an AA, or that they were not actually very helpful, for example simply repeating, rather than explaining, questions. This was also noted in our remote fieldwork. In one force (Greater Manchester Police) an interviewee told us of the importance of securing the ‘right’ appropriate adult for a neurodivergent suspect, and that they would prefer to wait for a specialist AA to attend".