Claire Barcham explains how changes to the approved
social worker role will impact on professionals
When the amended
Mental Health Act 2007 comes into force on 3
November, the 25-year-old ASW (approved social worker) role will
give way to the new AMHP (approved mental health professional)
position. The responsibilities and tasks will largely stay the
same, but who fills the position won’t – AMHPs, unlike ASWs, don’t
have to be qualified social workers.
So what do ASWs think about their role coming to an end? Claire
Barcham is the ASW Leads Network national co-ordinator and has been
an ASW for 12 years, and she says that ASWs have had enough success
that new-style AMHPs will have to adopt their approach.
“I think that ASWs have developed a huge amount of knowledge and
professionalism and are now respected for the skills they bring,”
says Barcham. “I think they have worked well to protect users’
person not just as an individual with a particular problem but as a
person, and then seeing how the illness impacts on their lives. The
other thing that social workers have brought is anti-discriminatory
and anti-oppressive ideas. They’re also expected to have a better
and more thorough understanding of legislation.
“You need those skills, so anyone coming in who didn’t have
training prior to AMHP training would be at a disadvantage in those
areas.”
No one yet knows how many non-social workers will be interested
in the role, but Barcham says she has already been approached by
some community psychiatric nurses who are interested. And the
workforce could be shaped in other, unexpected ways – any ASWs who
were approved more than five years ago and aren’t currently
approved will have to completely retrain as AMHPs.
For ASWs continuing in the role, meanwhile, regulations mean
that they will now have 18 hours’ statutory annual training.
Other changes affecting the role are relatively minor, but
Barcham says those that do exist should help address real problems
facing ASWs at present – namely, improving protocols to make waits
of up to a fortnight for police support to section someone a
distant memory, which has been known to happen in some London
boroughs, and to remind primary care trusts of the need to provide
an adequate ambulance service for local mental health needs.
Overall, though, it’s the new kinds of staff that are going to
make the real difference to the shape of the AMHP role. And as long
as sufficient training takes place, Barcham says they can make a
valuable contribution and bolster the flagging numbers of ASWs.
“The pool of people to draw on to train has been reduced in
recent years,” says Barcham. “Equally, service users have said that
they would like to be assessed by the people who know them best, so
that can be brought to the role.
“But at the same time they have to bring that from a social
perspective and they have to be independent – they are assessing
for the local authority.”