Mental Health — House of Lords, 2018-02-27
Topic: Health
Caroline Chisholm (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, with the leave of the House, I will repeat as a Statement the response to an Urgent Question given by my honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Mental Health and Inequalities in the other place. The Statement is as follows: "The Government welcome the CQC’s latest annual report, which it produced as part of its statutory duty to monitor how mental health providers exercise powers and discharge their duties when people are detained under the Mental Health Act. We are committed to ensuring that the Mental Health Act works better for patients and their families, and that is why we have commissioned an independent review led by Professor Sir Simon Wessely, who will make recommendations in the autumn We are also investing more in mental health than ever before—spending an estimated record £11.6 billion this year. We have seen that the number of detentions under the Act has been rising year on year: it rose 2% last year and 9% the year before that. We also know that black people are disproportionately affected. These were both driving reasons for the Prime Minister’s decision to call for a review of how the entire Act is operating This Government have already acted when they saw that the Act was not working properly. Last year we legislated to make it illegal to use police cells as places of safety for children under the Act, and to ensure that police officers consult health support staff before using their detention powers Sir Simon, his vice-chairs and the independent review’s team are consulting actively and widely with service users and professionals and today are taking part in a major stakeholder event in Newcastle. Indeed, I welcome the fact that the CQC takes care in its report to state: "We have confidence that the independent review’s solutions-focused approach to identifying priorities, based on the feedback and experiences of people across the country, will offer a review of the MHA that has the confidence of patients and professionals" The CQC is of course directly involved in the review. The CQC’s report has found examples of good practice, but we recognise that more needs to be done to ensure that people’s voices are heard and their rights respected. Where possible, we expect all patients to be involved in their care planning, and we expect that providers should consider how best to do this in light of the CQC’s recommendations In the spring, the review will provide an interim report identifying priorities for its work. It will then develop a final report containing detailed recommendations on its priorities. The final report should be delivered by autumn 2018 There are problems with the Act and we will address them. But we should remember that today, no one gets sent to an asylum only to disappear within its walls. There are regular reviews, clear rights of appeal, and checks to ensure that people are lawfully detained, only in order to get the treatment they need. But our society is changing the way we think about mental illness, and we do want to ensure that people have as much liberty and autonomy as is possible".