Mental Health Lawyers
Expert lawyers for mental health providers
Mental health provider legal experts
Expert lawyers for mental health providers
Independent providers play a very significant, if not dominant role, in the mental health sector.
It was reported in 2022 that the independent sector receives about 13.5% of the £14.8bn the NHS in England spends on mental health.
Whether you’re looking for advice on a specific patient related matter, support on how to navigate the complex MHA legal and regulatory landscape, acquire property or expand your business/enter into new contractual relationships, our team of specialist lawyers are on hand to help you.
We are proud to act for some of the largest private and third sector providers of mental health care in the country.
How our mental health lawyers can advise you
Our 250 strong full-service health and social care team understand the challenges and opportunities faced by providers in the independent mental health sector. This is where we can help:
Mental health law
- From the legalities of compulsory detention to the adequacy of record keeping, we can work with you and keep you up-to-date on a wide-range of mental health issues including the interpretation and application of the Mental Health Act 1983, representation and advise at the Mental Health Review Tribunal and the lawfulness of detention, consent to treatment and funding issues. Find out more here.
Inquests
- Inquests can be high-profile occasions, raising potential issues that require careful handling and robust legal advice. Our specialist inquest solicitors are offer expert advice on all matters relating the coroners’ jurisdiction and inquests, including dealing with requests for disclosure of evidence, witness summonses and pre-inquest reviews, supporting staff through the inquest process, dealing with complex Article 2 inquests, and advocacy at inquests. Find out more here.
Integrated care systems
- The reforms under the Health and Care Act 2022 join up healthcare across the footprints of integrated healthcare systems. ‘Place’ is ‘the foundation’ of that integrated care.
- Whilst the public sector is leading the focus on localised planning, integration, and consequent improvements in population health, those aims are supported and influenced by the independent sector.
- It is important to continue to build relationships locally and demonstrate value to the public sector to retain or obtain those contracts. We are perfectly placed, with our knowledge and understanding of ICS’s, to support private providers in navigating the integrated care landscape and establishing collaborative contractual relationships.
Commercial Healthcare
- We have extensive expertise of the procurement regulations which govern contracting with the NHS, and can advise on the current regulations and the proposed Procurement Bill and Provider Selection Regime. We advise on bidding for contracts, challenging decisions and negotiating contracts.
- We advise on all types of commercial arrangements including on franchising, supply and distribution agreements, technology transfer agreements, clinical trial agreements, research study agreements and infrastructure/ platform/software-as-a-service (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS) agreements.
- Advising on licensing and regulatory requirements for independent sector providers of NHS services under NHS England’s Independent Provider Risk Assessment Framework (IPRAF).
Corporate Healthcare
- Our corporate team provide a unique offering to clients on corporate healthcare transactions by offering sector specialist healthcare due diligence teams to conduct detailed due diligence exercises in a very short space of time due to the size of the national healthcare due diligence team.
- Our corporate healthcare team is comprised of Tier One ranked lawyers, able to support with corporate sales and acquisitions, listings, investments and fundraising, corporate structuring and reorganisations, and advising on share option schemes.
Technology
- Technology is radically reshaping healthcare as innovation empowers patients, opens up new possibilities for prevention and treatment, and helps funders deliver better value. We advise on all aspects of technology development and procurement, including in relation to artificial intelligence tools. We advise in particular on regulatory, data protection, intellectual property (protection and exploitation) and commercial issues.
- We advise on cyber security requirements, including putting in place risk management frameworks to mitigate cyber risk and dealing with incidents as they arise.
- We advise on the regulatory framework applicable to medical devices and medicines (including novel medicines such as medical cannabis and psychedelic medicines) and can advise on MHRA and Home Office compliance.
- We advise on compliance with Competition and Markets Authority requirements as they apply both to consumers of private mental health services and to providers as regards competition.
Employment
- Our specialist healthcare employment lawyers team provides advice and strategic guidance on the full range of employment law matters, including contracts of employment, policy documents and staff handbooks, equal pay, discrimination, victimisation and harassment, and disciplinary, dismissal and grievance procedures.
Real Estate
- Our experienced and approachable health real estate lawyers team deliver solution focused and effective advice to a wide range of healthcare organisations, including mental health providers and clinics.
- We focus on efficient delivery of day-to-day estates work in a cost-effective manner and build long term relationships with our clients, so we understand their estates requirements; and delivering transformational health infrastructure projects using a multi-disciplinary team approach, to bring together experienced, motivated and collaborative specialists across real estate, construction, planning, procurement and other connected disciplines.
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How our team will work with you
We believe that the best results come from close collaboration between our legal team and our clients.
We pride ourselves on providing our clients with a full range of services on the most sensitive and legally challenging issues in the mental health sector. As national leading experts on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and deprivation of liberty, we regularly represent our clients in the court of protection (up to court of appeal). Our specialist lawyers appear on behalf of clients regularly in the coroner’s court in complex and highly sensitive inquests.
When you work with us, you can expect:
- Dedicated sector specialists: Our lawyers have the technical knowledge and the sector expertise to provide practical solutions to the range of challenges you face.
- One team culture: our national full-service team can provide that ‘one stop shop’ for all of your legal issues.
- A commercial focus: our experience with NHS clients means we understand and respect commercial solutions and effective costs budgeting.
- Training - We arrange highly engaging and topical training sessions, for example on informed consent, Employment matters, MCA/DoLs, ESG and Net Zero, disordered eating, real estate considerations, patient safety, alongside our series of ongoing events.
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Our clients
We work closely with:
- Private hospitals and clinics
- Community interest companies
- Health providers in a prison setting
- Social care organisations
- Technology suppliers in the sector
- Social enterprises
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Our experience
- We provide a full service offering to a large community interest company providing healthcare for people in vulnerable circumstances.
- We draft all legal documentation associated with healthtech apps, for major remote consultation providers and startups alike, including end-user licence agreements, terms and conditions, privacy notices and cookies policies.
- We acted in the following reported cases in the court of protection and high court:
- Blackpool Borough Council v HT (A Minor) & Ors [2022] EWHC 1480 (Fam) (17 June 2022) - clarified the position where an application for detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 is made but which is not supported by the hospital’s gatekeeping assessment.
- Manchester University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust v JS & Others (Schedule 1A Mental Capacity Act 2005) [2023] EWCOP 33 – regarding the complex interface between the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Mental Health Act 1983.
- North Yorkshire County Council v M & Ors (Medium Secure Bed) [2021] EWHC 2171 (Fam) – secure accommodation and bed availability under the MHA 1983
- Re Q [2022] EWCOP 6 – determination of capacity of Q to refuse physical health treatment for the consequences of her eating disorder.
- We advised ADDVantage Technologies on its deal with Priory Group to offer online therapy programmes for mental health conditions.
- We have provided detailed commentary on the extent to which mental health and wellbeing apps bridge the supply/ demand gap compared to more traditional face-to-face mental health support solutions - Mental health apps – can they bridge the gap in health provisions? | Hill Dickinson
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Resources
We regularly update our clients and contacts with details on the latest insights into the mental health sector. Our articles, videos and other materials can all be found here.