Police Right Care Right Person (RCRP) update from the campaign sub-group:

Campaign members have rightly or wrongly relied on the police for a long time to attend certain mental health crises. Professionals have also often relied on police for assistance during hospital absconsions, missing persons, mental health crises that may involve aggression, harm or threat to life. Police were often called out to people when they rung for mental health assistance through the first response line, crisis teams or 111 option 2. Some experiences of campaign members said that the attitudes and assistance by police were often better than the experiences they had received from mental health services.

What is Right Care Right Person?

Developed by Humberside Police, Right Care Right Person is an approach that signposts people to the appropriate professionals, in the case of mental health crises, that would be directing people to the mental health care providers or calling for a mental health response car.

2023 figures show that Norfolk Constabulary received 22,959 welfare calls (made up 12% of all calls) and officers attending 55% of those. Welfare calls are often for social care, mental health or medical health issues. Another issues for the police was the lack of handover in situations where mental health professionals should take on the responsibility of the person in need of help. For example, the review by the National Police Chiefs Council (NPSS) found that 1million hours of police time was taken up waiting with mental health patients for an assessment. This situation may arise at A and E, awaiting psychiatric liaison teams, or at 136 suites within psychiatric hospital settings, to wait for mental health staff to arrive on call. 


Creation of a sub-group

After not having much available information about the roll out we formed our own research sub group within the campaign group. The group took on the task to investigate more and to halt the implementation until it was safe to do so. We sent a letter asking questions about this new Police approach to every partner involved; adult social services, safeguarding teams, NSFT, Norfolk Constabulary, Norfolk Fire Service, the ICB and the Police Crime Commissioner.

“We agree that the police should not be attending mental health crises for all the reasons that are stated. However, we are concerned that particularly in Norfolk, mental health services are not dealing with crises and on many occasions, it has been reported that police have responded better than NSFT and 111 services, and has been a valuable protective factor, although far from ideal.

We thank you for again considering our questions and the points we have raised. We look forward to your responses.” (Closing paragraph of subgroup letters)

Controversy grew around the original launch date in February 2024 which was subsequently postponed following a triple homicide, suicide in Costessey, Norfolk in January 2024. The man Bartlomiej Kuczynski who took his life after tragically killing his daughters and his sister in law. The Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) confirmed that Bartlomiej had been a patient and had discharged himself and the day of the tragic events, Bartlomiej had called the Police via 999 yet no officer responded. When the rollout was announced again after a pause due to this serious and tragic incident, Assistant Chief Constable Nick Davison, overseeing the implementation of RCRP said, “While we believed it was right to introduce RCRP and were fully prepared to go live in February, we postponed the roll-out to give us extra time to provide additional information and reassurance to the public and our partners, to address the concerns and commentary brought about by the tragic events in Costessey.”

The sub-group continued correspondence with the services following the Costessey deaths and asked for advance warning of RCRP going live. However, we were only given a few weeks notice by finding out through the press despite the Constabulary assuring us in a letter that they would personally let us know in good time. We never did hear from them about the roll out. 

We kept sharing concerns about the large gap that may be caused when the police step back from assistance, knowing that in this area, we do not have the right person or the right care available. The public and public services are aware of the troubled mental health Trust and lack of services covering Norfolk and Suffolk. That same Trust expressed their own concerns about the roll out of RCRP at the time, yet still have not given the public, nor their own governors substantial reasons as to why this is the case.

Misinformation and lack of public information was fuelling worry and confusion amongst people whose lifestyles as carers or service users had not changed and we felt no-body of authority was talking. During June and July a general election was called, causing a silence amongst public services claiming the electoral period of sensitivity, even though these plans had already been approved, planned, set out and were awaiting roll out. 


Meeting the Police Crime Commissioner

The group wanted to desperately understand the process and feedback reassurance or process to the worried community, and still we could not get answers. When the new Police Crime Commissioner, Sarah Taylor was elected, the subgroup asked if it would be possible to meet and talk through these concerns and questions. 

Within 30 minutes of discussion and transparency, the group was able to gain more information than they had done in the last 11 months. PCC Taylor explained that RCRP would be in place for every single call that came in. Whether it was for someone who lost their bike, someone who could get help from minor injuries or someone who was in a severe crisis. All calls coming through control would be triaged through Right Care Right Person, not just mental health calls as an anomaly. This amongst other things were never explained during the year that these RCRP roll out plans were in public knowledge and discussed and explained in the press. 

Tracey Bleakley, Chief Executive Officer, NHS Norfolk and Waveney Integrated Care Board (ICB), said: “All partners are committed to working collaboratively and carefully together to implement the Right Care, Right Person model.

PCC Taylor also spoke of desires to work more collaboratively with the Trust and wanted to build a positive relationship. She seemed to understand the sub-groups frustration and concerns and tried to give assurance. She said that it was advantageous that Norfolk was one of the last Forces to implement RCRP as they are able to take the largest amount of learning from all of the other roll outs. We are hoping to keep a dialogue open with the PCC as well as other partners to keep updated about the roll out as well as the partnership with NSFT and the Police.

Scroll to Top