Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health

The Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) service commissioning guide has been prepared for the introduction of IMHA services on 1 April 2009. The guide outlines the statutory IMHA role, discusses good practice for IMHA services and outlines the commissioning process required to ensure high quality IMHA services are provided for qualifying patients under the Mental Health Act 1983.

This briefing focuses on the 2007 Mental Health Act in relation to England. Most of the provisions of the 2007 Act came into effect in November 2008. Especially notable are extended powers of compulsion in the community - Supervised Community Treatment - and a widening of the professional groups that can apply to fulfil new roles that exercise power under the Act.

The Department of Health has published a guide to set out the main provisions of the Act and the associated secondary legislation as they will stand and apply to England at 3 November 2008 (which is when the majority of the amendments made by the Mental Health Act 2007 take effect).

This Department of Health guidance explains the transitional provisions associated with changes to the Mental Health Act that come into force on 3 November 2008.

The Department of Health has published the latest additions to the Mental Health Act 2007. They include commencement orders, regulations and other secondary legislation.

The Department of Health has published guidance on transfers between places of safety.

Section 44 of the 2007 Act amends the 1983 Act to allow a person to be taken from one place of safety to one or more other places of safety during the 72 hour maximum overall period during which they may be detained under either of these two sections.

Section 44 of the 2007 Act comes into force on 30 April 2008.

Parliament's joint committee on human rights publishes a follow-up report on the Mental Capacity Act.

The committee's current publication list is here.

CSIP/NIMHE have released the latest newsletter about their implementation programme. It includes supervised community treatment and the Code of Practice.

The Mental Health Alliance has responded to the consultation on the draft Code of Practice for the Mental Health Act 2007.

The Department of Health has published the draft revised Mental Health Act 1983 Code of Practice and draft secondary legislation under the Mental Health Act 2007 (the 2007 Act).

The Code will come into force in October 2008. The Code provides guidance to practitioners and clinicians on how they should proceed when undertaking duties under the Act. It should also be considered by others working in health and social services.

The secondary legislation mainly gives effect to the changes to the 1983 Act 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).

The consultations close on Thursday 24 January 2008.

This consultation relates to the deprivation of liberty safeguards that have been introduced into the Mental Capacity Act 2005 by the Mental Health Act 2007. The safeguards are planned to come into force on 1 October 2008.

Views are sought from all interested stakeholders on a draft Code of Practice for England and Wales: this is intended for the guidance of those who have to implement the safeguards, and for the information of those who may become subject to the safeguards, and their relatives, friends and carers. Views are also sought on proposals for the use in England of regulation-making powers contained in the new legislation. Closes 2 December 2007.

The Mental Health Act 2007 received Royal Assent on 19 July 2007.  It amends the Mental Health Act 1983, the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Domestic Violence, Crime and Victims Act 2004. The Department of Health website has details of implementation and consulting on the code of practice.

Both the House of Lords and House of Commons have finished their debates on the Mental Health Bill. It only requires Royal Assent to be made law.

The changes made in the House of Commons will be kept but with three new amendments:

• A respect for diversity principle which will be included in the Code of Practice.
• That renewals of detention must be agreed by the person’s responsible clinician (RC) and a professional who has been professionally involved with the patient.
• That when making a CTO the RC must have regard to the patient's history and the risk of deterioration if the patient is not detained in hospital.