Paul was detained in hospital under the Mental Health Act. He was then moved into a private care home for after-care. The NHS and his local council together arranged for and paid for this after-care. In the care home, Paul was deprived of his liberty. He later died in the care home from pneumonia and intestinal issues related to a side effect of a medication he was taking. Paul’s family brought a case against both the care home and the NHS, saying they had breached his human rights. The court said that the care home was not carrying out a public function and so didn’t have a duty to protect Paul’s human rights. The court hasn’t yet said if the NHS breached Paul’s human rights.
Our work
Mental Health Bill 2024-25
In November 2024, a new Mental Health Bill was introduced to Parliament. This sets out changes to the Mental Health Act 1983 which is the main law covering the assessment, treatment, and rights of people experiencing mental distress in England and Wales.
We worked with Lived Experience Experts who work in or have accessed mental health services to create explainers, submit evidence relating to the Bill and support an amendment to close a loophole in human rights protections.
Centring Lived Experience
Throughout our work on the Mental Health Bill, we've been focused on making sure that lived experience voices are being heard.
We worked with RITES Committee member and Easy Read champion Lucy to make an Easy Read explainer on the Bill and what it could mean for human rights.
We co-produced a response to the Joint Committee on Human Rights (JCHR's) call for evidence with people who have been detained in mental health hospitals, supported family members in hospital or worked in frontline mental health services.
In our evidence submission, we urged the JCHR to make more time to listen to people with lived experience of mental health and human rights issues. The JCHR then decided to host a Lived Experience Roundtable on the Bill, and we supported members of our RITES Committee to attend.
We teamed up with the National Care Forum to make sure the providers' perspective was being heard and created briefings showing support for closing a loophole in human rights protections for people whose care has been outsourced to independent providers. We spoke to care providers and user-led services from across the UK about this issue and submitted evidence to the Mental Health Bill Committee with direct quotes from Scottish Care, Human Rights Consortium Scotland and Care Rights UK.
The Human Rights Act Amendment
When the Bill was passing through the House of Lords, Baroness Keeley and Baroness Barker proposed an amendment (change) to the Mental Health Bill to include a clause explicitly saying that when services are providing after-care under the Mental Health Act, they are carrying out a public function and so have legal duties to uphold people’s human rights.
The amendment was later withdrawn so the Government could introduce its own amendment on the same topic.
This amendment is particularly important because of a recent case concerning a man called Paul.
Paul’s case shows that there is a potential loophole in the law where the State contracts out public services to private providers. This could make it harder for people like Paul to access their human rights.
We supported Baroness Barker and Baroness Keeley's amendment and encouraged the Joint Committee on Human Rights and members of the House of Lords to support it to.
When the Government introduced its own amendment on the same topic, we supported this but said we thought the Government's version was not as thorough as the original one and still left open potential loopholes.
We worked with National Care Forum as well as care providers from across the UK and user-led organisations to submit evidence to government departments and to the Mental Health Bill Committee urging them to pass the amendment to close the loophole exposed in Paul's case but to also consider wider protections.
On Thursday 19th June, the Government's amendment was agreed by the Bill Committee. It will now be debated by MPs before the Bill passes into law.
Related information
Experience-Informed Research
Our policy work is underpinned by people’s lived experience. One of the ways we do this is through experience-informed research on key areas the impact people's lives.
Experience-Informed Research
Our policy work is underpinned by people’s lived experience. One of the ways we do this is through experience-informed research on key areas the impact people's lives.
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