Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry SIG Annual Conference 2025 Resources 

Welcome to the Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry Special Interest Group Annual Conference 2025. This year's theme was 'Multiagency safeguarding and risk management with young people' and the event focused on overcoming barriers to effective multiagency identification and management of high risks in community and secure settings.

Please note that the presentations are the intellectual property of the speaker and the College and any unauthorised broadcasting/copying of the material is strictly prohibited. Presentations are only available where speakers have provided permission.

Overview of adolescent secure pathways in health, justice and social care - Dr Heidi Hales, Consultant in Forensic Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Co-Founder and Co-Chair of GIRAF (Group of International Researchers in Adolescent Forensics), Bangor University and Cardiff University

Secure inpatient CAMHS: new service specification - Naomi Price, Children and Young Peoples Mental Health Lead
National Mental Health Specialised Commissioning Team, NHS England

The rise of bespoke community placements and the Court of Protection - Mark Chaloner, 42 Bedford Row Chambers, and Emma Smale, Head of Practice and Policy, Nuffield Family Justice Observatory

 

Thank you for attending the conference.

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This year's conference theme is 'Pathways for multiagency care, safeguarding and risk management'.

This informative day will help equip professionals to navigate care pathways in a complex multiagency landscape, to safeguard young people, manage risk and achieve the best possible outcomes. Join colleagues to hear presentations from key individuals shaping pathways for young people who present the highest risks.

Reverend Canon Dr Steve Chalke: Steve Chalke is a distinguished author, speaker, former UN Special Advisor on Human Trafficking, and Baptist minister. In 1985, he founded the Oasis Trust, a leading UK charity dedicated to building inclusive local communities. Today, Oasis operates across multiple countries, providing housing, education, healthcare, and various community-building initiatives. In England, Oasis runs 55 schools and recently opened Oasis Restore, the UK’s first Secure School—a groundbreaking therapeutic alternative to youth prisons designed to support high-risk children and young people in the justice system.

Steve's tireless work in social justice has earned him numerous honorary fellowships and an MBE. He continues to lead Oasis and remains a prominent voice on social issues. Steve is also a regular media commentator, and his latest book is called A Manifesto for Hope.

Mark Chaloner: I am a Barrister specialising in Child Law and I also sit as a Recorder (Part-time Judge) in the Family Court. I am News editor of Family Law Week as well as a contributor to other family law publications and am currently studying for a Masters in International Children's Rights and Development at KCL.

Dr Richard Church: Chair, Adolescent Forensic Psychiatry Special Interest Group

Dr Heidi Hales: Heidi Hales has a dual training in child and adolescent psychiatry and forensic psychiatry. She has worked across secure psychiatric wards for adolescents, young offender institutions and community forensic CAMHS teams. Her PhD investigated the effects of contact with suicide-related behaviour on young people in YOIs and in 2016 she was part of a team funded by NHSE to complete a service evaluation and census of all young people from England in secure care. She is co-founder and co-chair of GIRAF (Group of International Researchers in Adolescent Forensic Mental Health). Her main research interest is how to evaluate and improve treatment and care for young people who are in contact with the youth justice services due to emotional, mental health or neurodevelopmental needs and how we can learn from care systems in different jurisdictions through international research collaborations.

Dr Duncan Harding: Parole Board for England and Wales

Dr Tina Irani: Consultant in Forensic Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, National Low Secure Network Clinical Lead 

DCI David McAlinden:  Counter Terrorism Investigations, Organised Crime & Counter Terrorism Unit

Dr Ollie O’Mara: Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Clinical Lead Secure CAMHS

Naomi Price: Naomi serves as the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Lead within the National Specialised Commissioning Mental Health Team at NHS England. With over two decades of experience spanning care delivery and commissioning, she has worked extensively across children and young people’s mental health services—including within criminal justice settings. Naomi is deeply committed to advancing equitable access to high-quality care and ensuring that services are inclusive, effective, and responsive to the needs of young people and families.

Emma Smale: Emma is Head of Practice and Policy at Nuffield FJO and works to ensure our programmes and projects create impact for children and families. Emma comes to us from Research in Practice where she was Assistant Director for Innovation, responsible for a wide range of national programmes and partnerships. She led the Learning and Capability Project for the Children’s Safeguarding Practice Review Panel which aimed to identify better ways to generate learning from serious incidents and local safeguarding practice reviews.

Passionate about convening people from different systems and practices, Emma has recently focused on enabling learning and collaboration to generate systems change. She helped to bring about the ‘Staying Close’ pilots, supported accommodation options for young people leaving residential care, contributed to the development of transitional safeguarding and has written about the effectiveness of public inquiries into the protection of children.

Emma was previously Head of Policy and Research for Action for Children, Head of Research and Children’s Social Care for the Social Care Institute for Excellence and a Senior Associate for the Innovation Unit. Emma is a trustee for the Family Rights Group.


Oasis Restore: the first Secure School - Reverend Canon Dr Steve Chalke

Steve will speak on the new secure school, the challenges in opening a novice service and how its going.


Children and Young Peoples Mental Health Specialised Services - The current state and future thinking - Naomi Price
For many years, the Children and Young People’s Inpatient Mental Health Sector has faced significant quality and safety challenges. We are acutely aware that the current model of care does not always meet the needs of Children, Young People and their families with a continuation of quality and safety concerns.
The Quality Transformation Programme has undertaken a comprehensive evidence review of the current CYP inpatient model and engaged with hundreds of Children and Young People, their families/carers, frontline clinicians and commissioners to understand experiences, needs and identify areas of improvement?
The review highlighted the need for a significant transformation of the inpatient CYP sector to enable a move from hospital to community care, drive a reduction in restrictive interventions and provision of better care, treatment and outcomes for Children and Young People.

Overview of adolescent secure pathways in health, justice and social care - Dr Heidi Hales
In this introductory talk I will:
• discuss the way that secure services are structured in the UK and internationally, based on work by our GIRAF group (Group of International Researchers in Adolescent Forensics)
• present research identifying the needs of young people being referred and detained in secure services, based upon our 2016 census of young people in England and more recent research across the world
• highlight alternatives to secure care with need for multiagency collaborations to enable reductions in restrictive practice

Bespoke Placements and DOL Orders for Children - Mark Chaloner, Barrister at 42BR, and Emma Smale, Head of Practice and Policy, Nuffield Family Justice Observatory
The presentation will look at the rise of Bespoke Placements and the use of Deprivation of Liberty Orders for children and the myriad of difficulties this causes.


 




You will automatically receive a certificate of attendance 1 week after the event has taken place.

This course is eligible for up to 6 CPD hours, subject to peer group approval.