08.10.15
Baroness Finlay to chair new DH forum to raise awareness of Mental Capacity Act
Baroness Ilora Finlay has been appointed chair of the new National Mental Capacity Forum by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) and the Department of Health.
The three-year post will see the consultant in palliative medicine leading the new forum, a joint initiative by the Department of Health and the MOJ.
Its purpose is to work together with health and social care stakeholders – as well as those from sectors such as finance, legal, police and housing – to identify “complementary actions” organisations can pursue to improve the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA).
It will be made up of a small core group of stakeholders speaking for the different areas in the sector, as well as a larger group of associate members.
The MCA is legislation designed to ‘protect and empower’ those aged 16 and over who may lack the mental capacity to make their own decisions about their care and treatment – such as people with dementia, learning disabilities or other mental health conditions.
Its scope includes a broad range of decisions, from where people to how they manage financial affairs to plan ahead for the future. Despite this, the government claims that awareness and understanding of the MCA is low. A House of Lords select committee report on the legislation last year showed that many vulnerable people are not receiving their rights under the law as a result.
Alistair Burt MP, community and social care minister, said: “In the MCA we have legislation that stresses the importance of person-centred care. Yet awareness of the MCA is too low.
“The new National Mental Capacity Forum will play a significant role in meeting this challenge and I am absolutely delighted that Baroness Finlay will lead this group.”
And Baroness Finlay, who has a parliamentary and medical career and played a central role to the development of the MCA, said: “Across our society we can and must ensure that people are appropriate supported and that we respect the intrinsic value of every person. The MCA provides strong, principled legislation to support this. The challenge of translating these principles to widespread practice is considerable – but the potential benefits are huge.
“Over the next few weeks and months I will be reaching out to partners as we look to determine the new forum’s priorities. At the heart of this will be supporting local cross-sector partnerships to bring about change. In some parts of the country I know there is excellent practice at many levels. But elsewhere this is not the case. Talk of poor MCA implementation will not, on its own, solve the problems.”
Justice minister Caroline Dinenage MP also praised the appointment and stressed the “fundamental importance” of the MCA, meaning it is “vital that it is working properly”.
“The new national forum will play a key role of overseeing how the MCA works. It will provide a wide range of views from outside government to help us drive significant improvements in implementation and awareness across the country,” she added.
But NHE readers have previously commented on the MCA, dismissing it as “draconian”.
Finola Moss, a commenter in our story about government proposals to strengthen the rights of people with mental health conditions, said: “The MCA, with the rubber stamping Court of Protection, deems illegally all autistic, mentally disordered, disadvantaged ‘incapable’, at 18, and the LA then make all their decisions for them.
“These incapables are then forcefully removed from their family and placed in independent living units forever, against family decisions, and their best interests. They are force-fed risperidone/drugs illegally, to make their care more profitable, and with pharma kickbacks, £4,000 per week can be claimed for their care.
“Private investment will just now be moved out of the NHS provision to the independent living provision. Yet in independent living, worse abuse will occur as the units are smaller and there is no accountability and all is in secret and it is for life under the MCA, with no reviews.”