"Right Person, Right Place" initiative from North Yorkshire Police will see new approach to welfare calls

In close collaboration with health and social care partners across North Yorkshire and the City of York, North Yorkshire Police is set to roll-out a significant new policy from January 31 2023.
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‘Right Care, Right Person’ is designed to ensure that when there are concerns for a person’s welfare linked to mental health, medical or social care issues, the right person with the right skills, training and experience will respond.

In recent years, police officers have often been required to offer support to those who really require specialist medical or psychological care.

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Under ‘Right Care, Right Person’, officers will no longer be taking on this responsibility when it is not appropriate to do so.

Yorkshire Ambulance Service - patient transfer serviceYorkshire Ambulance Service - patient transfer service
Yorkshire Ambulance Service - patient transfer service

The care will now be provided by the agency that can best meet the individual’s needs.

Phase 1 of the roll-out, from January 31 2023, will focus on ‘Concern for Welfare’ and ‘Concern for Safety’ reports from Health Care providers.

Phase 2, covering ‘Concern for Welfare’ and ‘Concern for Safety’ reports from Social Care providers, will get underway on March 31 2023.

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Assistant Chief Constable Mike Walker, Local Policing Lead at North Yorkshire Police, said:

Assistant Chief Constable Mike Walker, North Yorkshire PoliceAssistant Chief Constable Mike Walker, North Yorkshire Police
Assistant Chief Constable Mike Walker, North Yorkshire Police

“Our commitment to protect the most vulnerable in our communities is not changing and we will still attend where there is an immediate risk to life or a risk of serious harm.

“However, when agencies call us about issues which do not meet the threshold for police intervention under the ‘Right Care, Right Person’ model, we will signpost them to the most appropriate service to take primacy.

“In some cases, we may need to deploy alongside medical or mental health workers where those agencies need to take primacy but there is still a risk to those involved.

Threshold for police intervention

The threshold for police intervention will be:

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There is an immediate risk to life or serious harm to an identified person

Immediate harm – it is obvious to the police that there is a risk to life presently, at this moment or in the immediate future, or has already occurred

Serious harm – there is a risk of significant harm to the person concerned, this can be physical harm, serious neglect issues, significant mental health symptoms, all of which would amount to the suffering of potential significant injuries or psychological harm

ACC Walker said: “We will be making a distinction between calls from the public and those made by partner agencies and statutory bodies.

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“We know that when members of the public call they may not be able to perform welfare checks themselves.

“We will also make a distinction between calls relating to adults and those relating to juveniles, taking into account additional safeguarding responsibilities for vulnerable children.

“There may be instances when the call for service does not meet our threshold for attendance. In these circumstances, where appropriate, we will signpost to other agencies.”

All calls for service expressing ‘Concern for Welfare’ and ‘Concern for Safety’ will be recorded, regardless of it being resourced or not.

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ACC Walker said: “The objective is to ‘get it right first time’. “It will be made clear at the outset to the caller or agency that North Yorkshire Police is ‘assisting’ them, and they currently still hold primacy for this person.”