What Does the ‘A’ Stand for? Exploring the Process of AMHP ‘Re-Approval’ and Opportunities for Improvement: Themes from a Narrative Literature Review

Approved Mental Health Professionals (AMHPs) undertake key functions under the Mental Health Act 1983 (2007) and are legally required to be ‘re-approved’ by local authorities every five years. A narrative review of the academic literature pertaining to the process of AMHP re-approval was conducted to explore relevant themes and opportunities for improvement. The absence of a standardised process for AMHP re-approval and the wider national policy context around the AMHP role indicates a review of this issue is particularly timely. The review identified a lack of existing material explicitly relating to the issue of AMHP ‘re-approval’, with only four articles generated via the initial search parameters of ‘AMHP’ and ‘re-approval’ or comparators. An expansion of the search terms generated 57 articles with reference to ‘re/approval’ in the context of AMHP practice, from which three emergent themes were identified - (1) policy guidelines - namely the National Workforce Plan for AMHPs (2) service user and carer involvement (3) the social perspective. The TAPUPAS framework of knowledge evaluation was applied to a source from each theme to explore opportunities for improvement. The review indicates considerable scope for further exploration of AMHP practice in general and the issue of AMHP re-approval in particular.