First thing to say is the responsibility for the Nottingham Knife Attacks is ultimately with one person and that’s Valdo Calocane. While he was mentally ill at the time I fully believe that he knew exactly what he was about to do and what he did on that morning.

However, I also think that other agencies had opportunities to step up and intervene before Calocane did what he did.

Nottinghamshire Police over recent years have become going down a path of not getting involved with “mental health” related matters. Way to often indevidual officers and the organisation as a whole has claimed that they are there to fight crime, that they are not trained in mental health matters or that it just isn’t there job. This in my books is so wrong. Never forget that one of the highest principals of policing is to “protect life”. That means protecting life even before the shit hits the fan, taking action at the earliest opportunity rather than when it’s to late.

Nottinghamshire Police, YOU NEED TO TAKE A SERIOUS LOOK AT YOURSELVES AND YOUR POLICIES.

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, I have had first hand experience of how you work and how, on so many occasions it has been all but impossible to obtain support from you. I know mental health services have been under funded by governments for many years, I get that. But I fear that on far to many occasions your service has walked away or turned your backs on what needs doing claiming you don’t have the funds to do the work.

As with Nottinghamshire Police, YOU NEED TO TAKE A SERIOUS LOOK AT YOURSELVES AND YOUR POLICIES.

Finally, as all ways in this case, my thoughts and sympathies are with the families who have lost loved ones and the victims who survived Calocane’s attack and now live with the thought that this could have been so different if organisations had stepped and done what needed doing.