Mental Health Bill [ Lords ] (First sitting)

Debate between Zöe Franklin and Danny Chambers

Committee stage
Tuesday 10th June 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Dr Chambers]

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Vickers. I will speak to amendments 1, 51 and 4 together, as they all relate to housing. Amendment 1 ensures that housing needs are considered as part of care, education and treatment reviews. Amendment 51 ensures that the impact of accommodation and relocation is considered in care and treatment reviews for patients with autism or learning disabilities. Amendment 4 ensures that housing needs are considered as part of care and treatment reviews.

Appropriate housing is critical for people’s wellbeing and cannot be viewed as separate from effective and safe care. Ensuring that housing or any temporary or crisis accommodation supports the safety and independence of people with a learning disability should be a key part of care, education and treatment reviews. We believe that it is essential for fulfilling the duties of the Bill.

Without that provision, it will be far harder for patients to leave detention and for care to be facilitated in the community. If people with learning disabilities who are detained risk being discharged into insecure or inappropriate housing, their recovery from mental ill health could be jeopardised. Patients should be viewed in their whole context, not just as a collection of conditions or symptoms. Housing is among the most fundamental social needs that should be considered.

[Zöe Franklin (Guildford) (LD)]

I rise to speak to amendments 2 and 5, which, in summary, would ensure that patients, named persons and independent mental health advocates would receive a copy of a care, education and treatment review meeting report for children and young people with autism or a learning disability.

Patients, along with all those tasked with helping to represent their wishes, should be able to see transparently what has been judged to be safe and appropriate care for them. Being given the opportunity to understand why their care or treatment is changing or remaining the same should be a basic right for patients, yet as it stands they are often frozen out of seeing that final report. Similarly, the nominated person, whether that is a friend, a mother, a sibling, or another parent, often has care of the patient; they know the whole person better than any NHS institution, and will often have a far fuller understanding of the patient’s history.