The Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) role is one of the most important and senior professional roles in mental health services.
The Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) role is one of the most important and senior professional roles in mental health services.
Training
Access training and development for Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs).
AMHPs must undertake 18 hours of training each year to be able to act as an AMHP for a local authority under the Mental Health Act regulations. On this page, we are collating a range of training information, articles and webinars that will support AMHPs to meet their training requirements.
All training undertaken has to be authorised by the local authority that warrants each AMHP, so it is important to keep a record and check this with your local authority AMHP lead.
Webinars
The first Yorkshire AMHP conference
The Yorkshire AMHP conference is a learning and development forum held three times a year for AMHPs across Yorkshire and neighbouring areas as part of the 18-hours training that AMHPs are required. This is the first virtual conference and is looking at some of the issues raised for AMHPs by the coronavirus pandemic.
Watch the virtual conference
The second Yorkshire AMHP conference
On this virtual conference, authors of the newly published AMHP practice handbook join the panel – Dr Kevin Stone (Head of Department of Law at UWE, Bristol), Dr Sarah Vicary (Associate Head of School of Health and Wellbeing and Social Care at Open University) and Tim Spencer-Lane (Lawyer, DHSC and the Law Commission advising on mental health and mental capacity law).
Watch virtual conference - password to access: =Z5^z%x4
Additional resources
- Ethical approval and being a virtuous social work researcher. The experience of multi-site research in UK health and social care: an Approved Mental Health Professional case study, Journal of Ethics and Social Welfare. Read more
- Treading a tightrope: Professional perspectives on balancing the rights of patients and relatives under the Mental Health Act in England, Health & Social Care in the Community. Read more.
- The Journal of Mental Health Training, Education and Practice, Vol. 14 Issue: 2, pp.86-95.Read more.
- An Exploration of Professional Differences and Similarities, Practice Social Work in Action. Read more.
Workforce plan and service standards
The Approved Mental Health Professional (AMHP) role is one of the most important and senior professional roles in mental health services.
Operating across services, over 24-hours a day and working alongside many other professionals.
The AMHP role has been under a great deal of pressure over recent years and one of the findings of Health Education England’s (HEE’s) new roles research is that it has not had the same national attention and support that other senior professional roles have.
Access useful resources for anyone that's involved in developing and leading AMHP services.
National workforce plan for AMHPs, DHSC
Understanding the role of AMHPs in mental health services to help with recruitment and retention of the role in local areas. For agencies wishing to develop their AMHP services. It contains a summary of all the current guidance.
Access the National Workforce Plan for Approved Mental Health Professionals
Support criteria and self-assessment tools for the AMHP service standards
The National Workforce Plan for Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) contains the national AMHP service standards for England, which have been developed over the past two years with input from the AMHP Leads Network, the Department of Health and Social Care, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS), Social Work England, Social Work for Better Mental Health, Skills for Care and other key stakeholders.
The AMHP service standards are designed to provide consistent standards and a unifying and supporting framework for AMHPs across the country to address their operational concerns in relation to their welfare and draw on the emerging principles and priorities of the Mental Health Act Review (2018).
Health Education England’s (HEE’s) New Roles in Mental Health Task & Finish Group has recommended the development of a range of support criteria and self-assessment tools for the AMHP service standards, which will enable regional AMHP leads and principal social workers to use the standards to develop their AMHP services.
The AMHP workforce: research reports
Several organisations have done research about the AMHP workforce, which can inform local and national understanding and strengthen the case for NHS and local authority mental health services to work closely together to improve care and support for local communities. They can also help local leaders to understand the challenges and issues, in order to co-design solutions across partnerships.
The Approved Mental Health Professional Workforce, Skills for Care (2019)
This workforce intelligence report outlines important data and demographics about the AMHP role from research with 138 local authorities across England.