Mental Health Act 2025: are your care plans ready?

Statutory Care & Treatment Plan readiness for NHS trusts and independent mental health providers.

Book an MHA 2025 readiness call
Aligned to MHA 2025Built around the new statutory Care & Treatment Plan duty (Royal Assent December 2025).
Addresses CQC concernsResponds to the 2024 CQC finding that 38% of community mental health service users have no care plan.
Clinical-academic specialistsLed by a published PhD researcher in mental health care planning documentation.

The Mental Health Act 2025 changes what your care plans must do

The Mental Health Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. It introduces a statutory duty to produce a Care & Treatment Plan for every patient detained under the Act, a strengthened Nominated Person role with consultation rights over that plan, and a duty on NHS England and ICBs to "have regard to" Advance Choice Documents. A new Code of Practice consultation runs through 2026/27, with implementation phased over approximately ten years.

This is the most significant change to mental health care planning documentation in a generation. Most NHS trusts and independent providers do not yet have templates, training, or governance frameworks ready for it.

The regulatory backdrop is unforgiving. The CQC's 2024 Community Mental Health Survey found 38% of service users had no agreed care plan. The 2024/25 Monitoring the Mental Health Act report, laid before Parliament in January 2026, repeats persistent concerns about person-centred planning. CQC special reviews — most recently at Nottinghamshire Healthcare — have singled out the same failure.

Mellow Consultancy helps mental health providers get ready. We audit your documentation against the new statutory duty, redesign templates around a single named service line, and embed them with your clinical teams. Our work is grounded in peer-reviewed published research and built around your existing EPR.

Why act in 2026, not later

  • The statutory duty is already law. Implementation will phase over ten years, but the legal duty exists now and will shape every CQC inspection from this point forward.
  • CQC scrutiny is rising. The 2024/25 Monitoring the Mental Health Act report names person-centred care planning as a persistent failure.
  • Advance Choice Documents create new evidencing obligations. Your templates need to capture and reflect ACD content.
  • The Nominated Person role has formal rights over the C&T Plan that your documentation must accommodate.
  • Providers that move first will set the standard the Code of Practice consultation responds to.

Our Services

MHA 2025 Readiness Audit

A four-week fixed-scope review of your mental health care planning and risk documentation against the statutory Care & Treatment Plan requirements of the Mental Health Act 2025.

You receive a written readiness report and a board-ready presentation deck, with prioritised actions and a roadmap to compliance.

What's included:

  • Detailed review of your existing care plan and risk management templates
  • Gap analysis against the MHA 2025 statutory C&T Plan duty, the draft Code of Practice, and current CQC findings
  • Assessment of readiness to support Advance Choice Documents and the new Nominated Person role
  • Prioritised recommendations — from quick wins to strategic redesign
  • Written report and board-ready presentation deck
  • Follow-up call to walk you through findings and agree next steps

Fixed price: £7,950 (excl. VAT) · 4 weeks · Delivered remotely

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Care Plan & Risk Template Redesign Sprint

An eight-week fixed-scope redesign of your care plan and risk management templates, scoped against one named service line — for example adult acute inpatient, forensic, eating disorders, or PICU.

We work closely with your clinical leads to design MHA 2025-aligned templates that actively prompt collaborative care planning, capture Advance Choice Document content, and stand up to CQC inspection.

What's included:

  • Redesign of care plan and risk templates for one named service line, aligned to the MHA 2025 C&T Plan duty
  • Person-centred language and structure that captures the service user's voice, preferences, and ACD content
  • Alignment with your existing clinical pathways, risk policies, and EPR (Rio, SystmOne, Cerner, Epic)
  • Iterative draft → feedback → sign-off cycle with your named clinical leads
  • Final templates delivered as documented IP exclusive to your organisation

Fixed price: £18,500 (excl. VAT) · 8 weeks · Per service line

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Embed & Train

A three-day training and embedding programme to ensure your MHA 2025-aligned templates are used consistently and confidently by frontline clinical teams.

Two days delivered remotely, one day in person, capped at 30 staff per cohort.

What's included:

  • Two remote sessions covering MHA 2025 readiness, person-centred and trauma-informed care planning, and practical use of your new templates
  • One in-person training and embedding day on site
  • Workshop materials and short training videos for ongoing induction use
  • Practical guidance for clinical leads on supporting culture change and consistency
  • Up to 30 staff per cohort

Fixed price: £6,500 (excl. VAT) · 3 days · Up to 30 staff

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Common Questions

The Mental Health Act 2025 (Royal Assent 18 December 2025) introduces a statutory duty to produce a Care & Treatment Plan for every patient detained under the Act, alongside a duty to support Advance Choice Documents and a strengthened Nominated Person role. The Code of Practice consultation runs through 2026/27 and implementation is phased over approximately ten years. All three of our services are designed around the new statutory requirements. We track Code of Practice consultation developments and update our audit framework as guidance evolves.

Absolutely. Our services are designed to be flexible. Many organisations start with the Care Plan & Risk Template Review and then move onto the Care Plan & Risk Template Redesign, either straight away or at a later date. However, you can engage us for any combination of our services, including staff training, depending on your needs and where you are in your care plan improvement journey.

You do. All bespoke templates designed and delivered by Mellow Consultancy become the full intellectual property of your organisation. They are exclusive to you and will not be shared with or resold to any other party.

For each of our services, we aim to make the process as streamlined as possible. We typically require a key point of contact (liaison) from your organisation and input from relevant stakeholders at key stages (e.g. initial scoping, feedback on drafts).

All consultations and meetings are conducted remotely via Microsoft Teams, allowing us to work efficiently with our clients across the UK.

In-person meetings are available upon request and may incur an additional charge.

All three services are fixed price (excl. VAT): MHA 2025 Readiness Audit £7,950; Care Plan & Risk Template Redesign Sprint £18,500 per service line; Embed & Train £6,500 for up to 30 staff. A typical end-to-end engagement — audit, redesign of one service line, and one training cohort — is £32,950. Each individual service sits below the discretionary sign-off threshold for most Group Directors of Nursing in the independent sector, and the full bundle sits below the new £135,018 NHS goods/services threshold for regulated below-threshold advisory contracts.

About Mellow Consultancy

Mellow Consultancy is a clinical-academic consultancy specialising in Mental Health Act 2025 readiness and care planning documentation for NHS and independent mental health providers. We were founded by Donna Kemp, a registered mental health nurse and published PhD researcher in mental health care planning, and Alex Doyle, who brings NHS and private-sector implementation experience across digital and operational change.

During her extensive career as a Mental Health Nurse in community services, Donna recognised that most care plans were service-centric rather than person-centric, written in clinical language that alienated the very people they were for. This experience led her to design and launch a fully revised, collaborative care plan framework for community mental health services. The project solidified a commitment to improving the language, design, and usability of clinical documentation. Donna is currently completing a PhD exploring this area further.

Alex brings expertise in project management, IT implementation, and business operations, with experience across both NHS and private healthcare settings. His skills ensure that practical solutions are delivered efficiently and effectively, bridging the gap between clinical insight, IT, and real-world implementation.

We understand the immense pressure healthcare providers face to maintain high standards of care while managing complex documentation. We are a dedicated, approachable team committed to providing practical solutions that make a real difference to both your staff and your service users.

Published Work & Research:

Professional working on laptop

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