Mental health leads hail project to highlight impact of AMHP work

A proposed dataset on the work of approved mental health professionals (AMHPs) has the potential to showcase the value of the role and secure much-needed investment for it, service heads have said.

The AMHP Leads Network made the comment after the Local Government Association launched a project to scope out the feasibility of developing a national minimum dataset for AMHP work, completed on a voluntary basis by councils and NHS bodies.

The LGA recently tendered for a professional lead, with operational AMHP experience, to engage with stakeholders and develop a proof of concept for the dataset.

The AMHP Leads Network said this built on work it had carried out with the government’s Office of the Chief Social Worker looking at the scope of such a data collection, and added that the idea was also supported by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS).

Existing AMHP data and what it misses

Currently, Skills for Care publishes annual data on the AMHP workforce and NHS England produces yearly statistics on the use of the Mental Health Act 1983, the latest of which showed  a 7.7% drop in the number of people detained under the MHA, which followed a 5.7% fall the previous year.

Most such detentions will have been based on an application from an AMHP following an assessment by the practitioner, agreed with two doctors, that the criteria for detaining the person under the relevant section are met and detention is the most appropriate way of providing care and treatment to the person.

However, despite the decline in the number of detained people, the leads network has argued that demand for AMHP work is increasing year on year, with a rise in the number of requests under section 13 of the MHA for a practitioner to consider a person’s case where it is deemed detention may be required.

In many such cases, AMHPs do not make an application under the MHA but find less restrictive alternatives to detention for the person; however, this work is not captured in existing datasets.

Dataset ‘essential in securing investment for AMHPs’

“While individual AMHP services, local authorities and mental health trusts will all be collecting a variety of AMHP-related data, there is no single dataset that describes the totality of the work AMHPs do,” the network said.

“It is our belief that by collecting the actual demands made on AMHP services, the sources of such referrals, the demographics of those referred, and the pressures in the system, this dataset has the potential to act as a barometer for the health of the whole mental health system not just our AMHP services.”

It added: “When combined with the annual Skills for Care AMHP workforce survey, we see this dataset as essential in securing much needed investment in the AMHP workforce, in particular the challenge we make to local authorities and mental health trusts to work together on coherent local AMHP succession plans that maximise the routes to AMHP training and practice for social work, nursing, occupational therapy and psychology colleagues. This dataset has the potential also to show the value AMHPs can bring to securing less restrictive outcomes for those we serve.”

The LGA’s tender for the professional lead to lead the initial work on the project has now closed.