Police Will No Longer Be the Default Responders to UK Mental Health Incidents

Right Care, Right Person scheme in Humberside to be rolled out

Officers of the Metropolitan Police patrol in Victoria Park, east London, on April 11, 2020. (Tolga Akmen/AFP via Getty Images)

Police officers will no longer automatically be sent to respond to 999 calls involving people having mental health crises following an agreement supported by the Home Secretary, Suella Braverman.

Under the National Partnership Agreement, people experiencing mental health issues will initially be attended to by medical professionals rather than the police.

The plan is partly a response to requests by police forces around the country to reduce their workload so they can concentrate on tackling crime.

In November the commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Mark Rowley, revealed only 22 percent of the calls they received were about crimes and said he wanted to begin “pushing back” on demands on the police.

Rowley said his officers were sometimes unnecessarily being sent out to assist with welfare checks and to sit with people suffering mental health crises in hospitals.

Humberside Police piloted the agreement, with a programme called Right Care, Right Person, which is now being rolled out nationwide by the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC).

His Majesty’s Policing Inspectorate found Right Care, Right Person had saved Humberside Police 1,100 hours per month.

Braverman said the agreement would “rectify what has clearly become a systemic problem.”

She said: “From day one it’s been my mission to reduce unnecessary burdens keeping police from their primary focus—fighting crime and keeping people safe.”

Braverman said she was “genuinely concerned to hear from policing about the amount of resource required to respond to mental health emergencies” and she added: “It’s not fair on the officers, the public, or on those in need of professional healthcare.”

There have also been concerns that a police response to a mental health crisis can exacerbate the situation.

Mentally Ill Man Drowned After Being Tasered by Police

In June last year a 41-year-old man drowned in the river Thames after being Tasered on Chelsea Bridge in London by two officers.

It later transpired Oladeji Omishore was suffering a mental health crisis.

A video circulated on social media showed Omishore, wearing a t-shirt and shorts, being confronted by the officers, being Tasered, and then climbing over a barrier and falling or jumping into the river.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct is still investigating the incident.

In June 2021 a West Mercia Police officer, PC Benjamin Monk, was jailed for eight years after being convicted of the manslaughter of Dalian Atkinson, a former Premier League footballer, who was Tasered and kicked during an incident in Telford in August 2016.

Atkinson had suffered a mental breakdown outside his father’s home and was shouting about being the Messiah.

Judge Melbourne Inman, KC, said Atkinson had, “suddenly lost touch with reality” and was, “unrecognisable to those who knew him at the scene.”

The National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for mental health and policing, Deputy Chief Constable Rachel Bacon, said 999 incidents involving “mental health crises and vulnerabilities” significantly impacted on police resources.

She said: “A national approach to Right Care, Right Person will help forces reduce the number of deployments in respect of specific types of calls relating to mental health and concern for welfare, and help police staff in control rooms focus, from the outset, on getting the right person and agency, with the right skills, training, and experience to respond to the incident.”

If mental health professionals, rather than police officers are sent to incidents involving mentally ill people they are less likely to be arrested, charged, and end up in the prison system.

A report by the Royal College of Psychiatrists in 2021 said 8,000 people in prison were serving custodial sentences when they should have been given community orders with a Mental Health Treatment Requirement.

£150 Million Investment by Government

Last month the government promised to invest £150 million to create more spaces for mental health patients in the NHS.

The money will also be spent on 90 new mental health ambulances designed to respond to 999 incidents.

Lisa Townsend, the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners’ lead for mental health, said: “Police officers across the country are increasingly becoming the first port of call when someone is suffering mental health crisis when what they really need is proper medical intervention and support from health care professionals.”

“This all too often results in our already over-stretched police officers, who are doing their best to keep our communities safe, being diverted away from their core duties,” she said.

“We know this issue cannot be resolved overnight but hopefully this is a big step in the right direction,“ Townsend said, adding, ”this much needed change in direction, helping policing get back to its core duties and ensuring vulnerable people get the appropriate help and care they deserve.”

PA Media contributed to this report.