Section five Appendices Appendix II Terms of reference for the mental health network Terms of reference for the National Preventive Mechanism mental health network 1. Introduction Since its establishment in 2009, the bodies that make up the UK NPM have monitored whether the UK government meets its UN treaty obligations regarding the treatment of anyone held in any form of custody. Preventing the ill-treatment of people who are detained as a result of mental illness constitutes a large part of the NPM’s work. To allow additional specialist discussion, the NPM members who inspect, regulate and/or visit mental health detention have established a sub-group to offer a forum for additional detailed consideration of the aspects of the NPM business plan relevant to mental health detention in the UK. The sub-group offers organisations with responsibilities for the monitoring and protection of people in health and social care detention settings to work collaboratively on issues with specific mental health impacts. 2. Chairing, governance, reporting and membership The NPM sub-group chair will rotate between network members every 12 months. The organisation chairing the sub‑group will provide secretariat support. It will report to the NPM steering group and business meetings, and meet three times a year. These meetings will be coordinated with the business group meetings. The sub-group will be open to NPM members with an interest in people in places of mental health detention. Meeting topics will be generated by members of the group and meeting agendas and papers circulated in advance. The sub-group agenda will be set by the chair who will liaise with the NPM coordinator. Other people may be invited to join group meetings on a oneoff basis to aid discussion on particular topics. The sub-group will not have any delegated sign-off processes from the NPM business meeting or steering group. All discussion and actions will need to be agreed in accordance with each organisation’s own governance processes, including information governance procedures. Information will be shared at sub-group meetings and via electronic communications. It is each member’s responsibility to make clear where a matter shall remain confidential and not for discussion outside the group. When sharing documents, members should make clear if there is a restriction to circulation and/or use of documents 3. Purpose and objectives The objective of the sub-group is to provide a forum for discussion and debate on topics affecting people in health and social care detention. 71