Out of Court Disposals training guide for police in England and Wales

The outcomes of the study found that:

• There was significant variation across forces in their OOCD process, and in how well developed and embedded these processes are.
• That OOCDs were underused in many forces.
• There were significant gaps in the availability of interventions to meet the needs of vulnerable offenders.
• Force-level challenges in making best use of OOCDs included limited training on OOCD use, staff turnover, inexperienced officers, and disproportionality in who receives OOCDs.

The research team then worked with seven police forces to develop a basis for practice change and to improve data collection methods used to monitor the use of OOCDs and enable future research on their effectiveness.

The OOCD training guide sits alongside other resources to help forces support officers and decision makers in setting OOCD conditions addressing health vulnerabilities, and to support higher-level decision makers in implementing OOCD processes.

The guide is built to be adapted by forces to reflect their local operating context. It is freely available for use and access by police forces across England and Wales.

See the guide (English) See the guide (Welsh)