Lancashire Police say they have saved 4,000 hours of frontline officer time a month by referring more mental health calls directly to the NHS rather than attending the incidents themselves.
It was part of a pilot initiative that is now being rolled out nationally.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Procter talks to local democracy reporter Paul Faulkner about the difference it has made to his force - and claims it will also benefit those in mental health crisis.
It was part of a pilot initiative that is now being rolled out nationally.
Assistant Chief Constable Russ Procter talks to local democracy reporter Paul Faulkner about the difference it has made to his force - and claims it will also benefit those in mental health crisis.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Assistant Chief Constable Proctor, you've said that it's unacceptable haven't you for police
00:04 officers to be spending hours waiting with mental health patients in hospital. How has that situation
00:10 arisen? So I think over a number of years we've been clear that policing has started to step into
00:16 a space in health and mental health and crisis which we are not fully equipped to deal with.
00:22 The HMIC have picked that up a number of years ago in a document that they produced in relation
00:28 to policing and mental health. So working across the number of incidents we've seen in Lancashire
00:34 we've worked with our partners to see what we can put in place which better protects the public and
00:39 has the right service to deal with people in crisis and suffering mental health crisis.
00:44 And that's taken the form of a pilot hasn't it over the past year or so which is now being
00:49 rolled out nationally as of today. What kind of impact has it had in Lancashire?
00:54 So it's had a really positive impact. So Right Care Right Person was started in Humberside.
00:59 We started consultation with our partners in September 21 and went live in May last year.
01:04 So what we have done now with Lancashire South Cumbria Foundation Trust mental health provider,
01:10 we have a partnership now where we can either take calls into our contact centre where we can
01:15 triage call direct to a mental health practitioner on a telephone line who can signpost that
01:20 individual at that time. We can attend with a mental health practitioner so we have officers
01:25 working with mental health nurses and practitioners across Lancashire and we will also continue to
01:31 attend if there's an immediate threat to life and crisis we will do that. However over since May
01:37 last year we have triaged over 41,000 calls and incidents and from that we have now been able to
01:43 signpost 10,000 of those incidents directly into health where they are the right organisation to
01:50 support people in crisis. Two questions on that really, does that mean that in those 10,000
01:56 cases there's no further police involvement after the initial call?
02:00 Yes so what that will be will either be a call that we transfer from our contact centre into
02:07 health who will then triage and signpost that individual or we will be able to put the signpost
02:13 in place at the contact centre. So this is where now we are seeing across Lancashire around 4,000
02:19 additional hours where officers are not with mental health patients, people in crisis or
02:25 sat at accident and emergency waiting for mental health assessments to take place.
02:29 But then it has obviously left you with 30,000 of those calls where there has been police
02:34 involvement. Have you been the right agency in all 30,000 of those cases or is there still
02:39 more work to do do you feel to reduce that number? So I think there's still more work to do. We
02:45 continue to work with our health partners, local authority, those people in care settings to make
02:49 sure that it's the right organisation at the right time to deal with somebody. If it is your loved
02:54 one, family member in crisis, policing, we are saying policing is not necessarily the right
02:59 organisation with the right skills to look after and best support that individual.
03:04 But are you still the right agency to call in the first instance even if you're ultimately going to
03:10 direct people into mental health services and have them signposted from there? Would you still
03:14 advise people if they are witnessing somebody in crisis or in crisis themselves for any reason,
03:21 do they still call the police in Lancashire? So we would say that in crisis we would advise
03:26 people to ring 111 or contact health for that initial assessment and triage. But what we are
03:31 saying across Lancashire Police, we know that some of that assessment in relation to vulnerability
03:36 and crisis is immediate. And if it is an immediate and it's an immediate threat to life, then
03:41 Lancashire Police will continue to deal with those incidents. If it is a crisis linked to crime,
03:47 again, we continue to attend those incidents and we are the right organisation then for you to contact.
03:52 Are you the right organisation only in those circumstances, would you say? So only if there
03:58 is a threat to life or a crime in progress, that's the only time that really you should
04:03 be involved in a mental health incident, would you say? Yeah, I believe if it is a crime or
04:08 is an immediate threat to life, then we are the right organisation. If it's not, then we have
04:13 spoken with our partners to say that if it is a crisis and it is support from health, then health
04:19 has to be the way that we would signpost people to go to get the right care with the right
04:25 organisation and with that right individual and that support with the right skills.
04:29 People may be aware that there was some coverage earlier this year of the Metropolitan Police's
04:35 plans to withdraw from this space almost entirely. Is that the route that you're going down in
04:40 Lancashire, would you say? So that's not the case in Lancashire. So we've been working really hard
04:45 with our partners. Again, we started the consultation in September 21. We went live in
04:50 May 22. We continue to review every incident that we get in that is a right care, right person
04:56 referral to make sure that people get the right support. So Lancashire Police are not withdrawing
05:02 from attending to support people in crisis. We will continue to do that. And again, we'll ensure
05:07 that where we can, we will signpost the organisation, the right organisation. What we continue
05:13 to do is also we will attend with mental health services. This is a partnership that we have. So
05:18 I have officers working with mental health services. So it's not a withdrawal from Lancashire
05:23 Police supporting our communities. So you would still attend in instances where the mental health
05:28 services need support? Yes, we continue to do that. And we work in cars with them. So we will have
05:34 cars with a police officer and a mental health worker working together to deal with those
05:38 incidents which require an attendance by mental health and police. Have you got a percentage
05:47 of the target figure in mind of the proportion of mental health calls that you feel should be
05:53 dealt with by Lancashire Police? So what I'll never do, I'll never put a percentage on it. So
05:57 we deal with every call and incident on an individual basis. We make really clear assessments
06:03 in relation to vulnerability and crime to make sure that it's the right organisation and we have
06:09 the right attendance. So whether that's a fast time attendance or a slower time attendance or
06:14 a signposting, I wouldn't want to put a percentage on it. We haven't got a target figure. We just
06:18 want to make sure that communities across Lancashire get the right organisation to deal with
06:24 them when they are in a place when they are vulnerable or in crisis. Do you think this is
06:29 actually better not just for the police but for anybody suffering a mental health crisis and their
06:33 loved ones? We absolutely believe that this is the right thing for communities and the right thing to
06:39 do. So right care, right person is around the care and the provision that we can put in place. So as
06:45 a partnership across Lancashire, we honestly believe that we are providing a better service,
06:49 a more consistent service to put people with the right organisation to support them at a time of
06:55 need. Assistant Chief Constable, thank you very much for talking to us.