Abstract
In recent years, individuals suffering from severe and multiple disadvantage
(SMD) have become an explicit target for policy and a new wave of partnerships
bringing together the police, local authorities, mental health and social care with
third sector organisation has been trying to develop new ways of supporting
them. This paper focuses on one of these partnerships and reconstructs how the
Covid-19 outbreak impacted on efforts to embed responsiveness, participation
and equity into the governance structure of the newly-established partnership. An
advisory group bringing together individuals with personal experience of SMD
was involved in the identification of the priorities to be pursued. However, the
first lockdown and the requirement to house all rough sleepers forced the
partnership to abandon them to focus on housing. Complications also emerged in
attempts made to embed participation in the work of the partnership, as the peer
mentors involved lacked the skills and resources necessary to embrace new forms
of remote working. Finally, the unexpected depth of the needs in the client group
also raised unforeseen complications in terms of how to allocate available
support equitably. The case study offers two lessons: first, police can play a
strategic role at the local level in tackling vulnerability and disadvantage; second,
police and health partnerships need to be considered in terms of their
commitment to democratic values, not just their effectiveness. The paper
concludes by offering some broader considerations on the intersection between
policing and public health in light of the pandemic