The Association of Police and Crime Commissioners will today submit written evidence in response to the Home Affairs Select Committee’s Inquiry into Policing and Mental Health. Commenting in advance of the report Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis gives some background and tells the Staffordshire story.
According to a report commissioned by Police and Crime Commissioner for Staffordshire, Matthew Ellis in April 2013, there were 169 people in 2012/13 with a suspected mental health condition held in police cells in Staffordshire rather than more appropriate facilities because none were available. In the same year a total of 659 individuals were Sectioned under the Mental Health Act and detained by police.
The report became the catalyst for national change and showed that around 20 per cent of total police time in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent is spent dealing with mental health-related incidents. The ‘Staffordshire Report’ also made clear that a lack of the right support for people suffering from mental illness is a key reason why individuals end up in police cells instead of more appropriate facilities. It highlighted too that some individuals end up in the courts unnecessarily when they are ill, not criminals.
Since the report Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Ellis has been calling for fundamental change to the way mental health crisis services are delivered across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. Earlier this year, senior representatives from Health, Social Care, Local Authorities and Police signed up to reinforcing that police custody cells are fundamentally the wrong place for individuals with a mental health condition to be held unless they have committed an offence.
The sign up is underpinned by a series of principles which have been agreed and will make it a ‘serious action’ for police custody cells to be used in this way, automatically triggering a multi-agency review to confirm the appropriateness or otherwise of use.
Mr Ellis said what he was told provided serious cause for concern not only for policing but primarily because individuals who are simply ill find themselves locked in a cell because the right services aren’t available in the right way.
He said: “The report highlighted the scale of the problem and made it clear that a lack of joined-up services and a lack of the right support at the right time for people in mental health crisis are key reasons why individuals end up in police cells instead of more appropriate facilities.
“It’s right that the problem has risen high on the national agenda and it was helpful that the Home Secretary used the Staffordshire Report to reinforce the scale of the problem. Nearly all the agencies across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent that can make change happen are now working together at the highest level to make sure change actually does happen.”
He said: “The system across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent needs to work more collaboratively if we are to stop seeing people who are simply ill locked up in cells and also health and social care professionals, rather than police officers, looking after the needs of often highly vulnerable people.
“What I am certain of is that the determination and genuine ambition that is being shown will result in more effective support and a better, fairer system. It’s about ensuring the system fits better the needs of individuals with mental health challenges wherever they are in Staffordshire.”
