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Our work with mental health
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Overview
In Mental Health, we are looking at how 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.
We are working with the Tribunal 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
- justice partners.
In order to achieve this we have a dedicated team of Regional Mental Health Leads. It is their responsibility to identify local issues and deal with these where possible. The regional leads must liaise with their local counterparts in the TSMH, and maintain a close working relationship with providers.
Not all problems can be solved locally. Any national issues identified are dealt with centrally by a combination of the regional leads, the Mental Health Unit, and the Mental Health Policy Team.
It is clear that our approach is already working. Liz Ralph Operations Manager at the Tribunal Service Mental Health has said that the benefits the tribunal service have got from the initiative include: "Communication links to solicitors, eg: promotion of using correct forms, a platform to raise problems with solicitors and also a platform to obtain feedback from solicitors on process".
Our Priorities
Our main priority in mental health is to target issues in the tribunal process that clients use to challenge the terms of their detention under the Mental Health Act 1983. Over the last year, we have worked hand in hand with providers and the TSMH to identify and target areas for potential improvements here.
We have now set a formal target to measure the effectiveness of this work (see below). At the same time, we will continue to build and develop close relationships with more of our partners in the tribunal process. In particular, we will seek to involve the NHS in future discussions and planning.
Regional Work
At a regional level, our mental health leads have achieved:
- regular meetings with counterparts in the local Tribunal Service Mental Health Operations Teams, including making links with the new salaried judiciary
- raising the profile of the work amongst providers and continuous gathering of feedback, including dedicated meetings with individual providers
- increased knowledge and understanding of the mental health justice system including observation of tribunals
- promotion of more effective interaction with the Tribunal Service by providers, including use of their secure email system, dedicated application forms and complaints procedure
- investigation of local NHS structure, along with first contact with Mental Health Act Administrators (MHAAs)
- protocol agreed on how to resolve local and national issues
- resolution of some locals issues with the TSMH and hospital staff
National work
Centrally, regional leads, along with the Mental Health Unit and Mental Health Policy Team, have achieved:
- quarterly meetings with Head of the TSMH Secretariat and Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council (AJTC) tackling strategic issues and development
- quarterly meetings with the TSMH Senior Operations management
- agreement with the TSMH to share management information, including data on the reasons for tribunal adjournments
- communication with key providers, the TSMH and MHAAs regarding access to mental health legal services, which resulted in the award of 95 NMS in the South West
- questionnaire sent to all MHAAs in England and Wales about a variety of issues, including access, and analysis of responses
- initial meetings with the NHS Confederation to devise strategy for working more closely with local NHS bodies
- agreement to work more closely with the TSMH to reduce unnecessary adjournments, and engage with the NHS
Target for 2009-10
Having concentrated on relationship building and identifying priority areas in 2008-09, we are now in a position to set a quantified target. In December and January we carried out a file review of 180 tribunal cases with adjourned hearings. This showed that some adjournments were avoidable. Therefore, in 2009-10 we will have a target to:
- reduce the number of adjournments that can be classified as ‘potentially unnecessary’ at the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health) by 30%
Looking forward, we aim to be able to have joint target with the TSMH in place for 2010-11.
Contact Us
If you want to learn more about the work we do in mental health, please contact your local LSC Mental Health Regional Lead (see documents panel for details). In particular, please feel free to raise an issue with regard to efficiency and/or effectiveness of the tribunal process in your region.
If you have details of issues that you believe need to be investigated nationally, please contact Oliver Toop, Policy Developer in the Mental Health Policy Team.
Last updated: 11 May 2009