RQIA Annual Report & Accounts 2011-12 - Regulation and Quality ...

SAFEGUARDING RIGHTS
Safeguarding the rights of those using health and social care services is central to
RQIA‟s approach to all its activities, including regulation, review and mental health
and learning disability duties. RQIA places a clear focus on delivering good quality
outcomes for service users, which are safe and compliant with standards.
RQIA is designated as a national preventive mechanism (NPM) under the Optional
Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment (OPCAT). This is an international human rights treaty
designed to strengthen protection for people deprived of their liberty. OPCAT
requires NPMs to carry out visits to places of detention, to monitor the treatment of
and conditions for detainees and to make recommendations regarding the
prevention of ill-treatment. During 2011-12 RQIA visited mental health hospitals
and prisons in pursuit of its responsibilities as a designated NPM.
Mental Health and Learning Disability
RQIA has a range of responsibilities for people with a mental illness and those with
a learning disability under The Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986, as
amended by the Health and Social Care Reform (Northern Ireland) Act 2009.
These are:
preventing ill treatment
remedying any deficiency in care or treatment
terminating improper detention in a hospital or guardianship
preventing or redressing loss or damage to a patient's property
In 2009 RQIA‟s Board established the Mental Health and Learning Disability Expert
Advisory Panel to assess and provide assurance to the Board that RQIA has
assumed and fully discharged the functions of the former Mental Health
Commission as set out in The Mental Health (Northern Ireland) Order 1986. The
panel provided a report to the Board outlining that RQIA was fully meeting its
requirements under the Mental Health Order. In May 2011 RQIA‟s Board noted the
significant progress made over the previous two years where RQIA had
strengthened and improved this scrutiny and oversight, and agreed that the panel
had completed its remit. It was agreed that updates on mental health and learning
disability progress would be reported to RQIA‟s Board through quarterly corporate
performance reports.
RQIA continued to monitor the appropriateness of all applications for detention and
guardianship, in line with the provisions of the Mental Health (NI) Order 1986,
through an analysis of all prescribed detention forms received from HSC trusts.
During the year 8,210 detention forms were submitted and scrutinised by RQIA,
with an average error rate of 2.2%. In all cases where errors were detected RQIA
advised the relevant HSC trust within a 72 hour period. RQIA also undertook a
review of the experience of both guardians and those subject to guardianship
across HSC trusts, the findings of which will be published during 2012-13.
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