Multi-Professional Approved Clinician (MPAC) Project
Introduction
An approved clinician (AC) is a person approved by the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (via a regional approvals panel) for the purposes of the Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended by the Mental Health Act 2007).
A responsible clinician (RC) is the approved clinician who has overall responsibility under the MHA 1983 for a patient’s case, including those who are discharged from hospital but who remain liable to be detained (e.g. those on a community treatment order).
Certain decisions about patients subject to provisions of the MHA 193 can be taken only by the responsible clinician, including:
- Renewal of detention
- Discharge from detention
- Granting of leave of absence from hospital
- Application, extension and discharge of community treatment orders (CTO), recall to hospital of CTO patients and revocation of CTOs.
Approved clinicians not acting as responsible clinician for particular patients have other responsibilities under the Act, e.g. use AC powers and review of patients in seclusion.
To find out more about the benefits to organisations of the approved clinician role, watch video, including representatives from the North East and Yorkshire Multi Professional Approved Clinician Pilot Project 2024.
If you would like to know more about the role and its benefits, watch the British Psychological Society podcast.
Who can apply to become an approved clinician?
The secondary legislation to the MHA 1983 is provided by the Secretary of State (in Instructions with respect to the exercise of an approval function in relation to approved clinicians 2015) about which professions are eligible to be ACs and the competencies they are required to possess in order to be approved.
The Instructions require applicants for approval as an approved clinician to be:
- registered medical practitioner;
- a practitioner psychologist;
- a registered mental health or learning disabilities nurse;
- a registered occupational therapist; or
- a registered social worker.
How do you become an approved clinician?
In CNTW, individuals interested in training and applying to become an approved clinician should read the Trust’s policy on the Selection and Appointment of Approved Clinicians via the Portfolio Route (CNTW(C)53 July 2020) and complete an internal application form which is then submitted to the Approved Clinician Governance Group. This application will require the support of your line manager and a relevant director. There is a requirement that you are (or will be) in a consultant level post in order to undertake approved clinician training.
Once approved, you can then apply for a place on the Northumbria University Law School Approved Clinician preparation programme (PG certificate in professional practice in law). The academic programme takes approximately one year to complete and workplace training that is required to complete a portfolio of evidence that is submitted to a regional approvals panel usually takes at least another year. additional support from the Northumbria University mentor team is available to support this supervised practice phase of training. The Trusts receive funding from the NHS-E Workforce Training Education programme (formerly Health Education England) each year to support course fee costs and backfill monies for trainee approved clinicians.
Following a period of training and preparation you are required to submit your portfolio of evidence to the North of England Regional Approvals Panel. If accepted as an approved clinician, you can be deployed as an responsible clinician in Trust services by agreement with your professional and operational managers. Approval as an approved clinician is for a (renewable) five-year period.
Why train to become an approved clinician?
The MHA 1983 Code of Practice tells us that a patient’s responsible clinician should be the available approved clinician with the most appropriate expertise to meet the patient’s main assessment and treatment needs. So, this is the main reason for services to have multi-professional Approved Clinicians available in their services – that is, to better meet their patients’ needs.
For more information about what the training involves, including advice from those who have trained, watch our video.
For more information
If you would like to know more about the Multi-Professional Approved Clinician (MPAC) role please email [email protected]