Legislation

Why is law important to Pillar?
Law does three things in respect of Pillar. Firstly, it gives us duties (things which the law tells us we must do and which, if we do not do them, will have legal consequences for us).

Secondly, it gives other organisations duties towards us. These are things that other organisations must do for us. More important, for members who use Pillar, it gives the organisation duties that it has to fulfil for the people who use it. Some of these are general duties such as keeping the building safe and the environment healthy, under Health and Safety legislation.

Thirdly, the law regulates Pillar. In other words, it tells us how we have to go about running aspects of the organisation. Pillar is a Company Limited by Guarantee, which means that certain key aspects of the way it is set up and run are controlled by the sort of legislation that regulates private businesses. For this reason, Pillar must have a Board of Directors with a chairperson, a vice-chair, a treasurer and a company secretary. The Board then has certain duties under law such as employment of staff and management and oversight of the company’s accounts.

In the specialist area of mental health provision, there are four main pieces of legislation that require mention in relation to Pillar:

The Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968,
The NHS and Community Care Act 1990,
The Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 and
The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003.

The Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 and the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 both contain general statements about the duties of the Government and the Local Authority (Aberdeen City Council) to “make or secure provision” of services for vulnerable people living in their area. “Make provision...” means that they must provide the service themselves. To “secure provision...”  is to get others to do it for them. Amongst the groups of vulnerable people that Aberdeen City Council has to provide for are people affected by mental illness. Part of the Council’s policy of getting outside organisations to provide this service is that they buy a services from Pillar.

The Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 is largely focused on certain professionals making decisions about the care and treatment of people who are so incapacitated by serious mental disorder that they cannot make these decisions for themselves. While a number of people who use Pillar have been or are in these circumstances, the organisation has little to do with this formal side of the 2003 Act.

The part of the 2003 Act which does affect Pillar is section 26: As with the Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968 and the NHS and Community Care Act 1990, Mental Health Law creates general duties for Health and Social Work partners work together to offer financial support to Pillar. Under Section 26 of the 2003 Act, the Local Authority will have a duty to “secure the provision” of services which “provide care and support for people who have a mental disorder and who are not in hospital”. They will also have a duty to secure the provision of services which “are designed to promote well-being and social development of those persons”, including “social, cultural and recreational activities” and to provide “assistance for such persons as are over school age in obtaining employment.” As well as any generalised piece of legislation could, Section 26 describes Pillar’s activities. At least, we understand this to be a description of our services and recognise that this is part of the reason why we receive much of our funding from Aberdeen City Council.

The Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 is a law that allows certain people to make decisions for and on behalf of an adult who has lost the capacity to make decisions for him/herself. In terms of this Act, Pillar is an organisation which accepts the people who use its services on a voluntary basis. This means that anyone who wishes to become a member must be capable of giving informed agreement to using the service. In most situations we would neither accept the referral of a person who was under duress to come nor the referral of a person who lacked the capacity to understand what Pillar is, or why they might have a need to use it.