Mental Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, this has been a short, although, if I may say so, sober debate on supervised community treatment, which is one of the pillars of the legislation. We had a good debate on the principles of supervised community treatment in Committee. Although noble Lords opposite and those on the Cross Benches have concerns about supervised community treatment, they have also made clear—the noble Earl, Lord Howe, certainly, did—that supervised community treatment is not opposed outright. However, there is clearly a big gap between the Government and other noble Lords on the benefits that we believe supervised community treatment will bring and on other views. For instance, the noble Earl, Lord Howe, talked about the coercive element of supervised community treatment undermining confidence and trust and referred to the positive nature of assertive outreach work. He suggested that that might be undermined by the use of supervised community treatment. Clearly, the Government disagree. We think that supervised community treatment is complementary to the progressive work being done in the development of mental health services. I reiterate the comment that I made in Committee, which the noble Lord read back, that if supervised community treatment can be provided as an alternative to compulsory treatment in hospital, surely that must be to the advantage of many patients. Before I give my technical response to the amendments, I should point out that supervised community treatment, in contrast with that in other countries, can apply only to those patients who would already have been detained under the Mental Health Act. The strong criteria in Clause 26, on page 15, against which a person must be tested for a community treatment order, very much mirror the criteria that would apply to a person having to be detained in hospital in the first place. I know that we are going to debate some of the safeguards in the next two groups of amendments, but I must say at this point that the amendment ignores what the Government believe are very strong safeguards in the Bill for people placed under supervised community treatment. That is my answer to the noble Lord, Lord Alderdice. Of course I accept his point about the complexity of the issues. As a lay person, I do not begin to underestimate the difficult decisions that psychiatrists, responsible clinicians or approved mental health practitioners will have to take, not only in relation to provisions in the Bill but more generally in their work. The fact that a person to whom supervised community treatment applies will have already been detained under the Mental Health Act is a response to the fear that thousands of people will suddenly be compulsorily detained in the community. Noble Lords will know that we estimated that, over five years, it would apply to a few thousand people. We do not believe that it will be overused or that it will be a substitute for hospital treatment. We believe that supervised community treatment sets a very positive example for a number of people who have been detained. There are a number of elements to the amendments that the noble Earl has tabled, some of which we have debated in earlier stages of the Bill. Amendment No. 33B relates to the role of a medical practitioner in the decision to place a patient under a community treatment order. It is very important that provision is made in the Bill for a patient’s responsible clinician and that the ability to be a responsible clinician has been widened from being simply a medical practitioner. That is a very important element of the proposals that we put before your Lordships. It is worth making the point that the responsible clinician alone cannot make the CTO but must have the agreement of an approved mental health practitioner. Responsible clinicians should consult the multi-disciplinary team, who will provide the necessary input. I reiterate a point made by my noble friend on Report: there is no question of the responsible clinician being able to dictate to a doctor the medication for a particular individual. That cannot arise. As my noble friend said, the decision must rest with the individual doctor prescribing that medication. Nothing in the Bill changes that. There are real benefits in having responsible clinicians who may not be medics but who will be senior professionals in their field and will have demonstrated the highest skill and expertise in mental health and undergone specialist training. The skills, experience and expertise will be enshrined in—