In March alone, 80 autistic people and people with learning disabilities, who do not have treatable mental health conditions, were detained under the Mental Health Act

Barbara Keeley is MP for Worsley and Eccles South and a member of the Health and Social Care Select Committee.

Every day, 140 people are detained in a hospital under the Mental Health Act and nearly 3,000 are turned down for social care support.

Despite this, the Queen’s Speech contained no promises of imminent reform for the people who are trapped in systems which desperately need change. The Health and Social Care Secretary only said that a Bill would come forward in the next Parliamentary session. 

It is now more than 3 years since the Government commissioned Sir Simon Wessely to review the Mental Health Act. His final report, published more than two years ago, found that the legislation was outdated and too often failed to provide people with the treatment they need.

The Government says it remains committed to bringing forward the reforms which Sir Simon called for, so it was very disappointing that this Queen’s Speech contains no more solid promises of legislation than the last one.

This is not the first time the Government has put off action to improve the mental health system. The Mental Health Units (Use of Force) Act was passed in late 2018, and Ministers recently confirmed that it would not come into force until November this year. Last month alone, 2,000 people were subject to a total of over 10,000 restrictive interventions which might have been prevented by this Act being in force.

In early 2019, the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act was rushed through Parliament, with Ministers claiming that the urgent need for reform was a justification for not making crucial changes to safeguard people’s rights. Implementation of the new system – which is necessary to ensure the UK is not breaching international human rights laws – is not expected to happen until April 2022.

In this time, it is likely that more than 300,000 applications to deprive someone of their liberty because they have limited capacity will have been granted. Many of those covered will be older people in care homes, where changes were needed to ensure that restrictions were appropriate and proportionate to protect people.

The delays in bringing in these pieces of legislation should be of real concern when we look at the delays we have already seen to reforming the Mental Health Act. Even if we get legislation in the next session of Parliament, it may not pass until mid-2023 and it could then be years until it comes into force.

People detained under the Act cannot afford to wait that long.

To give just one example of this, there are currently 2,000 autistic people and people with learning disabilities detained in inpatient units. They do not have treatable mental health conditions, and the Government has recognised that neither autism or learning disabilities should be a reason to detain someone under the Mental Health Act.

But in March alone, 80 autistic people and people with learning disabilities were detained under the Mental Health Act. Delaying reform by even a year could see 1,000 lives disrupted, often with long term consequences.

This failure is symptomatic of a Government with no interest in the real problems facing our country.

On social care, there is no sign of the plan which Boris Jonson promised was ready to go in 2019. Since the Government ditched their own proposals for a cap on care costs, they have missed 10 deadlines to bring forward new plans, and there is no reason to believe their latest proposal is any more likely to be met.

The Taylor Review of Employment Practices was published in 2018, but three years later there is no indication that legislation will be forthcoming to provide the security which people need at work. Neither is there a comprehensive plan to create the jobs of the future which we need to build stronger communities.

Rather than a serious plan to address the record waiting lists for NHS services, the Government is choosing to tinker with NHS structures and centralise more power directly into the Secretary of State’s office, risking the politicisation of the health service at a time when it is recovering from a global pandemic.

As we come out of the Covid-19 pandemic, we can’t afford a Government which has no interest in delivering the change that people are rightly looking for. Rather than pushing forward with this empty agenda, the Government must change approach and bring forward a real plan to transform our country. Anything else will be letting down the people who need change the most.

EDIT: A previous version of this post incorrectly gave Barbar Keeley MP’s title as Shadow Minister for Mental Health and Social Care a title she previously held. This has been amended.

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