“MORE and better” mental health training is required for police officers, an inquest has heard.

Inspector Michael Brown, mental health co-ordinator for the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), gave evidence on Tuesday as an expert witness at the inquest into the death of 18-year-old Jade Hutchings, from Haywards Heath.

Jade was found to have tried to take his own life by his mother on May 21, 2020, just hours after being returned home by Sussex Police after he was reported missing the day before.

His mother Beatrice Hutchings had reported him missing on the evening of May 20 after he said he was popping out and did not return.

Sussex Police classified him as being at “medium risk” due to his known issues with drugs and alcohol, and having been assaulted previously.

The Argus: Credit: Jade Hutchings/ FacebookCredit: Jade Hutchings/ Facebook (Image: Jade Hutchings/ Facebook)

However details of Jade's vulnerabilities were not passed on to officers on the ground, so they were not aware of this when they found him with a man he described as “a friend” in Hastings the next morning.

Officers assessed whether Jade needed to be detained under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act, but they concluded he was not an immediate risk to himself or others so did not pursue this.

When asked about officers’ assessment of him, and having seen body-worn footage of the interaction, Inspector Brown could not say for sure whether he or other officers would have acted differently.

Jade was under the influence of alcohol or drugs, which means many “places of safety” which could have taken him in if sectioned would not accept him due to the intoxication’s "effect on his presentation".

Inspector Brown said he had raised concerns about Sussex Police’s Section 136 policy being “very long”, at almost 100 pages.

He said: “The Section 136 powers are fairly straightforward, so 100 pages is a lot of material to have in a policy. There were also parts to the policy I found a touch confusing.

“Mental health training has changed over the years – when I joined I only got four hours of training about Section 136, which is not very much at all.

“In 2016 following a cross-government Act to improve crisis care we produced a two-day mental health course, one day covering the Section 136 law and one for covering mental health awareness.

“I consider that to be about as little as you would need to give justice to this complex and difficult area of policing.

“Not many forces deliver the two-day training – some do but not others – and it’s up for the individual chief constable to decide.

“It’s always been my view that we need more and better mental health training for police officers.”

Michael Walsh, the solicitor representing the Hutchings family, said evidence provided by Sussex Police earlier in the inquest showed none of the police officers who located Jade and returned him home had received any mental health training – and some were not aware of the force’s Section 136 policy.

Inspector Brown added: “Yes, what’s the point in having a force policy if officers are not aware of it?

“If officers were aware of Jade’s vulnerabilities they may have made different choices – but they may have made the same ones.”

The inquest is set to conclude today.