The Department of Health and Social Care has launched a consultation and White Paper on plans to reform the Mental Health Act. 

It follows a review and final report published in 2018 that found that the MHA does not always work as well as it should for patients, their families and their carers.

The DHSC is proposing a wide range of changes to rebalance the MHA, to put "patients at the centre of decisions about their own care and ensure everyone is treated equally." These proposals are based on 4 principles that they have been developed in collaboration with "people with lived experience of the MHA". They are:

• choice and autonomy – ensuring service users’ views and choices are respected
• least restriction – ensuring the MHA’s powers are used in the least restrictive way
• therapeutic benefit – ensuring patients are supported to get better, so they can be discharged from the MHA
• the person as an individual – ensuring patients are viewed and treated as individuals

The closing date for responses is 21st April 2021. The White Paper and consultation documents are available on the Gov.uk.