Adult Services – Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) Service

In order to comply with the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), where personal data relating to a data subject is collected, Lancashire County Council would like to provide you with the following details.

Identity and contact details of the data controller

  • Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ

Contact details of the data protection officer

  • Our Data Protection Officer is Paul Bond. You can contact him at dpo@lancashire.gov.uk or Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ

Purposes for processing

Lancashire County Council has a legal duty to employ, authorise and maintain Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHP) in order for it to meet statutory obligations under the Mental Health Act (1983). Section 13 of the Mental Health Act (1983) states that if a Local Authority have reason to think that an application for admission to hospital or a Guardianship application may need to be made in respect of a patient within their area, they shall make arrangements for an Approved Mental health Professional to consider the patient's case on their behalf.

An AMHP is a qualified professional Social Worker, Nurse, Occupational Therapist or Psychologist who has undertaken specialist training in mental health conditions and the law concerning mental health care and treatment. AMHP's are approved to act in their roles by Local Authorities who ensure that they undergo regular training and professional supervision in order to meet the requirements to practice.

Most AMHP's in Lancashire are employed by Lancashire County Council whilst some are in the employ of other agencies and Authorised to act in an AMHP capacity on behalf of Lancashire County Council. All AMHP's are subject to the same legal requirements in respect of their AMHP practice irrespective of their primary employer. This also includes legislation and regulations concerning Information Governance and Data Protection and Lancashire County Councils protocols for staff acting on behalf of the Local Authority.

Lancashire County Council's AMHP provision consists of a dedicated AMHP Service which operates on a 24 hour basis 365 days a year. AMHP Service staff are contracted to work exclusively as AMHP's. In addition to the AMHP Service, Lancashire County Council maintains a rota of AMHP's who operate in three localities, North, Central and East as part of a rota system.

An Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) will also be asked to certify a person's eligibility for the Breathing Space Mental Health Crisis Moratorium debt respite scheme. The AMHP will rely on the person's consent or if the person lacks capacity to consent, may proceed in the person's best interest under section 4 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, relying on the legal basis of ' public task' (see below).

Information is collected and processed to:

Ensure people are safe and well

  • We need to ensure that we provide the right support that is tailored to meet a person's individual needs
  • Make sure people are protected from harm.

Report on and improve the way we work

  • We need to monitor and evaluate how we do – this helps us plan better services for the future and compare ourselves with other similar services.

Category of personal data being processed

  1. Personal data (information relating to a living, identifiable individual)
  2. Special category personal data (racial, ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person's sex life or sexual orientation)

Legal basis for processing personal data

The legal basis for processing your personal data, in accordance with the UK GDPR is:

(a) Consent: the individual has given clear consent for you to process their personal data for a specific purpose.
(c) Legal Obligation: the processing is necessary for you to comply with the law. You must reference the applicable legislation if you wish to rely on this basis for processing.
(e) Public Task: the processing is necessary for you to perform a task in the public interest or for your official functions, and the task or function has a clear basis in law. You must reference the applicable task/function and its' basis in law if you wish to rely on this basis for processing.

Legal basis for processing special categories of personal data

The legal basis for processing your special categories of personal data, in accordance with the UK GDPR is:

(a) The data subject has given explicit consent to the processing of this personal data.
(h) Processing is necessary for the purposes of preventive or occupational medicine, for the assessment of the working capacity of the employee, medical diagnosis, the provision of health or social care or treatment or the management of health or social care systems and services.

Supporting Legislation

Mental Health Act 1983- Part 1, Section 13, Duty of Approved Mental Health Professionals to make applications for admission or Guardianship states that if a Local Authority have reason to think that an application for admission to hospital or a Guardianship application may need to be made in respect of a patient within their area, they shall make arrangements for an Approved Mental health Professional to consider the patient's case on their behalf
Mental Health Act 1983- Part 1, Section 26 places an obligation on Approved Mental Health Professionals to identify a Nearest Relative (as defined by the Act).
Section 26 places a duty on Approved Mental Health Professionals to consult the Nearest Relative before taking certain actions under Section 13 of the Act including consulting a Nearest Relative before making an application for admission to hospital under Section 3 of the Act or making an application for Guardianship. There are specific circumstances where an AMHP may not be required to consult a Nearest Relative before making an application under Section 3 including where it is not reasonable practicable to consult or where the disclosure of this information would have a negative effect on the patient.
Section 26 places a duty on Approved Mental Health Professionals to inform the Nearest Relative if an admission of their relative has, or is going to be, made to hospital under Section 2 of the Act.

The Act sets out the information which the Nearest Relative is entitled to receive unless the patient requests otherwise.
Care Act 2014 - Part 1, Assessing needs, section 9 Assessment of an adult's needs for care and support states that if it appears that an adult may have needs for care and support so the authority must assess.
Care Act 2014 - Part 1, Assessing needs, section 10 Assessment of a carer’s needs for support states a carer may have needs for support and the authority must access this.
Local Government Act 2000 - Section 2 gives the local authority the power to do anything they consider likely to achieve the promotion or improvement of the social wellbeing of their area.

Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Act 2015 – Chapter 28 251B Duty to
share information
The Debt Respite Scheme (Breathing Space Moratorium and Mental Health
Crisis Moratorium) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 – Section 29
stipulates the necessary information that must be provided by an Approved Mental
Health Professional (AMHP) in certifying a person's eligibility and completing an
application for the scheme.

Recipients of the data

  • Lancashire Care Foundation Trust
  • Hospital Managers of any hospital in England or Wales registered to accept patients under the Mental Health Act (1983) in pursuance of admission to hospital under the Act or discharge from hospital under a provision of the Act
  • Lancashire Constabulary
  • British Transport Police
  • Lancashire Fire and Rescue
  • Lancashire Victim Support
  • HM Courts and Tribunals Service
  • Lancashire Probation Service
  • Her Majesty's Prison Service
  • North West Ambulance Service
  • Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service
  • Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
  • East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust
  • University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust
  • NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group
  • NHS Chorley and South Ribble Clinical Commissioning Group
  • NHS Fylde and Wyre Clinical Commissioning Group
  • NHS Greater Preston Clinical Commissioning Group
  • NHS West Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group
  • NHS Morecambe Bay Clinical Commissioning Group
  • NHS Midlands and Lancashire Clinical Support Group
  • Care Quality Commission
  • Section 12 Solutions (digital technology solutions supporting AMHPs in the performance of statutory duties under the Mental Health Act 1983)
  • Mental Health & Money Advice UK (Organisation involved in the administration of Breathing Space Mental Health Crisis Moratorium)
  • Granicus (provider of e-form platform which supports the online referral forms for requests to the AMHP service)

Information we share

Lancashire AMHP Service collect and hold information about the people who are supported by the service. Our aim is to only hold information to help ensure that people are given the right support at the right time.

As part of their duties AMHP's are legally obliged to complete legal documentation as specified by statute. For a person to be admitted to hospital under the Mental Health Act (1983) or to be commenced on a Community Treatment or Guardianship Order it is necessary for the AMHP to complete legally specified forms and to obtain completed legal forms from other parties. This can include the Medical Recommendations of a doctor or doctors recommending admission to hospital under a section of the Act or recommending community treatment and care such as a Community Treatment or Guardianship Order.

AMHP's are legally obliged to make such forms available to the Managers of the admitting hospital. In addition to the specified legal forms AMHP's are also required to submit a written report, known as the Mental Health Action Form or AMHP Report, to Hospital Managers of the relevant hospital. Both the statutory forms and AMHP reports may be stored and shared in physical or electronic format and are subject to Lancashire County Council's protocols on Information Governance. Any recording or sharing of these documents in physical or electronic formats must also in line with the UK GDPR legislation.

Some information is temporarily stored on external servers associated with S12 Solutions (digital solutions provider). The S12 Solutions platform used by Lancashire AMHP Service enables AMHPs (and doctors) to complete statutory Mental Health Act forms electronically within an 'app' and to email completed forms securely to the admitting hospital when someone needs to be admitted under a section of the Mental Health Act. This is more secure than paper-based systems and allows professionals to quickly access and process statutory Mental Health Act forms so that people can get the help they need as promptly as possible.

Some information is temporarily stored on external servers associated with Granicus (e-form solutions provider). Granicus e-forms are used in the AMHP Service online request process for people under the age of 18. The request information obtained from the referrer via the e-form is transferred immediately to the local authorities social care records system. The use of an e-form for online requests provides increased accessibility to referrers and ensures a high standard of referral information is obtained.

Some information is temporarily stored on internal servers associated with Adults Portal (online request platform). The Adults Portal is used in the AMHP Service online request process for people aged 18 and above. The Adults Portal is part of the local authorities social care records system. The Adults Portal provides increased accessibility for referrers and ensures a high standard of referral information is obtained. Referrers are able to log into the Adults Portal and view requests they have made for 90 days following submission.

Some information is temporarily stored in secure drive locations or secure email folders on the County Council's computer network. The network locations are accessible only to those staff directly involved in the processing of this data for the following specific purposes:

  1. Statutory Mental Health Act documentation securely emailed to the AMHP service by doctors / other mental health professionals.
  2. Breathing Space Mental Health Crisis Moratorium referral information.

Once the specific processing purposes are completed the information is manually deleted from these secure locations.

We are also required by law and under regulation to hold some specific information about people.

Information we may hold/share about the people we support

  • Name
  • Date of birth/age
  • Contact number/s
  • Email address/s
  • Address
  • Next of kin details
  • Nearest Relative details as required under s26 of the Mental Health Act (1983)
  • Ethnicity and religion
  • Other agency involvement
  • Health and safety information, risk assessments and accident/incident forms
  • Health conditions and medications
  • Care records including support plans and daily records
  • Legal Status and whether any restrictions are in place under the Mental Health Act (1983) including any entitlement to aftercare under Section 117 of the Act.
  • Specific information about debt and creditors (re Breathing Space Mental Health Crisis Moratorium only)

Next of kin/Nearest Relative information

  • Name
  • Date of birth/age
  • Contact number/s
  • Email address/s
  • Address
  • Qualification for role as Nearest Relative
  • Delegation of Nearest Relative where appropriate

Any transfers to another country

  • Yes – the Granicus GovService platform is hosted on the Amazon Web Services cloud at their Dublin data centre which is replicated to a Frankfurt datacentre as part of the Disaster Recovery Plan.  

Retention periods

Lancashire County Council will only store your information for as long as is legally required or in situations where there is no legal retention period they will follow established best practice.

File type Description  Security Retention period
email emails held in Outlook that haven't been exported or moved elsewhere. encrypted used when emailing personal data to partners. Retained in accordance with appropriate internal retention guidelines
Client records
  • Support plans and reviews, medication and health records
  • Health and safety information such as incident forms and risk assessments
  • Financial profiles and records of financial transactions and expenditure and DWP information
  • Correspondence relating to day to day living, such as hospital appointments and tenancy related matters
 Held on a secure password protected system. Destroy 3 years after death of service user or after case has been fully closed.
Adult Portal account Registration details – name, address, telephone number, job role, email 2 factor login – password and unique code sent by email Deactivation after 2 years of inactivity, with deletion after an additional year if account if not recovered.

Your rights

You have certain rights under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), these are the right:

  • to be informed via Privacy Notices such as this.
  • to withdraw your consent. If we are relying on your consent to process your data then you can remove this at any point.
  • of access to any personal information the council holds about yourself. To request a copy of this information you must make a subject access request in writing. You are entitled to receive a copy of your personal data within 1 calendar month of our receipt of your subject access request. If your request is complex then we can extend this period by a further two months, if we need to do this we will contact you. You can request a subject access request, either via a letter or via an email to Information Governance Team, address below.
  • of rectification, we must correct inaccurate or incomplete data within one month.
  • to erasure. You have the right to have your personal data erased and to prevent processing unless we have a legal obligation to process your personal information.
  • to restrict processing. You have the right to suppress processing. We can retain just enough information about you to ensure that the restriction is respected in future.
  • to data portability. We can provide you with your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine readable form when asked.
  • to object. You can object to your personal data being used for profiling, direct marketing or research purposes.
  • in relation to automated decision making and profiling, to reduce the risk that a potentially damaging decision is taken without human intervention.

If you want to exercise any of these rights then you can do so by contacting:

Information Governance Team
Lancashire County Council
PO Box 78
County Hall
Preston
PR1 8XJ 

Or email: dpo@lancashire.gov.uk

To ensure that we can deal with your request as efficiently as possible you will need to include your current name and address, proof of identity (a copy of your driving licence, passport or two different utility bills that display your name and address), as much detail as possible regarding your request so that we can identify any information we may hold about you, this may include your previous name and address, date of birth and what council service you were involved with.

Further information

If you would like more information about this specific service then please contact julia.allen@lancashire.gov.uk.

For more information about how we use personal information see Lancashire County Council's full privacy notice.

If you wish to raise a complaint on how we have handled your personal data, you can contact the Information Governance team who will investigate the matter.

Lancashire County Council, PO Box 78 County Hall, Fishergate, Preston, Lancashire, PR1 8XJ or email: dataprotection@lancashire.gov.uk

If you are not satisfied with our response or believe we are processing your personal data not in accordance with the law you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).