Driving in this morning I hear new Home Secretary Theresa May squirming a bit over the “rock and hard place” which is Tory distrust versus Lib Dem support for the Human Rights Act – there’s going to be a commission on it which sounds like quite long grass! For now I’m interested in her plans for policing. The police are bound to get squeezed by public expenditure cuts but May is sweetening this by significantly extending police powers to launch prosecutions without Crown Prosecution Service involvement for things like minor assaults and theft.
Hmm. This places a lot of responsibility on desk sergeants to make the right judgements and I’m not saying they can’t do that: however, that new responsibility will make yet more urgent the need to provide guidance and training to the police on how to handle people with a serious mental illness, including when to divert them to mental health services rather than charge them. Hafal has recently begun to gain an invaluable insight into this as our Criminal Justice Link team is piloting a new “Appropriate Adult” scheme in Cardiff – providing a trained supporter for every person with an evident mental health problem when they are taken into custody. As we expected we are working very effectively with the police on the scheme and observing much good practice on their part (we have also noted the delay caused by waiting for CPS decisions). This reflects the generally good experience which Hafal’s Members report of their dealings with police officers: they are especially popular with carers of people with very serious problems because they will respond in emergencies when (frankly) mental health services regrettably sometimes won’t. For all this there remains a need for mental health services to engage much more effectively with the police to ensure that people with serious mental illness are treated fairly and compassionately in the community: they are of course much more likely to be victims of crime than to commit offences. For Hafal’s advice to people with a mental illness who get into trouble with the law see here; for our suggestions to improve services for people with a mental illness who are also caught up in the criminal justice system see here.
STOP PRESS
Over lunch I see May's speech to the Police Federation contrasting the "Broken Society" with the "Big Society" (see here): I think I understand what she means but I'm not convinced that this odd use of language will catch on. I also recollect the widespread satirical merriment when Tony Blair launched his "Big Conversation" in 2003.
