POLICE, FIRE AND CRIME PANEL REPORT

Meeting Date	6^th February 2025
Report Title	Force Control Room and Right Care Right Person Update

Information should be accessible for all. If you require this information in a different language or format, please contact the Office for Policing, Fire, Crime and Commissioning at info@northyorkshire-pfcc.gov.uk.

1.0 Purpose of this Report

To provide an update on the Force Control Room, the impact of Right Care, Right Person and provide a review of response triage.

2.0 Background

The former Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner (PFCC) invested £1.8 million in the North Yorkshire Police (NYP) Force Control Room (FCR) for the 2023–2024 year.[1] This investment allowed for improvements in leadership, technology, recruitment, training, and procedures. Which in turn led to improved call answer and response times, and better assessment of vulnerability and risk. This was reflected in the Online Public Meeting on 25 January 2024[2] and subsequently at the Online Public Meeting on 23^rd January 2025. [3]

The HMICFRS PEEL inspection in 2023 identified that NYP needed to continue to improve the speed it answers 999 calls (Area for Improvement AFI 4) and to continue its improvements in initial triage when receiving calls for service (AFI 5).[4] This essentially meant they should better prioritise and categorise incoming calls to ensure the most appropriate response is deployed.

In October 2024, NYP reported the AFI 5 improvement as compete having completed a review of THRIVE+ and the identified themes and actions.[5] THRIVE+ (below) is an acronym designed to allow NYP to consistently assess risk when receiving calls for service, via any contact channel.

THRIVE+

T	Threat Is there any current or future intention to do harm by any party? Consider the victim, their family, and the community. How would the threat be carried out?
H	Harm What level of harm or damage has been caused or is likely to be caused? Harm can be physical or psychological
R	Risk What is the likelihood of harm or threat happening? How probable is the risk of harm or potential increase of the threat happening? – Low, Medium, or High. Document the log accordingly.
I	Investigation Is there a need for an investigation beyond the initial call, and if so in what form? Explain what action you are taking, EG – Send the log to dispatch for an officer to be allocated, booking an appointment, dealt with at source.
V	Vulnerability Explain if the anyone directly involved in the incident is vulnerable because of their situation or circumstance. Are they able to take care of / protect themselves or others from harm or exploitation? Are they a repeat victim - Any person who has reported three or more incidents of crime, Anti Social Behaviour or a combination of both within a 12 month period.
E	Engagement Ensure the callers understand what action you are taking. Manage their expectations and give safeguarding advice if applicable Confirm the safest way to engage with the caller i.e. Telephone, email or text
+	Prevention & Intervention Consider options to prevent further incidents, or a worsening of threat, risk, & harm. Ensure the incident is allocated to the most appropriate resource and consider sign posting to partner agencies if you deem the Police unsuitable to deal. Provide Crime Prevention Advice, Preservation of Evidence, Right Care, Right Person. Use of Pathways App.

3.0 FCR Activity Update

· There has been significant improvement in the call answering time by the force control room for 999 and 101 calls. The speed of arrival of response police officers, both in rural and urban locations, has seen intermittent improvement when compared to the previous year and ended the year on an upwards trajectory.

· Call answer time is the time taken for a call to be transferred to a force, and the time taken by that Force to answer it. NYP Service Level Agreement is for 90% of 999 calls to be answered within 10 seconds, and 80% of 101 calls to be answered in 180 seconds.

· Comparing the performance of North Yorkshire Police in December 2024 with December 2023, the number of 999 calls answered within 10 seconds had improved from 90.34% to 94.81%.

· The performance on 101 has also improved from 57.77% under 10 seconds in December 2023 to 64.31% in December 2024.

· Response times in December 2024 remained similar to those in December 2023, with only the response to immediate rural incidents improving.

Response Times	December 2023	December 2024	Difference
Immediate Rural	77%	81%	+4%
Immediate Urban	86%	84%	-2%
Priority	77%	75%	-2%

3.1 999 Calls Answered Under 10 Seconds (percentage)

2024	NYP data (%)	Police.UK data (%)	Difference
January	89.68	84.3	-5.38
February	88.95	83.4	-5.55
March	88.16	82	-6.16
April	88.13	81.7	-6.43
May	87.47	81.3	-6.17
June	87.59	82.2	-5.39
July	89.52	83.8	-5.72
August	90.45	84.7	-5.75
September	89.53	84.5	-5.03
October	91.65	86.2	-5.45
November	93.49	89.3	-4.19
December	94.81	90.6%	-4.21

Source: 999 data performance | Police.uk . Slide 1

North Yorkshire police attribute the difference between the two as the system delay between BT receiving the call and it being transferred to NYP force control room. NYP are working with BT to make improvements to the transfer delay. It is worth noting that HMICFRS will use the publicly available data when they inspect. Therefore, it is vital that the performance is continuously monitored and that the improvements are embedded.

3.2 Average 999 Answer Time (seconds)

2024	OPM Reported Answer Time (seconds)	Police.UK data (seconds)	Difference (seconds)
January	9	10.21	+ 1.21
February		9.79
March	8	9.86	+1.86
April		10.19
May	7	10.38	+3.38
June		10.4
July	7	9.49	+2.49
August		9.41
September		9.54
October	11	9.12	-1.88
November		8.3
December	4	8.23	+4.23

AS PREVIOUSLY – DELAY ATTRIBUTED TO BT HANDLING

Source: 999 data performance | Police.uk

3.3 Abandonment Rates

999 Calls

0.14% of 999 calls (475 from 323356 calls) have been abandoned since 16^th February 2022. NYP FCR always check to see a call was abandoned or was 'moved' to another line by BT. The FCR always attempt to contact the caller of all abandoned calls immediately to ensure their safety.

101 Calls

The 101-abandonment rate has declined over 2024, Abandonment rates (negative discontinuance) of 101 for the previous 12 months:

· Jan 2024 – 22%

· March 2024 – 23%

· May 2024 – 16%

· July – 16%

· October – 17%

· December – 5%

NYP are aiming to further understand abandonment by tracking the subsequent actions of callers such as using online services instead of waiting for their call to be answered. They are also introducing a live chat platform on the 3rd of February, where individuals can have a text exchange online instead of calling.

3.4 January 2025 Online Public Meeting

At the Online Public Meeting on the 23^rd of January 2025, the thematic section focussed on the force control room. [6]

Force control room performance is reported transparently at every online public meeting for North Yorkshire Police. The Chief Constable is held to account by the Deputy Mayor for Policing, Fire and Crime for any dips in performance, to ensure the public receive the best possible service. The performance packs which provide detailed information on call answer times are published on the OPFCC website a week before each meeting. [7]

4.0 RCRP Update

‘Right Care, Right Person’ (RCRP) is a strategic approach which was adopted by NYP in January 2023, and by many other police forces across the country, with all forces planning on adopting it as recommended by the National Police Chiefs Council.[8] It aims to prevent further distress to a person where there is welfare, mental health, medical or social care concerns, by getting help from people with the right training and skills to them as soon as possible. In November 2023, following recommendation from the College of Policing peer review, the Joint Strategic Governance for RCRP was formed within North Yorkshire which brought together all key partner agencies across York and North Yorkshire for joint policy and decision making. This includes a member of the team from the OPFCC.

Currently the RCRP model is only applied to calls from acute hospitals, mental health services and social care. The intention is to extend this further to include direct calls from the public. The Board is currently exploring implementation of RCRP to children and members of the public and in December 2024 the strategic group met to discuss this implementation with a variety of partners. A further meeting took place on 20^th January 2025 where a decision was taken to set up a sub-group to explore this further and feedback from this this will be taken back to the next strategic group meeting in March 2025.

4.1 Development and Review

The continued development of RCRP is in line with the national guidance provided by the College of Policing which includes, ‘Implementation principles for incidents involving children’ which was written and agreed by the Association of Directors of Children's Services, Department of Education, and other safeguarding partners. Implementation principles for incidents involving children | College of Policing

There is a RCRP panel meeting which reviews case studies to fully review and learn from experiences to ensure the appropriate approach and care was provided. A member of the OPFCC team also attends this meeting. This has led to more understanding, especially around the use of Section 136 (Section 136 of the Mental Health Act gives police emergency powers to protect a person who appears to be suffering from mental disorder and need urgent care or control). The meeting occurs monthly, has over 130 people signed up to the panel and is attended by an average of 30 members per month from many different services including mental health services, social care, ambulance, and those with lived experience.

Internally NYP have developed a RCRP dashboard which breaks down details of where the principles have been used. It demonstrates the impact and effect of RCRP and its rollout and enables NYP to highlight individual cases and provides an overview of calls attended, time taken and alleviated demand.

This dashboard is also used to identify cases and internally dip-sample incidents to ensure RCRP is being applied correctly and highlight any issues that are found so that lessons can be learned.

4.2 Training

Joint training is delivered by NYP and Tees Esk Weir Valleys (TEWV) Mental Health Triage Manager, to FCR staff because they pivotal in the delivery of RCRP. Training has included -

· The importance of using the RCRP tool kit when taking calls

· Working through a tabletop exercise which is based upon a previous Mental Health (MH) related call. This provides staff an opportunity to think about Threat, Harm and Risk and application of National Decision Model.

· Insight and learning into other options open to MH services and highlights the advantages of RCRP.

The feedback has been positive and Local Policing Support continue to dip sample incidents tagged with RCRP qualifiers monthly.

Since the inception of RCRP in NYP, 1st February 2023 to 13th January 2025, Police have received 7,824 calls for Concern for Welfare, attended 3,550 and not attended 4,274.

The number of Officer hours saved is around 23,590. Meaning this time has been used to concentrate on core Police tasks and responsibilities and has meant that the correct agency has been managing the request for service.

The monthly Section 136 Mental Health Act detentions have also decreased by 30%.

4.3 Partnership

Prior to its inception in North Yorkshire, between May 2021 and January 2023 NYP met and engaged with partners, stakeholders, and other key organisations and individuals. They used lessons learned from other forces, including Humberside police to ensure RCRP was delivered in consultation with partners.

NYP set up and led monthly and fortnightly partnership working groups, data workshops, comms strategy meetings and various briefings and workshops to the Integrated Care Board, TEWV, individual Mental Health agencies and Acute Hospitals, YAS, individual social care teams, Mental Health Partnerships, Local Resilience Forums, Safeguarding Boards, Elected Members, Independent care homes, Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), Independent Advisory Groups, Relevant Charities, MP’s and the OPFCC. Continued engagement with all partners (particularly TEWV) has been key to implementing and progressing with RCRP.

OPFCC staff will continue to attend the strategic and panel meetings to monitor the delivery of RCRP and the outcomes from this. Additionally, progress and impact of Force Control Room answer times, response times and Right Care Right Person will continue to be monitored as part of the Deputy Mayors Online Public Meetings and other meetings which take place between the Deputy Mayor, the OPFCC and North Yorkshire Police.