Cost and safety concerns hamper crisis care

Most integrated care boards report a lack of funding is hampering the NHS’s efforts to respond better to mental health crisis incidents, rather than requiring a police response.

The Department of Health and Social Care has published an evaluation of the Right Care, Right Person model, which was introduced nationally last year in response to the police arguing they were spending huge resources on these cases, and would stop answering them.

The NHS said it would move to RCRP, based on a pilot in Humberside in which the health service had dealt with more crises without police input. 

However, mental health service leaders have consistently raised concerns about funding, and the speed of rollout.

The concerns have now been confirmed in the DHSC evaluation, which includes a survey of integrated care boards and councils.

Of the 34 ICBs asked between autumn 2023 and spring 2024, 62% said they had experienced “barriers”. The majority of these ICBs said “cost/funding pressure” was the biggest barrier (86%), followed by “lack of clarity regarding responsibilities of agencies when responding to incidents” (71%), then “lack of workforce to cope with demands” (67%).

Sixty per cent of ICBs reported their “health-based place of safety” — where patients are meant to be taken after being detained under section 136 of the Mental Health Act — did not ”meet demand”. This was mostly because of a lack of adult inpatient beds, followed by a rising number of detentions, ICBs said. 

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Source: HSJ, 11 December 2024