The BBC journalist writing the article I’m about to discuss, hasn’t done the best job of explaining what exactly they are referring to. “CQC says Kent patients ‘detained beyond time limit’ permitted by law” could mean any number of things. Mental health trusts detain patients under a large number of provisions of the Mental Health Act 1983 so I hope to find clarity in the article, after my interest being piqued by the headline. Alas, no – I was more than halfway through before something gave me a clue.
It refers to a “place of safety” (PoS), explaining people may be held there for up to 24hrs – so NOW we can guess accurately what they’re on about! It’s about police use of powers under either s135 or 136 MHA to remove someone to a PoS and people remaining there for longer than the 24hr period permitted. All clear, at last!
So first things first –
- It’s great to see the CQC are looking at this and factoring it in to their assessment of mental health trusts – Kent’s provider has been downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘inadequate’, at least partly due to this unlawful detention thing.
- It’s good to see this feature in the news because I had feared it was just systematically normalised and nobody care any more – it’s been happening for over twenty years in my own experience of these things.
UNLAWFUL DETENTION
I have done various pieces of work in my life to look at the issue of the inability of NHS mental health services to admit people in a timely, lawful way, without inflicting upon them unlawful detentions of these kinds – which we should also remember are human rights violations. One of the more notorious examples featured in the MS v UK (2012) case, which was an article 3 case following use of s136 MHA and removal to a Place of Safety. In that case, the patient who was ultimately “sectioned”, was extremely unwell, distressed and engaging in some highly problematic behaviours whilst being assessed in the PoS and then whilst awaiting a bed. It didn’t help things that two parts of the same MH trust were arguing over which of them should admit the man. Each argued the other should and that proved difficult to resolve, thus taking huge amounts of time and drifting in to unlawful detention territory.
Years later, I did work at the College of Policing which ended up with the Cabinet Office to examine how often people were held unlawfully – long story made short, it was THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of times per year.
A lot of this comes back to the question of inpatient beds: there just aren’t enough of them to receive the patients which require admission. It’s not just a question of opening more beds, however (and it’s a good job, because no recent government seems inclined to improve funding for mental health services) – it’s a question of ensuring there is a sufficient and correct balance of both inpatients and community mental health services to prevent unnecessary re-admission of patients shortly after discharge, something which many professionals comment upon. Of course in that work, we say unlawful detentions after s135/136 PoS detention; AND after some were arrested for a criminal offence and then assessed under the MHA in custody and in need of ‘diversion’ to the health system.
MENTAL HEALTH BILL
The Mental Health Bill 2025 is heading towards report stage next week, on the 14th October. There is some final scope for amendments to the Bill before it passes towards its Third Reading and then Royal Assent, so it may not yet be in its final state but large amendments are unlikely to be tabled or passed at this point. Nothing within the Bill is going to alter the s135/136 process dramatically – police stations will be removed from the possible locations which can act as a PoS – and nothing in the Bill is going to make Integrated Care Boards in England or Local Health Boards in Wales commission more beds.
In fact, it’s arguable that when the Bill becomes law and is implemented, the threshold for admission will effectively rise and fewer people will be admitted, meaning more pressure on the wicked problem of community support for those relapsing.
When I did those pieces of work years ago, I worried that nothing was coming down the line to help address the problem and that police officers and others would continue to face difficulties where people were detained in a PoS for the 24hr period specified in legislation and still without a bed being found. It seems likely we’ll see more of that but at least we can hope it will now be highlighted by the CQC, after being somewhat ignored when I was trying to flag the problem decades ago.
Winner of the President’s Medal, the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
Winner of the Mind Digital Media Award
All opinions expressed are my own – they do not represent the views of any organisation.
(c) Michael Brown, 2025
I am not a police officer.
I try to keep this blog up to date, but inevitably over time, amendments to the law as well as court rulings and other findings from inquests and complaints processes mean it is difficult to ensure all the articles and pages remain current. Please ensure you check all legal issues in particular and take appropriate professional advice where necessary.
Government legislation website – www.legislation.gov.uk
Mental Health Cop 