The Mental Capacity Act is intended to assist and support people who may lack capacity and to discourage anyone who is involved in caring for someone who lacks capacity from being overly restrictive or controlling. The Act also aims to balance an individual’s right to be protected from harm if they lack capacity to make decisions to protect themselves. This course aims to help care workers look at how the Act will affect them and to help them to develop best practice to include in the new legislation.

By the end of the module, participants will be able to:

• List and understand the basic principles of the Act and why we need them
• Identify how people make decisions and the decisions that they need to make
• Demonstrate knowledge of how to assess/judge if someone has the capacity to make a particular decision
• Show that they understand how to make a ‘best interests’ decision for someone who lacks capacity
• Apply the above to their place of work
• List the other key features of the Act
• Identify where they may need to adapt the way that they document assessments and decisions made on behalf of service users