Abstract

The requirement for the attendance of an ‘Appropriate Adult’ when a ‘mentally vulnerable’ person is held in police custody is created within the codes of conduct of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act (PACE 1984). Many police force areas do not have an Appropriate Adult Scheme (www.appropriateadult.org.uk), and where established, they are often not available round the clock (HMIC 2015) meaning that ‘Vulnerable Adults’ frequently do not have access to the support of an Appropriate Adult (HMIC 2015). Provision was historically led by adult social services, with a trend towards the use of volunteers during in the 1990s, and more recently there has been a movement towards the commissioning of services from the private sector.