Mental Health Act 1959

PART II Local Authority Services

General Provisions

6 Functions of local health authorities

(1) In relation to persons who are or have been suffering from mental disorder, section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946 (which relates to functions of local health authorities with respect to the prevention of illness and the care and after-care of patients) shall have effect subject to the following provisions of this section.

(2) The purposes for which arrangements are authorised or may be required to be made by a local health authority under subsection (1) of the said section twenty-eight for the care or after-care of such persons as aforesaid shall include the following, that is to say:—

(a) the provision, equipment and maintenance of residential accommodation, and the care of persons for the time being resident in accommodation so provided;

(b) the provision of centres or other facilities for training or occupation, and the equipment and maintenance of such centres;

(d) the appointment of officers to act as mental welfare officers under the following provisions of this Act;

(d) the exercise by the local health authority of their functions under the following provisions of this Act in respect of persons placed under guardianship thereunder (whether so placed under the guardianship of the local health authority or of other persons); and

(e) the provision of any ancillary or supplementary services for or for the benefit of any such persons as are referred to in subsection (1) of this section ;

and subsections (2) and (3) of the said section twenty-eight shall have effect accordingly.

(3) Notwithstanding anything in subsection (1) of the said section twenty-eight, the reference in paragraph (a) of subsection (2) of this section to the care of persons for the time being resident in accommodation provided by a local health authority includes, in the case of persons so resident who are under the age of sixteen years, the payment to those persons of such amounts as the local health authority think fit in respect of their occasional personal expenses where it appears to that authority that no such payment would otherwise be made.

7 Conduct of premises of local health authorities

(1) The Minister may make regulations as to the conduct of any premises in which residential accommodation or facilities for training or occupation are provided by local health authorities under section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946, for persons who are or have been suffering from mental disorder.

(2) Regulations made under this section may in particular confer upon officers of the Minister authorised thereunder such powers of inspection as may be prescribed by the regulations.

8 Functions of welfare authorities

(1) For the purposes of subsection (8) of section twenty-one of the National Assistance Act, 1948 (which restricts the duties of local authorities in respect of the provision of accommodation under that section by reference to the provision authorised or required to be made under other enactments) no account shall be taken of the provision authorised or required to be made by local health authorities under section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946, with respect to residential accommodation for persons who are or have been suffering from mental disorder.

(2) The persons referred to in subsection (1) of section twenty-nine of the said Act of 1948 (which section enables local authorities to make arrangements for promoting the welfare of blind persons and other disabled persons described in the said subsection (1)) shall include mentally disordered persons of any description ; and for the purposes of subsection (6) of that section (which, among other things, excludes from that section the provision of accommodation or services required to be provided under the National Health Service Act, 1946), no account shall be taken of the provisions of Part III of the National Health Service Act, 1946, with respect to the provision of accommodation or services for such persons.

(3) Subsection (2) of this section shall not affect the operation of the provisions of Part IV of the National Assistance Act, 1948, relating to disabled persons' homes or charities for disabled persons, but without prejudice to the provisions of Part III of this Act with respect to the registration of such homes.

(4) Nothing in this section shall be construed as requiring a local authority to make provision for the same purposes both under Part III of the National Health Service Act, 1946, and under Part III of the National Assistance Act, 1948.

9 Functions of children authorities

(1) Any local authority for the purposes of the Children Act, 1948 (in this section referred to as a children authority) may accommodate in homes or other accommodation provided by that authority under section fifteen of that Act any child who, not being in their care within the meaning of Part II of that Act, is a person whose care or after-care is for the time being undertaken by that or any other authority as local health authority in pursuance of arrangements made under section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946, for the care or after-care of persons who are or have been suffering from mental disorder.

(2) Where a child whose care or after-care is for the time being undertaken by a local health authority in pursuance of such arrangements as aforesaid is accommodated in a home or other accommodation provided under the said section fifteen by the same authority as children authority, the authority may make such adjustments as appear to them to be appropriate between the accounts kept by them as local health authority and the accounts kept by them as children authority.

(3) Nothing in this Act, or in any other enactment, shall be construed as preventing a children authority from receiving into their care under section one of the Children Act, 1948, a child who is mentally disordered, nor as preventing a local health authority from accommodating in pursuance of such arrangements as aforesaid any child who is in the care of that or any other authority as a children authority.

(4) In this section " child " has the same meaning as in the Children Act, 1948.

10 Welfare of certain hospital patients

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, where a mentally disordered patient being—

(a) a child or young person in respect of whom the rights and powers of a parent are vested in a local authority by virtue of—

(i) section seventy-five of the Children and Young Persons Act, 1933 (which relates to children and young persons committed to the care of fit persons under that Act);

(ii) section seventy-nine of the Children and Young Persons (Scotland) Act, 1937 (which makes corresponding provision in Scotland); or

(iii) section three of the Children Act, 1948 (which relates to children in respect of whom parental rights have been assumed by a local authority under section two of that Act);

(b) a person who is subject to the guardianship of a local health authority under the following provisions of this Act; or

(c) a person the functions of whose nearest relative under this Act are for the time being transferred to a local health authority,

is admitted to a hospital or nursing home in England and Wales (whether for treatment for mental disorder or for any other reason) then, without prejudice to their duties in relation to the patient apart from the provisions of this section, the authority shall arrange for visits to be made to him on behalf of the authority, and shall take such other steps in relation to the patient while in the hospital or nursing home as would be expected to be taken by his parents.

(2) Section eight of the Children Act, 1948, and subsection (6) of section five of the Matrimonial Proceedings (Children) Act, 1958 (which provide for the removal from the care of local authorities of children who come under control under the enactments relating to mental deficiency or to lunacy and mental treatment) shall cease to have effect.

Provision for care and training of children in lieu of education

11 Examination and classification under Education Act, 1944

The sections set out in the Second Schedule to this Act, and therein numbered fifty-seven, fifty-seven A and fifty-seven B, shall be substituted for section fifty-seven of the Education Act, 1944; and section eight of the Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1948 (which amended section fifty-seven of the said Act of 1944 as originally enacted) shall cease to have effect.

12 Power to compel attendance at training centres

(1) Where it appears to the local health authority to be appropriate that a child of compulsory school age who is the subject of a decision recorded under section fifty-seven of the Education Act, 1944, should receive training at a centre provided or made available under arrangements made by that authority under section twenty-eight of the National Health Service Act, 1946, the authority may give notice in writing to the parent of the child requiring him to cause the child to attend, either by the day or, if the notice so directs, as a resident, at such centre, being a centre provided or made available as aforesaid, as may be specified in the notice at such times or for such periods as may be so specified.

(2) Before giving a notice under this section, the local health authority shall satisfy themselves that the child is not receiving adequate training comparable with the training which he would receive at the centre; and if any person to whom such a notice is given is aggrieved by the notice on the ground that the child is receiving such training, he may require the local health authority to refer the question to the Minister of Health, and that Minister may either confirm the notice or direct that it be amended or withdrawn.

(3) Subject to subsection (2) of this section, if any person fails to comply with a notice given to him under subsection (1) of this section, he shall, unless the child is receiving adequate training comparable with the training which he would receive at the centre, be guilty of an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction, in the case of a first offence to a fine not exceeding one pound, in the case of a second offence to a fine not exceeding five pounds, and in the case of a third or subsequent offence to a fine not exceeding ten pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding one month, or to both.

(4) It shall be the duty of the local health authority to institute proceedings for an offence under this section wherever, in their opinion, the institution of such proceedings is necessary, and no such proceedings shall be instituted except by or on behalf of a local health authority.

(5) For the purposes of this section a child shall be treated as of compulsory school age so long as, under the Education Act, 1944, he would be deemed to be of compulsory school age if he were a registered pupil at a special school, and " parent" has the same meaning as in that Act.

13 Provisions as to regular attendance for training

(1) For the purposes of any proceedings under section twelve of this Act, the parent of a child of compulsory school age shall be deemed to have failed to cause the child to attend at a training centre on any occasion on which the child has failed without leave to attend at the centre, but the child shall not be deemed to have so failed—

(a) at any time when prevented from attending by reason of sickness or any unavoidable cause ;

(b) on any day exclusively set apart for religious observance by the religious body to which the parent belongs ; or

(c) if it is not reasonably practicable for the child to make his own way, or to be taken by or on behalf of his parent, to and from the centre, and no suitable arrangements have been made by the local health authority either for his transport to and from the centre or for residential accommodation for him at or near the centre.

(2) If in any such proceedings it is proved that the child has no fixed abode, subsection (1) of this section shall have effect as if paragraph (c) were omitted; but if the parent proves that he is engaged in a trade or business of such a nature as to require him to travel from place to place, and that the child has attended at the training centre as regularly as the nature of the trade or business of the parent permits, the parent shall be acquitted.

(3) For the purposes of any such proceedings as aforesaid in respect of a child who is residing at a training centre, the parent shall be deemed to have failed to cause the child to attend the centre if the child is absent without leave during any part of the period during which the training is given unless prevented from being present by reason of sickness or any unavoidable cause.

(4) In this section " child of compulsory school age" and " parent" have the same meaning as in section twelve of this Act, and " leave ", in relation to a training centre, means leave granted by any person authorised in that behalf by the local health authority by whom the training centre is provided.