National Preventive Mechanism Eighth Annual Report 2016–17 Health Inspectorate Wales (HIW) continued its work inspecting and regulating hospitals with detained patients, including monitoring the use of the Mental Health Act 1983, Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) to ensure that services discharge their powers and duties in relation to patients who are detained or subject to DoLS, and that de facto detention is not used. HIW introduced new inspection tools to enhance the monitoring of the Mental Health Act 1983 and to reflect the changes within the new Mental Health Act – Code of Practice for Wales, that came into force in October 2016. Work continued to strengthen the provision of Second Opinion Appointed Doctors (SOAD) by recruiting, training and inducting a number of new SOADs. HIW’s inspection work throughout the year identified a number of patients within independent hospitals who were inappropriately placed, resulting in HIW taking a more proactive role throughout the year to contact commissioning agencies to note that alternative placements for such patients must be located. Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS)140 conducted eight inspections of police custody between April 2016 and March 2017, jointly with Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Prisons. These inspections assessed outcomes for detainees against the revised Expectations for Police Custody introduced from April 2016. This has strengthened the approach to inspection, reflecting areas identified for improvement in the NPM self-assessment. In particular, there is now a greater focus on the welfare and treatment of vulnerable people and children in police custody, and on diverting them away from custody where possible. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary in Scotland (HMICS) continued to inspect places of police custody in Scotland. Following the deaths of two men in police custody in 2013 and the publication of the associated Fatal Accident Inquiry reports in December 2015, Police Scotland invited HMICS to carry out additional inspections of the custody centres involved. These inspections, carried out in April and May 2016, aimed to provide assurance about the delivery of custody at both custody centres and to assist Police Scotland in developing its own, internal audit and improvement processes. Police Scotland has since been developing an internal scrutiny/continuous improvement team in custody-based partly on suggestions from HMICS and learning from the two inspections. HMICS has been discussing the possibility of developing joint inspections of police custody with Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS). HMICS believes that joint inspections with HIS, the body responsible for inspecting the National Health Service in Scotland, will maximise the OPCAT compliance of its monitoring and allow for a more holistic assessment of the treatment of and conditions for detainees in police custody. It is hoped that joint inspections will be able to commence before the end of 2017–18. Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons (HMI Prisons) published 86 individual inspection reports on prisons, police custody suites, immigration removal centres and other custodial establishments during the year. In addition to its inspection role, HMI Prisons also published revised Expectations for police custody (together with HMICFRS) 140. HMIC changed its name to HMICFRS in July 2017, reflecting the organisation’s expansion to become a fully integrated inspectorate for the police and fire and rescue services. 60

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