Mental Health Act 1959

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.