The Mental Health Act 2025 What it means for NHS mental health recruitment

The Mental Health Act 2025 has now become law, marking the most significant reform of mental health legislation in England and Wales since 1983. With key provisions starting to come into force in early 2026, NHS trusts, ICBs and private mental health providers are preparing for a major shift in how they assess, treat and support patients. For recruitment teams, this also means evolving workforce needs, training demands and new ways of advertising roles on specialist platforms.

What is the Mental Health Act 2025?

The Mental Health Act 2025 reforms the existing Mental Health Act 1983, introducing stricter safeguards, new patient‑centred tools and clearer rules around detention, treatment and discharge. It aims to reduce unnecessary detention, strengthen rights and choice, and ensure care is as community‑based and person‑centred as possible.

For mental health recruitment, this creates a clear opportunity to attract clinicians and support staff who are comfortable with and trained in this new legal framework.

1. Stricter detention criteria and risk assessment

The Act tightens the thresholds for compulsory detention, requiring clearer evidence of risk of serious harm and making the “likelihood” of harm part of the legal test for Sections 2 and 3.

This means trusts will need experienced psychiatrists, crisis team clinicians and mental health nurses who can make robust, defensible risk‑assessment decisions. Job ads can highlight:

• Strong clinical governance and supervision.
• Access to specialist training in risk assessment and the new Act.
• Clear expectations around documentation and multi‑disciplinary working.

2. People with learning disabilities and autism

The Act removes people with a learning disability or autism from the scope of Section 3 (compulsory treatment) for those conditions alone, and introduces a register of people at risk of detention to support community‑based care.

This will drive demand for:

• Community learning disability mental health teams.
• Liaison roles between learning disability services and mainstream mental‑health teams.
• Specialist nurses and social workers with dual expertise.

Employers can use tags and keywords such as “learning disability mental health,” “community‑LD services” and “liaison psychiatry” to reach candidates with the right background.

3. Advance Choice Documents (ACDs)

Health bodies must now inform patients about Advance Choice Documents, which record their care preferences when they have capacity, and support them to create one if they choose.

This increases the need for:

• Mental‑health nurses and care coordinators skilled in shared decision‑making.
• Roles focused on advance‑care planning, capacity‑and‑consent discussions and patient‑advocacy.

Job ads can highlight:

• Person‑centred care.
• Communication skills requirements.
• Training in ACDs and the new Act.

4. From “nearest relative” to “nominated person”

The Act replaces the “nearest relative” with a nominated person chosen by the patient (if they have capacity), who has similar rights and additional responsibilities in care planning.

This places greater emphasis on:

• Strong communication with patients and their chosen supporters.
• Social work and care‑coordinator roles that can manage complex family‑and‑support‑network dynamics.

Job ads can highlight:

• Experience in family-centred care.
• Skills in navigating legal and ethical frameworks.
• Training in the new “nominated person” provisions.

5. Stronger safeguards around treatment and consent

New safeguards include a clinical checklist, a requirement to consider patient wishes and involve those close to them, and tighter rules on second‑opinion‑appointed doctors (SOADs) and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

This will increase demand for:

• Ethically‑aware psychiatrists and SOADs.
• Nurses and support staff comfortable with complex consent‑and‑capacity discussions.

Employers can promote roles that emphasise:

• Ethical practice, governance and training.
• Keywords such as “SOAD,” “consent and capacity,” and “ethical mental health practice.”

6. Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) and aftercare

CTO criteria are aligned with the new detention rules, and statutory care‑and‑treatment plans will be required for detained patients, with more frequent reviews.

This will drive growth in:

• Community‑psychiatry and care‑coordinator roles.
• Crisis‑team and home‑treatment‑team posts.
• Aftercare and discharge‑planning positions.

Employers can:

• Highlight flexible, community‑based working.
• Emphasise structured care‑and‑treatment planning.
• Target candidates interested in community‑mental‑health and crisis‑response roles.

7. Independent Mental Health Advocates (IMHAs) and tribunals

The Act extends the right to an Independent Mental Health Advocate (IMHA) to informal patients and introduces an opt‑out system, while also allowing earlier tribunal applications and more frequent automatic reviews.

This will create demand for:

• IMHA‑support roles and advocacy‑focused staff.
• Tribunal‑liaison and legal‑aware clinicians.
• Roles that sit at the intersection of mental health and the law.

Employers can:

• Advertise advocacy, legal‑support and tribunal‑focused mental‑health jobs.
• Use tags such as “IMHA,” “mental health tribunals” and “legal‑aware mental health.”

8. Places of safety and criminal‑justice‑system changes

Police cells are removed from the definition of “places of safety,” and there is a 28‑day time limit for transferring prisoners who need mental‑health treatment to hospital.

This will increase demand for:

• Forensic‑mental‑health teams.
• Liaison psychiatrists and prison‑health roles.
• Crisis‑response and transfer‑coordinator posts.

Employers can reach:

• Forensic‑psychiatry specialists.
• Clinicians experienced in criminal‑justice‑system pathways.
• Roles that require knowledge of the new Act’s criminal‑justice provisions.

Why this matters for recruitment in 2026 and beyond

The Mental Health Act 2025 will be implemented over up to 10 years, meaning mental‑health trusts will need to plan workforce needs now.

For recruitment, this means:

• Helping employers advertise future proof mental health roles that reflect the new legal framework.
• Supporting trusts to attract high‑integrity, well trained clinicians who are comfortable with stricter safeguards and patient‑centred tools.
• Providing a platform where specialist mental health roles from community teams to forensic services can be easily discovered by the right candidates.

How specialist recruitment platforms can support your mental health recruitment

If you’re an NHS trust, ICB or private mental‑health provider, a specialist recruitment platform can help you:

• Create benefit‑driven job ads that highlight training in the Mental Health Act 2025, governance and supervision.
• Target high‑intent mental‑health candidates across primary care, secondary care, community services and forensic settings.
• Use intuitive search and “fresh jobs” features to keep roles visible to clinicians actively looking for change.

If you’d like, a recruitment partner can review your current mental‑health job ads and suggest tweaks to better reflect the new Act and attract the right talent.

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