BASW seeks to strengthen government’s Mental Health Bill
The UK Government has put forward legislative proposals to reform the mental health act for England and Wales.
The need for a new Mental Health Act featured as a key ask in BASW’s General Election Manifesto, and we welcome the new government making it a priority.
Members of the House of Lords considered the proposals in detail for the first time this week. BASW therefore took the opportunity to inform them of our views on the Bill, highlighting the importance of social work’s voice on this issue given that 95% of Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) are social workers, and suggesting areas where we want to see improvements to the legislation being put forward.
Read our full briefing below.
One area that we’ve raised with policy-makers for greater consideration in the working of this Bill is the importance of early intervention to prevent mental health crises and hospital admissions. This point was mentioned by Lord Kamall during the debate, where he explained:
“I now turn to the issue of early intervention, which the British Association of Social Workers raised during pre-legislative scrutiny and which the noble Baroness, Lady Watkins, raised today. The BASW stressed the importance of early intervention to prevent the admission of mental health patients into hospitals in the first place, which they described as being at the interface of mental health and mental capacity legislation”.
Watch the full debate here and read the transcript here.
Alongside this, BASW has put forward a number of additional areas where we want to see the Bill improved during its passage through parliament in the months ahead, including around promotion of good mental health and sufficient resources to address the shortfall of AMHPs.
We will continue to proactively engage with parliamentarians on these areas, ensuring that the social work profession’s views are integral to shaping and strengthening the long overdue modernising of the Mental Health Act in England and Wales.
