A drive to end the use of police cells as "places of safety" for mentally ill people who are detained for their own safety has been announced by the home secretary.
Theresa May told the Police Federation that police officers were not meant to be social workers, psychiatrists or ambulance drivers and should not have to spend 15 to 25% of their time dealing with people with mental health problems.
"Police officers need the assurance that vulnerable people with mental health problems will be dealt with by health and social services, not the police," she told the federation's annual conference in Bournemouth.
The drive follows the publication last week of an independent report by Lord Adebowale into the deaths or serious injuries of 55 mentally ill people while in custody or in contact with the Metropolitan police in the past five years. It found a catalogue of mismanagement and bad practices.
May said that police were not doctors and it was wrong that in more than a third of cases where mentally ill people are detained for their own safety, the place of safety was not a hospital but a police cell. She said the issue was a major concern whenever she met police officers around the country.
She had agreed with the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, that it was not acceptable for any local area to lack a health-based place of safety: "We will therefore undertake an urgent assessment of the availability of current places of safety. The health secretary and I will receive the conclusions of this work in the next two months, and I expect its findings to be acted upon quickly."
Money had been found to open a new health-based place of safety in Scarborough in October and two more to open by next March to fill the "unacceptable gap that there isn't a single health-based facility in North Yorkshire at present.''
"In the meantime, the NHS is exploring interim options to ensure that police stations do not remain the default destination."
May also approved a national scheme for mental health nurses to accompany beat officers when somebody is likely to be detained on mental health grounds.
"I believe all these proposals will make a real difference to police officers on the ground. But ultimately police officers need the assurance that vulnerable people with mental health problems will be dealt with by health and social care services, not the police."
The problem could only be fully resolved by the development of full and effective mental health services, but in the meantime the Department of Health was to review section 136 of the Mental Health Act, which allows the police toput someone in a police cell for their own protection.
May was given a polite reception at the conference in contrast to the jeers and boos that greeted her last year.
She also said she wanted to put an end to "frivolous'' legal claims against the public after a Norfolk officer sued the owner of a petrol station in Thetford, Norfolk, after injuring a leg and wrist while attending a call.
"I want to work with the federation to make sure police officers don't make frivolous claims. Not least because it would be quite wrong if people become reluctant to call the police for fear of being sued."
She confirmed the announcement of "life will mean life'' sentences for the murderers of police and prison officers, and the extension of police prosecution powers to take over 50,000 shoplifting cases a year where goods taken are worth less than £200.
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