MPs call for ban on cell use for children in mental health crisis

A Commons home affairs committee report on mental health illness within the criminal justice system is highly critical of the continued use of police cells for children and young people experiencing a mental health crisis and lack of available alternative places of safety.

It lays the blame at the door of NHS clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) for failing to commission appropriate “places of safety” at local hospitals for children.

The committee welcomes a joint announcement by Home Secretary Theresa May and care minister Norman Lamb last year calling for the use of police cells for this vulnerable group of young people to stop.

But it calls on ministers to do more to get the message across to police forces and ensure they know the practice is “unacceptable and must stop”.

In addition, ministers are being urged to ensure adult mental health providers do not turn away young people, “particularly when the alternative is a prison cell”, even though placing children in adult facilities is banned under the Mental Health Act 2008.

The committee also wants the next Queen’s Speech to reform section 136 of the Mental Health Act (1983) to ensure police cells are no longer a legal designated place of safety for children.

Committee chairman Keith Vaz MP said: “The detention of children with mental health issues in police cells must cease immediately. Last year, 236 children were detained in a police cell under section 136. NHS places must be made available for children locally.”

The report also details the five police forces with the highest number of children detained in cells during 2013/14. Topping the list is Devon and Cornwall with 30 young people, followed by Lincolnshire with 25 and North Yorkshire, Hampshire and Sussex with 20 each.