Study found a number of concerns about the British Government's 2002 Mental Health Bill

Sep 10 2004

The Children's Legal Centre, based at the University of Essex, has published a report on the Government's 2002 Mental Health Bill which criticises the effect proposals could have on children.

The report, entitled Children and the Use of Mental Health Powers: The Impact of the Draft Mental Health Bill 2002 on Children, was presented at the Nuffield Foundation on the same day that the Government announced its long-awaited re-draft of the 2002 Mental Health Bill.

The report was authored by Christine Daly, a Social Policy Advisor at the Children's Legal Centre, and was funded by a grant from the Nuffield Foundation. The report will now be submitted to Government where its findings and recommendations are likely to inform the discussion which must take place before any Mental Health Bill is brought into force.

The study found a number of concerns in relation to the 2002 Bill, including:

• The difficulty in determining year on year how many children are subject to compulsory treatment, for how long and where;
• That there is no statutory protection from the use of adult wards in the placement of children under compulsory treatment;
• The lack of provision for a statutory review process, and no right of access to an advocate for children receiving in-patient psychiatric care;
• That the Bill omits any provision for aftercare following compulsory treatment;
• The lack of any requirement within the Bill for specialist training in the treatment or care of children.

Professor Carolyn Hamilton, Director of the Children's Legal Centre, explained: 'After the 2002 Bill was published we felt that there was a need to explore the possible impact any new mental health legislation might have on children. We discussed the bill with a number of representatives from various organisations with concerns for the welfare of children and the mentally ill.

'Publishing our report on the day the Government announced its re-draft of the 2002 Bill was very exciting as our report is well placed for providing a real contribution to the discussion that will now follow. We wait with interest to see whether our proposals play a key role in the development of new legislation.'