Mental Health Standard Fee Scheme

On this page:

About the scheme
Fee structure table
Details of the fees
Additional payments
Defining a case
The Mental Capacity Act and ‘Bournewood’ cases
Specification
For more information

About the scheme

This fee scheme is not only about ensuring access to legal advice and assistance to this particularly vulnerable group. It will also allow us to:

support the legal processes in this area of law, notably processes relating to the Mental Health Review Tribunal, which is relevant to 76% of matters
reward providers who are located near their clients and who are well placed to understand the needs of these clients and make effective links with local providers of social welfare legal services
enable matters that are exceptionally costly to undertake to escape from the standard fees.

Fee structure table

Please see the Documents panel for a fee structure table for the Mental Health Fee Scheme.

The table sets out what we will pay for cases when the new schemes are introduced and aim to help providers to access key information more easily.

It is taken from our Mental Health Standard Fee Scheme publication (under Documents) that sets out and explains the scheme. This document provides important additional information about the scheme such as:

any work outside the scheme
exceptional thresholds.

The fee table should be read in conjunction with this scheme paper.

Details of the fees

The fees are designed to be budget-neutral – they maintain current average case costs.

Cases which do not involve work relating to a Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) receive a fixed fee of £275.

Cases which involve work relating to a MHRT can receive a combination of fees depending on the work done. Each fee is payable only once during the course of a case and includes counsel time.

Level 1: Initial Advice - £140

this covers one visit to the client and a small amount of immediate follow-up work
we have increased the Level 1 fee by 50%.

Level 2: Negotiation and Preparation - £340

this covers all preparation work for the tribunal and any negotiation with third parties.

Level 3: Representation at the Mental Health Review Tribunal - £311

this covers representation at the tribunal.

Additional payments

Travel

Many clients needing mental health legal aid are in hospital and cannot travel to their solicitor. The above fees include the standard cost of travelling to see the client. We will pay an additional remote travel payment to cover travelling to clients located in hospitals remote from sufficient provision.

Remote travel payments will be available for clients detained at specified locations. This list will consist of those hospitals where we consider clients’ access to services might be otherwise at risk.

When assessing risk we will take into account various factors including:

the number of tribunals listed at that location
the number of providers in the area
capacity of those providers.

We will retain the power to add locations to the list to promote better access in future. We may also remove locations where, for example, we have secured sufficient supply through a bid round.

Hearings

We will pay a fixed fee of £124 for hearings that are adjourned and rescheduled. The full Level 3 fee is only paid when the full effective hearing takes place.

Exceptional cases

We have reduced the exceptional threshold. Where the costs of a case exceed the fees by three times, the case will be exceptional and will be paid an hourly rate. Any type of case, whether Non-MHRT or MHRT, can be exceptional if its costs exceed the relevant fees by three times.

Defining a case

Generally, a new case can be opened for a detained client every time they are eligible for a Mental Health Review Tribunal (MHRT) hearing.

Issues that arise during the MHRT case, such as a Manager’s Hearing, are included in the fees. No separate fee is paid.

If a separate issue requiring substantial additional work arises after any MHRT hearing but within the same eligibility period a new matter can be started. The fee for non-hearing related work (Level 1 non-MHRT) can be claimed for this.

The Mental Capacity Act and ‘Bournewood’ cases

Where a client seeks advice about the Mental Capacity Act, the initial advice is covered by the non-MHRT fee.

For further advice, including applying to and representing the client at the Court of Protection in Mental Capacity cases or Bournewood cases, a provider should apply for a certificate to carry out further work.

If there is an open MHRT case and the client also needs information about a Mental Capacity Act/Bournewood issue, a new matter should be started for this, which will receive the non-MHRT fee.

Specification

Following consultation earlier this summer, we have now published our final Mental Health Category Specific Section. This can be downloaded from the Unified Contract pages of our website.

The Mental Health specification sets out the criteria for the various levels of service and also mental health specific rules which facilitate the operation of the Fixed Fee scheme in the Mental Health category of law.

For more information

Please see the Documents panel for:

the fee scheme paper
a regulatory impact assessment
a document showing how the fees were calculated.

We have published a Q&A in the Documents panel. This will be updated regulary. Send any questions for the Q&A to yourquestions@legalservices.gov.uk

Last updated: 07 November 2007