Mental Health Act 2007 Overview: Difference between revisions
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* The introduction of Supervised Community Treatment for patients following a period of detention in hospital. | * The introduction of Supervised Community Treatment for patients following a period of detention in hospital. | ||
* A single Mental Health Review | * A single Mental Health Review Tribunal for England, and the potential for a reduction in the time before cases have to be referred to the MHRT by hospital managers. | ||
* Introduces new safeguards for the use of Electro-convulsive Therapy. | * Introduces new safeguards for the use of Electro-convulsive Therapy. | ||
Revision as of 11:58, 7 February 2008
The Mental Health Act 2007 was given Royal Assent on 19 July 2007. Some sections are already in force but October 2008 is the general implementation date. See Mental Health Bill 2006 for some useful links detailing its passage through Parliament.
Implementation of the Act
Department of Health documents
DH commencement plan - This document lists each section of the 2007 Act and the date on which it is intended that the section will come into force. Accurate as at 1 November 2007.
Mental Health Act as it is to be amended by the Mental Health Act 2007 This DH document is dated 24 August 2007 and shows all the changes (using strikethrough and underlining).
Commencement orders
- Mental Health Act 2007 (Commencement No. 1) Order 2007 The provisions around NHS Foundation Trusts (section 45 MHA 2007) came into force on 24/7/07.
- Mental Health Act 2007 (Commencement No. 3) Order 2007 1/10/07, 1/12/07, 1/1/08
- Check this page on the Statute Law Database for recent commencement orders etc.
Consultations
See External links section below for further details.
Consultation on the draft revised Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice
"The consultation document invites your comments on the draft revised Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice (in light of the Mental Health Act 2007).
"The Code provides guidance to registered medical practitioners (“doctors”), approved clinicians, managers and staff of hospitals and approved mental health practitioners (who have defined responsibilities under the provisions of the Act), on how they should proceed when undertaking duties under the Act. It should also be considered by others working in health and social services (including the independent and voluntary sectors).
"The consultation starts on 25 October 2007 and ends on 24 January 2008." (DH quotation)
Mental Health Act 2007: consultation on secondary legislation
"You are invited to comment on the draft secondary legislation. The final version of this legislation will be brought into force in England under the Mental Health Act 2007 (the 2007 Act), which received Royal Assent on 19 July 2007. At the same time we are running a consultation exercise on the draft Code of Practice – for details about this please use the Code of Practice link below. Both relate only to changes that the 2007 Act makes to the Mental Health Act 1983 (the 1983 Act). A similar exercise is being undertaken in Wales by the Welsh Assembly Government on their equivalent draft secondary legislation and Code of Practice for Wales.
"The secondary legislation in question mainly gives effect to the changes which are being introduced under the 2007 Act in October 2008 (or, in the case of independent mental health advocacy, as soon as practicable thereafter)." (DH quotation)
The consultation period is the same as for the consultation on the Code of Practice.
Consultation on deprivation of liberty safeguards
See Mental Capacity Act 2005 resources#Consultation on deprivation of liberty safeguards for details.
Other news
Quotations below are from Department of Health emails.
- Post-publication corrections as at 2/8/07 "A few minor inaccuracies have been spotted by various people since the Act was first published on-line. I attach a list of the corrections that have been agreed with the HoL Clerk. Some have made it to the printed version of the Act, some have not. All should appear in the on-line version (http://www.opsi.gov.uk/) in due course, but are not all there yet."
- Implementation of Act "The planning assumption is for implementation of most of the amendments to the Act in October 2008. This is to allow time for secondary legislation to be drafted, the Code of Practice to be completed, consultation to take place, staff to be trained etc. Some aspects will however be implemented to different timescales. ... The provisions around age-appropriate services are due to take a bit longer than the October 2008 date, because we need to make sure that we have all the resources in place."
- This site contains both the current text and the amended text of the 1983 Act. Both are listed on the same page, e.g. MHA 1983 s1). (The amendments were taken from the OPSI website but need to be given a final check.)
- Official Explanatory Note This has now been published: see below for external link.
The effect of the Act
The 2007 Act, when in force, will amend:
- the Mental Health Act 1983 - all the proposed amendments can be read on this site, alongside the current law
- the Mental Capacity Act 2005 - only some of the proposed amendments have been added to this site, but all in force amendments listed below have been added
Other legislation is amended, including the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 (Consequential Provisions) Order 2005.
The major amendments made by the 2007 Act will be:
- A single definition of mental disorder.
- Statutory advocacy for detained patients.
- Introduces a requirement that patients aged under 18 are accommodated in an age-appropriate setting, subject to their needs.
- A new “appropriate medical treatment” test which will apply to all the longer-term powers of detention.
- Broadening the group of practitioners who can take on the functions currently performed by the Approved Social Worker (ASW) and Responsible Medical Officer (RMO).
- Gives patients the right to make an application to displace their Nearest Relative.
- The introduction of Supervised Community Treatment for patients following a period of detention in hospital.
- A single Mental Health Review Tribunal for England, and the potential for a reduction in the time before cases have to be referred to the MHRT by hospital managers.
- Introduces new safeguards for the use of Electro-convulsive Therapy.
The Care Services Improvement Partnership (CSIP) has been tasked with implementing the changes on behalf of the Department of Health, including training, advocacy, Supervised Community Treatment, administration and new roles and ways of working.
External links
Legislation:
- MHA 2007 - OPSI website (PDF file for printing)
- MHA 2007 - OPSI website (HTML for browsing online)
- MHA 1983 as amended by MHA 2007 - unofficial version on DH website (PDF file)
- MCA 2005 as amended by MHA 2007 - unofficial version on DH website (PDF file)
- MHA 2007 official Explanatory Notes - OPSI website
Other documents:
- Mental Health Act Commission Policy briefing issue 17 - dealing with the MHA 2007
- Royal College of Psychiatrists MH Bill newsletter 14 - including a summary of the MHA 2007.
Consultations: