Statement by Staffordshire Police and Crime Commissioner, Matthew Ellis, on speech by Home Secretary Theresa May to the Police Federation this morning (20 May 2015)
Home Secretary Theresa May today (Wednesday 20 May) announced up to £15 million of new funding to provide health-based alternatives to police cells for those detained under the Mental Health Act. The funding will save police time and ensure that vulnerable people receive the medical care and support they need.
Carrying out a pledge to ensure proper provision of places of safety for people suffering mental health crises, the Home Secretary announced new Department of Health funding to be made available to the NHS, working in partnership with Police and Crime Commissioners, to fund more health-based and alternative places of safety to avoid the inappropriate use of police cells.
The Home Secretary’s announcement follows the success of a cross-agency scheme in North Staffordshire led and developed by the Office of the Police & Crime Commissioner in Staffordshire, which has seen the number of people in mental health crisis who are put in police cells in the county fall by almost two-thirds.
The North Staffordshire scheme established by the PCC followed publication of the ‘Staffordshire Report’ on mental health and policing. That report was commissioned by Mr Ellis a few months after taking office and set out in stark detail the regular and inappropriate use of police cells and highlighted confusion and failures within mental health services in providing the right support (see report at http://www.staffordshire-pcc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Mental-Health-Report.pdf ).
The Home Secretary cited the Staffordshire Report in her Police Federation speech in May 2013 as making clear the challenges faced nationally.
In Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, following some initial investment by the PCC to support the NHS, the programme has seen the number of people detained in police custody under the Mental Health Act fall by just under 60%.
This year (2015) the NHS in Staffordshire agreed to absorb the scheme established by the PCC and fund it from Health budgets.
Mr Ellis said today: “When I started work as the PCC I was surprised by the number of mentally vulnerable people Staffordshire police were being forced to lock up in police cells for want of 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.
“We need to stop criminalising people who are simply ill and ensure expensive officer time is not tied up with issues that the police are unqualified to deal with. I am pleased that in the last couple of years since I commissioned the Staffordshire Report the issue of mental health and custody has become a priority recognised nationally by the Home Secretary and the Government.
“I have been driving hard for the public agencies in Staffordshire to work better together and use public money more effectively, and the improvements here are an example of how that can bring benefits to in 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.
“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.”
