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<p>The Home Office together with their colleagues in the Department of Health have
provided support mental health professionals and the police in England and Wales to
enable them to work together to co-ordinate the right responses to people experiencing
a mental health crisis.</p><p> </p><p>Between October 2013 and May 2015 the Department
of Health funded Street Triage pilots in nine areas. NHS England subsequently published
an evaluation into its effectiveness in November 2015. Street Triage schemes now operate
in over 25 police force areas for which funding is provided by local partners for
example Police and Crime Commissioners and Clinical Commissioning Groups. The Home
Office has awarded £155,220 through the Police Innovation Fund to support a North
Wales Police Mental Health Triage project. North Wales Police will evaluate the work
following the end of the Home Office funding period on 31 March 2017.</p><p> </p><p>Police
forces may apply for future funding for Street Triage through the Police Transformation
Fund.</p><p> </p><p>For those arrested in England on suspicion of committing an offence
and taken to police custody Liaison and Diversion schemes, commissioned by NHS England
to a national model, operate in over 50% of police forces areas and will be rolled
out nationally by 2020/21. These schemes aim to identify, assess and refer people
with mental health and other complex needs into appropriate support and treatment
and where appropriate may influence sentencing options. The Department of Health has
funded an evaluation into the effectiveness of Liaison and Diversion which is due
to report in 2019.</p><p> </p><p>Crisis Care Concordat partnerships have been established
in England and Wales since 2015 and play a pivotal role in coordinating these approaches
and improving mental health crisis care pathways. Whilst financial support for Mind’s
secretariat has been withdrawn, we remain committed to ensuring the Crisis Care Concordat
continues to progress and a national steering group is taking this forward.</p><p>
</p><p>To assess the adequacy of the legislative framework a joint review of policing
powers within the Mental Health Act 1983 was conducted by the Home Office and Department
of Health during 2014. Following this review both the Home Office and Department of
Health are engaged in preparations for forthcoming changes to the Mental Health Act
1983 as contained in the Policing and Crime Act 2017 and which are designed to further
improve the response to those in mental health crisis.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p>To support
these legislative provisions we have recently allocated some £15m in funding to 88
projects across 40 Crisis Care Concordat partnerships to improve places of safety
provision and ensure that people in mental health crisis are not detained in police
stations. A further £15m of funding has been announced to continue this work.</p><p>
</p><p>These steps have been successful in reducing the use of cells and National
Police Chiefs Council data highlighted a 54% reduction in the use of cells as places
of safety from 2014/15 (4,537 occasions) - 2015/16 (2,100 occasions).</p>
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