Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 60
60
Deferred
Paragraph: 161
Shifting police demand without sufficient resources for other services risks overall policy success.
Conclusion
The police should work effectively with other services without having to compensate for lack of resources elsewhere or absorb demand that should rightly sit with others. We understand that often police will not be the right professionals to intervene in mental health situations. We believe profoundly that people with mental health issues should receive expert care from the right professionals, rather than needlessly coming into contact with police officers who already face a range of demands aligned to their core mission. We are concerned however that there are risks associated with challenging other services to step up without providing them with sufficient resources to do so. Simply shifting unrealistic demand onto other services will not represent overall policy success for the Government. Moving to a new model may save police time but we should also expect to see “non-crime demand” outcomes improve across the system because the right professionals are responding, as well as improved policing performance in the core areas of preventing, investigating and detecting crime.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government is conducting a joint evaluation of the Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) approach with DHSC, including its impact on police time and health/social care implementation, with findings expected to be published in Spring 2024.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
161
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
The Home Office is working closely with Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) on a joint evaluation of RCRP, including both the impacts on police time and the implementation of RCRP from a health and social care perspective. Findings will feed into an implementation evaluation report due to be completed in Spring 2024, which we intend to publish. As the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Mental Health and Women’s Health Strategy has set out in correspondence with the Chair of the Health and Social Care Committee, although there is not currently any additional funding specifically allocated to deliver RCRP, NHS England will be working closely with DHSC to refine existing national resource estimates, based on intelligence from local systems as they develop their plans for implementation. DHSC will use this intelligence to potentially inform any fiscal events next year. It is worth stating that this Government has already put record levels of investment into mental health. The NHS Long Term Plan commits an additional £2.3 billion a year for the expansion and transformation of mental health services in England by March 2024 so that an additional two million people can get the NHS-funded mental health support that they need. We are delivering £150 million capital funding for mental health urgent and emergency care. This includes funding for over 160 schemes which will provide new and improved spaces for people in mental health crisis, which in turn are expected to improve patient experience and outcomes, reduce the likelihood of inpatient admission being required and help reduce pressure on A&E departments and ambulance services. Many of these schemes will be completed by the end of 2023/24, and include new or improved crisis cafes, crisis houses and other alternatives to A&E for people nearing or experiencing mental health crisis. They also include spaces in or adjacent to A&E for people who do need hospital admission, crisis assessment and liaison centres and health-based places of safety for people detained by the police. There of course remain challenges in responding to mental health needs as demand for crisis mental health services has increased by one third since before the pandemic and doubled since 2017, but the above measures will help towards easing the pressure on mental health crisis services and contribute to a reduction in police time spent responding to mental health-related incidents.
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