Sarah Bentley, Chair of the Child Mental Health Charter committee &
Melanie Jones, both PTUK registered Play Therapists visit to the
Public Gallery of the reading of the Amendments to the current Mental Health Bill.
Houses of Parliament June 10th 2025.
Melanie and I were buzzing after our meeting at the Houses of Parliament with Forest of Dean MP Matt Bishop . We noticed that there was going to be a reading of the amendments to the current Mental Health Bill that is at present going through Parliament, after our meeting.
After a quick bite to eat in the House of Commons Coffee Shop and a change to our train tickets we headed off to find the public gallery.
Taking our seats we quickly realised that Labour were on one side of the room and all other parties on the opposite side , very much like in the House of Commons that we see on TV…..the debate started and for us there was one stand out MP who Melanie and I both felt spoke form OUR hearts, as well as his own, and that was Danny Chambers Liberal Democrats MP for Winchester.
Danny first came on to the radar of the Child Mental Health Charter committee before Christmas when he was quoted in THE Guardian Article, championing our cause & can be seen on the Gov. Uk Hansard transcripts, which we check regularly, really fighting for causes around health.
After some time the chair called a recess and something took over me , I grabbed some Charter business cards and ran along the long corridor and gave Danny a card, somewhat bemused I managed to say something along the lines of, “well done, great speech, spot on and we’ll be in touch”, before he carried on, on his way.
I actually cannot remember the last time I ran like that, just shows how important the Charter is to move mental health forward.
If you would like to get involved, please (Kyra please can these all be live links_)
1.sign the Charter www.childmentalhealthcharter.com
- download the email to send to your MP
- spread the word.
Sarah Bentley
11th June 2025
