Speaking in a recent debate in the Welsh Assembly on the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee Report: Mental Health in Policing and Police Custody, Mark Isherwood AM/AC spoke of the work being carried out in North Wales to help people identified as being in mental health crisis.
In the debate, Mr Isherwood – Shadow Welsh Minister for Communities – referred to Section 136 of the Mental Health Act, which is designed to allow police officers to remove from a public place for their own or the public’s safety someone who they believe is undergoing a mental health crisis, and to take them to a place of safety, and said that North Wales Police saw a 70 percent increase in Section 136 detentions between 2014-2019.
He also highlighted the report’s statement that the use of police custody as places of safety has fallen significantly over the past four years.
He said:
“Additionally, the Chair of the Mental Health Crisis Care Concordat Assurance Group stated that there had been a ‘… 90 percent reduction in the number of individuals detained in police cells who are in mental health crisis since the introduction of the Crisis Care Concordat in 2015’.
“As the report adds, this and the subsequent passage of the Policing and Crime Act in 2017 marked significant reductions in the use of police stations as places of safety, despite the general trend of rising section 136 detentions.
“However, the numbers of detentions in other units had gone up between 2017/18 and 2018/19. We therefore need a better understanding of why certain force areas saw differing rates of increase in these detentions and to see if lessons can be learnt from Police Force areas such as Gwent where figures actually fell.
“The figures also demonstrated different approaches in the way that Mental Health Triage schemes were implemented.
“These schemes are intended to bring police and mental health practitioners together to jointly assess a mental health incident in order to reduce the use of Section 136.
“Although North Wales Police saw a 70-percent increase in Section 136 detentions between 2014-2019 – to 795 – mental health clinicians are working alongside North Wales Police to provide a new triage service based at the Force Control Centre.
“This aims to help people identified as being in mental health crisis and to improve the flow of information between North Wales Police and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board.”
Mr Isherwood also referred to the fact that the Welsh Government accepted Recommendation 5 in the Report, which outlines the need for additional health based places of safety to be developed, where required, but called for “… assurance that the associated costs will be met should they be required”.
He also expressed concern that that there is no reference to autism within the report, pointing out that the proportion of people with autism in UK prisons is thought to be more than double that in the general population.
Mr Isherwood, who leads on autism policy, concluded:
“Although autism is not a mental health condition, many people with autism develop separate mental health problems which stem from a lack of appropriate support and mean that they can develop more significant needs.”
