Lorraine is Associate Director for Children and Young People at the Centre for Mental Health. Whilst at the Centre she designed a ‘point of arrest’ diversion model which aims to identify and support young people with mental health and other vulnerabilities at the point that they first enter the Youth Justice System. This development was trialled in six locations and subsequently rolled out to 31 further sites in partnership with the Department of Health. Other current key programmes of work include a study focussed on improving the implementation of evidence-based parenting support for vulnerable children with very early behavioural difficulties.
Before joining the Centre, she spent 17 years in the Probation Service specialising in the management of substance misuse services and in the design of cognitive behavioural and motivational interviewing programmes in custody. She subsequently worked as a consultant for DrugScope and then as Research Director for an independent social science research company for seven years evaluating interventions on behalf of the Youth Justice Board, the Home Office, the Armed Forces, local commissioners and the Police.
