Identifying risk work tensions in policing and mental health partnerships in England

This paper advances understanding of risk management within Police Mental Health Triage (PMHT) partnerships. It highlights the contrasting approaches taken by police officers and mental health practitioners, recognising the ways in which their wider organisational logics, framed by social and economic pressures, impact individual risk worker identity and frontline practice. Using risk work theory, it explores how these professionals construct their risk worker identities and manage tensions between risk knowledge, intervention strategies, and social relations, in a partnership setting. Based on empirical research conducted across three English sites using a qualitative-led mixed methods approach, the findings reveal that police officers and mental health practitioners approach risk management in fundamentally different ways, shaped by organisational structures and accountability mechanisms, while still grappling with the impact of the austerity decade. For police officers, the main tension arises between risk knowledge and intervention, driven by concerns about personal accountability, reputational risk, and organisational scrutiny. In contrast, mental health practitioners experience tension between interventions and social relations, particularly within the limitations of an underfunded and overstretched crisis care system. These differences create significant challenges in aligning risk management practices within PMHT schemes, raising questions about the effectiveness of such partnerships in achieving their desired aims. While PMHT may improve user experiences in some cases, it is unlikely to achieve meaningful reductions in detentions or address the broader systemic issues that drive mental health-related demand on police services. Broader reforms in mental health services are necessary to bridge these persistent gaps in risk approaches.