Practice guidance developed to help embed the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) throughout the commissioning process in adult social care. The guidance provides good practice principles which will allow for MCA compliant commissioning, benchmarking and quality assurance with providers. The MCA is built on five guiding principles to ensure a person centred approach to decision making. These principles provide a framework for social care commissioners when commissioning services for people who may be unable to make some, or all decisions, about their care. This guide provides a general overview of the MCA and commissioning MCA compliant services. It then provides a list of areas to question for: each of the five guiding principles of the MCA; Lasting Power of Attorney; Advance decisions to refuse treatment; Independent Mental Capacity Advocate; and for audit and governance. A suggested template for commissioning activity with an MCA focus is also included.

This note provides an overview of the Department of Health and Social Care (non-statutory) guidance ‘Adult social care: our COVID-19 winter plan 2020 to 2021’. It discusses the key issues for local authorities, and in particular the interplay with the wellbeing principles of the Care Act 2014, including managing a potential conflict in terms of the wellbeing of both care home residents and those in the community with care and support needs as regards prevention of C-19. It also looks at the implications of the winter plan for the right to respect for family and private life, addressing the tension between the imperative to protect the health of social care users (and the social care workforce) and the need to respect the family life and private life rights of those who might be subject to protective restrictions. Finally, it explores the impact of the winter plan on deprivation of liberty safeguards, in particular in relation to testing and 14-day isolation requirements.

Safeguarding Adult Reviews (SARs) can be a valuable source of learning to improve mental health care. In light of the government’s commitment to reform the Mental Health Act 1983, this report summarises the qualitative learning from 77 SARs published across 24 London boroughs covering the period January 2017 to November 2020. The premise of this report is that the reform of the Mental Health Act will also prompt a ‘wake up’ of the entire mental health system in London and the rest of England in which parity of social care with health care becomes the ‘new normal’. The SARs analysed for this report tell the stories of Londoners who experienced mental health problems and came to harm or died as a consequence of their condition despite having been in contact with mental health care services and others. From the rapid analysis of the SARs case clusters emerged, with similarities in the individuals’ stories and outcomes. These clusters show that there might be groups of people who require particular attention when it comes to reforming the Mental Health Act – and with it the mental health social care ‘offer’. The stories of these individuals also raise some concerns around human rights, equality and inclusion with the question: Is enough being done to protect the rights of vulnerable people with mental health problems who receive mental health social care and who may rely on social care to respect these rights? The analysis further suggests that there are two major problem areas across virtually all the cases and clusters – professional knowledge and usage of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and inter-agency working and communication.