Recommendations - West Yorkshire Police, May 2025

The IOPC recommends that West Yorkshire Police (WYP) should ensure all staff within the force control room receive in-person training on Right Care Right Person (RCRP). This should include roll-out of training to current and future control room staff.

Accepted

Accepted, however these recommendations have already been implemented. 

In May 2023, WYP first training was targeted towards phases 1&2, and the contact centre regarding RCRP, developing a dedicated digital learning module. The RCRP I-Learn package was specifically designed for contact staff, providing a structured and interactive learning experience to prepare them for the upcoming implementation. This module simulated real-life call scenarios and guided learners through the legal and procedural considerations central to RCRP. Its creation marked the beginning of a comprehensive training strategy aimed at embedding RCRP principles across the organisation, with a direct focus on our contact staff, as key decision makers in RCRP.

Building on this, June 2023 saw the launch of in-person supervisor training across all contact teams. This training was delivered to ensure that supervisory staff were not only familiar with the RCRP framework, but also confident in supporting their teams through the transition. The sessions focused on the legal underpinnings of RCRP, decision-making responsibilities, and the importance of consistent application across all shifts.

Simultaneously, a new training pathway was introduced for new starters within the contact function. From June onwards, every new cohort of contact staff received dedicated RCRP training as part of their initial induction course. This ensured that all incoming personnel were equipped with the knowledge and tools to apply RCRP principles from the outset of their roles. This approach remains in place, forming a core component of the on-boarding process and reinforcing a consistent understanding of RCRP across the workforce.

As part of the implementation of the RCRP framework within West Yorkshire Police’s contact function, a peer-to-peer support model was established to reinforce consistent and legally compliant decision-making. This initiative evolved from the initial cohort of trained RCRP Floorwalkers, who were identified as credible and engaged practitioners. These individuals formed a peer-support group, meeting regularly under the guidance of the Operational Policing Improvement Team (OPIT) to discuss live incidents and share best practices. Recognising the absence of dedicated training days within the contact rota, the group was tasked with delivering face-to-face RCRP training to their respective teams, ensuring full coverage across the department.

To further embed RCRP principles, peer-support members were strategically deployed during peak demand periods - particularly Friday afternoons - to review incoming logs and support frontline staff in applying the RCRP toolkit. This deployment was endorsed by the Contact Senior Leadership Team and aimed to address cultural challenges such as the ‘Log and Send’ approach, which often bypassed initial decision-making responsibilities, which was found to be the existing culture despite RCRP principles being effectively in-place since 2019. The peer-support model has proven instrumental in creating a safe learning environment, and maintaining the momentum of culture-change within contact.

In February 2025, a training presentation was prepared, to advise contact staff around the escalation process, that had been re-worked to reflect RCRP. This was published, alongside an S.O.P to advise when, and how to formally escalate an incident to partners. This was followed by contact SLT communications, and dip sampling from May 2025 to ensure that if incidents were being referred back to WYP, from the public or another agency, supervisors were able to engage partners in a professional discussion. Amendments to the RCRP Toolkit directly supported operators and recognised and prioritised potential ‘gaps’ between agencies.

The IOPC recommends that West Yorkshire Police (WYP) should review and update the Welfare Check Deployment Policy to ensure it is consistent with Right Care Right Person (RCRP) terminology.

Accepted

Accepted, however this recommendation has already been implemented. 

WYP has taken proactive steps to align its policies with the principles of the RCRP framework. In September 2024, WYP updated its existing Concern for Welfare Policy to explicitly reference RCRP terminology and guidance. This revision also included an expansion of the existing escalation process, ensuring a more structured and consistent approach to welfare checks.

A further review of the policy is due in October 2026, however the policy will be updated in line with operational learning, changes to national guidance and shared learning from partners/other forces. 

The IOPC recommends that West Yorkshire Police (WYP) should clarify to all control room staff how the Welfare Check Deployment Policy supports the Right Care Right Person (RCRP) toolkit and training material.

Not accepted

This has been communicated as part of the training and development discussed above and the Welfare Check Deployment Policy has since been updated/replaced with the “Concern for Welfare” policy to align with RCRP. 

The IOPC recommends that West Yorkshire Police (WYP) should update its Right Care Right Person (RCRP) toolkit and training to include the following:

• That THRIVE risk assessments should be completed for each individual call, even if the call is regarding the same incident which has been accepted by another agency.
• That calls by different people or organisations about the same incident may increase the severity of the risk.
• That RCRP can be applied more than once to the same incident through different calls.
• In accordance with WYP Welfare Checks Deployment Procedure, that ambulance attendance times should be incorporated into THRIVE risk assessment.

Accepted

Accepted, however these recommendations have already been implemented. 

To minimise the potential for a member of the public being passed between WYP and partner agencies, amendments were made to cater for ‘Good Samaritan’ calls who may encounter a barrier on being signposted to another agency:

• The New first page of the Toolkit asks if the call is a ‘New’ or ‘Follow-up’ report.
• Any ‘New’ report would be subject of a New Log and THRIVE input.
• A Follow up report brings the operator to a page asking for further information and supervisor review. This page has distinct options.
• Caller is Insisting WYP attend (asks for formal escalation by supervisor).
• This would occur on a Log that had been subject of THRIVE, and a decision is being appealed by the caller. A supervisor is expected to provide a rationale and response to the insistence to attend, on a log that has already been subject of THRIVE and a RCRP Toolkit recommendation.
• Further information regarding an ongoing incident that WYP have ACCEPTED (Asks that the additional information is directly inputted into the existing log to save time and inform ongoing decision making).
• This would occur when a Log had been accepted and subject of THRIVE and was being actively deployed on.
• Incidents that WYP, have DECLINED to attend, and there is further information. (Operator is asked to Re-Spin the RCRP Toolkit).
• This would result in a new Log and THRIVE as part of normal Initial-Contact duties.
• Partner agencies or the public recontacting regarding an incident where we have already applied RCRP and DECLINED to attend with NO further information (The Operator MUST escalate this to supervisor at the earliest opportunity for consideration of formal escalation).  

THRIVE is a well-established Tool with WYP, reflecting national uptake. 

There are several occasions when THRIVE would be used, as seen in WYP’s current guidance, which reflects national practice. 

Alongside this, there are other occasions when a THRIVE will be required:

• Downgrade of incident after initial grading.
• Further information becomes available (further call received or information from Police systems.
• Priority incident which is about to fail, will require a call back to the customer and a re-THRIVE (Where appropriate).
• Disagreements over the THRIVE score or process should be brought to the attention of a Team Leader.

To summarise, the enhancement of the RCRP Toolkit, and the normal application of THRIVE allows maximal opportunities for new information, intelligence to be placed on a log and subject of THRIVE or Re-THRIVE accordingly. 

Whilst ambulance attendance times are relevant to a risk assessment under THRIVE, there needs to be consideration of whether it is proportionate and necessary to deploy a police resource ahead of a health-based response which has made an assessment on the circumstances. There may be a shared/joint duty which needs to be clearly understood and communicated. This is outlined in the “RCRP Support Procedure” now written into the updated Force “Concern for Welfare” policy. This states: 

Any real, immediate, present and continuing risk to life or serious injury (Article 2/3 risks) creates a shared duty of care for statutory partners. WYP must recognise any shared duty of care, and that any partners failing to discharge this duty of care does not remove an obligation from other partners. 

And also states: 

In the event of a disagreement between the requesting agency and police in terms of the immediacy of any risk to life or the identified policing objective that has necessitated the request being made, the matter must be subject of the escalation procedure to clarify whether police resources are deployed.

The IOPC recommends that West Yorkshire Police (WYP) should review their incident transfer process with external forces that use the same computer system, to ensure that all relevant information regarding risk is received and reviewed before a deployment decision is made.

Accepted

Accepted and being progressed.

• The process for transferring logs via STORM allows contact staff to select specific entries or the entire log for external sharing, to forces that also use the storm system. WYP retains any information shared as part of the original log, with an audit trail of transfer information and transfer events therein.
• When dealing with non-STORM forces, the current practice is to use a force directory to send logs via email, with phone contact reserved for emergencies.
• In line with the IOPC’s recommendation, West Yorkshire Police is currently addressing the review of its incident transfer process through an outstanding IT request, aimed at ensuring that when logs are transferred to external forces using the same system, all relevant risk information is included prior to any deployment decisions.
• Training on external transfers is introduced during IT sessions within the professional development unit (Contact) and reinforced through practical exercises in skills training, typically following the N100 input. Staff are also advised that for non-STORM forces, logs must be sent via email.

While there is no formal standalone training module for log transfers, knowledge is reinforced through buddying and operational experience, with an emphasis on ensuring risk-critical information is not omitted during transfers.