PMH Academy - MCA and DoLS
Mental Capacity Act and DoLS Training for Health and Social Care Teams
Capacity decisions carry legal weight. PMH builds the practice, reasoning and recording that make those decisions sound, proportionate and defensible.
The challenge
Capacity decisions that do not hold up
Many staff learn capacity practice from the colleague beside them, not from the Act itself.
When capacity decisions are made without a solid grounding in the Mental Capacity Act, they rarely withstand legal or regulatory scrutiny. Assessments are not decision-specific, best-interest reasoning is missing and records do not show how a conclusion was reached.
PMH Mental Capacity Act training and DoLS training replace inherited habits with a structured approach, drawn from the Integrated Complex Care Model™, so that decisions are proportionate, well reasoned and clearly recorded.
Programme content
What the training covers
- 01
Capacity assessment practice
Applying the Act to real decisions: starting from the presumption of capacity, supporting the person to decide and assessing each decision at the time it needs to be made.
- 02
Best-interest decision-making and documentation
Weighing the person's wishes, values and circumstances, consulting the right people and recording the reasoning behind every best-interest decision.
- 03
DoLS awareness and application
Recognising when care arrangements may amount to a deprivation of liberty, and what the organisation needs to do when they do.
- 04
Multi-agency working
Sharing information and reaching decisions with partner agencies when capacity is disputed or responsibility for a decision is unclear.
- 05
Court of Protection readiness
Keeping assessments, best-interest records and care plans to a standard that gives your legal team a clear, well-evidenced account if a case goes to court.
Who we work with
Who this training is for
Delivered by practitioners with decades of complex case practice across health and social care.
NHS trust staff
Ward and community teams who assess capacity and make best-interest decisions as part of everyday care and discharge planning.
Local authority teams
Adult social care practitioners and DoLS assessors who need consistent, well-evidenced practice across the service.
Care provider staff and registered managers
Care teams who apply the Act daily, and managers responsible for recognising and requesting DoLS authorisations.
How it is delivered
Delivery
MCA and DoLS training is delivered in-house to teams from your own organisation, on-site or virtually. Each programme is built around your policies, your case mix and the decisions your staff find hardest, using realistic case scenarios rather than generic examples.
It can stand alone or form part of a wider complex case education programme.
Explore Complex Case EducationScope of Practice
PMH does not provide legal advice
PMH Consultancy and Education Ltd provides specialist health and social care consultancy. We do not offer legal advice or legal representation of any kind.
All complex cases are always escalated to the commissioning organisation's legal team. PMH works closely with Legal Teams who advise on all Court of Protection issues and proceedings. Where a case raises a legal question - including deprivation of liberty, or any dispute requiring a legal opinion - we escalate it to the legal team and work alongside them, ensuring operational and clinical practice aligns with the legal advice they provide.
MCA and DoLS training
Frequently Asked Questions
Speak directly with a senior consultant.
Discuss the capacity decisions your teams find hardest and the training that would strengthen them. Contact PMH
Original methodology developed through decades of practice
Evidence-based frameworks that deliver measurable outcomes
Senior consultants who created the models they implement