Mental Health Services: Children

(asked on 3rd December 2014) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, on how many occasions mental health professionals in Devon have been unable to find suitable accommodation for children suffering a crisis in each of the last five years.


Answered by
Norman Lamb Portrait
Norman Lamb
This question was answered on 10th December 2014

The information requested is not available. Such information as is available is as follows.

We are advised that in the area served by Devon and Cornwall Constabulary, in 2013-14 30 people aged under 18 were taken to a police station as a place of safety, following a detention made under section 136 of the Mental Health Act (MHA) 1983.

The MHA does not, under any circumstances, allow for the use of prison for the detention of people of any age.

We are also advised that the Northern Eastern and Western Devon Clinical Commissioning Group is currently looking at the possibility of commissioning an existing unit within its area as a Place of Safety, to ensure that the risk of delays between Tier Three and Tier Four services is reduced as much as possible. Discussions with NHS England and Plymouth Community Healthcare about this are ongoing.

Devon and Cornwall have now signed their local crisis care declaration, demonstrating a commitment to deliver improved outcomes for people in crisis at a local level. The Crisis Care Concordat includes a standard that no child under the age of 18 should be place in a police cell as a result of experiencing a mental health crisis.

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