The House of Lords Select Committee on the Mental Capacity Act has published the transcript of its first evidence session, heard last Tuesday 18th June. This opening session heard from government officials, including John Hall (Deputy Director of Family Justice), Nick Goodwin (Deputy Director of Court Tribunal Fees), Anne-Marie Hamilton (Director of the Social Care Quality and Safety Branch, Department of Health) and Claire Crawley (Senior Policy Manager, Adult Safeguarding, DoH). The evidence is pretty long (43 pages) and full of interesting discussions - ranging from the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) and the deprivation of liberty safeguards (DOLS) to much broader issues like the conditions care staff work in, the support available to family carers, the role of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and more. There were a few bits of the evidence session that were of particular interest to me, but it is well worth reading the entire thing if you're an MCA or obsessive. Overall, I think the Committee asked some pretty good questions, and there was some pretty persistant probing of officials by some members - it will be interesting to see how these issues get taken up in later evidence sessions.
[Edit 27/06/2013: The second evidence session has just been published, with evidence from Richard Jones, Kirsty Keywood, Nicola Mackintosh and Katie Johnston. It's fiery stuff - well worth a read. I don't have time to write about it today... maybe on my flight home tomorrow!]
[Edit 27/06/2013: The second evidence session has just been published, with evidence from Richard Jones, Kirsty Keywood, Nicola Mackintosh and Katie Johnston. It's fiery stuff - well worth a read. I don't have time to write about it today... maybe on my flight home tomorrow!]
