Response to concern for welfare report - South Wales Police, January 2017

At 12.28pm on 20 January 2017, South Wales Police received a call from an organisation raising a concern for the welfare of a woman who had told them that she felt like throwing herself off a bridge. Officers were initially deployed to her address but they then volunteered to attend a domestic incident that had been given a higher priority grading. No further officers were allocated to check on the woman’s welfare for a further six hours and 48 minutes. When officers arrived at her home later that evening, they found her in an unresponsive state; she was declared dead shortly afterwards.

We reviewed information from police systems regarding how the police handled the incident and whether any police officers were available to go to the woman's home between the time when the officers diverted to the domestic incident and when officers attended later that evening. We also obtained evidence under misconduct caution from the two officers and five members of police staff responsible for dealing with the incident.

Based on the evidence available, the Lead Investigator was of the opinion that three members of police staff may have a case to answer for misconduct, and that the performance of two police officers and one additional member of staff may be considered to be unsatisfactory.

After reviewing our report South Wales Police agreed with our findings and held misconduct meetings for the three members of police staff. At the misconduct meetings the panels found that one member of police staff had a case to answer for misconduct; they received a first written warning. The panels found no case to answer for the other two members of staff.

South Wales Police also agreed that the performance of the two police officers and one member of staff had been unsatisfactory. They were given informal management action that centred on learning derived from this incident.

Our investigation also highlighted some learning for the force’s Public Service Centre (PSC), including reminding staff of the importance of completing full handovers, ensuring the effective management of staff workloads, and better communications regarding incidents that are not resourced or from which officers have been diverted.

The force has agreed to implement these recommendations in the PSC.