Do social workers comply with the Mental Capacity Act? Lords Commitee to quiz British Association of Social Workers
Representatives of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the College of Social Work will next week give evidence to the House of Lords Committee on the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which is reviewing how the Act works and whether it is failing vulnerable people.
Giving evidence to the Committee will be Robert Nisbet and Anna Ribas Gonzales of BASW and Dr Ruth Allen, Chair of Mental Health Faculty at the College of Social Work. The evidence session will start at 10:40am on Tuesday 8 October in Committee Room 2 of the House of Lords.
The Committee will ask the witnesses how the Mental Capacity Act has changed the way social workers operate; the reasons for the apparent widespread non-compliance with the Act; the extent to which risk aversion and budgetary concerns are driving decisions in the social care sector and what this means for vulnerable people and their relatives and carers.