Dear Mrs Pember

Thank you for your e-mail responding to our letter to you concerning the regulation 28 report you issued in connection with Mr Appleby. We note that you are holding the inquest into Mr Appleby’s death next week.

You asked us to comment on the statement of Detention Officer , a copy of which you shared with us in your e-mail, with reference to our letter to you. We note from statement that he had an e-mail exchange with one of our employees, , in the early hours of the morning of Saturday 22 February 2025 about a request he had made for ‘APPLE’ to be reviewed prior to release.

works at the Northampton based Criminal Justice Centre for the Liaison and Diversion Team. His role is to assess people in Custody and if he were called by the Courts on a weekend to assess he would go over to Court as there is not a dedicated weekend worker (as per the Standard Operating Procedure or SOP we mentioned to you in our previous letter). The e-mail was opened by at the start of his shift. The e mail had the incorrect name and had no detail of the concerns; it also did not state that an assessment was needed prior to release (often the team assess after release from Custody).

Mr Appleby left Weekly Woods Kettering prior to starting shift, once someone leaves Custody the police ledger is updated and person removed, without full and accurate person identifiable data (PID) and not being based at Weekly Woods Custody he could not make any further enquiries. Also, as it had not used the agreed pathway (referral via the shared e-mail) and based on the content of the e-mail, there was no sense of risk or immediacy. There was no phone call from Court requesting an assessment. The practitioner based at Weekly Woods was unexpectedly off that day but would have also started the shift following PA leaving and with the limited info to proceed.

As stated in our letter to you, to mitigate the risk of a similar situation occurring in the future, we have reissued the SOP to those operating Saturday courts to remind them how to make referrals to our services. Please do not hesitate to contact us in advance of the inquest next week if you have any further questions for us.

Kind regards

, Director of Corporate Governance

Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust | St Mary’s Hospital | 77 London Road |KETTERING | NN15 7PW

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