Mental health and other civil areas

On this page:

Tender processes for new 2010 contracts now closed
About the team
Mental health and the law
Mental Health - Contracts from 2010
Mental Health - Whole System Initiatives
Mental Health Fee Scheme and Specification
Civil low volume categories
Low volume categories - Contracts from 2010
Seeking legal advice?

Tender processes now closed

The recent tender processes for new 2010 contracts in Mental Health and other Civil areas of work have now closed. Further information is available on the Mental Health and Low Volume Categories tendering pages.

About the team

Our Mental Health and Civil Low Volume Categories team works to:

monitor developments in the relevant areas of law
talk to stakeholders including clients, providers, the NHS, the Tribunals Service and other interest groups
develop policy for contracting mental health legal services
provide policy clarification to aid day-today management of the services.

Mental health and the law

The Legal Services Commission (LSC) is responsible for commissioning legal services for people with problems relating to mental health law. Most of the money we spend in this area is to help people to appeal against their treatment or detention under the Mental Health Act 1983.

However, we also fund advice for people who are being treated voluntarily in hospital, and those with mental health problems who remain in the community. In particular, legal aid is available to help people with problems that fall under the Mental Health Capacity Act 2005, such as issues around the 'deprivation of liberty' safeguards.

In 2008/09 we spent approximately £30.7 million on mental health controlled work and over £1.7 (net payments authorised) on certificated work.

The Community Legal Service must also ensure that people with mental health problems receive the specialist advice they need in relation to social welfare legal problems. These could be relating to accommodation, welfare benefits or debts, wherever they are living.

Through Community Legal Advice Centres we are making people with mental health problems a priority group for such services.

Mental Health - Contracts from 2010

The tender process for new contracts is now closed. Proposals for the new contracts were outlined in our consultation response "Civil Bid Rounds for 2010 Contracts". Key areas include:

a contracting strategy compatible with the structure of the NHS, including Strategic Health Authorities and the locations of the NHS Trusts
structuring funding around client need and location
ensuring that clients receive a high quality service by specifying a minimum ratio of qualified supervisors to caseworkers
enabling clients to access a full range of legal services from, as far as possible, one point of delivery
improving referral mechanisms to ensure that vulnerable clients receive social welfare legal advice and other services when they need them
procuring services in High Security Hospitals separately to develop specialist advice in this area
preserving a competitive market for the introduction of Best Value Tendering.

Further details of the terms and specification of the new contract can be found on the 2010 Standard Civil Contract page.

Mental Health – Whole System Initiatives

As part of our Whole System Initiatives the LSC is investigating the ways that we and our partners in the mental health justice system can achieve best value for money and continue to increase the numbers of people helped. In mental health this will involve working with the Tribunals Service Mental Health (TSMH) and the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales to improve efficiency and effectiveness for the benefit of clients, legal representatives and the justice partners themselves.

Relationship managers, policy makers and specialist caseworkers based in Liverpool and Nottingham meet regularly with representatives from the Mental Health Tribunal (MHT) and the Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council. Together we have developed a target to reduce the amount of unnecessary tribunal adjournments by 30% in 2009/10.

If you would like to raise an issue with regard to efficiency and / or effectiveness of the MHT in your region, please contact your Regional Mental Health Lead, noting the issue(s) you are raising in addition to the region(s) to which these pertain. Whatever your interest in the Tribunal, we are keen to receive your view and your evidence for them.

For more information on the wider Whole System Initiative project, please contact Project Manager Sonja Mahoney.

Mental Health Fee Scheme and Specification

Information and guidance is also available on the current Mental Health Fee Scheme and Specification. Please contact the Mental Health Unit for advice on any additional queries.

Civil low volume categories

Through our transformation programme we are reviewing arrangements in the areas of law where we fund low volumes of work:

actions against the police
clinical negligence
consumer general contract
education
miscellaneous
personal injury
public law

Together these categories accounted for £7.7 million of controlled work and £53.8 million net certificated work in 2007/08.

Work done in many of these categories plays an important role in combating social exclusion and ensuring people’s ability to enforce their rights.

The organisations that work in these categories are usually relatively small and specialised, focusing on one or two areas of law.

They are not evenly distributed around the country. Some people have to travel long distances to access advice.

Firms differ greatly in the costs they incur per case and the outcomes they achieve for clients.

Low volume categories - Contracts from 2010

The tender process for these contracts is now closed. Proposals for the new contracts in the low volume categories were outlined in our consultation response "Civil Bid Rounds for 2010 Contracts". Key areas include::

structuring funding closer to client need and location
refocusing funding on priority areas within categories
reducing the areas of work that can be undertaken by non-specialists
improving quality by ensuring that providers undertake minimum amounts of work.

Further details of the terms and specification of the new contract can be found on the 2010 Standard Civil Contract page.

If you have any queries about this work, please contact Policy Manager Zoe Farrant.

Seeking legal advice?

Community Legal Advice (CLA) can help if you are eligible for legal aid

Call the helpline now on 0845 345 4345.

Calls cost no more than 4p per minute from a BT landline but calls from mobiles are usually more. Worried about the cost? Ask an adviser to call you back, or use our Call Back internet service, which can be found on the CLA website.

The helpline has a translation service if you would like advice in a language other than English or Welsh.

Last updated: 04 May 2010