MIND could not function without the help of individual psychiatrists and a basic sympathy and understanding on our part for what psychiatry is trying to achieve.

This article is based on work undertaken at the request of my fellow members of a DHSS Working Party chaired by Professor Norman Tutt, Department of Applied Social Studies at the University of Lancaster. The terms of reference were: ‘to consider observation and assessment services for children and young persons referred to local authority Social Services Departments; to clarify the role of observation and assessment centres; to consider the promotion of non-residential observation and assessment; to consider what improvements in present assessment practice might be helpful or necessary and to make recommendations’. The report is currently in its final draft and has been sent to the DHSS for approval; and, since my contribution has necessarily been compressed into a few paragraphs, my colleagues suggested that I should seek an additional route to publication.

Senior registrar training is a preparation for consultantship. The Royal College recommends that when selecting senior registrars ‘potential suitability for a consultant post’ should be the prime consideration (1). The trainee, having concentrated on the acquisition of theoretical knowledge and basic clinical experience, now sets out to learn further management skills, improves on his special interests and fills gaps in the experience he has so far gained (2). The emphasis during his senior registrar tenure is therefore on a different set of objectives.

The Mental Health Act 1959 empowers a Crown Court (but not a Magistrates' Court) to make a Restriction Order when a Hospital Order is made and if it appears to the Court, having regard to the nature of the offence, the antecedents of the offender and the risk of his committing further offences if released, that it is necessary for the protection of the public to do so. The Judge must hear oral evidence from one of the doctors recommending the Hospital Order.

A few years ago this Division took a critical look at its biannual meetings, and what we saw was too often disappointing. We decided to set about improving the organization, and the social and scientific quality of the meetings.