A full list of terms and explanations relating to Mental Capacity Act and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.

This flowchart describes the process of assessing capacity and best interests decision making for health and social care interventions.

This document is part of a series of brief guides to help all health and social care professionals navigate through and apply the principles of the Mental Capacity Act for decisions regarding treatment and care. It sets out alternative decision-making approaches in the event that a person does not have mental capacity to give consent to a proposed treatment. It looks at the role of advance decisions to refuse treatment, lasting powers of attorney for health and welfare and discusses situations where the Court of Protection may need to be involved. The guide also covers advance care plans, independent mental capacity advocates, and best interest decisions.

This diagram provides step by step guidance to understanding the principles of consent and mental capacity prior to undertaking care, examination or treatment. The steps are applicable to patients aged 16 and over.

Findings of a survey of care home managers to look into how successfully the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) was being implemented on the front line of residential care. Respondents answered questions on the five principles of the MCA, and the questions asked how well they lead and supported their staff teams to understand and enact these principles. This research shows how some managers take a range of approaches to MCA implementation. Mentorship, coaching and active, floor-based management seemed to recur in the answers from managers who really wrote confidently about their staff team’s understanding of the MCA. One of the greatest apparent barriers to MCA implementation was information and knowledge not filtering down in homes where managers considered that the MCA, capacity assessments, Best Interests Decisions and DoLS were the concern of managers only, when this should not be the case and all staff should be engaged with, and inform these processes.

A step by step guide to help decide which legislation to use when making decisions about admission to a care home/remaining in a care home. The process outlined in the diagram applies only to patients who are 16 years or older – different arrangements are in place for under 16s.

This introduction provides an overview of the issues health and social care professionals face when capacity and consent for treatment and care are significant and critical challenges. It covers the legal framework and principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005; consent to care and treatment; decisions for those who lack mental capacity; best interest decisions; deprivation of liberty; and collaboration and co-operation between professionals.

This document is part of a series of brief guides to help all health and social care professionals navigate through and apply the principles of the Mental Capacity Act for decisions regarding treatment and care. The guide focuses specifically on the Act requirements for clinical decisions, covering: consent to treatment and care; factors affecting mental capacity to consent to treatment and care; who assesses capacity to consent to treatment and care; checklist for practitioners assessing mental capacity; clinical decisions where the individual lacks capacity to consent to treatment or care.