Forthcoming Research Announced

The Mental Health Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025, introducing the most significant reforms to mental health legislation in over four decades. Much of the professional commentary has rightly focused on the Act's headline provisions: reformed detention criteria, the new "nominated person" framework, statutory Care and Treatment Plans, limits on the detention of autistic people and people with learning disabilities, and the removal of prisons as places of safety.

What has received no attention whatsoever is the Act's interaction with adoption support services and the statutory framework governing disabled children with trauma-related mental health needs.

This is a significant oversight. LOGOS Bound is undertaking a research programme to map the implications.

A substantial proportion of adopted children have diagnosed or diagnosable mental health conditions rooted in early trauma, neglect, and attachment disruption. Many are also classified as disabled under the Equality Act 2010 by virtue of those conditions. These children sit at the intersection of three statutory frameworks that, until now, have been treated as largely independent:

• The Adoption and Children Act 2002 / ASSR 2005 — governing adoption support assessment and provision
• The Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 — imposing mandatory duties to meet the assessed needs of disabled children
• The Mental Health Act 1983 (as amended by the 2025 Act) — governing detention, treatment, and the rights of children and young people in mental health settings

The 2025 Act introduces new safeguards for children and young people, including enhanced rights for their wishes and feelings to be central to decision-making, and reformed criteria for lawful detention. It also limits the use of the Act to detain autistic people and people with learning disabilities — a change with direct relevance to adopted children whose neurodevelopmental profiles are frequently misunderstood.

LOGOS Bound's forthcoming research will examine:

1. The interaction between statutory Care and Treatment Plans under the MHA 2025 and Adoption Support Plans under Regulation 16 ASSR 2005. Where an adopted child is subject to both, which plan takes precedence? How should professionals coordinate between them? What role does the ASSA (Regulation 6) play in monitoring provision across both frameworks?
2. The implications of the reformed detention criteria for adopted children in crisis. The new "serious harm" threshold for detention under sections 2 and 3 may affect how local authorities respond to adopted children whose trauma-driven behaviour presents as a risk to themselves or others. Where a child's behaviour is a direct consequence of unmet adoption support needs, is detention under the MHA an appropriate response — or does it evidence a failure to meet the CSDPA duty?
3. The "nominated person" framework and adoptive families. The 2025 Act replaces the "nearest relative" with a patient-chosen "nominated person." For adopted children under 16 who lack competence, specific provisions apply. How do these interact with parental responsibility under adoption orders, and what implications arise where the adoptive family's relationship with the local authority has broken down?
4. The limits on detention of autistic people and people with learning disabilities. Many adopted children have co-occurring autism, FASD, or learning disabilities alongside trauma-related conditions. The 2025 Act's limitations on using the MHA to detain these individuals may create a gap where local authorities are unable to use detention but have also failed to provide the community-based support that would have prevented crisis. This intersects directly with the CSDPA mandatory duty and the question of whether resource-led service provision contributes to the very crises the MHA is then used to manage.
5. The relationship between the 2025 Act's Code of Practice and existing adoption support guidance. The Code of Practice — the first priority post-Royal Assent — will shape how the new Act operates in practice. LOGOS Bound will examine whether the Code addresses the specific needs of adopted children, or whether adoption-related trauma remains invisible within mental health provision frameworks, as it does within many local authority assessment processes.

This research will involve:

• Analysis of the MHA 2025 provisions alongside the ACA 2002, ASSR 2005, and CSDPA 1970
• Consultation with adoption support professionals, mental health practitioners, and legal specialists
• Review of the emerging Code of Practice as it is developed
• Case study analysis of adopted children whose mental health crises intersected with adoption support failures

An initial scoping paper is anticipated in Spring 2026, with the full research report to follow the publication of the draft Code of Practice.

Professionals, practitioners, and families with relevant experience will be invited to take part and be contacted directly by  LOGOS Bound and invited to contribute to this research programme.