Easy Read Survey on the Government’s draft Mental Health Bill 

In June 2022 the Government published its draft Mental Health Bill to change mental health laws in England and Wales, with the aim of reducing the number of people that are detained in mental health hospitals.  An Easy Read version of the bill can be accessed here. 

Since the draft Bill was published, a Joint Committee has been created by the House of Lords and the House of Commons to review the bill. This process is known as ‘Pre-legislative Scrutiny’ and happens before some bills are made into a law.  

The Joint Committee is now asking people for their opinions to help them to decide whether any changes need to be made to the Bill. To help the Joint Committee hear from more people an Easy Read survey on the draft Mental Health Bill has now been released. It is here and can be filled out before the 30th October. 

What does the Bill mean for autistic people?

Some of the changes in the draft Mental Health Bill could make a big difference to autistic people. For example: 

• Changing the definition of “mental disorder” in the Mental Health Act so that autistic people who do not have a mental health condition do not end up stuck in mental health hospitals. 
• Introducing a duty for councils, NHS England and local health decision makers to provide community services to prevent autistic people reaching crisis point, and having to stay in an institution because there is nowhere else to go.  

There are also parts of the bill that we think could do more to improve autistic people’s experiences of mental health services, for example we would like to see: 

•  The rules for providing community mental health services made stronger.  
• A commitment to reduce the number of autistic people detained through the criminal justice system. 
• A stronger duty for professionals to listen to and follow recommendations about autistic people’s treatment. 

You can read our initial thoughts on the bill here. 

Answering the Survey 
 
As well as the Easy Read version of the draft Mental Health Bill, there is also an Easy Read guide to answering the survey here. You may want to read this before sharing your thoughts through the survey. 

• You do not need to answer every question in the survey. There might be some that you feel more strongly about than others.  
• If you would prefer to share your opinions on the bill through a longer piece of writing instead of the survey, you can email jcmentalhealth@parliament.uk for instructions on how to do this.  
• Your response may be shared or published anonymously. 
   

The survey questions include a list of statements with tick boxes to show how much you agree with the statement. There is also a text box at the end of the survey, where you can share more information or explanations for your answers.  

You might want to use this space to share: 

• The most important things that professionals should know about autism  
• Your own personal experiences of mental health services 
• What changes to mental health services could make them better for autistic people 
• What kinds of community support could help autistic people to avoid mental health crisis 
• Anything else you think the committee needs to consider or that the bill should include 

The Joint Committee will look at the evidence from this survey as well as their conversations with other people and groups. They will report back to Parliament on the 16th December 2022.  

Further information  

Read Alexis’ story about being “locked inside” various mental health hospitals for three years.  

Read our news story on the number of autistic people in inpatient mental health hospitals.