Right Care, Right Person
It is vital that the right agency deals with health related calls. It has been shown to improve outcomes, reduce demand on all services, and make sure the right care is being delivered by the right person.
The Police are not the right agency to attend these calls, we are not trained, and do not have the correct equipment. Despite the greatest care our attendance can be detrimental to the patient.
That does not stop the police continuing to perform their key role of keeping people safe and where there is a real and immediate risk to life or of serious harm – officers will respond swiftly as we currently do.
For any health concerns, please contact 999 in light of an emergency and ask for ambulance. Alternatively, call NHS 111 for medical advice. You can also find local NHS services near you via the NHS website.
We use the ‘Hub of Hope’ and ‘Live Well’ websites to signpost the public to services available to them in their local area. The Hub of Hope is a national resource maintained by the charity ‘Chasing the Stigma’. The Live Well websites are a joint initiative between the local councils and the NHS, and both aim to valuable resources to residents of Cheshire.
They cover a wide range of support services which are refreshed daily. You can find out more information on both services by using the links below.
Cheshire East - Live Well Cheshire East
Chesire West and Chester - Live Well Cheshire West
Halton - Live Well Halton
Warrington - Living Well Warrington
Nationally - The Hub of Hope
For urgent mental health support NHS 111 option 2 is a national 24 hour, seven days a week service, offering triage, support or signposting as appropriate.
The NHS 111 service now provides two distinct options for callers. Option one focuses on physical health only whereas option 2 will solely be dedicated to mental health.
Callers will be connected to the contact centre where trained staff will provide appropriate support and advice 24 hours a day.
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Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) is an operational model developed by Humberside Police that changes the way the emergency services respond to calls involving concerns about mental health. It is in the process of being rolled out across the UK as part of ongoing work between police forces, health providers and Government.
It is aimed at making sure the right agency deals with health related calls. It has been shown to improve outcomes, reduce demand on all services, and make sure the right care is being delivered by the right person. The Police are not the right agency to attend these calls, we are not trained, and do not have the correct equipment. Despite the greatest care our attendance can be detrimental to the patient.
It does not stop the police continuing to perform their key role of keeping people safe and where there is a real and immediate risk to life or of serious harm – whether that be a person seeking to harm themselves or harm others – officers will respond swiftly as we currently do.
In a letter sent to leaders of London health and social care providers on 24 May 2023, Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley wrote:
"Every day that we permit the status quo to remain, we are collectively failing patients and are not setting officers up to succeed."
"We are failing them first by sending police officers, not medical professionals, to those in mental health crisis, and expecting them to do their best in circumstances where they are not the right people to be dealing with a patient."
"We are failing a second time by taking large amounts of officer time away from preventing and solving crime as well as dealing properly with victims, in order to fill gaps for others."
In 2022 Cheshire Police took over 27,000 calls relating to ‘concerns for safety’ and attended over 25,000 of those.
We detained 416 patients under 136 of the Mental Health Act and waited an average of 10.5 hours with them at hospital so their mental health could be assessed.
Figures from the recent National Police Chiefs Council (NPCC) Productivity Review showed that nationally, police officers are spending just under one million hours a year sat with mental health patients in hospitals waiting for assessment.
These are precious hours that are being taken away from tackling crime, addressing core policing priorities or using the powers that only the police have to target offenders and support victims.
While officers and staff are professional, and compassionate and highly skilled in many areas, they are not trained to deliver the level of mental health care required by patients in crisis.
As part of the roll out of RCRP, Cheshire call handlers will receive training to use the model to triage incoming calls and decide on an appropriate course of action, including whether to deploy police officers or not.
The triage process is expected to result in officers attending far fewer calls, while identifying those where there is still a need for the police to be deployed, such as where health and social care partners need help, such as with patients who are violent or have assaulted healthcare staff or clinicians.
We continue to hold discussions with partners from across multiple organisations too to inform, engage and allow them to prepare for this change.
Humberside Police identified that before the introduction of Right Care, Right Person, 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.
As a result of implementing Right Care, Right Person, Humberside saw average incidents per month reduce by 508 deployments – equating to 1,132 officer hours. This has allowed the force to reallocate saved resource to other specialist teams.
You can read more about Humberside Police's introduction and use of Right Care, Right Person on this page.