Right Care, Right Person helps get people the right support and allows officers to do their core job and not be \u201cthe jack of all trades\u201d, South Yorkshire Police Federation has said.<\/p>\n
The final phase of Right Care, Right Person (RCRP) launched in South Yorkshire on 23 October, with the aim of protecting vulnerable people who need support for mental health-related incidents. Meanwhile police officers can use their time better to tackle crime and support victims.<\/p>\n
South Yorkshire Police Federation Chair Steve Kent said: \u201cIt\u2019s massively important that officers are able to get on with the job they should be doing. When I go out and speak to officers across the force, some of them are noticing the impact this is having. It sounds like a lot of the local authorities are trying to now work with us after initial resistance on this.\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued: \u201cThere has been a bit of a shock to the system in terms of people\u2019s expectations on what policing should and shouldn\u2019t be doing. This has got to carry on and we need to make sure that it\u2019s embedded, otherwise we\u2019ll slip back into old habits of saying yes to everything. The police tend to do that. We tend to just say, \u2018Yeah, we\u2019ll deal with this, we\u2019ll deal with that\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou still see examples in our force of instances that slip through the net, where it\u2019s firmly a social care or NHS matter but it\u2019s coming to the police and we\u2019re sending officers out there. As a result of that, our ability to deal with our core role is reduced. Then we see articles about the police not doing enough for burglaries. Well, you wonder why, when we\u2019re the jack of all trades.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to continue with this one and we\u2019ve got to be brave, because a lot of the public would be shocked at some of the incidents that we go to.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat Right Care, Right Person does is it gives officers the confidence \u2013 because it\u2019s backed with really sound legal advice \u2013 to say, \u2018No, we\u2019re following legal advice and legal guidelines here\u2019. Senior managers are paid to make decisions and they should be making decisions. The flip side of that is, they should then be supported by the organisation when they do make their decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n