Mental Health Scrutiny and Assurance Collaborative

Appendix B – Summary of roles of the main scrutiny bodies

Mental Welfare Commission (MWC)

The MWC has a range of powers and duties in connection with protecting the interests of individuals who have a mental disorder. The duties of the MWC include bringing matters of general or specific concern to the attention of Scottish Ministers and others.

Scrutiny is achieved by visiting people to check that they are receiving appropriate care and completing investigations if there are indications that appropriate care and treatment /is not being received. The MWC aims to visit each hospital once a year and The State Hospital twice per year. The MWC undertake an increasing number of themed visits and produce closure reports to follow up on recommendations and to check progress, which are now published for transparency.

Alongside the investigative duty, the MWC also has several other duties to discharge such as visiting individuals and services, providing information and advice, and influencing and challenging. The MWC is specific to mental health in their scope and remit, scrutinising services who deliver care to people with mental health conditions.

The MWC does not have powers of access and right of entry or the power to close a ward to new admissions where there is a serious risk to the life, health, or wellbeing of persons.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS)

HIS is a national improvement organisation providing independent assurance of the quality and safety of the care provided by Scotland’s health and care system. Our strategy is to secure lasting, positive and sustainable improvements across the whole health and care system.

HIS has the power to exercise the functions of Scottish Ministers to support, ensure, and monitor the quality of healthcare provided or secured by the health service and the discharge of the duty on NHS boards to encourage public involvement. HIS has several statutory powers including:

Powers of access and right of entry (for the purposes of inspection) in relation to the health service and independent healthcare services.

Power to direct a Health Board to close a ward to new admissions where there is a serious risk to the life, health, or wellbeing of persons.

Regulatory powers in relation to the independent healthcare sector.

HIS may inspect the planning, organisation or co-ordination of any service provided under the health service in pursuance of its general duty of furthering improvement in the quality of health care in Scotland. HIS also has a statutory responsibility to jointly inspect adult health and social care services with the Care Inspectorate, and to cooperate and work jointly with other inspection bodies in respect of other joint inspection activity.

HIS also lead the delivery of several national quality improvement programmes including The Scottish Patient Safety Programme (SPSP), and work on mental health reform including work on Early Intervention in Psychosis, Personality Disorder, and Mental Health/Substance Use.

The Care inspectorate (CI)

Although now known colloquially as the “Care Inspectorate”, the legal name of this regulatory body is “Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland”.

The CI is the national body that is responsible for regulating social care and social work services in Scotland and also have duties and powers to carry out joint inspections with other scrutiny bodies. They focus on the planning and delivery of social work and social care services by local authorities and partnerships and on the outcomes that services achieve for children and adults.

Through their scrutiny and inspection practices, the CI looks to ensure care services meet the correct standards and works collaboratively with the services they regulate to support their improvement and the overall quality of care being delivered.