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The Administrative Court has handed down judgment this morning in judicial review proceedings concerning the scope of the duty on local authorities and NHS clinical commissioning groups to provide after-care services for patients who have previously been “sectioned” under the Mental Health Act 1983. Michael Armitage acted (unled) for the successful Claimant (AK), a 16-year-old child with post-traumatic stress disorder and a range of associated mental health problems who had for many months been detained for the purposes of treatment in a psychiatric hospital. The Claimant established that the relevant local authority and NHS clinical commissioning group had failed lawfully to assess and plan for AK’s needs for after-care services under section 117 of the 1983 Act following her discharge from hospital, including because of a failure to comply with the applicable Code of Practice. The case is noteworthy because there is no previous reported case on the precise nature of the assessment and planning obligations under section 117. A copy of the judgment is here.
The Claimant was represented throughout the proceedings by Michael Armitage, instructed by Rebekah Carrier of Hopkin Murray Beskine. Michael has developed a specialism in judicial review claims concerning NHS clinical commissioning groups, having also recently acted for the successful Claimant in judicial review proceedings concerning the provision of NHS continuing healthcare (here).