SHARE ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES FOR USE OF FORCE ACT

Purpose of this Document:

It is essential that there is accountability and responsibility for the use of force at the highest level within an organisation. Trust boards have a legal, professional and ethical obligation to minimise harm to service users, staff and others, and therefore must be accountable for the use of force within their organisation.

The Use of Force Act Policy is to inform all staff their responsibility clearly set out to reduce the use of force, prevent the inappropriate use of force, and ensure accountability and transparency about the use of force in all services in the Trust.

Responsible Person:

According to Use of Force Act, a mental health unit must appoint a responsible person for that unit for the purposes of this Act.

The responsible person must—
•	Be employed by the relevant health organisation, and
•	Be of an appropriate level of seniority.
•	Where a relevant health organisation operates more than one mental health unit that organisation must appoint a single responsible person in relation to all of the mental health units operated by that organisation

In ELFT, the responsible Person will be the Chief Medical Officer. 

Shared Roles and Responsibilities: 

The Trust board should ensure the responsible person has the support of all senior management in performing their role and has the necessary resources available to them.

The responsible person may delegate some of their functions under the act to other suitably qualified members of staff within the organisation, including the deputy responsible person. It is important to state that, whether the responsible person delegates any of the act’s functions or not, they retain overall accountability for these functions being carried out.

Both the ‘responsible person’ and staff working in mental health units ‘must have regard’ to the specific guidance related to the Use of Force Act (2018).

Trust allocated responsibilities:
 
Chief Medical Officer - The Responsible Person reporting to the board 
Delegated responsibility – Clinical directors