Rutland police will not cut back on mental health related incidents

Rupert Matthews, Police and Crime Commissioner for Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland has confirmed that there will be no cutbacks in metal health care from Rutland police officers.

At the moment, some police forces in England and Wales attend 80 per cent of so-called health and social care incidents.

However, under new government plans recently announced at the end of July, police officers will no longer respond to concerns about mental health if there is no risk to life or crime being committed, and it is hoped that this will reduce these figures by as much as 20 and 30% within the next two years.

The new policy could save a million hours of police time in every year, with senior officers saying that forces have "lost their way" by dealing with less serious mental health problems.

Yet only last month, it was stated by the Rutland police rural crime team that mental health issues are a vital part of their policing role, with suicide rates among rural communities among the highest in the country.

Rutland rural police officer PC Chris Vickers said: "A lot of rural people live from day to day, sometimes week to week without seeing or speaking to another human being. Mental health issues, depression and loneliness among isolated rural community people is a real problem, and one that more and more teams like us are finding we have to deal with."

The government says it is providing an extra £1 billion a year, including £150m for facilities to replace police officers, including:

• specialist mental health ambulances
• extra capacity for treating patients
• "crisis cafes", where people struggling to cope can drop in for help

Meanwhile, 999-call handlers are being trained to assess a request for officers to attend and decide whether someone's life is at risk, there is a threat to the public or a possible crime is being committed.

Police Crime Commissioner, Rupert Matthews. Image credit: PCC.

The PCC responded to the new policy by saying: "The most important thing is that people in mental health crisis receive the right care as soon as possible. Of course, police officers will do their best to help people at all times. But they are not trained medics.

"This new approach will mean police officers will still attend health-related incidents where there's a significant safety risk or crime being committed. However, they will refer other cases to the appropriate partner agency, confident that they will receive medical attention as soon as possible.

"It has been quoted that this approach could save around one million police officer hours each year, meaning that officers have more time to deal with crime. I expect the force to evaluate this way of working and report back to me regarding its effectiveness and the efficiency savings for Leicestershire and Rutland."