Clause 43
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
11:45 am
Tim Loughton (Shadow Minister (Children), Health; East Worthing and Shoreham, Conservative)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. She might be referring particularly to submission MH57, from Penny Stafford. She said:
“CAMHS services do not usually provide any facilities for a ‘Place of Safety’ for children subject to s.136 of the Mental Health Act, and even in those areas where there is appropriate ‘Place of Safety’ provision in the local adult mental health services, these hospital based S136 Suites do not accept children or young people under the age of 18, so instead these vulnerable distressed youngsters are held in police custody suites, an even more inappropriate setting for them.”
She refers to a “key recommendation” of a report published by the Mental Health Act Commission, of which she was a member, that a
“protocol should be put in place to allow for children and adolescents subject to s.136 to be taken to an appropriate place of safety within a hospital setting and to be assessed by a specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry.”
We would agree with that. That is the point of the amendment.