The Association of Mental Health Providers welcomes the Mental Health Bill receiving Royal Assent, marking a significant milestone in the long-overdue reform of mental health legislation in England. For people who experience detention under the Mental Health Act, this moment carries deep significance. It represents the first major legislative response to the Independent Review of the Mental Health Act, published in 2018, which exposed serious failures in choice, dignity, autonomy, and equity within the system.

The Act amends the existing legal framework with the stated aim of strengthening safeguards, improving people’s experiences of care and support, and rebalancing the system towards therapeutic benefit and least-restrictive practice. Key reforms include clearer and tighter criteria for detention, enhanced rights to independent mental health advocacy, improved care and treatment planning, and stronger mechanisms for review and challenge. The Act also introduces long-awaited changes for autistic people and people with learning disabilities, making explicit that autism or a learning disability alone should never justify detention.

Central to the reforms is a greater emphasis on choice, control, and autonomy. The introduction of Advance Choice Documents and the replacement of the “nearest relative” with a nominated person are important steps towards ensuring that people’s wishes, preferences, and trusted relationships shape decisions about their care, particularly at times of crisis. If properly implemented, these measures have the potential to rebalance power, strengthen shared decision-making, and help restore trust in a system that many people experience as coercive and disempowering.

However, while the Act reflects important elements of the Independent Review, it does not fully realise its ambition of a fundamental shift away from coercion. Several recommendations intended to significantly reduce detention and rebalance power towards people were not taken forward or were weakened during the passage of the Bill. As a result, too much discretion remains with the system rather than with the person.

The Act also falls short of what is required to address entrenched racial inequalities. Black men remain disproportionately subject to detention, restraint and coercive pathways, a reality that has been repeatedly acknowledged but insufficiently acted upon. Without enforceable duties, transparent accountability and sustained action, there is a serious risk that these inequalities will persist under the reformed Act.

Strengthened rights – including advocacy, Advance Choice Documents and nominated persons – will only be meaningful if people are supported to access and use them well before crisis. There is a real risk of creating rights without access if implementation is not properly resourced. Advocacy in particular is not an optional adjunct to reform: it is fundamental to ensuring rights are understood, exercised, and upheld, especially for people who are marginalised or detained under distress.

VCFSE mental health providers are central to making these reforms meaningful in practice. Our members already deliver effective, rights-based, community-rooted support including advocacy, crisis services, culturally responsive care, prevention, and recovery-focused services. They work with people before, during and after detention, help reduce unnecessary hospitalisation, support safe discharge, and build trust with communities most affected by inequality and exclusion. These are not experimental approaches; they are established practices that the system must now recognise, resource and embed.

Royal Assent marks the start, not the end, of reform. Many provisions will be phased in over several years and will depend on workforce capacity, updated guidance, training and sustained investment across statutory and community services. Poorly resourced implementation risks unintended consequences, including increased bureaucracy, defensive practice, and the displacement of coercion rather than its reduction.

As the only national representative body for VCFSE mental health service providers, the Association of Mental Health Providers will continue to work with government, NHS England and partners to support effective implementation of the Act. We will also continue to amplify the voices of people with lived experience and communities, and to press for reform that goes beyond legislation to deliver real change in people’s lives.

Dania Hanif, Chief Executive of the Association of Mental Health Providers, said:

“Royal Assent is a significant moment, but legislation alone does not change people’s experiences. The Independent Review was clear about what needed to shift: power, choice and autonomy, alongside decisive action on racial inequality.

The tools to deliver meaningful change already exist across the VCFSE mental health sector. Our members support people to assert their rights, avoid unnecessary detention and recover in their communities, often working with those most affected by exclusion and mistrust.

The real test of this Act will be whether it is implemented in a way that makes rights accessible in practice, tackles racial disparities and properly resources the VCSE services that already do this work. Reform must be judged by outcomes, not intent.”