Local council cuts led to people being held longer in police custody due to lack of appropriate adults
Below is a copy of the service specification for the provision of an appropriate adult service for vulnerable adults in Merseyside Police custody (for the financial year 2018-19).
It arises from a request I made earlier this year for the contract to the Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside. Although there is a legal requirement on local councils to provide appropriate adults for juveniles, in some areas of Merseyside local council social services departments withdrew an appropriate adult service for adults due to budget cuts.
As Merseyside Police had a legal duty to provide appropriate adults for vulnerable adults in custody this lack of appropriate adults unfortunately led to vulnerable adults being held in police custody longer than they would have been had there not been problems over providing appropriate adults. There was also a lack of clarity as to whether the Police and Crime Commissioner, local council or clinical commissioning group would commission the service as well as arguments over who should fund it. Eventually the Police and Crime Commissioner for Merseyside commissioned the service from an outside third party.
The appropriate adult service according to the service specification for 2018-19 doesn’t provide an in person appropriate adult between midnight and 7am and based on figures from 2016-17 was used 663 times over that year.
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