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The Department of Health and Social Care and Ministry of Justice have launched a consultation to update the Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice to better support people who are lacking mental capacity.
The new code of practice aims to provide better support and guidance for people who care and work with those who can’t make decisions for themselves. This includes people with dementia, acquired brain injuries, learning disabilities and autism.
These decisions may be about where a person should live, whether assistive technology like sensors or keypad entry should be installed, and whether they can leave the accommodation they live in.
In this way, the code of practice ensures that carers and practitioners are able to make the right decisions for the person they care for, while ensuring the individual is protected and empowered and receives the best care and treatment possible.
The consultation forms part of the government’s reforms to the health and social care system
The consultation forms part of the government’s promise to ensure everyone receives the right care in the right place at the right time.
The safeguards being consulted on include:
- Introducing an explicit duty to consult with the individual about their own wishes and feelings about proposed arrangements
- Allowing people to have an advocate with them to ensure their rights are being protected and to assess what safeguards are necessary when big decisions are made
- Creating new mental capacity professional roles to improve the protection of rights for people at the heart of complex cases
- Better integrating decisions on Liberty Protection Safeguards as part of health and social care assessments
- Involving clinical commissioning groups and NHS trusts in the process to reduce backlogs
- Reducing the number of assessments required to make decisions to help ensure more timely assessments
Speeding up processes and increasing fairness
Minister for Care and Mental Health Gillian Keegan said the proposed changes will “speed up processes and increase fairness” by putting people “at the heart of care”.
This is the first revision of the code since its publication in 2007 and reflects changes in legislation, case law, organisations and good practice which have developed over time.
To respond to the consultation, click here.