Mental Health (Wales) Measure 2010

Local primary mental health support services

2Joint schemes for the provision of local primary mental health support services

(1)The local mental health partners for a local authority area must take all reasonable steps to agree a scheme–

(a)which identifies the treatment which is to be made available for that area for the purposes of this Part (“local primary mental health treatment”); and

(b)for securing the provision for that area of the services, including local primary mental health treatment, described in section 5 (“local primary mental health support services”).

(2)If a scheme is agreed, the partners must ensure that it is recorded in writing.

(3)A scheme must identify the extent to which each of the partners is to be responsible for providing local primary mental health support services.

(4)A scheme may provide that–

(a)one of the partners is to be responsible for providing all local primary mental health support services for the local authority area;

(b)primary mental health assessments are to be made available in respect of all or particular descriptions of the individuals described in section 8(1);

(c)primary mental health assessments are to be carried out in respect of particular categories of individual who would not otherwise be entitled to an assessment.

(5)If a scheme makes provision under subsection (4)(b), it must also provide for particular descriptions of staff working in secondary mental health services to be able to refer an individual referred to in that subsection for a primary mental health assessment.

(6)The partners may alter a scheme (including a scheme determined by the Welsh Ministers under section 4 and a scheme which has already been altered) if they agree the alterations.

(7)If a scheme is altered under subsection (6), the partners must ensure that the alterations are recorded in writing.

3Duty to provide local primary mental health support services

(1)Unless section 4(1)(a) applies, the local mental health partners for a local authority area must provide local primary mental health support services in accordance with–

(a)a scheme for their area agreed under section 2; or

(b)a scheme for their area determined by the Welsh Ministers under section 4.

(2)If a scheme has been altered under section 2(6) or 4(2) the services must be provided in accordance with the altered scheme.

4Failures to agree schemes

(1)If the local mental health partners for an area cannot agree a scheme under section 2–

(a)for so long as there is no agreement, the Local Health Board must decide what local primary mental health treatment is to be made available in the local authority area in question and is responsible for providing local primary mental health support services for that area;

(b)the Local Health Board must inform the Welsh Ministers that agreement cannot be reached;

(c)the Welsh Ministers may determine a scheme and, if they do, must record it in writing.

(2)If one partner wishes to alter a scheme, but the other does not, the scheme may, upon a request being made to the Welsh Ministers by either partner, be altered by the Welsh Ministers to such extent as the Welsh Ministers think fit.

(3)If the Welsh Ministers alter a scheme under subsection (2), they must record the alterations in writing.

5Meaning of “local primary mental health support services”

(1)Local primary mental health support services are the following–

(a)the carrying out of primary mental health assessments in accordance with the following provisions of this Part;

(b)the provision for an individual, following a primary mental health assessment, of the local primary mental health treatment identified by the assessment as being treatment which might improve or prevent a deterioration in the individual’s mental health;

(c)the making of referrals as described in section 10, following a primary mental health assessment, concerning other services the provision of which might improve or prevent a deterioration in the assessed individual’s mental health;

(d)the provision of information, advice and other assistance to primary care providers to meet the providers' reasonable requirements for such information, advice and other assistance for the purpose of improving the services related to mental health which they provide or arrange;

(e)the provision for patients and their carers of information and advice about the services available to them, to meet their reasonable requirements for such information and advice.

(2)In subsection (1)(e)–

• “carers” (“gofalwyr”) means members of the families of patients, and friends of patients, who are involved in their care and in the case of a patient who is a child, includes the child’s local authority foster parent (within the meaning of section 22C(12) of the Children Act 1989);

• “patients” (“cleifion”) means individuals who have, or may have, a mental disorder;

• “services” (“gwasanaethau”) means–

  (a)

  secondary mental health services;

  (b)

  community care services (not being secondary mental health services);

  (c)

  services provided under Part III of the Children Act 1989 (not being secondary mental health services);

  (d)

  housing or well-being services; and

  (e)

  education or training which may be beneficial to a patient’s mental health.