When a Community Is Strong, Recovery Is Possible: How Secure 24 Connects the Mental Health Network

A mental health crisis does not wait for a bed manager to start their shift. An AMHP assessment completed at midnight still needs a crew to take over. A transfer authorised on Friday afternoon still needs to happen. A patient placed in an A&E corridor still needs specialist transport to move them on. The Mental Health Act 1983 describes a pathway. That pathway has to hold up at every hour of the day.

Mental Health Awareness Week this year centred on community: the networks of people, professionals and systems that hold someone when they fall and help them find their way back. That framing applies directly to the mental health care pathway. Every professional involved, including the transport crew, is part of the network on which a patient’s recovery depends.

Mental Health Recovery Is a Team Effort. Transport Is Part of That Team.

A Harvard longitudinal study, running since the 1930s, has consistently found that the strength of a person’s relationships and community is the single most important factor in long-term health and fulfilment. More significant than career, income or any single medical intervention. For people in mental health crisis, the care pathway is often the only community that is reliably present at the worst moment of their life.

No clinical intervention exists in isolation. A GP refers to a community mental health team. An AMHP assessment leads to a Section 136 detention. A hospital admission requires discharge planning. A patient moves between facilities, between counties, between phases of their care. At every one of those transitions, someone has to get them there: safely, with dignity, and without the journey itself adding to the distress that brought them into the system.

That is where Secure 24 operates. Not as the clinical lead, not as the commissioner, not as the ward team, but as the specialist transport provider that connects each stage of the pathway with the care and reliability the pathway depends on.

What Being a Link in the Chain Actually Looks Like

Secure 24 is not the whole solution. The whole solution requires adequate bed capacity, properly resourced community mental health services, well-funded CAMHS, an AMHP workforce that is not stretched to breaking point, and a procurement system that stops scoring price above quality. None of those are within our power to fix. What is within our power is the transport link, and we have built everything around making that link as strong as it can be.

Available when the chain is most likely to break

NHS England data shows that approximately half of all Section 136 detentions occur between 6pm and 6am. Beds become available at unpredictable hours. AMHPs are called to community assessments that turn complex in the early morning. When the clinical team is ready to move a patient, the last thing they need is to wait on transport. Secure 24 operates continuously. Dispatch is staffed every hour of every day, with crews recruited, trained and rostered specifically for this work.

Crews that extend the care environment

Our secure technicians are recruited specifically for mental health risk management, trained through RISKA’s four-level progressive framework, and supported with ongoing monthly development. Every crew includes at least one blue-light-trained member. Enhanced DBS checks are standard for all staff, with child-specific clearances in place for CAMHS work. On ward assist placements, our crew engage actively with patients throughout, rather than sitting in passive observation. Positive engagement produces positive behaviour.

Dispatch coordination that keeps the handover clean

Every job begins at our control room before the crew departs. Our dispatch team builds a risk profile from the information provided: patient presentation, relevant history, any risk markers, the receiving facility’s requirements. Vehicle class, crew size and equipment are matched to that profile. The clinical team or AMHP calling us gets a matched response, not a standard vehicle with a generic crew.

What Reliable Transport Changes for the Mental Health Pathway

When transport is unreliable, the consequences cascade. An AMHP cannot complete a community assessment because transport has not arrived. A bed freed an hour ago remains occupied because the incoming transfer is delayed. A police officer stays with a detained patient because specialist transport was not available. An A&E department holds a mental health patient through the night because no transfer has been arranged.

Reliable specialist transport, built around the patient, available around the clock and dispatched by a control room that already knows the case, removes each of those pressure points from the system. For NHS Directors of Patient Safety and Mental Health Leads, the operational implications are measurable:

• Section 136 detentions become defensible: full audit trail in place from the moment the crew arrives
• Restrictive interventions reduce: the Perspex-screened safe space replaces prolonged seated restraint in transit
• Bed pressure eases: transfers complete when they are clinically ready, not when transport becomes available
• Family and patient complaints reduce: a vehicle designed around dignity produces a materially different experience
• AMHP workload clears: handover happens when planned, without delay

When we say connecting pathways to recovery, this is the operational meaning. Every hour saved on the transport leg is an hour the clinical team can direct elsewhere. Every patient who arrives at the receiving facility calm and supported begins treatment from a better position than one who arrives agitated by the journey itself.

Specialist Mental Health Transport vs. Generalist Patient Transport

Capability	Generalist PTS	Secure 24 specialist transport
Crew training	Built for physical healthcare and route volume	RISKA four-level mental health risk framework, refreshed quarterly
Availability	Scheduled around route efficiency	24/7 control room, average call answered in under a minute
Dispatch	Standard vehicle sent to the next job	Risk profile built before the crew departs; vehicle and crew matched to the patient
Audit trail	Often limited or unavailable on request	CCTV with audio, body-worn video and dispatch records for every job
Section 136 handover	Outside normal scope	Planned takeover coordinated with the AMHP, police and receiving facility
When it goes wrong	Staff injury, complaint, CQC scrutiny, legal exposure	The incident is prevented before it starts

Why “Someone Will Sort the Transport” Is a System Gap, Not a Plan

The assumption that standard patient transport services can absorb specialist mental health work has been tested across the NHS for years. It continues to fail. Generalist PTS providers are designed around volume and route efficiency. A mental health transfer, unpredictable in duration, often single-vehicle, frequently overnight, requiring de-escalation skills that take months to build, does not fit that model.

Crews without mental health training are dispatched because the job needs to be done. The transfer goes wrong. The trust asks for paperwork, CCTV and incident records. The provider cannot supply them, or supplies records that do not support the trust’s position. The cost of that failure: staff injury, patient harm, legal exposure, AMHP breakdown in confidence, family complaint and CQC scrutiny, consistently exceeds whatever saving was made on the original procurement decision. Mental health transport is a specialist discipline. Treating it as a line item on a general PTS contract is how it goes wrong.

Related reading

• Mental Health Is Not a Crime: why NHS patients in crisis deserve purpose-built vehicles and trained crews, not Category B cage transport
• Ward Assist and Bed Watch: how active engagement from trained secure technicians protects patients and staff on the ward
• Section 135/136 Support: what specialist conveyance looks like under the Mental Health Act
• Mental Health Is Not 9 to 5: why 24/7 availability is a clinical necessity, not a marketing claim

Related services

• Secure ambulance fleet: our purpose-built secure mental health transport vehicles

Frequently asked questions

What types of organisations does Secure 24 partner with?

We work alongside NHS mental health trusts, acute hospital trusts, ICBs, private hospital groups, local authorities and children’s services, police forces, courts and prisons, care homes, and private and family clients. Our service covers planned and reactive transfers, Section 135/136 support, ward assist placements and non-emergency patient transport.

How does your dispatch coordinate with NHS teams and community services?

Every booking goes through our control room, which builds a risk profile from the clinical information provided before the crew departs. We coordinate directly with ward staff, AMHPs, receiving facilities and police where required. For Section 136 handovers we plan the takeover in advance so the handover at scene is clean and the patient does not experience unnecessary delay.

Do you provide transport for both planned and emergency transfers?

Yes. Our service covers both. Planned transfers are booked in advance and dispatched against the confirmed time. Emergency and reactive transfers are handled by our 24/7 control room, with an average call answer time of under one minute. We cover the UK with established strongholds in East Surrey, West Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight.

How does Secure 24 support AMHPs during community assessments?

Our crew can attend community assessments and stand ready while the AMHP conducts their assessment, taking over as soon as conveyance is required. We have supported AMHPs through complex community situations, including cases where the outcome was contested by families present, providing presence, composure and a clean handover.

What is your coverage area?

We provide UK-wide coverage for specialist mental health transport, with established operational strongholds in East Surrey, West Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. For areas outside these strongholds, coverage depends on crew availability at the time of booking. Contact our control room on 0330 320 1159 to confirm availability.

How do I add Secure 24 to our preferred supplier list?

Onboarding typically takes around ten working days, covering paperwork, induction, dispatch integration and a sample run-through. A short pilot period is available for clients who want to test the service before a formal contract decision. Contact info@secure24.org.uk for the onboarding pack, our CQC registration, RISKA training framework and fleet specification.

How quickly can you respond to an out-of-hours transfer request?

Our control room is staffed 24 hours a day, every day of the year, with an average call answer time of under one minute. Mobilisation time depends on your location and crew availability at the moment of booking. Within our established strongholds in East Surrey, West Sussex, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, response is fastest. For other areas, our dispatch team will confirm the realistic mobilisation time when you call 0330 320 1159.

Do you only work with the NHS, or private clients too?

Both. Alongside NHS mental health and acute trusts and ICBs, we support private hospital groups, local authorities and children’s services, police forces, courts and prisons, care homes, and private and family clients arranging transport for a relative. The same crew standards, vehicle matching and clinical governance apply regardless of who is commissioning the journey.