Background & Context

The Scottish Police Authority has maintained an increased focus on vulnerability and mental health demand, specifically how policing best responds to calls for service, for over two years. In line with that sustained focus the Authority agreed that mental health would be a board priority, with board member Fiona McQueen asked to lead as Board champion on the issue.

In early 2022, following discussion at Authority and committees on pressures being faced by Police Scotland in responding to mental health related demand, Martyn Evans made a commitment that the Authority would place a greater focus on the appropriate police response to calls for service around mental health issues and Fiona McQueen was asked to lead this work on behalf of the Authority. Since then, there have been several public Board and committee discussions and sessions at Members Seminars.

The Scottish Parliament’s Criminal Justice Committee also expressed an interest in this area of policing and held an evidence session in May 2022 which the Authority and Police Scotland contributed to. To take these discussions further, the Authority convened a discussion on the societal-wide impact of poor mental health in the community; with a focus on vulnerability and distress in December 2022. This event aimed to:

Bring together partner agencies and other key stakeholders to establish a collective understanding of the challenge and the current approaches to addressing it;

Set the wicked issue in the context of a growing challenge not only to policing but to the public and third sector and communities across Scotland, the UK and wider;

Describe the proactive and prevention focused work being taken forward by Police Scotland in collaboration with key partners; 

Recognise the interdependencies, partnership interfaces and opportunities in the system, identifying current best practice that could be adopted as common practice and then nationally consistent approaches.

A number of commitments were made as a result of the event in December 2022, with progress reported to Policing Performance Committee in September 2023. Following this event the Authority also published a briefing on mental health and policing, which details the strategic position in relation to mental health related calls for service and the Police Scotland response to these.

The Authority, Police Scotland and Scottish Government agree that mental health distress related demand on policing, requires a multi-agency and multi-faceted approach including effective partnerships, training, community engagement, and support mechanisms for officers.