Home Secretary moves to ‘free up’ police time

24 February 2023

Suffolk Police Federation chair Darren Harris has welcomed a promise of dedicated mental health resources to allow police to focus on catching criminals.

He explained: “I am delighted the Home Secretary has written to the Force and Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) to set out her plans for specialised mental health ambulances, crisis response infrastructure and safe spaces. This is all overdue and could potentially be a game changer for our overstretched colleagues.

“At the moment if somebody is vulnerable or experiencing a mental health crisis, the chances are that it won’t be an ambulance or social worker that gets that emergency call, it will be the police service. And because officers have a duty of care, we will stay with that person until they can be safely handed over to an appropriate authority.

“This is potentially a huge drain on police resources and takes us away from our core purpose, the one we signed up for, which is to protect the public and catch criminals.”

The Government announced in January that it will provide £150 million of capital investment to improve the mental health crisis care response. Suella Braverman, the Home Secretary, wrote to police forces and PCCs yesterday to provide further details.

The funding, which is for England and Wales, includes £7 million for specialised mental health ambulances, with the remaining £143 million for new or improved mental health crisis response infrastructure, including safe spaces.

Ms Braverman said: “The Prime Minister recently set out that one of his crime priorities is to reduce burdens on the police from non-police activity. We want to see more police officers on the beat, investigating and preventing crime.

“Mental health demand pressures on many forces are taking officer time away from fighting crime. People in mental health crises need to be seen by healthcare professionals to get the appropriate assessment or treatment in the right environment.”

The College of Policing and National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) are working on a smarter working practice that is based on Humberside’s application of the Right Care, Right Person model, which they are on track to deliver by the end of March.

They are also working on a toolkit to assist forces.

The Home Secretary’s letter promised “swift access” for police to refer individuals into professional mental health care. She added that a multi-agency agreement would be drawn up between policing and healthcare organisations, and the impact of the changes would be measured.