West Midlands Academic Health Science Network (WMAHSN) Celebration of Innovation - 2016 Awards Brochure | Page 8

DIGITAL HEALTH INNOVATION AWARD

Breaking Free Group

Highly innovative in its approach to supporting highly vulnerable , hard to reach groups using digital technology to overcome complex barriers .

Breaking Free Online ( Health and Justice ) is a comprehensive and clinically robust digital treatment programme for alcohol and drug addiction in the form of a web application . Developed specifically for use within the criminal justice system , it enables offenders to overcome substance dependency , which is a key driver of offending behaviour .
back into the community . Consequently , it became the world ’ s first online healthcare intervention designed specifically for offenders to be implemented within prisons .
A team of clinical psychologists and addiction specialists at Breaking Free Group developed the programme in consultation with the National Offender Management Service ( NOMS ) at the Ministry of Justice . It is the first digital healthcare programme ever to be approved as an ‘ Effective Regime Intervention ’ by the Ministry of Justice .
The programme was commissioned by NHS England for ten prisons in the north-west as an integral part of the Gateways pathfinder , an important government initiative to reduce reoffending rates by strengthening support for offenders with substance misuse difficulties when they are released from custody
Andrew Catto , NHS England , Clive Bawden , Breaking Free Group and Dr Christopher Parker , WMAHSN

DIGITAL HEALTH

HIGHLY COMMENDED

U Assure
NHS but across the public sector as a must-have support tool . Developed in house by the NHS , for the NHS , feedback on the system has been universally positive .
Midlands and Lancashire CSU team and Dr Christopher Parker , WMAHSN
Working with CCGs across the country , the Midlands and Lancashire Commissioning Support Unit ( CSU ) have developed U Assure , a web-based system which could be used by their clients to capture information assets , contracts , safe-havens , risks , data flows and data sharing agreements . This unique dual system , the first in the country , is being rapidly taken up not just by the
The U Assure tool brings together complex processes in a user-friendly system to address information risks , an area of real concern to the NHS .
U Assure is an automated corporate governance model that supports the information governance asset register , data mapping and information risk requirements . It also has an Equality Impact Risk Assessment tool . U Assure helps organisations audit the information they hold and manage its associated risk .
2016 Awards Brochure 5