Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure access to Independent Mental Health Advocates for all children in detention.

Patients detained under the Mental Health Act, including children and young people, are eligible for Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHAs) who provide information about patient rights and how these can be exercised.

The reforms set out in the draft Mental Health Bill published in June 2022 are expanding the right to an IMHA to all mental health inpatients, including voluntary patients, of which children and young people make up a significant proportion.

These proposals include introducing an opt out advocacy model in which all qualifying children and young people will be referred automatically to an IMHA provider. Under this system, every child will receive an IMHA unless they decline this at a time in which they have been deemed competent to make that decision.