A revised version of the draft mental health bill could be published early in the New Year, Community Care has learned.

However, the revised version is still expected to include the wide definition of mental disorder that caused such outrage when the bill was first unveiled in June last year.

It is believed that the proposals to open up the approved social worker role to other mental health professionals, such as community psychiatric nurses, will also still appear.

However, the government is thought to have recognised the specialist skills that ASWs contribute to the process of deciding whether to detain an individual under the Mental Health Act 1983 and the new version is expected to reflect this.

It is also anticipated that the new proposals will still have significant workforce implications, with estimates suggesting that 5 per cent more mental health workers would be needed across the board.

Over the past few months, stakeholders have been meeting with government officials to discuss the bill, but some are still concerned that the government is pressing ahead with its plans without properly listening to their views.

Mental health charity Mind said it was still "deeply unhappy" with the wider definition of mental health problems in the draft bill and pointed out that, so far, no one had explained where the necessary extra staff would come from.

Rowena Daw, head of policy development, added that the government's claims of a consensus being reached on the bill were unexpected because "clear and virtually unanimous concerns" had been raised at the expert stakeholder meetings.

"We have been surprised by this talk of consensus but hope that this indicates that our objections will have been taken into account in any new draft bill," she said.

Meanwhile, the Association of Directors of Social Services has said that, while it supports the broadening out of the ASWrole in principle, a long lead-in time would be necessary in implementing it.

Jenny Goodall, joint chairperson of the ADSS mental health strategy group, added that ASWs were proud of their role, but that broadening it out could lead to fewer social workers putting themselves forward.