Information for those working in a care home, domiciliary care, day care or self-employed as a Shared Lives carer or micro-provider.
Somerset Mental Capacity Act competency framework – The Framework has been developed by health and social care organisations across Somerset to assist with planning training for staff whose work involves assisting people who have difficulties with decision making. The framework is to be reviewed in the autumn of 2024. The framework sets standards for the knowledge and skills expected of staff according to their level of responsibility. It is useful for assessing the training needs of individual workers and staff teams.
MCA Code of Practice – Mental-capacity-act-code-of-practice.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk)
Age UK – one-minute-guide-to-the-mental-capacity-act-2005-1-edited.pdf (ageuk.org.uk)
Alzheimer’s Society – Mental Capacity Act 2005 (alzheimers.org.uk)
Mencap – mental capacity act resource pack_1.pdf (mencap.org.uk)
Capacityguide.org – This Capacity Guide is specifically for those working in health or social care, a useful guide to understanding mental capacity including some of the more challenging aspects such as fluctuating capacity
Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) – Mental Capacity Act (MCA) is a comprehensive set of resources for all aspects of the Mental Capacity Act, including guidance and training resources and videos.
Bournemouth University MCA toolkit – Mental Capacity Toolkit
National Mental Capacity Forum (NMCF) – NMCF Events and Resources Autonomy Project (essex.ac.uk) produces regular resources including webinars about MCA related topics.
Deprivation of liberty – Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) at a glance
Identifying Deprivation of Liberty – Full Deprivation of Liberty Guidance.pdf
Deprivation of liberty for 16 and 17 year olds – Dols – Court of Protection Application July2022.pdf
Somerset Safeguarding Adults Board – Somerset Safeguarding Adults
Somerset Council – make a referral to Adult Social Care – Care and support for adults (somerset.gov.uk)
How to make a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) application to Somerset Council
If you need to make a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) application about a Somerset person who is in a care home or a hospital, please use this link to Somerset Council’s online application system.
This link can only be used by care homes or hospitals. Members of the public cannot make Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) applications.
To contact the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) team about an application or for advice, please e-mail the team at dolsinformation@somerset.gov.uk
This mailbox is constantly monitored on all weekdays but not on Bank Holidays.
Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS)
The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 established a new scheme known as the Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) to replace the current Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and Community Deprivation of Liberty schemes. Its implementation has been delayed several times and currently (June 2024) has no scheduled start date. It will be for the new government after the General Election of July 2024 to make a decision about this. It is not expected that the scheme will be implemented for the foreseeable future. The existing schemes (Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) for hospitals and care homes, Court of Protection Deprivation of Liberty for any other setting) remain unaltered at June 2024.