Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of staffing requirements for dealing with cases referred under the right care, right person programme in each of the next five years; and whether those staffing requirements will be included in the NHS long-term workforce plan.

The Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) model was developed by Humberside police force. Where forces choose to adopt this approach, in partnership with health and social care partners, police will only respond to mental health incidents where there is a clear risk to life or serious harm. RCRP is not in itself a model for referring people to other agencies, but is principally a model for police in control rooms to triage calls. As such, we do not have information about how the model has impacted on the number of cases referred to the National Health Service in the areas where it is being operated.

The Department is developing a National Partnership Agreement (NPA) with the National Police Chiefs' Council, NHS England, and the Home Office to set out the principles of Right Care Right Person and encourage a national roll-out. The NPA will provide a framework for local areas to adopt the principles of the RCRP approach, but implementation will be planned locally through partnerships with police forces, health bodies and local authorities, to ensure that patient safety is maintained and people in mental health crisis are not left without support.

It will be up to local areas to identify exactly how they adopt the model. Police Chiefs are operationally independent, and moreover developing plans for implementation in partnership with local health and social care agencies will be crucial to the success of the rollout. NHS England are in the process of co-producing guidance with multi-agency professionals and people with lived experience of mental health problems to ensure that RCRP meets the needs of local vulnerable people. This local autonomy means that it is not possible to provide estimates for the information requested on costs and staffing requirements in the NHS, which will be determined differently in each area according to localised agreements and structures.

For the same reason, it is not possible to provide an assessment of the impact of the model on social services and other local authority-run services. The Department has engaged with social care stakeholders in the development of the NPA, which will encourage police forces to work in partnership with social services to ensure the model is rolled out safely.