| Level | File |
| Ref No | BPS/001/11/04/03/01/03 |
| Title | Evidence to and Comments on Report of the Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency 1954-1957 |
| Date | 1958 |
| Extent | 1 file |
| Description | Offprint of British Psychological Society evidence to the Royal Commission on the Law Relating to Mental Illness and Mental Deficiency (Percy Commission) and response to the subsequent report of the Commission includes comparison of the recommendations of the Society to that which was proposed by the report.
The written evidence prepared by an ad hoc committee comprising A R Knight (Chair), A D B Clarke, M I Dunsdon, H C Gunzburg and Berenice Krickler, Hugh Murray, N O'Connor and Alexander Shapiro (Introduction, Definition of Mental Deficiency, The Type of Person at Present Certified, The Widened Concept of Mental Deficiency, Inadequacy of Present Institutional Facilities, Recommendations, Intelligence Testing in Mental Deficiency Practice, Petitions, The Need for Diagnostic and Training Centres, Summary, Recent publications on the topic.)
Response to the Report of the Royal Commission prepared by working party comprising A D B Clarke, M A Davidson, M M Desai, M I Dunsdon, G A Foulds, H C Gunzburg, Rex Knight, B Krickler, Hugh Murray, N O'Connor, Alexander Shapiro, E B Strauss, Arthur Summerfield and P E Vernon. (The Society's Evidence, Comparison of the Royal Commission and the Society's Evidence, Points of Agreement between the Report and the Society's Evidence, Posts of Disagreement between the Report, the Society's Evidence and the Views of Psychologists, Severe Sub-Normality and Psychopathy, E.S.N. School Leavers, Those in Bad Company or in Moral Danger, Behaviour Disorders, Eccentrics, the Mentally Disorders, Psychotics and Anti-Social Neurotics; the 'Real Psychopaths', Young Criminals Who Have Failed;
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| Format | File |
| Notes | The History of Psychology Centre is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all our users. Be aware that our catalogue contains historic terminology relating to mental health which could be considered offensive. The terminology exists within the original record and has been retained to inform users on viewpoints at the time. It in no way reflects the attitudes of the cataloguers or the British Psychological Society. |
| Language | English |
| Related Material | BPS/001/3/02/01/10 Council Papers 1955
BPS/001/3/02/02/05 Council Papers V 1955-1959
BPS/002/2/04/03 Memoranda and minutes (1957) on Evidence to The Home Office Committee on the Law relating to Children and Young Persons 1958 (Working Group)
BPS/001/11/04/03/02/01 Evidence to the Royal Commission on the Penal Service 1966
BPS/001/11/04/03/02/03 Evidence on Detention Centres 1968
BPS/001/11/04/03/02/06 Evidence on the Treatment of Young Officers 1971 |
| RelatedRecord | BPS/001/3/02/02/05 |
| BPS/001/3/02/01/14 |
| BPS/002/2/04/03 |
| BPS/001/11/04/03/02/06 |
| AccessConditions | Registered Users by Appointment Only. |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| Location | 13: BPS History of Psychology Centre, London |
| Term | Child psychology |
| Child care |
| Delinquency |
| Forensic Psychology |
| Criminology |
| Public Relations |
| Legislation and Regulations |
| AdminHistory | The Royal Commission on the law relating to Mental Illness and Mental deficiency was known as Percy Commission after its chair Eustace Sutherland Campbell, Baron Percy of Newcastle. It was set up in 1954 after concerns that about the numbers of patients in mental hospitals (over 100 had been inherited by the new National Health Service in 1948), fears that many were wrongly confined for long periods and a concern about quality of treatment. The Commission set out to review the existing legislative framework governing detention and care of people with mental illness. It also sought to understand whether those people could be treated on a voluntary basis.
Reporting back in 1957, the commission concluded that: ‘the law should be altered so that whenever possible suitable care may be provided for mentally disordered patients with no more restriction of liberty or legal formality than is applied to people who need care because of other types of illness, disability or social difficulty’.
The commission also made the following recommendations:
a) where possible, people with mental disorders should be treated in the community and not in large psychiatric institutions – this required an expansion of community services
b) the barriers between the wider health system and mental health treatment should be broken down, with the latter absorbed into the NHS
c) local authorities should provide accommodation to the mentally ill under the provisions of the National Assistance Act 1948 and the National Health Service Act 1946. |
| Copyright | Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation. Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the Head of the History of Psychology Centre and Archives and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material |
| Rules | Description compiled in line with the following: ISAD (G) General International Standard Archival Description MAD3 Third Edition 2000 |
| ArchNote | Compiled by Claire Jackson BPS Archivist History of Psychology Centre. |