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.

Last December, figures released to CYP Now by Devon and Cornwall Police showed the number of cases rose to 32 between November 2013 and November 2014.

It also looked at evidence from the Care Quality Commission around the lack of available places of safety in hospitals and other health services for young people. Of the 161 health based places of safety across England, 56 (35 per cent) do not accept young people under the age of 16 and 16 per cent do not accept under-18s.

Within the Avon area in the west of England there are no health-based places of safety for under-16s. The committee report adds: “We are told of numerous examples of the police spending hours trying to locate somewhere other than a police cell.”

YoungMinds chief executive Sarah Brennan called for appropriate funding in mental health services to ensure enough spaces are made available for young people.

She said: “We desperately need fully resourced, locally based, appropriate provision which fully meets the needs of children and young people undergoing the truly frightening experience of a mental health crisis.”

Dr Mary Jane Tacchi, crisis care lead at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, also called on CCGs to “prioritise investment in crisis care services and commission adequate provision of health-based places of safety as a matter of urgency”.

In response to the report, care and support minister Norman Lamb said: "I've been very clear that I want to ban the use of police cells for under-18s who need mental health care and should only be used for adults in exceptional circumstances – we are working to make this the reality.

"We've already taken action through the Crisis Care Concordat to get NHS, police and other services working together to improve crisis care and help end the use of police cells. Every area in the country has signed up to the concordat and nationally the use of police cells has already reduced by 24 per cent this year but we will continue to push for further progress.”