Children in the First-Tier Tribunal (Mental Health): Is it ‘Child-Friendly Justice’?

In England, the Mental Health Act 1983 was applied more than a thousand times between 2017 and 2018 to authorise the detention of children (aged 17 years and under) for reasons associated with mental ill health. A detained child has legal rights including the right to challenge their detention by application to the Mental Health Tribunal and a successful challenge will end the child’s detention under the statutory provisions. With so much at stake, access to accurate, child appropriate information is essential to support detained children to understand how to enforce their legal rights and to participate in the Tribunal process. The importance of respecting and promoting the rights of children engaged in judicial proceedings is widely recognised with legally binding provisions and guidelines in place aimed at ensuring this. Nevertheless, the approaches being employed to provide detained children with key information concerning their status and their right of challenge before the Tribunal, may be falling short of delivering ‘child-friendly justice'.