Police Involvement In Interagency Crisis Mental Health First Response Pathways In England: A Realist And Cost Consequence Analysis (PIONEER-MH)

​​The Data will be used for the purpose of a research project:

​Police Involvement In Interagency Crisis Mental Health First Response Pathways In England: A Realist And Cost Consequence Analysis (PIONEER-MH)

​The aim of the project are to understand and evaluate the implementation, delivery, costs, and outcomes of community multi-agency first response mental health crisis pathways in England in response to the policing strategy ‘Right Care Right Person’ (RCRP). It aims to address evidence gaps regarding the impact of Right Care Right Person (RCRP) on NHS service demand, Patient outcomes, Interagency working and System-level costs

​NHS England data will be accessed and analysed within the National Secure Data Environment (SDE) as part of Workstream 2a (longitudinal observational study) which will be used to inform Workstream 3 (cost-consequence analysis). The Data will be used to assess changes in service utilisation, patient outcomes, and system-level resource use before and after implementation of RCRP across selected study sites.

​The study sites are Avon and Somerset, Cumbria, West Yorkshire and South London Lambeth Borough. ​

Cumbria, Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust (CNTWNFT) will provide Provider Codes in the form of Organisation Data Service codes (ODS) in relation to the four constabulary study sites to NHS England.

NHS England will grant access to the Data via the Secure Data Environment (SDE). The SDE is a secure data and research analysis platform. It allows approved researchers with approved projects access to pseudonymised data and industry-leading analytics tools.

NHS England provide access to the relevant records from the HES APC and ECDS, and MHSDS via NHS England Secure Data Environment (SDE). The Data will contain no direct identifying data items. The Data will be pseudonymised and individuals cannot be reidentified.

SDE users can request exportation of aggregated analysis results (suppressed and summarised according to the NHSE SDE Disclosure Control rules) subject to review and approval by the NHS England SDE Output Checking team. The SDE Output Checking team will ensure that no output contains information which could be used either on its own or in conjunction with other data to breach an individual's privacy.

Users must identify themselves via a multi-factor authentication mechanism and are only able to access the datasets detailed within this DSA. The access and use of the system is fully auditable, and all users must comply with the use of the Data as specified in this DSA.

Users are only authorised to access the Data specified in this DSA and can utilise a variety of analytical tools available within the SDE platform. Users are not permitted to export record-level data from the SDE.

The use of the Data is restricted to employees of CNTWFT and Northumbria University who have authorisation from the Project Lead

All personnel accessing the Data have been appropriately trained in data protection and confidentiality.

There will be no requirement and no attempt to reidentify individuals when using the Data

NHS England will use the ODS codes by CNTWFT to provision the relevant fields and years of data.

The Data will be stored on servers at NHS England

The Data will be accessed by authorised personnel via remote access.

The Controller(s) must confirm and provide evidence upon audit by NHS England that access via any remote device complies with the data security obligations within this DSA and the Data Sharing Framework Contract.

For remote access:

- Remote access will only be from secure locations situated within the territory of use (as further restricted elsewhere within the DSA if so done) stated within this DSA;

- Access controls granting users the minimum level of access required are in place;

- Remote access is only via secure connections (e.g., VPNs or secure protocols) to protect data;

- Multifactor authentication (MFA) is required for remote access;

- Device security, including up-to-date software and operating systems, antivirus software, and enabled firewalls are utilised for the remote access;

- All remote access is undertaken within the scope of the organisation’s DSPT (or other security arrangements as per this DSA) and complies with the organisation’s remote access policy.

The above applies in addition to any condition set out elsewhere within the DSA (e.g. who may carry out processing, and for what purpose).

Remote processing will be from secure locations within the UK. The Data will not leave the UK at any time.

The Data will not be linked with any other data outside of this agreement.

Expected outputs include:

• Peer-reviewed academic publications

• Policy briefings for the Department of Health and Social Care, NIHR, and partner agencies

• Reports on changes in demand, pathways, outcomes, and costs associated with RCRP

Dissemination will include local presentations in each study site (including the ICB), national presentations to the NHS, Police Commissioners and international conference papers. Where appropriate, PIONEER MH Study will share findings with professional bodies such as the Colleges of Policing and Paramedics, and the Royal Colleges of Psychiatrists and Nursing.

Papers will be prepared for academic journals and findings will be presented at academic and professional conferences in partnership with peer researchers and PPI members. Anonymised interview, survey and workshop data from all workstreams will be made available through Northumbria University’s data repository.

At their request, PIONEER MH Study will be sharing regular updates with the Department of Health and Social Care by in person meetings and email updates.

PIONEER MH Study plan to share findings on social media channels hosted by our partners where appropriate, and via CNTWNFT and Northumbria University’s press office. PIONEER MH Study are also setting up a webpage where PIONEER MH Study will post regular updates on the study.

The outputs will not contain NHS England Data and will only contain aggregated information with small numbers suppressed as appropriate in line with the relevant disclosure rules for the dataset(s) from which the information was derived.

Knowledge mobilisation is expected to conclude on 31/11/27.

The services provided to clients are expected to identify improvement opportunities which the client may then exploit by making changes to systems, processes, resources or infrastructure in order to improve patient experience and patient care.

The use of the data could:

• help the system to better understand the health and care needs of populations.

• lead to the identification or improvement of treatments or interventions, or health and care system design to improve health and care outcomes or experience.

• advance understanding of regional and national trends in health and social care needs.

It is hoped that through publication of findings in appropriate media, the findings of this research will add to the body of evidence that is considered by the bodies, organisations and individual care practitioners charged with making policy decisions for or within the NHS or treatment decisions in relation to specific patients.

The expected measurable benefits are:

1. Improved evidence for service planning and commissioning

• Quantitative estimates of changes in emergency department attendances, admissions, Mental Health Act use, and crisis service activity following RCRP implementation.

• These findings will enable NHS England, Integrated Care Boards, and providers to make evidence-based decisions about crisis care capacity and workforce deployment.

2. Improved understanding of patient outcomes and equity impacts

• Measurement of changes in repeat crisis contacts, length of stay, and onward referrals, stratified by demographic and geographic characteristics.

• This will support identification of populations disproportionately affected by changes in crisis response, informing equity-focused service improvement.

3. Evidence on system efficiency and resource use

• Cost consequence analysis will quantify changes in NHS resource utilisation across emergency, acute, and community mental health services associated with RCRP.

• These outputs will provide measurable indicators of efficiency impacts, including potential cost pressures or savings

Target date: Dissemination of final report 30/11/27.

Yielded Benefits is not a requirement for new applications.