Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Bill — House of Lords, 2018-09-07
Topic: Mixed Topics
Doreen Massey (Labour, Centre-left): My Lords, I thank all noble Lords who have taken part in the Second Reading of this Bill. I have found the debate most moving, which cannot often be said about debates in your Lordships’ House. It has been both interesting and moving, and it is a pleasure to be in the midst of people who are so concerned about vulnerable people—children and adults. I hope that the family of Seni will consider this debate something of a tribute to him and to themselves for all their work in bringing this to our attention and the development of a Bill that could be a very significant piece of progress I shall just make a few comments about speeches that noble Lords have made. I liked the very incisive comments of my noble friend Lord Harris and his clarity in talking about the investigation of deaths in custody, based of course on his own vast experience of this. I learned a lot from his speech and I hope that the Minister will take that up further, as there was a lot in there that needs to be looked at again in writing, assessing how it could contribute to any possible future guidance. The noble Lord, Lord Adebowale, also has huge experience of working with vulnerable young people and with mental health issues. He emphasised the need to take account in the guidance of the work of NGOs, which I—and I think all of us—totally support. The noble Baroness, Lady Tyler, and I have worked for years on the issues relating to children and young people and I am glad that she reinforced comments on that, as did other noble Lords, and that she gave her support to the Bill. Her point about consultation with parents is important, as was the issue also raised by my noble friend Lady Thornton about the traumatisation of women who may have been subjected already to violence and be in distress. She also mentioned training in the prevention of the use of restraint My noble friend Lady Thornton raised many good points about equality. I think she said that it was "unthinkable and cruel" that people who have problems should be subject to more, and sometimes regular, violence. She recalled the amendments tabled in the other place and said that we should take account of them, and I agree. I am trying not to use the word "negligible" here. At least I can say it. I thank my noble friend for her comments in winding up The Minister made some helpful points about the importance of cross-party collaboration in the Bill, and said that more needs to be done. He covered many issues that have been raised today, and I know that he is passionate about this, because we have talked about it. It would be a good idea if we had a full meeting after this debate. Things have come up that we need to tease out the meanings of, like that terrible word "negligible", and the word "patient" itself, including children in that. What is a child? We need a definition. Is a child someone under 18? In fact, some organisations use "child" to cover up to age 24. Let us get some correct definitions. Let us listen to what my noble friend Lord Harris said, to what all other noble Lords said, and to the NGOs. The Minister is generous to suggest a meeting, and it would be useful, just to tidy up some of the things we have talked about and to reinforce some of the issues. I would appreciate that, and perhaps we can talk about it afterwards Having said all that, I thank all noble Lords. I said I was moved by the debate, and I was. We have done justice to a serious and important issue here, and I hope that we will see it move forward a bit more rapidly than I heard the Minister say. I do not know whether that is possible, but we need guidance as quickly as possible, although not rushed guidance. However, with consideration, we can make this into good guidance that will have some impact on the ground where people work and are in mental health units. I also take the point that the people administering this violence may also be suffering somewhat. I am of the view that violence never solves anything at all; we need a different approach to this, which can come only from training, discussion and sympathetic listening to people who are in this position. I ask the House to give the Bill a Second Reading.