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March 2025 update

This page is automatically generated: it will only be complete at the end of the month. All monthly updates are available here: Archive of monthly updates.

Website

  • Magic Book. The Magic Book is a database of contact details. The main idea is to add the hospitals and other places you visit (not just your own place of work). To create/edit contacts, there is no need to log in and the process is very quick and simple. See Magic Book
  • Mental Health Law Online CPD scheme: 12 points for £60. Obtain 12 CPD points online by answering monthly questionnaires. The scheme is an ideal way to obtain your necessary hours, or to evidence your continued competence. It also helps to support the continued development of this website, and your subscriptions (and re-subscriptions) are appreciated. For full details and to subscribe, see CPD scheme.
  • Cases. By the end of this month, Mental Health Law Online contained 2456 categorised cases


Cases

  • Case (Death). Birmingham Women's and Children's NHS Foundation Trust v KB [2024] EWHC 3292 (Fam) — The trust applied for declarations that extubation and palliative care rather than continued ventilation was in the 10-year-old patient's best interests. The application was supported by her children's guardian but opposed by her parents. The judge decided that the patient should undergo a tracheostomy with a view to a return home "to a life lived, for as long as that life may be, within her family by whom she is deeply loved, whose presence has been a constant in her life, in whose presence and from whom I am satisfied she retains an ability to take some pleasure".
  • Case (After-care complaint). Somerset Council (23 014 652) [2024] MHLO 8 (LGSCO) — LGSCO's summary: "Mrs X complained about a failure to properly plan her son’s post-discharge care under section 117 of the Mental Health Act 1983. We found fault by the Council and the Trust for failings in their care planning. This led to avoidable uncertainty about whether Mrs X’s son may have missed out on effective support which could have prevented a deterioration in his mental health. We recommend that the Council and the Trust apologise, make symbolic payments and take steps to improve their services."
  • Case (Privacy of proceedings). W v P [2025] EWCOP 11 (T3) — "A question has arisen whether this application in the Court of Protection should be heard in private, and consequential questions arise as to whether the press should be notified of this hearing and whether a written judgment of all or part of it could and should be published with appropriate anonymisation and redaction."
  • Case (Capacity in various areas). Calderdale MBC v LS [2025] EWCOP 10 (T3) — Detailed judgment about capacity in relation to litigation, residence, care, contact, internet and social media, and sex.
  • Case (Complaint about MHA assessment not upheld). Medway Council (24 010 714) [2025] MHLO 6 (LGSCO) — LGSCO Summary: "We will not investigate Miss X’s complaint about the decision to detain her under the Mental Health Act, or about how staff entered her home and transported her to hospital. This is because it would have been reasonable for Miss X to appeal to the mental health tribunal about the decision, and because we are unlikely to add to the responses she has already received from the Council."
  • Case (Section 117 complaint upheld). Lincolnshire County Council (18 012 682) [2020] MHLO 72 (LGSCO) — LGSCO Summary: "A woman complained about failures in her section 117 aftercare by the council, an NHS Partnership Trust, and a Clinical Commissioning Group. The Ombudsmen find failures in the way requests for direct payments were considered. Social care assessments were not completed as they should have been. Community mental health services did not properly respond to referrals by other professionals. This caused injustice, but it did not cause the woman to be without support for over a year. The organisations have agreed to take action to remedy the injustice."
  • Case (Complaint about s3 detention partially upheld). Hampshire County Council (18 014 182) [2020] MHLO 71 (LGSCO) — LGSCO summary: "The Ombudsmen found no fault by a Council relating to its role in a mental health assessment. The Ombudsmen found a Trust was at fault with its communication with a patient detained under the Mental Health Act about their illness and medication. There was also fault by the Trust in relation to accessing an advocate. The Ombudsmen recommended the Trust apologises for the distress caused by the identified faults and to create an action plan to address the faults."
  • Case (In-patient treatment breached Article 3). Lavorgna v Italy 8436/21 [2024] ECHR 843 — Registry headnote: "Art 3 (substantive and procedural) • Inhuman and degrading treatment • Mechanical restraint of the applicant to his bed for almost eight days during his compulsory confinement in a psychiatric hospital ward • Initial imposition of restraint measure strictly necessary to prevent him from harming himself or others • Continuation of measure, for an extraordinarily long period, not strictly necessary and not respectful of the applicant's human dignity • Not proven that measure did not expose applicant to pain and suffering • Ineffective investigation". €41,600 for non-pecuniary damages was awarded.
  • Case (Wrongful discharge from s117). Durham County Council (24 001 522) [2025] MHLO 4 (LGSCO) — Ombudsman's summary: "Mr X complained he was incorrectly discharged from Section 117 aftercare. We found the Trust, the Council and the ICB did not follow the relevant guidance when discharging Mr X from Section 117 aftercare. This caused uncertainty to Mr X over whether he should have received additional mental health support in the period that followed, and whether this may have prevented his health from deteriorating. The Trust, Council and ICB agreed to provide a remedy to Mr X by reassessing his Section 117 needs, and making service improvements."
  • Case (Decision not to detain). Staffordshire County Council (24 014 790) [2025] MHLO 3 (LGSCO) — Ombudsman's summary: "Ms X complains about a decision not to detain her son under the Mental Health Act and that professionals completing the assessment did not take information she provided into account. We will not investigate the complaint. There are no indications of fault relating to the assessment. We are also unlikely to achieve more by investigating the information Ms X says she disclosed."
  • Case (Educational course not within s117). West Sussex County Council (24 007 258) [2025] MHLO 2 (LGSCO) — Ombudsman's summary: "Mr X complained about a decision to refuse to class his daughter Ms D’s [educational] course as free aftercare under the Mental Health Act 1983. The Ombudsmen did not uphold the complaint. We found no fault in the actions of West Sussex County Council and NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board."
  • Case (Visiting restrictions in supported living). Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council (23 018 261) [2025] MHLO 1 (LGSCO) — LGSCO's summary: "The Council is at fault for the way in which it banned Mr & Mrs X from visiting their daughter, Ms Y in her supported living accommodation for almost a year. It failed to investigate allegations against Mrs X fairly and failed to consider the impact of the ban on Ms Y. It also failed to conduct a mental capacity assessment of Ms Y in line with legislation."

Legislation

Resources

  • Annual CQC report on MHA. CQC, 'Monitoring the Mental Health Act in 2023/24' (15 March 2025) — The main headings are: CQC and the Mental Health Bill; System pressures and the MHA; Workforce; Inequalities; Children and young people; Environment; Regulatory activity in 2023/24; First-tier Tribunal data; CQC as part of the UK National Preventative Mechanism.
  • Sentencing guidelines. Sentencing Council, 'Imposition of community and custodial sentences - Effective from 1 April 2025' (5 March 2025) — This significantly revised guideline aims to make sure that the courts have comprehensive information on the offender, offence and sentencing options. It places greater emphasis on pre-sentence reports (PSRs) as "pivotal" in sentencing decisions, provides more information on requirements of community and suspended sentence orders, and has extra information about specific circumstances. After publication and prior to implementation the Justice Secretary asked for removal of the list of cohorts for whom a pre-sentence report will normally be considered necessary, on the basis that to treat differently those "from an ethnic minority, cultural minority, and/or faith minority community" would be to create a "two-tier" sentencing approach, but the Sentencing Council refused in Orwellian terms, implying without explicitly stating that PSRs make no difference to custody decisions. The relevant cohorts are those at risk of a first custodial sentence, young adults, females, minorities (as above), pregnant or postnatal women, sole or primary carers and "if the court considers that one or more of the following may apply to the offender: has disclosed they are transgender; has or may have any addiction issues; has or may have a serious chronic medical condition or physical disability, or mental ill health, learning disabilities (including developmental disorders and neurodiverse conditions) or brain injury/damage".
  • Mental capacity law newsletter. 39 Essex Chambers, 'Mental Capacity Report' (issue 148, March 2025) — "Highlights this month include: (1) In the Health, Welfare and Deprivation of Liberty Report: insight into the proper place of insight, best interests decision-making and good clinical governance, and anorexia and the changing calculus of decision-making; (2) In the Property and Affairs Report: the Court of Protection’s (international) jurisdiction over children; (3) In the Practice and Procedure Report: fees changes relating to the Court of Protection and the OPG guidance on disclosing visitors’ reports; (4) In the Mental Health Matters Report: the Mental Health Bill progresses and the independent investigation into the care and treatment of Valdo Calocane; (5) In the Children’s Capacity Report: why the report is named as it is, the Court of Appeal confirms that local authorities cannot consent to the confinement of children in care, and guidance for judges writing to children; (6) In the Wider Context Report: the updated Code of Practice on diagnosing death and restraint in Northern Ireland; (7) In the Scotland Report: no hard news, but the way ahead for AWI reform becomes clearer, and unhelpful uncertainty about powers of attorney."

Events

  • Event. Event:MHLA: Conducting face-to-face hearings and basic case law for tribunals (London, 28 April 2025) — The MHLA is pleased to present a one-day course on conducting face-to-face tribunal hearings, with a reminder and refresher of the case law basics for conducting Part II work. The course aims to refresh your skill set and is ideal for practitioners seeking an update on conducting face-to-face hearings, along with a review of the day-to-day case law issues that are relevant for Part II cases before the tribunal. Speakers: Laura Janes and Angela Wall. Cost: £120 (member), £160 (non-member). See MHLA website for further details and booking information.
  • Event. Event:MHLA: Refresher and Re-accreditation course (online, 12 May 2025) — This course will be suitable for those seeking re-accreditation, by reviewing the legal and procedural developments of the last three years and providing a forum for discussing these along with the re-accreditation process. It will also be of interest to anyone wishing to further their knowledge of mental health law and practice. There will be a significant case study element to highlight areas of law and practice relevant to tribunal representation, including professional ethics, pre-hearing matters and tribunal procedure. Speaker: Laura Janes. Cost: £120 (member), £160 (non-member). See MHLA website for further details and booking information.
  • Event. Event:MHLA: Foundation course (Leeds, 22 May 2025) — This course is aimed at new practitioners and those intending to attend the Panel course in the near future. Attendance at the Foundation course is strongly recommended in order to achieve a sound understanding of the basic principles of mental health law, practice and procedure and in order to achieve the most from the two-day Panel course, which is a pre-requisite for application to The Law Society’s mental health panel. Cost: £150 (member), £195 (non-member). See MHLA website for further details and booking information.
  • Event. Event:MHLA: Advocacy, Risk and Cross-Examination Masterclass (London, 3 July 2025) — It is acknowledged that the key point of any case before the tribunal is often ‘risk’. This one-day course is designed to enhance advocacy and case preparation skills. The focus is on preparing for advocacy, with advice on ‎cross-examination of the medical witnesses and taking evidence-in-chief from the client, along with formulation and delivery of effective submissions. Cost: £150 (member), £195 (non-member). See MHLA website for further details and booking information.
  • Event. Event:MHLA: Conducting face-to-face hearings and basic case law for tribunals (Leeds, 9 September 2025) — The MHLA is pleased to present a one-day course on conducting face-to-face tribunal hearings, with a reminder and refresher of the case law basics for conducting Part II work. The course aims to refresh your skill set and is ideal for practitioners seeking an update on conducting face-to-face hearings, along with a review of the day-to-day case law issues that are relevant for Part II cases before the tribunal. Speaker: Laura Janes. Cost: £150 (member), £195 (non-member). See MHLA website for further details and booking information.
  • Event. Event:MHLA: Refresher and Re-accreditation course (online, 15 September 2025) — This course will be suitable for those seeking re-accreditation, by reviewing the legal and procedural developments of the last three years and providing a forum for discussing these along with the re-accreditation process. It will also be of interest to anyone wishing to further their knowledge of mental health law and practice. There will be a significant case study element to highlight areas of law and practice relevant to tribunal representation, including professional ethics, pre-hearing matters and tribunal procedure. Speakers: Tam Gill and Angela Wall. Cost: £120 (member), £160 (non-member). See MHLA website for further details and booking information.
  • Event. Event:MHLA: Foundation course (London, 7 October 2025) — This course is aimed at new practitioners and those intending to attend the Panel course in the near future. Attendance at the Foundation course is strongly recommended in order to achieve a sound understanding of the basic principles of mental health law, practice and procedure and in order to achieve the most from the two-day Panel course, which is a pre-requisite for application to The Law Society’s mental health panel. Speaker: Angela Wall. Cost: £150 (member), £195 (non-member). See MHLA website for further details and booking information.
  • Event. Event:MHLA: Refresher and Re-accreditation course (online, 27 October 2025) — This course will be suitable for those seeking re-accreditation, by reviewing the legal and procedural developments of the last three years and providing a forum for discussing these along with the re-accreditation process. It will also be of interest to anyone wishing to further their knowledge of mental health law and practice. There will be a significant case study element to highlight areas of law and practice relevant to tribunal representation, including professional ethics, pre-hearing matters and tribunal procedure. Speakers: Laura Janes and Angela Wall. Cost: £120 (member), £160 (non-member). See MHLA website for further details and booking information.

Social media

Nothing to report this month.


Other items

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