Reading List

These official sources will deepen your knowledge and help keep practice up to date. The course uses MCA terminology for England and Wales, notes relevant points for Wales implementation, and signposts where Scotland and Northern Ireland use different legal frameworks.

Core England and Wales sources

• GOV.UK: Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mental-capacity-act-code-of-practice
  The statutory Code of Practice for England and Wales. Read this for the five principles, best interests, restraint, advance decisions, attorneys, deputies, and the role of paid care staff.
• GOV.UK: Checking mental capacity - https://www.gov.uk/make-decisions-for-someone/assessing-mental-capacity
  A concise official guide to decision- and time-specific capacity, including the four functional elements staff must consider in assessments.
• NICE NG108: Decision-making and mental capacity - https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng108
  Practical guidance for health and social care on supporting decision-making, assessing capacity, and keeping the person central to the process.
• CQC Regulation 11: Need for consent - https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-regulation/providers/regulations-service-providers-and-managers/health-social-care-act/regulation-11
  Explains CQC expectations about lawful consent and MCA compliance in regulated services, including adult social care.
• CQC: Mental Capacity Act - adult social care services - https://www.cqc.org.uk/guidance-providers/adult-social-care/mental-capacity-act-adult-social-care-services
  A care-focused overview linking MCA practice with restriction and deprivation of liberty. This page is under review, so use it alongside the Code and current regulation pages.
• GOV.UK: Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, England, 2024 to 2025 - https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/deprivation-of-liberty-safeguards-england-2024-to-2025/deprivation-of-liberty-safeguards-england-2024-to-2025-background-quality-and-methodology
  Confirms that DoLS remains the operative authorisation scheme in English care homes and hospitals while wider reform is pending.

Planning ahead and lawful decision-makers

• GOV.UK: Independent mental capacity advocates - https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-mental-capacity-advocates
  Explains what IMCAs do, who may qualify, and why an IMCA is instructed when serious decisions are being made for someone who lacks capacity and has no suitable unpaid person to consult.
• GOV.UK: Health and welfare attorneys - https://www.gov.uk/lasting-power-attorney-duties/health-welfare
  Sets out what a health and welfare attorney can and cannot do, and when their authority takes effect.
• NHS: Advance decision to refuse treatment - https://www.nhs.uk/tests-and-treatments/end-of-life-care/planning-ahead/advance-decision-to-refuse-treatment/
  Explains advance decisions, including validity, when they apply, and the extra requirements for refusing life-sustaining treatment.
• GOV.UK: Court of Protection - https://www.gov.uk/courts-tribunals/court-of-protection
  Describes the court's role in mental capacity disputes, deputies, urgent applications, and deprivation of liberty matters that fall outside ordinary care-home authorisation routes.

Other UK nations

• GOV.WALES: Update on the implementation of the Liberty Protection Safeguards - https://www.gov.wales/written-statement-update-implementation-liberty-protection-safeguards
  Welsh guidance on the continued use of DoLS and the paused move to Liberty Protection Safeguards.
• gov.scot: Adults with incapacity code of practice for medical practitioners - https://www.gov.scot/publications/adults-incapacity-scotland-act-2000-code-practice-third-edition-practitioners-authorised-carry-out-medical-treatment-research-under-part-5-act/
  A starting point for staff who need to understand that Scotland operates under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000 rather than the MCA.
• Department of Health Northern Ireland: Mental Capacity Act - https://www.health-ni.gov.uk/topics/mental-capacity-act
  Signposting for Northern Ireland, where the Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 establishes a separate framework that differs from England and Wales.

Use this Reading List alongside your employer's policy, local authority procedures, and current professional advice. For high-risk, contested, urgent, or legally complex decisions, seek senior or legal guidance rather than relying on memory alone.