Humberside mental health model to form basis of new agreement
source: College of Policing
first published: 3 April 2023
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An approach has been developed by Humberside Police to ensure people who call the police get the best support and service. They identified that before the introduction of Right Care Right Person (RCRP), the force was deployed to an average of 1,566 incidents per month relating to issues such as concerns for welfare, mental health incidents or missing persons.
The force was concerned that by attending these incidents, they were not providing the most suitable intervention to vulnerable members of the public who required specialist support. This was putting both the public and their officers at more risk. It also meant they were not responding to the public in the most effective manner.
The high level of deployments was also impacting on the force's ability to attend calls for service that did require a policing response. For example, where a crime had occurred or where there was a risk to life.
Humberside Police made the conscious decision to go back to basics and concentrate on the core policing duties, as set out by Sir Robert Peel. These still form the basis of policing in the UK today. The core duties under common law are:
- preventing and detecting crime
- keeping the King’s peace
- protecting life and property
Following this decision, Humberside Police sought legal advice to understand where duty of care responsibilities lie and where other agencies would be more appropriate to attend calls for service. This advice was used as a basis to support the development of the RCRP initiative.
RCRP is a programme of work that has been carried out over a three-year period involving partners in ambulance, mental health, acute hospitals and social services. These partnerships ensure RCRP can achieve its aim to provide the best care to the public by ensuring the most appropriate response to calls for service. This reduces stress on the police and health agencies responding to these requests.
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