Today saw the government launch Big Society, a programme in which we all take a greater responsibility for what is going on in our local area.  It will be interesting to see what this means for Offender Health.  One thing we know we need to do is, to be able to show the benefits that investing and working with offenders delivers to the individuals and to society. 

That is this weeks challenge...how can we prove the difference. Last week the West Midlands Women's 3rd Sector network took on that challenge and are keen to show the difference they make.  I am going to focus on Warwickshire's Criminal Justice Liaison Team (CJLT) and the roll-out of an electronic patient record system in prison.  For Warwickshire this CJLT support the police, social workers, local Community Mental Health Teams, Crisis Resolution Teams, probation and the courts, all gain from this service. My challenge for the week ahead is to show in financial terms what that saves.

This will be a hard challenge, something...