Guidance

Health and social care workers: Mental Capacity Act decisions

How the Mental Capacity Act 2005 applies to health and social care staff.

From:
Office of the Public Guardian
Published
1 April 2009
Last updated
23 June 2025 鈥� See all updates

Applies to England and Wales

Documents

Making decisions: a guide for people who work in health and social care

HTML

PDF, 289 KB, 46 pages

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Details

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) applies to everyone in England and Wales involved in the care, treatment or support of people who are:

  • aged 16 and over
  • unable to make all or some decisions for themselves

The guidance is an overview of the MCA.

The Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice has more detail and examples.

Mental Capacity Act 2005

Updates to this page

Published 1 April 2009
Last updated 23 June 2025 show all updates

  1. Contact centre, international and Relay numbers updated

  2. Deleted outdated PDF version of documents

  3. HTML version

  4. First published.

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