New agreement to limit police response to mental health crises
The NHS, police and government have committed to a new approach to ensure urgent mental health support is delivered by the most appropriate agency.
The new National Partnership Agreement encourages local areas across England to implement the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) strategy which was created by Humberside Police and the NHS in 2019. When the threshold for police involvement is not met, partners will agree the best health-based approach. In Humberside, emergencies are attended by a specialist response vehicle carrying mental health staff.
Based on the experience in Humberside, it’s estimated that RCRP could save up to one million hours of police officer time per year, enabling forces to put greater focus on fighting crime and protecting communities.
“Anyone going through something as awful as a mental health crisis deserves to know they’ll receive the best possible emergency response,” said Maria Caulfield, Minister for Mental Health. “It’s vital the right people who are trained and skilled to deal with the situation are on the scene to assist.”
Mixed response
The new partnership agreement has been welcomed by senior representatives of police forces and the NHS and there’s no doubt that a solution to avoid mental health patients being dealt with solely by police is long overdue. However, concerns about the new agreement have been expressed by other professionals, including campaigners, social workers and charities.
According to an article in the British Association of Social Workers’ PSW magazine published in June, former inspector of constabulary Zoe Billingham described the planned partnership agreement as ‘potentially alarming’.
Amongst their other duties, Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) are responsible for setting up and co-ordinating assessments under the Mental Health Act and, if necessary, making applications to detain people in hospital for assessment and treatment of their mental health needs. According to Skills for Care Workforce Intelligence Data from 2021-22, 94% of AMHPs are employed as social workers, and two thirds of AMHPs combined the role with another substantive role, for example working in frontline social work jobs.
While supporting the RCRP in principle, the AMHP Leads Network warned that there could be widespread misinterpretation of when it is still appropriate for the police to attend. An AMHP Leads network spokesperson commented, “Police time needs to be free to continue to attend mental health related incidents in situations where there is no other appropriate agency, such as the application of s136 (emergency powers), warrants issued under s135 and support in situations where there is significant harm.”
