Policing Together and working with communities

Mental Health Taskforce
Deputy Chief Constable Alan Speirs is leading Police Scotland’s collaboration with partners including health colleagues, the Authority, the Scottish Government, and the third sector and we’ve established a mental health taskforce to drive work to reset the parameters of our contribution to a system-wide approach to mental health.
The taskforce has established a number of workstreams, with promising indications that progress is being made including:
• All Contact, Command and Control (C3) personnel have been trained to use the Mental Health Pathway. This collaboration with NHS24 helps ensure members of the public access the right care at an earlier stage, redirecting officers back to core policing duties. In the year after training of C3 personnel commenced in September 2023, the number of referrals to the pathway increased by over 2,000, which equates to a reduction of 41,932 officer hours being spent responding to mental health calls where they are not needed. Over 12,000 referrals have been made since the pathway was first established in August 2020.
• All officers have access to the Mental Health Index (MHI) which allows them to speak to clinicians in their area, when they have encountered an individual in mental health crisis or distress, who can offer advice and arrange access to the most appropriate services. Since the MHI was introduced in September 2024, we’ve received positive feedback from officers around the benefits to individuals as well as reductions in the length of time spent on incidents.
• In February, 70 officers from across Scotland attended a train the trainer event for Distress Brief Intervention (DBI) in Glenrothes. DBI enables trained officers to signpost and refer people experiencing mental health distress to the right agency which can provide the support they need. This event will enable more officers to deliver the training locally, increasing divisional capacity in the 14 health board areas signed up to the DBI service. Over 1,900 officers are now trained in DBI and more than 4,600 referrals have been made since 2017.

Supported victims - People at Heart
The People at Heart approach was developed by the First Word in partnership with criminal justice agencies, third sector partners and people with lived experience.
The approach aims to put people at the heart of communications by being empathetic and empowering, and ensuring that communications are easy to access and understand. Alongside rewriting key justice communications, the First Word has produced a People at Heart style guide and training materials to support the transformation of written communications with victims and witnesses across the criminal justice system.
During Victims’ Awareness Week in February, officers and staff took part in an introductory webinar to find out more about how we can take a more person-centred, trauma-informed, approach to our communications. This month, we are building on that introduction with workshops delivered by the First Word.

Marking cultural and religious events
Recognising the various cultural and religious events that are important to our people and the communities we serve is an important part of our commitment to becoming an anti-discriminatory service.
This month we celebrated International Women’s Day by sharing content on our internal communication channels, and earlier this week we held an online panel event, that included ACC Emma Bond, which discussed sex equality and how we tackle misogyny.
We are also marking Ramadan and have shared content and guidance across the Service that raises awareness and includes practical policing considerations and information on fasting for all colleagues and managers.
As part of our Policing Together inclusion calendar, we’re also sharing messages about Lent during March and April.
Understanding that our colleagues who are neurodivergent have unique and valuable skills that they bring to policing can be a real source of strength for Police Scotland. We shone a light on that last week (17 to 23 March) as we marked Neurodiversity Celebration Week across the organisation.

Interfaith communities
Through our Policing Together programme we are working to better understand and connect with the underrepresented communities we serve, and local policing teams play an important part in building these relationships.
This month, 25 probationary constables took part in an awareness session with representatives from the Edinburgh's interfaith communities.
The programme of work with the Edinburgh Interfaith Association (EIFA) aims to provide officers with enhanced knowledge and understanding of different communities’ beliefs and traditions, as well as operational considerations.

International Policing Engagement

Policing in Scotland has a strong track record of international development programmes over the course of many decades and there is great value in enhancing policing nationally and internationally through partnerships, learning and innovation.
In recent weeks we welcomed a delegation of 27 American and Canadian law enforcement representatives as part of their preparations for policing the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
This international interest underlines Police Scotland's strong reputation for the effective and values based policing of major events with experience including the Commonwealth Games, UEFA Euro 2020, golf championships, COP26 and the Cycling World Championships
We also recently hosted 12 officers from the police services of Malawi and Zambia and delivered a two week-long course of specialist training, focusing on leading investigations and supporting victims in cases of sexual violence and other gender-based violence, including child protection issues.

The visit was co-ordinated by our International Academy and is part of a three-year programme of assistance to Malawi and Zambia via the Scottish Government's International Development remit. This visit concluded as we marked International Women's Day, highlighting our efforts within our organisation to make Police Scotland an inclusive and welcoming place to work, and with partner services and agencies overseas, to address Violence Against Women and Girls.