Realising the safeguarding potential of the Mental Capacity Act 2005: early reports from adult safeguarding staff

Abstract

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 was implemented in England and Wales in 2007. This article reports the findings of interviews with 15 adult safeguarding co‐ordinators in the London area about the operation of the Act and its impact upon adult safeguarding work, particularly in relation to people with dementia. The interviews covered participants' own training and understanding of the Act, their confidence in practice and capacity to be local sources of expertise about the Act and their perceptions of whether its existence is known among the public. The article concludes that adult safeguarding co‐ordinators are mostly well informed but would welcome specific updating, especially around the new offences introduced by the Act.

Citation

Manthorpe, J., Rapaport, J., Harris, J. and Samsi, K. (2009), "Realising the safeguarding potential of the Mental Capacity Act 2005: early reports from adult safeguarding staff", The Journal of Adult Protection, Vol. 11 No. 2, pp. 13-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/14668203200900010