Helping and supporting people who are unable to make some decisions for themselves.
The Mental Capacity Act is a new law about decisionmaking. It will help you to
- make decisions for yourself.
- plan for the future when you might not be able to make your own decisions.
- protect you if you can’t make some decisions for yourself.
Find out more about this law and examples of how it helped different people to make decisions by downloading the Easy Read leaflet at the bottom of the page.
Having mental capacity means being able to make your own decision about something. The law says that someone who lacks capacity cannot do one or more of the following four things:
- Understand information given to them
- Retain that information long enough to be able to make a decision
- Weigh up the information available to make a decision
- Communicate their decision. This could be by any possible means, such as talking, using sign language or even simple muscle movements such as blinking an eye or squeezing a hand.
The Act covers many different decisions.
Day-to-day decisions:
- what to wear
- what to eat
Serious decisions:
- where you live
- deciding if you need to have an operation
- what to do with your money and property
The Act is for situations where you may be unable to make a particular decision at a particular time. This does not mean that a person can’t make any decisions at all. A person with a learning disability may not be able (lack the capacity) to make complex decisions but this doesn’t mean that they can’t decide what to eat, wear and do each day.
The Act is there to:
- strengthen the right of people to make their own decisions
- support people to make their own decisions.
- protect people who are not able to make a particular decision (lack capacity)
- say which situations other people can make decisions for you if you are unable to
- make sure you are involved in decisions that affect you
- help sort out disagreements
- Start off by thinking that everyone can make their own decisions.
- Give the person all the support they can to help them make decisions.
- No-one should be stopped from making a decision just because someone else thinks it is wrong or bad.
- If a person lacks capacity, any decisions or actions taken for them must be taken in their best interests.
- When they do something or decide something for another person, they must try to limit the person’s own freedom and rights as little as possible.
Best interests - This means thinking about what is best for the person and not about what anyone else wants.
Mental capacity - Having mental capacity means being able to make your own decision about something.
Lack capacity - this is when a person cannot make their own decision about something at a particular time. This could be because of a stroke or brain injury, a learning disability, mental health problems or things like Alzheimer's.
At the bottom of the page you will find a range of downloadable documents with more information on the Mental Capacity Act.
If you have further questions that you can't find an answer to, please email mca@sheffield.gov.uk. Alternatively take look at the new information website set up by MIND - go to www.sheffield.gov.uk/scap
