Partnership Delivery Group

To drive forward and coordinate the work underway a Partnership Delivery Group (PDG) was established in December 2023, chaired by the Authority and involving representatives from policing, NHS, Scottish Government, those with or advocating for lived experience, academia, voluntary and third sector, local government, and emergency service partners.

A key initial task for the PDG was understanding varying practice across Scotland in relation to existing approaches to transfer of care between policing and NHS boards. Following correspondence to NHS Territorial Board Chief Executives in December 2023, seeking support for a series of local workshops focused on understanding transfer of care practice and variation across Scotland, sessions took place in March and April 2024 focused on understanding the local relationship between policing, mental health services (NHS and Local Authority) and acute NHS services.

These workshops took place across NHS Forth Valley, Highland and Lanarkshire and were attended by colleagues from local policing divisions, mental health community teams, acute mental health services, adult social care services and public health.

The facilitated sessions were discussion based, with an introductory overview of current provision in each area. Attendees discussed what works in their current model, the processes that cause a challenge, and suggestions of what improvements could be made to current ways of working. A range of good practice examples were identified through the workshops, including a direct referral telephone-based triage, proactive multi-agency case planning and shared risk assessment tools.

Outputs from these workshops informed the thinking of the PDG about what an ‘optimum’ model or approach would contain. At the same time Police Scotland hosted a series of unscheduled care workshops with key partners and stakeholders, focused on understanding functions and responses currently delivered by Police Scotland but not within the core responsibility or specific expert skillset of policing, such as transporting individuals between locations.

The findings from the wider series of workshops were used by the PDG to inform the Framework for Collaboration, designed to support and empower collaboration and consistent equitable practice across Scotland, and the Collaborative Commitments, which detail key actions to be taken in the immediate, medium and longer term to improve the system-wide response and associated outcomes for individuals in mental health distress.

The work described through the Framework and Commitments is aligned to and supports the Mental Health Unscheduled Care Network and the Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. It aims to complement and enhance by adding value to workstreams already in progress.

The Scottish Government is committed to delivering on mental health distress response, with Programme for Government 2023/24 and 2024/25 committing to responding to findings from the HMICS Thematic Review of Policing Mental Health in Scotland and ensuring that people in crisis or distress can connect with services that best meet their needs through strengthened collaboration between Police Scotland, mental health services and other partners.

The most recent Programme for Government, covering 2025/26, commits to reducing mental health demands on police officers and protecting people in crisis through improved frontline training and development of consistent national guidance on multi-agency response to psychiatric emergencies.