Course Objectives

This course is aimed at social workers who work with adults. It has been designed to enable them to gain an overview and robust understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and to be able to integrate them into day-to-day practice. The course will look at the key principles of the Mental Capacity Act and covers:

• How capacity assessments are carried out.

• What it means to act in someone’s “best interests”.

• How to acquire a legal defence for any routine decisions or interventions made whilst arranging for or providing care and treatment for adults who lack the capacity to make them.

• Identifying when decisions made on behalf of an adult without capacity have led them to become deprived of their liberty and what to do about it.

Key Learning Points

• Understand how the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 applies to adults and how it should be integrated into day-to-day practice.
• Examine the potential overlap between The Mental Health Act 1983 and the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and explain circumstances in which each could apply with consideration of relevant up to date case law.
• Recognise when “mere” restraint, interventions go beyond “mere” restraint and into a deprivation of liberty.
• When this happens, learn how to apply the current appropriate statutory framework under DoLS.
• Consider and analyse a series of complex case studies to enable social workers to apply their learning.