Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many police forces employ integrated street triage for mental health services; what assessment they have made of the effectiveness of such provision; and whether they plan to encourage more police forces to employ this practice.

There is no single generic model for mental health crisis “street triage” services and the Home Office does not routinely collect information on such schemes. However, the 2018 report of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) on policing and mental health recorded that mental health triage schemes were operational in 42 of the 43 police forces in England and Wales.

There have been a number of local and academic evaluations of such schemes, however HMICFRS noted that evaluation of schemes was not always consistent and recommended that all forces should review their arrangements using practice guidelines developed by the College of Policing to help forces benchmark their triage activity. HMICFRS will be inspecting on progress as part of their integrated PEEL assessments inspection framework. It is an operational matter for Chief Officers to determine whether to establish or maintain street triage schemes.