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Mental Health Bill [Lords]

In speaking on advocacy, I should declare an interest. I am honorary president of the Advocacy Services in Staffordshire, or ASIST. I warmly congratulate the Minister on the work she has done on advocacy between the Committee and Report stages. She gave an assurance in Committee that she would bring this matter back to the House and she has done so; that is welcome. I said in Committee that it was untenable for us not to have a system of advocacy for mental health patients when we have now accepted advocacy for mental capacity cases. The wording of the new clause closely follows the wording on advocates in the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which shows that synergy. My earlier intervention on the Minister was intended to be helpful. I said that there might be common standards, training and systems of maintaining advocates in order to keep the costs of both systems at a reasonable level. Advocacy is to be welcomed because patients can find it disempowering enough to have to face the panoply of the mental health system when in need of help, but when faced with professionals such as a consultant psychiatrist or a range of people with other mental health expertise—perhaps social workers, too—it can also seem that the balance of power is wrong. The beauty of the advocacy system is that it enables someone to stand shoulder to shoulder with the patient in putting their case. It can enable the patients themselves to say exactly what they want, and if they are unable to do so it enables the advocate to speak up on their behalf and to make sure that their voice is heard in deliberations and planning.