Social workers are being warned of the importance of carrying out proper assessments when determining capacity, following an investigation by the Local Government Ombudsman (LGO).
The ombudsman found Cambridgeshire County Council had wrongly placed an elderly man with dementia in a nursing home 14 miles away from his home, and failed to meet its obligations under the Mental Capacity Act.
It ruled that the man did not have the capacity to make decisions during meetings, and his family were never given information about how they could appeal the decision with the Court of Protection.
Dr Jane Martin, Local Government Ombudsman, said: ‘While I appreciate the difficult choices social workers have to make on behalf of other people, when people’s family life and liberty are at stake it is incredibly important that they get those decisions right, conduct the proper assessments and back those decisions up with clear evidence of their reasoning. The Mental Capacity Act Code of Practice is clear on this.’
The council has been asked to apologise to the family, pay £750 compensation and provide refresher training for social care staff on mental capacity assessments.
