New statistics on guardianship under the Mental Health Act published

New statistics on the number of people in England subject to part of the Mental Health Act is today published by The NHS Information Centre.

The report Guardianship under the Mental Health Act 1983, England 2010, considers cases in which a local social services department or a named individual assume guardianship of a person because they are suffering a mental disorder. A guardianship order is made so that a patient can be compelled to be given care in the community if it is needed either for themselves or for the protection of others.

The report shows that in 2009/10;

  • There was a decrease in the number of continuing guardianship cases open at the end of the year with 836 open on 31 March 2010, compared to 877 in 2009. This is the fifth consecutive year in which there has been a decrease.
  • Of the 420 new cases opened in the year, 57 per cent were for women and 43 per cent were for men
  • Of the 433 cases closed during the year, 57 per cent had lasted less than 12 months.
  • More than half the guardianship cases continuing at the end of the year were being managed by 22 of the 152 local authorities in England.
  • For the eighth consecutive year, Local Authorities were the named guardian in more than 99 per cent of new cases.

The NHS Information Centre's chief executive Tim Straughan said: “This report provides a detailed picture of how often guardianship cases under the Mental Health Act are being ordered in different areas of England, as well as showing a continuing trend towards an overall fall in the number of cases nationally.

“This information will be of particular interest local authorities, who are the named guardian in 99 per cent of these cases.”

The report can be accessed at: www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/guardianmh10

ENDS

Notes to editors

  1. The NHS Information Centre for health and social care (The NHS IC) is England's authoritative, central, independent source of health and social care information. It works with a wide range of health and social care providers nationwide to provide the facts and figures that help the NHS and social services run effectively. Its role is to collect data, analyse it and convert it into useful information which helps providers improve their services and supports academics, researcher, regulators and policymakers in their work. The NHS IC also produces a wide range of statistical publications each year across a number of areas including: primary care, health and lifestyles, screening, hospital care, population and geography, social care and workforce and pay statistics.
  2. This report contains the latest statistics about cases of guardianship under Sections 7 and 37 of the Mental Health Act 1983 in England. It contains information at national and local authority level. This will be relevant to anyone with responsibility for handling applications for guardianship or who is involved in monitoring uses of the Mental Health Act and the rights of people with mental disorders. It will be of particular interest to local social services authorities who are the named guardians in the majority of cases and who supply the data used for these statistics.
  3. The purpose of guardianship is to enable patients to receive care in the community where it cannot be provided without the use of compulsory powers. It provides a framework, as part of the overall care and treatment plan, for working with a patient to achieve as independent a life as possible. Guardianship applies to patients who are at least 16 years old and who are suffering from a mental disorder of a nature or degree which warrants reception into guardianship, and where it is also necessary in the interests of the welfare of the patient or for the protection of others.
  4. A continuing case is one that was open in the previous financial year and has continued into the current financial year for which figures are collated, or has begun in the current financial year and is still open at the end of it. A new case is one that has been opened during the current financial year for which figures are collated.
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