While the Mental Capacity Act (2005) is a statutory piece of legislation, that is actively required within the healthcare setting, it is not a part of ‘mandatory’ training that health and care professionals are required to undertake. This is one of the many reasons why the application of the Mental Capacity Act is so inconsistent between different care homes and between different healthcare providers.
To make matters worse, when training provision is available in care homes, healthcare providers and the like, it is often the case that the materials may be out of date or lacking in sufficient detail. We have also seen ourselves many cases where basic training materials may be provided, but there is then no support to apply the training in practice, and no follow-up to check that the training is understood and is being applied properly.
One frequent issue with outdated training materials is they may not teach about (or provide) the updated format to the mental capacity assessment as per JB v a Local Authority (2021). Similarly, we have often encountered situations where the paperwork may be provided, but then no training is given on how to actually assess, what questions to ask, or how to document the assessment properly.
This is why training provision is so important. The Mental Capacity Act is an important piece of legislation, designed to support people’s rights. It also provides legal safeguards to staff who are working with the Act. A lack of sufficient training can therefore potentially lead to issues where people’s rights are undermined, or where staff maybe subject to legal action due to a misunderstanding or misapplication of the law.
Research in this area
A recent research publication titled ‘What is known about the design, delivery and implementation of mental capacity training in care homes?’ byJacob et al (2025) examines this topic more closely, identifying barriers and enablers to training.
Within their research, the authors found that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to mental capacity does not take account the diverse needs of care home staff nor the varying environments in which they work. This may include the needs of patients and service users that staff work alongside, the various roles and responsibilities of staff, the types of service provided, and possible decisions they might come across etc. The authors also identified that failure to identify relationships between these complex needs of the environment and staff needs can cause greater barriers to effective training and subsequent application in practice.
When searching for Mental Capacity training, it is therefore essential to know your service, your staff and find training that meets the specific needs of your context. It is also important to consider the need for ‘refresher’ training at regular intervals. Some teams may even benefit from follow-on support to help put training into practice. This may include the likes of mentoring and competency checklists for staff to help them build confidence.
Training for your context
Here at Mental Capacity Ltd, we pride ourselves in delivering tailored training that helps health and care professionals to apply the Mental Capacity Act (2005) into their area of practice. All of our training includes presentation(s) with handouts, discussions, case studies and workshop elements to help build confidence and secure knowledge. We also offer consultancy to support application in practice, honing skills and helping to bring Mental Capacity application to a gold standard. To find out more please contact us.