Bespoke Data Analysis

We have developed a specialism for understanding the health, substance misuse and criminogenic needs of individuals in the community and in the criminal justice system from detainees in police custody, prison healthcare and across the changing arrangements for the Probation Service.

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All studies are undertaken to the highest level of scientific rigour including appropriate statistical tests are undertaken on good quality data (involving a range of data cleansing approaches). All datasets are all subject to rigorous testing and cleaning to support the analysis process.

Needs Analysis

We provide support for community and criminal justice Needs Analyses through expert secondary analysis of management information and other datasets from SystmOne (in custodial settings); the National Drug Treatment Monitoring System (NDTMS) and the Drug Information Record used by the Drug Intervention Programme (DIP).

Our work has informed Joint Strategic Needs Assessments across England and recent projects have included undertaking community-based substance misuse analyses in partnership with the Centre of Public Innovation (CPI) for the London Borough of Lewisham (2020-2021) and the London Borough of Bexley (2020).

We have also supported CPI in providing analytical support for the Cleveland Police and Crime Commissioner in analysing the needs of victims (2021) and for Staffordshire County Council needs analysis of Child Exploitation and Missing Persons (2021). In partnership with CPI, we have worked with NHS England to create a financial template assessing offender health need across custodial settings in the North of England (2020).

We have undertaken a wide range of needs analyses across community and criminal justice settings including an Assessment of Imaging Equipment for London Prisons and Immigration Removal Centres (2017) commissioned by NHS England in London to examine the use and viability of prison-based medical imaging.

Other studies have included police custody and Sexual Assault Referral Centre Needs Assessment for Wiltshire Police (2017); Custodial Health Needs Assessments for prisons in the South East of England (2015) for three prisons in Suffolk for Suffolk County Council (2015). With colleagues from CPI, we have undertaken the needs analysis for Dorset Police, Surrey Police and the London Borough of Havering (all 2015).



Advanced Statistical Modelling

We offer additional insights of data through use of advanced statistical modelling techniques. This work has included secondary interrogation of management information datasets, surveys and analyses of open-source data (such as trends in crime rates). Using open-source data, we have modelled correlates of self-harm and self-inflicted death for Serco in partnership with University of Derby (2021).

With colleagues from the Statistical Services Centre in Reading ssc-training.co.uk we have developed methodologies including hierarchical cluster analyses to establish unique client groups within drug and alcohol treatment services (2019-2020).

We have supported a wider Centre for Public Innovation evaluation of offender health pathways in London for the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime (MOPAC). We modelled open-source data examining the correlates of drug-related offending and violent crime to a range of socio-economic indicators. This work examined which endogenous measures were associated with changes in drug-related and violent crime between 2013-2017 (completed 2020).

We have also undertaken with colleagues from CPI, secondary analyses of the 2016 Isle of Man Health and Lifestyle household survey (2017). We were able to adjust sampling weights as part of a “raking ratio estimation” exercise that reduces biases from sampling issues inherent in surveys to reproduce the wider population characteristics.



Criminal Justice

We have recently supported CPI to model clusters of health-related need for people in prison residing within HMP Haverigg (2020). In partnership with Public Health England (PHE), we have also modelled offender pathways for drug-misusing offenders arrested in London for MOPAC (2019-2020).

Latest Insights

Search here for links to reports, papers and toolkits. Our latest publications include:

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Using a retrospective case review, we deployed a hierarchical cluster analysis using Ward’s linkage method to examine segments in an inner-London treatment population.

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We analysed 1,313 online responses from around Europe to assess the association between relationship status and living with dependent children on recovery capital of people in recovery from drug addiction.

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