MPs call for a plan to develop community support for people with a learning disability and autistic people
During the Mental Health Bill’s second reading in the House of Commons, MPs highlighted the importance of strong community support
On Monday 19th May, the Mental Health Bill had its second reading in the House of Commons. This was the first opportunity for MPs to debate the Bill, which has already been debated in the House of Lords and we were pleased to hear the views of CBF family carers reflected in the points made.
Alongside wider calls to improve community mental health services, MPs highlighted the particular need for a plan to develop strong community support for people with a learning disability and autistic people. This is because reforms which will stop people with a learning disability and autistic people being detained (under section 3 of the Mental Health Act) will not be turned on until there are strong community services in place that can meet needs locally.
At the CBF we have been calling for a clear, costed plan to make sure community support is developed. A cross-Government plan is crucial to ensure all parts of the system work together to develop this support, so that these changes – which are vital to upholding the rights of people with a learning disability and autistic people – are not unnecessarily delayed.
Among the MPs who called for a plan were Jen Craft, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Learning Disability, and Dr Marie Tidball, Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Autism. Jen Craft highlighted the need for integrated services, including health, housing and social care, that can support people to live independently in their homes, while Dr Marie Tidball drew attention to the need for early intervention and prevention, alongside the need to ensure the recommendations from care, education and treatment reviews are carried out.
To make sure that this plan will be effective, it is essential that it is co-produced with people with a learning disability, autistic people and their families. Several MPs raised the need for this, including Lauren Edwards, MP for Rochester and Strood, who referenced the co-produced action plan and called for the Minister to meet people with lived experience. In her speech calling for a plan to develop community support, Lauren Edwards highlighted that community support is necessary both to prevent admissions, and to enable people who are currently detained to be discharged – with the most recent data showing that a lack of suitable housing is a factor in 56% of delayed discharges.
We were pleased to meet with Lauren in the lead-up to this debate and to share the experiences of people with a severe learning disability and their families, and we are grateful that she chose to highlight these experiences and what families have been calling for in her speech.
In his speech, Kevin McKenna (who has previously worked with the CBF on the What Matters to Me project) raised the need for timescales for implementing community support and making these changes, calling on the Minister to develop a plan by 2027 at the latest – we strongly support this call, which echoes the point raised in our joint briefing that this work must begin now, or people with a learning disability and autistic people will continue to be unnecessarily detained.
We are really pleased to see MPs raising the need for a clear, costed plan. Strong community services are essential to making sure that people with a learning disability and autistic people can get the right support, and do not end up detained in hospital unnecessarily. We join their calls to the Government to develop and publish a plan, co-produced with people with a learning disability, autistic people, and their families, and drawing on the wide range of information and good practice in providing this support that is already available.
You can catch up on the debate below:
The next stage for the Mental Health Bill is the Committee stage, where a group of MPs will scrutinise the Bill. Anyone can submit evidence to this Committee.
Find out how to submit evidence to the Committee
You can also find out more about the changes that the Mental Health Bill will make, and why, as well as what we at the CBF are calling for: