The RailStaff Awards 2024

Milton Keynes Escalation Project Team Milton Keynes

Network Rail, Samaritans, BTP, TVP, West Midlands Trains and Virgin

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Neil Peters

Said the following about Milton Keynes Escalation Project Team Milton Keynes:

“To note: In accordance with Samaritans media guidelines around suicide we have avoided going into too much detail in terms of the background of this issue.

Milton Keynes escalation project team

Between July and November 2017 there was a series of suspected suicides on the rail network in the Milton Keynes Council area. The incidents were having a huge impact on the local communities and on the rail industry. In response to the incidents a multi-agency group was formed to prevent further tragic deaths in the area.

The group included representatives from Network Rail, Samaritans, British Transport Police, West Midlands Trains, Virgin Trains, Thames Valley Police, the CCG, health trust and the local authority.

The group developed an action plan which aligned to the content of the Public Health England document - Preventing suicides in public places. The group worked together with great urgency pursuing a range of different workstreams covering information sharing, community engagement, increasing the chances of human intervention and promoting help-seeking.

Information sharing between police and health services:

• A review of all incidents was undertaken, and a gap in information sharing was identified. To address this, the multi-agency group facilitated the development of a localised Memorandum of Understanding that sees the Thames Valley Police report vulnerable people to British Transport Police who will then go on to inform the local train operating company, who in turn will be able to alert their staff to be on the ‘look out’ for the individual in question.

• The British Transport Police has a Suicide Prevention Hotline which provides professionals with a mechanism to report vulnerable people. The local Health Trust have ensured that all services they provide to vulnerable individuals know about this provision.

Community engagement:

• Proactive media engagement to mitigate risk of future reporting. All stakeholders agreed to use Samaritans media guidelines on reporting suicide.

Increasing the chances of human intervention:

• Additional patrols of security staff deployed, trained in Samaritans’ Managing Suicidal Contacts.

• Additional Samaritans awareness activity e.g. ‘We listen’ campaign adgates.

• Samaritans briefings for local retailers who were also given Small Talk Saves Lives cups, cards and stickers to reach their customers.

• ‘Small Talk Saves Lives’ bystander campaign was added onto 300 Santander public hire bikes in Milton Keynes.

• ‘Small Talk Saves Lives’ awareness events run at stations by Network Rail staff and Samaritans volunteers. A group of 71 Network Rail staff were recruited and briefed to support awareness activities at stations.

Promoting help seeking:

• Milton Keynes Council given British Transport Police and Samaritans materials to distribute to GP surgeries, hospitals, places of safety and other locations including bus shelters.

• Samaritans ‘We listen’ campaign promoted on adgates at local railway stations.

Due to the complexity of the issue, and the large number of suicide prevention measures in place, it is difficult to reliably attribute successes to any one action. However, we know that since the group was formed, there have been no further suspected suicides on the lines in this area, and there have been 7 lifesaving interventions.

Learnings from the group are being pulled together so that best practice can be shared with other suicide prevention teams around Great Britain.“

DCS Paul Furnell

Said the following about Milton Keynes Escalation Project Team Milton Keynes:

“DCS Paul Furnell, Crime and Public Protection, British Transport Police, said:

"The work carried out by these agencies and the motivation, drive and determination by individual members of staff had a direct impact in saving a number of people’s lives during this period and helped them receive ongoing safeguarding support.

"I cannot praise the agencies involved or the individuals enough for their work as I am certain a number of people would have died without it. This group also showed the significant benefits and positive outcomes of such close multi-agency collaborative working to tackle very complex matters."“

David Masters

Said the following about Milton Keynes Escalation Project Team Milton Keynes:

““A multi-agency group was quickly established in relation to incidents that occurred at Milton Keynes and Bletchley station and identified actions that could be undertaken in both the stations and the wider community. The project group developed a working relationship with the local Milton Keynes Suicide Prevention Group and quickly developed good links across sectors to focus on reducing suicides on the rail network. The project group was innovative in looking beyond the locations in relation to suicide prevention. The group supported the development of a local public health community action plan which looked at addressing suicide prevention in the wider community beyond the rail network in line with Public Health guidance. The group was forward thinking in the actions, activities and process changes that were put in place in response to the issues at the stations and we continue to have good working relationships in place that support us in preventing further suicides across Milton Keynes.”

Emma Bates, Public Health Practitioner (Mental Health), Milton Keynes Council.“