Policing, Health and Social Care: working together to protect and prevent harm to vulnerable people

07/02/2018

Today (Wednesday 7th February) sees the publication of a consensus statement agreed between a range of policing, health and social care organisations, including the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners, to work closer together and intervene earlier to address the common factors that bring people into contact with the police, criminal justice system and the health service. Read here.

The statement sets out a series of high level objectives that will be taken forward over the next few months through a shared set of actions that will help improve the use of data, further integrate policing and public health work, drawing on examples of good practice and supporting the workforce.

Published alongside it is a landscape review examining the collaborative work being undertaken and was based on a survey of police forces, OPCCs, and various national and regional organisations (including Public Health England and NHS England).  It indicated that there was a good deal of work going on, particularly around mental health, health in custody, drugs and alcohol.  It also identified that growing areas of future collaboration included social isolation, homelessness and Adverse Childhood Experiences, which could indicate a move towards earlier intervention and prevention. Read here.

Finally, published in parallel is a joint booklet from the Centre of Excellence for Information, the Home Office and the UK Caldicott Guardian Council called ‘Putting information sharing at the heart of collaborative working’. It highlights the importance of data sharing and includes a range of case studies that show how having information governance in place can enable and support health services and the police service to work effectively together.  It will be updated in May 2018 following the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulations. Read here.

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