VULNERABLE children and adults are still being held in police cells as health chiefs struggle to find alternative locations.

Members of the new York Health & Wellbeing Board are now being urged to find a suitable “place of safety” within months for people who are detained by police under the mental health act.

Dr Cath Snape, of the Vale of York Clinical Commission Group (CCGs), told the first meeting of the Board on Wednesday that a search involving private and public health oraganisations throughout North Yorkshire had turned up just one potential interim location in Scarborough. She did however say a project manager would be selected to find a location.

City of York Council chief executive Kersten England said there had to be a better solution in the region than keeping vulnerable people, including children, in police cells. She said it was “intolerable that minors are being kept in custody”.

Ms England’s comments came after former acting Chief Constable of North Yorkshire, Tim Madgwick said: “We still have children being detained under the Mental Health Act in this county and we are the only force in the country without a place of safety.

“My staff are taking responsibility every day for people who are vulnerable. At the moment we are using the worst solution - Fulford Road [police station].”

Board chairwoman, Coun Tracey Simpson-Laing told members they must have a solution by the time they meet again on July 10.

A S136 Place of Safety is a venue where a person can be detained for up to 72 hours if they are in a “mental health crisis” and a police officer believes them to be in immediate need of care or control for the sake of their own or another person’s wellbeing.

A spokesman for the region’s four CCGs said a “place of safety” had to meet strict criteria in terms of staffing, physical facilities and policy. Because few other establishments meet these strict criteria, throughout the country “places of safety” are usually police custody suites, A&E departments or psychiatric hospitals.