Accommodation for children in mental health crisis gets £15m boost

The cash, which has been put up by the Department of Health and the Home Office, will be made available for bids from health trusts, local authorities, and charities to improve provision of safe locations where young people can be held.

There are currently concerns that young people in mental distress are held in police station cells because there is a lack of suitable provision.

Last year Lord Prior of Brampton, minister for NHS productivity, revealed in a parliamentary question that there had been 145 cases where under-18s were held at police stations in 2014/15 because of concerns over their mental health.

The DoH and Home Office said progress had been made to decrease the use of police cells among vulnerable people but the numbers still vary across the country. ??

It has identified 23 priority areas, which cover 10 police forces, where the use of police cells is highest and where the money will be targeted. These are: Avon and Somerset; Cleveland; Derbyshire; Devon and Cornwall; Essex; Lincolnshire; Nottinghamshire; South Yorkshire; Sussex; and West Yorkshire?.?

Organisations will be able to bid for the money in order to make existing places of safety suitable for young people aged 18 and under or be used to refurbish or improve existing health-based places of safety.

??In addition, the funding can also be used to build new places of safety, create mental health crisis cafes, provide ambulance transport to places of safety instead of using police cars, and provide vehicles for mobile services to respond to mental health crises in communities.

????Home Secretary Theresa May and Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt are due to send a joint letter to organisations in the areas inviting them to bid for the funding.

??Hunt said: “This funding will mean local areas can invest in creating safe places so people get the best support. We have made monumental strides in the way we think about and treat mental illness in this country in the last few years, but we must accelerate progress even further.”

??May added: “This funding will ensure there are alternatives to police cells available right around the country because nobody wins when the police are sent to look after people experiencing a mental health crisis – vulnerable people don’t get the care they need and deserve, and the police can’t get on with the job they are trained to do.”??