Children detained under Mental Health Act held for hours in A&E departments

Children as young as nine detained under the Mental Health Act are spending hours in NHS accident and emergency departments under police control rather than in specialist mental health assessment suites.

The detention under the act of children in England and Wales in police cells was banned in 2017 but a lack of suitable options has led to the use of A&E departments.

Research to be presented at a British Sociological Association conference at Northumbria University on Friday found that 187 nine-to-18-year-olds were detained under the act in a single constituency in the north of England between 2017 and 2021. Three-quarters were taken to A&E, where legally they could wait for up to 24 hours, accompanied by police officers, until they were assessed.

It was mainly children aged 16 and over who were able to access adult facilities who were taken to specialist suites under the care of trained mental health staff.

The author of the research, Dr Jayne Erlam, of Liverpool John Moores University, will tell the conference: “What is clear is that the youngest detained do not gain access to specialist suites and instead are taken to A&E.

“Taking into consideration that the person has been detained because of mental distress, such a public environment under the gaze of others can do nothing to alleviate any distress. The public nature of A&E departments is concerning, and police officers are fiercely against the use of them as a place of safety.

“Shortfalls in health and social care provision increase police contact with persons experiencing mental distress to the point where there is a reliance on policing to bridge gaps and to safeguard people who are at risk of future episodes of acute mental distress.”

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Source: The Guardian, 12 September 2025