Column: Talking Politics with Holly Lynch MP - Years of austerity have decimated public services

​What it hasn’t generated much debate about so far, is where are our mental health services in all this? We know that the police are stretched. For all Suella Braverman’s talk of increased police numbers, this Government is only restoring the officers they’ve been cutting since 2010. They are not replacing police staff nor lost PCSOs.

Alongside those cuts, years of austerity have decimated public services like addiction treatment programmes and youth services.

We have allowed policing to become the one-stop-shop we ask to pick up the pieces when everything else falls apart. Whilst mental health practitioners are also undeniably stretched, mental health specialists are the right people to provide mental health support, especially when someone is in a crisis.

I know that the Met police will have tried various other ways of encouraging their colleagues in the health service to recognise this before making such an announcement. I know because I spend a great deal of my time trying to do the same, and secure specialist support for people who need help here in Halifax.

When someone is in real distress with their mental health or approaching a crisis, too often West Yorkshire Police, Calderdale Council, and even the hospital trust work together with my team and I to do what we can. Yet I’m afraid too often it has proved incredibly difficult to bring qualified mental health specialists in as part of the conversation. This results in the wrong care for people at their most vulnerable. We shouldn’t criminalise people who are unwell out of necessity. The police are right to take a step back. The question is what will it take for mental health to step forward? If we are proactive about mental health, we can prevent more people from being in crisis.

The next Labour Government has said it will guarantee mental health treatment within a month, by recruiting thousands of new staff as part of our costed workforce plan. Caring for those with mental health challenges will always require a partnership approach but that partnership should be led by mental health specialists.