Your feedback helps us to improve our website.

Translate

Guidance on choosing accommodation and additional payments Choice of accommodation and mental health after-care

  1. Regulations made under section 117A of the Mental Health Act 1983 enable persons who qualify for after-care under section 117 to express a preference for particular accommodation if accommodation of the types specified in the regulations is to be provided as part of that after-care. Local authorities are required to provide or arrange the provision of the preferred accommodation if the conditions in the regulations are met. 
  2. The regulations give people who receive mental health after-care broadly the same rights to choice of accommodation as someone who receives care and support under the Care Act 2014. But some differences arise because after-care is provided free of charge and, as the legislative requirement for a care and support plan under the Care Act 2014 does not apply to section 117 after-care, the care plan should instead be drawn up under guidance on the Care Programme Approach (CPA). Care planning under the CPA should, if accommodation is an issue, include identifying the type of accommodation which is suitable for the person’s needs and affording them the right to choice of accommodation set out in the regulations made under section 117A. The person should be fully involved in the care planning process. 
  3. An adult has the right to choose accommodation provided that: 
  • the preferred accommodation is of the same type that the local authority has decided to provide or arrange
  • it is suitable for the person’s needs 
  • it is available (see guidance in paras. 13-16) for mental health after-care purposes (‘assessed needs’ means needs identified in the CPA care plan)
  • where the accommodation is not provided by the local authority, the provider of the accommodation agrees to provide the accommodation to the person on the local authority’s terms (see guidance in para. 18) 
  1. The principles in paras. 5, 6, 7 and 40 apply equally where a local authority is providing, or arranging the provision of, accommodation in discharge of its after-care duty. The guidance in paras. 17 and 18 applies when the preferred choice cannot be met. 
  2. Where the cost of the person’s preferred accommodation is more than the local authority would provide in a personal budget or local mental health after-care limit to meet the person’s needs, then the local authority must arrange for them to be placed there, provided that either the person or a third party is willing and able to meet the additional cost. 
  3. The guidance in paras. 20 to 38 applies where the adult has chosen more expensive accommodation. For the purposes of section 117 after-care, however, references to a third party should be read as including the adult receiving the after-care (because an adult can also meet the additional cost when a local authority is providing, or arranging for the provision of accommodation in discharge of the after-care duty). 
  4. In securing the funds needed to meet the additional cost, one of the following will apply: 
  • a local authority may agree with the person and the provider, and in cases where a third party is paying the ‘top-up’, agree with that third party, that payment for the additional cost can be made directly to the provider with the local authority paying the remainder 
  • the person or the third party pays the ‘top-up’ amount to the local authority. The local authority then pays the full amount to the provider