Mental Health Bill [HL]

moved Amendment No. 21: 21: Clause 18, page 11, leave out lines 28 to 33 and insert— ““(4) The appropriate national authority may by regulations make provision in connection with the giving of approvals under subsection (1) above. (5) The provision which may be made by regulations under subsection (4) above includes, in particular, provision as to—”” The noble Baroness said: My Lords, as we have discussed, the Mental Health Bill replaces the current role of approved social worker with the new role of approved mental health professional. It gives local social services authorities the power to approve a person as an AMHP who is competent in dealing with people suffering from mental disorder, subject to directions from the Secretary of State and Welsh Ministers setting out criteria for approval. The approval criteria will be binding on local authorities and will apply to the approval of a broader range of professionals than they currently do, to undertake the important functions under the Act undertaken by AMHPs. For this reason, the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee said that it would like to see the approval criteria in regulations. We have listened to the advice of the committee and on reflection we think that it would be appropriate for Parliament to scrutinise the approval criteria for AMHPs, who will carry out important functions under the Bill in England, and for the National Assembly for Wales to scrutinise the approval criteria in Wales. The criteria in regulations will include the competencies to be demonstrated before a person can be approved. The regulations for England are currently available in draft form in the House Library. The amendments also address the approval of training courses for AMHPs. The Bill makes local social services authorities responsible for approving AMHPs, but makes it clear that the directions about approval will include courses to be completed both before approval can be given and once an AMHP is approved—the so-called refresher courses. These will be similar to those currently undertaken by approved social workers, or ASWs. The General Social Care Council, or GSCC, and the Care Council for Wales, or CCW, have agreed to approve initial training courses for England and Wales respectively. We intended to specify in the directions that the GSCC and the CCW should approve these courses. However, as the requirement is to be in regulations, we think that we should take this opportunity to be more specific in the Bill about what is intended. We therefore propose to amend the Bill to provide that regulations may make provision that the courses that a person must complete before he can be approved by a local social services authority, and while he is approved, may be approved by persons set out in the regulations or by the GSCC or the CCW under their new power given by new Section 114A. It is currently the intention to allow only the GSCC or the CCW to approve initial training courses for AMHPs, but these amendments will ensure that courses may be approved by another body specified in the regulations if, in the future, the GSCC or the CCW no longer wish to approve these courses. At that time, the regulations could be amended to allow an alternative suitable organisation to carry out this function. The regulations will also set out arrangements for refresher courses, which may be approved less formally. We believe that it is appropriate for the approval arrangements for AMHPs to be in regulations, and I thank the members of the committee for their diligence and advice on this matter. I beg to move.