Police demand related to mental health has continued to increase overall despite extra investment and partnership work that is going on within this field. Much of the focus to date has been on understanding the complexity of what drives mental health crisis and embedding a public health approach to collaboration and joint problem solving. It is incumbent on the police and partners to continue to improve the interoperability between services and aim to achieve a more consistent approach through better linkage of local, regional and national structures.

The concept of ‘Right Care, Right Person’ has its origins in both the NHS and latterly in policing. It is an approach designed to ensure that when there are concerns for a person’s welfare linked to their mental health, medical or social care issues a simple principle guides the response. That is the right person with the right skills, training and experience should provide the appropriate level of care and support. Ensuring care is provided by the agency that can best meet the individual’s needs should be the overriding objective for health and policing to establish, it is clear that in many cases this will not be the police.

The complex dynamic of managing risk balanced against the compassion required in responding to mental health means the lines of responsibility between different agencies are often blurred. In this sixth national conference on Policing and Mental Health we will hear from key speakers to examine in detail a fundamentally different approach of how policing may better define its future role in responding to health & social care issues. There will also be opportunity to explore the issues of disproportionality in mental health detentions and preventing unnecessary entry into the criminal justice system.