Mental Health Bill [HL]

These are important amendments in relation to children and young people and they are what I would describe as ““make improvements now”” amendments. They are directed not at what the Government have proposed but at improvements that we would like to see now, because this Bill is before us. They are important in particular for young persons of 16 to 17 years of age. As we all know, many mental health problems, such as schizophrenia, occur for the first time often at that age—and it is important that they should be put in the best possible situation at that age. The motivation for the amendment is that we do not find in the legislation or draft legislation a sufficient differentiation of the care of children and young people from the care of adult patients. It is not at all a theoretical point. There are a good number of young people in adult mental wards. YoungMinds calculates that of almost 1,000 young people admitted to adult wards, the average length of stay was more than a month, and that in the three years to 2001 about 62 per cent of all under 18s admitted under the Mental Health Act went into adult wards. We do not complain about how adult mental wards are administered. We think that a great deal of good work is done there, but we claim that the cases should be specially assessed and that an age-appropriate setting is found. I am sure that the Minister is a little fed up with hearing about the Scottish legislation, but he has to; it is part of the lesson that we have to put across in this Chamber. The provision comes under Section 23 of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act where accommodation sufficient for the particular needs of the child or young person is referred to. I am sure that the noble Lord, Lord Carlile, will not wish me to pass over the Joint Committee on the Bill, which recommended that a person of the kind referred to in this amendment should be within the Bill, and, specifically, that the Bill should stipulate that under 18 year-olds should be accommodated in age-appropriate facilities. There you have it. Finally, I think that the Children’s Commissioner has put an embargo of Tuesday morning on the report he is just about to publish—a huge report—on this specific subject. Of course he must have expected that we would go on with our debate into Tuesday, and he was not far off the mark. But I believe that we are able just to refer to its existence. It is a substantial report. I do not know whether the Minister has read it yet. I have read it. It is an important report, which deals with the appropriateness, or not, of admitting children and young persons to adult wards. It has substantial information from individuals who have given evidence to the Children’s Commissioner. The report will certainly influence the debate, whatever is decided here in the next 10 minutes. I draw the Committee’s attention to it. It goes very strongly along the lines advanced by the noble Earl in this amendment, which I support strongly, and I hope that we can arrive in due course at a satisfactory solution on it.