Mental Capacity and Legal Literacy

Awareness Session – Legal Literacy and Family Approach Case Study: Professionals using legal literacy to uphold the rights of parents with learning disabilities – Tuesday 19th November

Social workers from Southampton City Council will share the story of Bella and Riley, and how they used their respective professional expertise to support this family to remain together.

The session covers the following key topics:

  • Legal literacy including Care Act, Children Act and Human Rights Act
  • Family Approach
  • Inter-agency working

This session is being provided as part of National Adults Safeguarding Week 2024 and is for multi-agency partners of the Safeguarding Adults Boards across the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth, Southampton, and Hampshire. This session will be of interest to professionals working in Adult Social Care, Children’s Social Care, Health, and Voluntary and Community Sector.

Book tickets here: Legal Literacy and Family Approach Case Study – 12-12.40pm

Legal Literacy

Some of our local safeguarding adults reviews have illustrated our need to understand relevant legislation well in order to help adults to keep safe. Legal literacy is a key element of professional competence.

Primary and secondary legislation, government guidance and case law provide essential frameworks for adult safeguarding interventions. But legal rules must be interpreted and applied in complex situations requiring the use of professional judgement.

The application of the Mental Capacity Act is a key area of legal literacy – see information and resources below.

All the 4LSAB policy, guidance and learning documents are grounded in the relevant law and are regularly updated. Here are some resources you can use to refresh your legal literacy:

Safeguarding Concerns Guidance (Care Act S42)

Homelessness – 4LSAB Housing Practitioner Briefing (housing law)

Multi-Agency Hoarding Guidance (see Appendix D on legal powers)

How to use legal powers to safeguard highly vulnerable dependent drinkers (Care Act, Mental Health Act, Mental Capacity Act)

Recording of Information Sharing (Clare’s Law and Sarah’s Law) training 

Mental Capacity

What is Mental Capacity?

Mental capacity is the ability to make your own decisions at any given time. A lack of mental capacity could be due to a permanent or temporary reason, for example:

  • dementia
  • a learning disability
  • a brain injury
  • a mental health illness
  • a stroke
  • unconsciousness caused by an anaesthetic or sudden accident.

But just because a person has one of these health conditions doesn’t necessarily mean they lack the capacity to make a specific decision.

Mental Capacity Talk

Watch a talk by Jem Mason from Hampshire County Council on Mental Capacity and Safeguarding below:

Hampshire Mental Capacity Toolkit

The Hampshire Mental Capacity Toolkit has recently been updated to reflect current best practice and has been endorsed across the 4LSAB.

Mental Capacity Toolkit Part A

Mental Capacity Toolkit Part B

Mental Capacity Toolkit Part C

Mental Capacity Toolkit Part D

Mental Capacity Toolkit Part E

Mental Capacity Act 7-Minute Briefing

This 7 minute briefing on Mental Capacity has been produced by Southampton City Council and shared across all the 4 Local Safeguarding Adult Boards.

7 minute briefing on MCA – Southampton City Council

Quick Guide to the Mental Capacity Act

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 exists to support people who can make decisions for themselves to do so and to provide a legal framework for families or professionals to make decisions for people who are assessed as lacking mental capacity to make certain decisions for themselves.  The primary purpose of the MCA is to promote and safeguard decision-making within a legal framework.  Find more information in the document 4LSAB Quick guide to the Mental Capacity Act (2005).

Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice

The legal framework provided by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 is supported by this Code of Practice (the Code), which provides guidance and information about how the Act works in practice. The Code has statutory force, which means that certain categories of people have a legal duty to have regard to it when working with or caring for adults who may lack capacity to make decisions for themselves.

Mental Capacity Act 2005 Code of Practice

Mental Capacity Resource Centre

39 Essex Chambers has developed an unrivalled set of resources for those seeking to apply and understand the Mental Capacity Act 2005, as well as to understand the place of mental capacity within the law more generally.  This section of the website gathers together three sets of resources: (1) a caselaw database, which summarises and comments upon the cases decided by the Court of Protection (and other courts considering the MCA); (2) Mental Capacity Reports, free, monthly, reports covering all areas of law and practice relating to the MCA; and (3) wider resources, including guidance notes to assessing capacity and best interests, and articles written by members of the Court of Protection team).

Mental Capacity Resource Centre | 39 Essex Chambers