House of Lords Select Committee on the Mental Capacity Act 2005

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The House of Lords has established a Select Committee on the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA). The terms of reference for the committee are to “consider and report on the Mental Capacity Act 2005”.The Committee has been taking oral evidence,  and has also published a call for written evidence submissions. For more details on the committee, and the questions that are being asked in the call, see the Parliament website. The deadline for responses is 2 September 2013, during our next ReValuing Care workshop ‘Caring about Social Interconnection‘ in Adelaide. As such, we will aim to have a final version of our response completed before the end of August.

As an interdisciplinary and multi-sector network of academics, activists, carers and third sector professionals with interests in care, the ReValuing Care Network is well placed to put together a response to this call for evidence. I will coordinate a response to the questions asked by the committee, and have set up a few discussions on the private network members forum to facilitate this. All network members are warmly invited to contribute to the response, and any other interested parties are warmly invited to join the network. To join us, simply fill in the form.

The Call for Evidence covers all aspects of the operation of the MCA, including the overall context, implementation, decision-making, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), the Court of Protection and the Office of the Public Guardian, regulation and the interface with other legislative provisions, as well as devolution and international issues, including compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities.

Please do get involved and join in the discussions on the forum. Between the network members, we have an unrivalled breadth of knowledge and experience of the regulation of care. By responding to this call for evidence we can attempt to have an impact on the lives of those giving and receiving care who are affected by the MCA 2005.

Rosie Harding, July 2013

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About Rosie Harding

Prof Rosie Harding is Professor of Law and Society at the University of Birmingham. Rosie studied for an LLB at the University of Edinburgh, an LLM at Keele University and a PhD at the University of Kent. She was PI on the AHRC-funded phase of the ReValuing Care Network. Her research explores the place of law in everyday life with a particular focus on the recognition and regulation of caring and intimate relationships. Her broader research interests are in family law, healthcare law, disability law and gender, sexuality and law. She is the author of Duties to Care: Dementia, Relationality and Law (2017, Cambridge University Press) and Regulating Sexuality (2011, Routledge winner of the 2011 Hart-SLSA Book Prize and Early Career Prizes), and editor of ReValuing Care in Theory, Law and Policy: Cycles and Connections (2017, Routledge, with Ruth Fletcher & Chris Beasley), Law and Sexuality (2016, Routledge Critical Concepts in Law), and Ageing and Sexualities: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (2016, Ashgate; 2016, Routledge, with Elizabeth Peel). Rosie is a 2016/17 British Academy Mid-Career Fellow, working on ‘Everyday Decisions: Interrogating the interface between mental capacity and legal capacity’.  She founded and co-ordinated CentreLGS PECANS (http://www.clgs-pecans.org.uk/), from 2004-2011. PECANS is an international and interdisciplinary network of early career scholars working in the law, gender and sexuality field. PECANS was funded by the AHRC CentreLGS from 2004-2009, and the ESRC from 2009-2011.

Telephone :-+44 (0) 121 414 4960

2 thoughts on “House of Lords Select Committee on the Mental Capacity Act 2005”

  1. Before taking the decision if joining the private network forum or not, I need to better understand its aims and topic? Is it specificaly intended to focus on the MCA, in other words on questions related to care for mentally disabled persons, or is it general to situations of cognitive impairments including those related to aging? Is it a network specific for legal aspects, and more specifically to common law, or is it a network focused on the social implications of this legal text? Does it make sense to involve in this network scholars working in countries not governed by the Commonwealth system?

  2. Marion – thanks for your interest. The ReValuing Care Network aims to develop an international, interdisciplinary network of academics and related third sector professionals and others interested in care. Network members include academics working on issues related to care from a variety of different sites, disciplines and contexts, including healthcare, childcare, eldercare, environmental issues, animal welfare and other related fields.
    The ReVauling Care network is focused on creating open spaces for interdisciplanary, international and cross-sector discussions aboout how care (broadly conceived) is understood, practiced and supported.
    This collaborative respose to the MCA review is one way that we are developing space for dialogue. You would be very welcome to join the network and contribute to our discussions. One of the questions that the House of Lords review specifically asks is about the lessons that can be learnt from other juristictions.

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