Information Sharing and Police Training On Vulnerable People in London
“Since the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) introduced the recording of vulnerable adult information in April 2013, there have been in excess of 20,000 reports, which show that there has been an unmet demand for a mechanism to record information on vulnerable adults” – Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector, Mental Health Team.
The MPS has been working with a range of partners to adopt a fresh approach to the way in which information is collected and shared with partners to support better outcomes for all vulnerable adults, including individuals with mental ill health. The MPS wants to reduce the incidents of crisis interventions by police and mental health services, which arise in a complex city that tends to draw vulnerable people in from across the country.
Through delivering training and guidance to all newly trained police recruits, and all front line officers and staff, the MPS is working to change the way in which vulnerable people are identified and how that information is then shared. Concerns raised as a result can then be shared with partners, through processes such as the multi-agency safeguarding hub process, with public protection units and the community multi agency risk assessment conferences (which share information to increase the safety, health and wellbeing of all, for possible further assessment or support to be offered).
All front line officers will be trained by April 2014.
Find out more about the approach being developed by the MPS from:
frankie.westoby@met.pnn.police.uk
Find out more about the psychiatric public emergency assessment tool originally developed in the University of Central Lancashire by Ivan McGlen: