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Community Legal Service (CLS)- Civil areas of work
- Mental health and other civil areas
Mental health and other civil areas
- About the team
- Mental health and the law
- Mental Health - Civil Specification Project
- Mental Health - Whole System Initiatives
- Mental Health Fee Scheme and Specification
- Civil low volume categories
- Low volume categories project
- Seeking legal advice?
About the team
Our Mental Health and Civil Low Volume Categories team works to:
- analyse work underway in the areas of law it is responsible for
- develop recommendations regarding contracting arrangements.
Mental health and the law
The LSC commissions legal services for people with problems relating to mental health law. As well as helping these people with severe mental health problems that have been sectioned, we help those who are being treated voluntarily in hospital and those with mental health problems who remain in the community. These include older people in residential and care homes.
In 2006/07 we spent approximately £28 million on mental health controlled work and nearly £1m (gross) on certificated work.
The Community Legal Service must also ensure that people with poor mental health receive the specialist advice they need in relation to social welfare legal problems. These could be relating to accommodation, welfare benefits or debts, wherever they are living.
Through Community Legal Advice Centres we are making people with poor mental health a priority group for such services.
Mental Health - Civil Specification Project
The strategy for commissioning Mental Health legal services is being developed alongside equivalent strategies for the other Civil categories of law. Together, this work is known as the Civil Specification Project.
This project is part of our legal aid reform programme and contributes to our strategy for the CLS. Our vision is for a Community Legal Service that is
- client focused and accessible
- independent
- cost effective and co-ordinated
- quality assured.
The mental health portion of the Civil Specification Project is looking at:
- a contracting strategy compatible with the structure of the NHS, including Strategic Health Authorities and the locations of NHS Trusts providing
- mental health services
- structuring funding around client need
- ensuring sustainable access and quality
- enabling access to the full range of services that fall within the category
- ensuring vulnerable clients receive social welfare legal advice when they need it
- preserving a competitive market for the introduction of Best Value Tendering
The LSC plans to publish the proposals for mental health (along with proposals for the other categories of law) for consultation in September 2008. Further details of the timetable for the Civil Specification and Civil Fees projects can be found on the Transforming civil legal aid page of our website. In particular the Civil route map agreed with the Law Society sets out the way that civil legal aid contracts will be developed over the next five years.
Please contact Policy Developer Oliver Toop with any queries.
Mental Health – Whole System Initiatives
As part of our Whole System Initiatives the LSC is investigating the ways that we and our partners in the mental health justice system can achieve best value for money and continue to increase the numbers of people helped. In mental health this will involve working with the Mental Health Review Tribunal and the NHS in England and Wales to improve efficiency and effectiveness for the benefit of clients, legal representatives and the justice partners themselves.
Relationship managers, policy makers and specialist caseworkers based in Liverpool and Nottingham have already met with representatives from the Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) and the Administrative Justice & Tribunals Council.
Lead LSC staff in each region will be meeting with their counterparts at the MHRT on a regular basis. If you would like to raise an issue with regard to efficiency and / or effectiveness of the MHRT in your region, please contact Contract Manager Stuart Lee, noting the issue(s) you are raising in addition to the region(s) to which these pertain. Whatever your interest in the Tribunal, we are keen to receive your views and your evidence for them.
For more information on the wider Whole System Initiative project, please contact Project Manager Liz Long.
Mental Health Fee Scheme and Specification
Information and guidance is also available on the Mental Health Fee Scheme and Specification. Please contact the Mental Health Unit for advice on any additional queries
Civil low volume categories
Through our transformation programme we are reviewing arrangements in the areas of law where we fund low volumes of work:
- actions against the police
- clinical negligence
- consumer general contract
- education
- miscellaneous
- personal injury
- public law
Together these categories accounted for £7 million of controlled work and £43 million net certificated work in 2005/06.
Work done in many of these categories plays an important role in combating social exclusion and ensuring people’s ability to enforce their rights.
The organisations that work in these categories are usually relatively small and specialised, focusing on one or two areas of law.
They are not evenly distributed around the country. Some people have to travel long distances to access advice.
Firms differ greatly in the costs they incur per case and the outcomes they achieve for clients.
Low volume categories project
This project will change our procurement and contracting arrangements to improve quality, value and access.
Our goals for this work will be to:
- make advice and representation in these areas of law more accessible
- focus spend on high priority work within the categories
- improve outcomes for clients.
Work is ongoing and proposals will be subject to informal and formal consultation.
Please contact Policy Developer Peter Jones with any queries.
Seeking legal advice?
Community Legal Advice can help if you are eligible for legal aid
Call the helpline now on 0845 345 4345.
Calls cost no more than 4p per minute from a BT landline but calls from mobiles are usually more. Worried about the cost? Ask an adviser to call you back.
The helpline has a translation service if you would like advice in a language other than English or Welsh.
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Last updated: 04 June 2008