This toolkit acts as a prompt to doctors when they are providing care and treatment for people who lack, or who may lack, the mental capacity to make decisions on their own behalf.

This toolkit provides practical guidance to assist doctors in making decisions in the best interests of adults who lack capacity in England and Wales. It sets out an overview of the law; outlines a clear decision-making process to follow; and provides detailed practical advice as to who doctors should consult and the information they need in reaching a decision.

This note has been produced to offer guidance to Councils about when the intervention of the Court of Protection may be needed in relation to welfare decisions where a person lacks mental capacity for the decision. Any decision in relation to an application to Court must be informed by the Mental Capacity Act (MCA), the MCA Code of Practice and case law. This is a short summary and overview and not legal advice, which should always be sought in individual situations.

The CQC report on a case where a deprivation of liberty was successfully
challenged.

This tool kit is designed provide information and support for the application of the Mental Capacity Act to GPs and primary care staff.

These materials have been created to help support health and social care professionals working with individuals whose decision-making capacity is limited, fluctuating, absent or compromised. Demographic changes mean there are increasing numbers of people living with conditions which may impact on their decision-making capacity, and as such it is vital that professionals are confident in their understanding use of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. This tool brings together information from a range of professionals working in the field of mental capacity to provide a comprehensive guide to practice. It is part of a wider research project funded by the Burdett Trust for Nursing. Sections include: 1. Reflecting on values and bias in mental capacity decision-making; 2. The history and current context of mental capacity legislation and policy; 3. The concept of mental capacity; 4. Best interests; 5. Supported decision making; 6. Deprivation of liberty: human rights; 7. MCA in clinical decisions for care and treatment; 8. MCA and the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) role.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to consider the role of social work professional evidence in mental capacity law, specifically Court of Protection proceedings. The authors analyse how social workers perform as evidence givers in this domain and how social work as a profession is perceived alongside other professions within the context of adult social care decision-making in mental capacity law. Design/methodology/approach: This paper draws on textual evidence from judgments and existing empirical data published elsewhere. The authors consider the contribution of social work professional expertise to best interests decision-making in formal legal proceedings which, in turn, reflects on how social work expertise is relevant in everyday practice. Findings: The findings of this paper include that social workers are well placed to be experts on best interests decision-making in mental capacity law. However, the authors show that the Court of Protection has not always endorsed this form of social work expertise in its judgments, meaning that social workers can struggle to articulate an expert knowledge base. Originality/value: Overall, the authors conclude that social work evidence is incredibly valuable as expertise about the person’s best interests, particularly in the domain of welfare cases and care planning.

The Mental Capacity Act requires that where a person (P) lacks capacity to make a decision her wishes and feelings be taken into account when deciding what is in her best interests. This article considers how the Court of Protection evaluates evidence from P concerning her wishes and feelings. It finds that the Court ignores evidence regarding current wishes and fails to engage with more ambiguous evidence where P desires conflicting outcomes or may be concealing her true feelings. This is unhelpful since it makes the resulting judgment unconvincing to observers. It is legally problematic, since the Court should be following the practices of other decision-makers under the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). And it is ethically problematic since it undermines P’s dignity and does not treat P as an actor whose evidence regarding her wishes and feelings has intrinsic status which the Court must make active efforts to engage with or discount rather than ignore.

This hub brings together guidance and resources relating to mental capacity, deprivation of liberty and best interests. It covers: the key steps to follow when assessing capacity or making a best interests decision; using the Guzzardi test to determine whether a situation amounts to a deprivation of liberty; what case law says about the capacity to consent to sexual relations and marriage. It also allows to test the knowledge of the law on mental capacity and deprivation of liberty (only available to organisations with a workforce licence).

This report looks at some of the common issues and complaints investigated by the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman concerning people who lack mental capacity and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) system. The report includes individual case studies to show the impact on people when things go wrong. It estimates that 20 per cent of the 1,212 adult social care complaints investigated by the Ombudsman in the year 2016/17 concerned mental capacity or DoLS. Common issues included: not completing, or delays in carrying out, mental capacity assessments; poor ‘best interests’ decision making; disagreements with the process and failure to involving families; delay in obtaining DoLS authorisations; and failure to carry out full assessments before applying for DoLS. Drawing on the results of investigations, the report provides good practice points to help social care professionals get it right firs time when working with people who may lack mental capacity. It also provides a list of questions to help councillors scrutinise their own authorities.

This video explains the key principles of the MCA and how they work in practice. It looks at how the MCA supports everyone to plan for their future, for when they may have impaired capacity.

This webinar explores the implications of Covid-19 and the lockdown for deprivation of liberty safeguarding and best interest decisions. It covers early issues raised with the Welsh Government; worries from those with learning difficulties; DoLS guidance; DoLS in practice; the law regarding best interests decision making; and critical care decision making and Covid-19.