FFLM Quality Standards for Nurses and Paramedics – General Forensic Medicine (GFM)

It is essential to have competent multidisciplinary healthcare teams including forensic physicians, nurses and other healthcare professionals (HCPs) such as paramedics to provide safe care for patients when they are detainees in police custody or in contact with the Criminal Justice system. There should be care of a high quality and equivalence to that offered in other settings such as the National Health Service (NHS).

These Quality Standards have been developed in response to the recognition by the Home Office as the Faculty of Forensic & Legal Medicine (FFLM) being responsible for the standards to be expected from all HCPs involved in custody healthcare and forensic examination and in response to the Violence Against Women and Children Taskforce Report along with the Government’s interim response, where it was agreed that the FFLM should set these standards in conjunction with the Forensic Regulator. A separate Quality Standards document has been produced by the FFLM for forensic physicians.

This document for nurses, paramedics and other HCPs has been produced in consultation with representatives of the UK Association of Forensic Nurses & Paramedics (UKAFNP) and the College of Paramedics and is intended to set standards to assist those commissioning and providing police custody healthcare.