Legal updates
You can click on the underlined sections below to take you to the actual cases or safeguarding reports. An excellent set of resources about mental capacity can be found on the website of 39 Essex Barristers' Chambers.
The Court of Protection is a part of the Family Division of the High Court that deals exclusively with Mental Capacity Act cases. The rulings of the Court give guidance to professionals and organisations in how to interpret the Act.
Hull City Council v KF [2022] EWCOP 33
KF is a 34 year old woman with a learning disability, in a long-term relationship with a man, KW. There were several recent incidents of him assaulting her during sex, necessitating hospital treatment.
A (Covert Medication: Closed Proceedings) [2022] EWCOP 44
A has a diagnoses of mild learning disability and Asperger’s syndrome, epilepsy, primary ovarian failure, and a vitamin D deficiency. A difficult case involving a 23 year old woman who had been removed from her family home against the wishes of the woman and her mother, and whether covert hormone medication was necessary to treat her serious medical issues, and whether her mother should know that she was being given covert medication.
AC and GC (Capacity: Hoarding: Best Interests) [2022] EWCOP 39
AC, a 92-year-old woman with Alzheimers was living at home with her son, GC, who had Asperger's, anxiety, OCD and depression. Both had been diagnosed with having a hoarding disorder, and the issue looked at the best way to provide care and support both of them.
THE MENTAL CAPACITY ACT 2005
RDY v A City Council & Anor [2022] EWCOP 51
This case considered whether the concept of "harm" was limited narrowly to the harm that the person might face, or whether it could also include the harm that the person might inflict on other
people.
South Gloucestershire Council v DN [2022] EWCOP 35
A 17 year old young man with severe learning disabilities and other conditions and the residential school no longer prepared to have him as he had seriously injured 3 members of staff but extreme difficulty in finding ideal alternative solution.
A summary of cases where adults at risk, have been abused in some way. The purpose of the list is for professionals and others to learn what went wrong, in the hope that such abuse is less likely to happen again in future.
Re - Joanna, Jon and Ben (Norfolk, 2021) Joanna, “Jon” and Ben (all in their 30s) all had learning disabilities and had been patients at Cawston Park Hospital. They died within a 27-month period (April 2018 to July 2020).
Mrs E, a frail elderly woman, died at home in June 2020. Her husband told the ambulance service that she had been comatose for three days before he called them. She was covered in dried faeces and had an infected pressure sore.
Cases For MCA checked January 2023
Cases for DoLS checked January 2023
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