The Vice President of the Court of Protection has just released her decision in an appeal against a prior judgment about a man's mental capacity to residence and care. The judge praised the assessment of mental capacity by the social workers involved who disagreed with the clinical staff (several consultant psychiatrists) on their assessments of mental capacity. The judge stated: ‘It is a striking feature of this case that the evidential divide on capacity was largely between the clinicians and the social workers. The form used by the local authority in their capacity assessment promoted a structured approach to the assessment in accordance with the statutory framework. It identifies the decision, sets out the relevant information the person must understand, retain, use or weigh in regard to the decision, includes what has been done to enhance the capacity of the person to maximise their ability to make the decision for themselves, and then cross checks the person’s ability to communicate. It then requests a summary of the options that have been discussed with the person. The form then structures each stage of the requirements in s3 MCA 2005 (understand, retain, use, weigh, communicate). In terms of structure the capacity assessment of Ms G, the allocated social worker, in May 2024 was an excellent example of providing both relevant detail at each stage, with clear reasoning to underpin conclusions. This high standard was replicated in the management scrutiny of that assessment by Ms M, the interim Team Manager. In comparison some of the assessments by the clinicians were in a less structured format. I recognise this may have been due to the particular circumstances at the time, but future assessments will benefit from more closely following the statutory framework...’
Download the judgment from: https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCOP/2025/6.html
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