Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis is pleased with an 80% reduction in the number of people in mental health crisis who end up in police cells in Staffordshire despite not committing a crime. But he says there is still much more work to do.
Soon after coming into office, Mr Ellis was shocked that so many people were being treated in this way and commissioned Staffordshire Police to undertake a detailed report which highlighted the scale of the problem and brought it to national attention.
The Commissioner put pressure on mental health service providers to agree a protocol to ensure alternatives to custody are in place and invested funding in additional NHS services.
The progress in Staffordshire – which has seen NHS and police staff work closely together on the ground to make sure individuals get the right support – has led to national reform including new Government funding for health-based alternatives to police cells for people in mental health crisis.
In Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, this cross-agency approach has seen the number of people detained in police custody under the Mental Health Act fall by 80 per cent – from 168 in 2012 to 33 in 2015.
Mr Ellis said: “When I started work as the PCC I was shocked by the number of mentally vulnerable people Staffordshire Police had no option but to put in police cells because there weren’t suitable places of safety.
“It became clear to me that this was fundamentally the wrong place for an individual who is in mental health crisis to be kept if they haven’t committed a crime.
“Over the last three years, and working closely with Staffordshire Police, I’ve invested additional resources in NHS mental health services. Alongside better training for police officers it’s meant there’s been a large reduction in the number of people who are simply ill finding themselves in a cell.
“The NHS have also stepped up to the mark by investing extra staff in this area in Staffordshire and it’s essential that this momentum continues.
“I have been driving hard for the public agencies in Staffordshire to work better together and use public money more effectively. The improvements here are an example of how that can benefit the interests of vulnerable people, policing and the taxpayer. “The Home Secretary has recognised this by ensuring this work has to be jointly led by police and crime commissioners and the health service working together and sharing expertise and budgets.“ The Commissioner said there was still work to be done, as highlighted by one case in 2015 where a seriously ill man was kept in police custody for nearly 64 hours in Staffordshire. The independent Ethics, Transparency and Audit Panel (ETAP), which the PCC set up to scrutinise policing, was asked to carry out a review into the matter which is due to be published shortly.
Mr Ellis added: “This is a complex area and it may be impossible to reduce to zero the number of people detained in police cells under the Mental Health Act. But I will not be satisfied until the number is as low as we can realistically achieve.”
