It’s day 3 of national #SafeguardingAdultsWeek. Today, Oldham Safeguarding Adults Board (OSAB) are focusing on legal literacy around the Mental Capacity Act (MCA). The MCA is designed to empower and protect adults (16+) who may lack capacity, ensuring decisions are made lawfully and in their best interests.

Learning around the MCA continues to be a recurring theme in Oldham’s Safeguarding Adult Reviews. OSAB partner agencies are commited to achieving legal literacy around the MCA and have developed an abundance of resources and a regular training offer to support practitioners.

OSAB MCA Resources for Practitioners

  • The OSAB MCA Policy and Procedure ensures every decision for adults who may lack capacity is lawful, person-centred, and safeguards their rights. Use it to strengthen best practice, protect individuals, and comply with the MCA and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards.
  • The OSAB MCA Practical Guide makes assessing capacity achievable. It provides step-by-step support to ensure practitioners follow the MCA lawfully and confidently. It simplifies complex MCA processes, promotes person-centred decision-making, and helps you evidence compliance with statutory duties.
  • The OSAB MCA Guidance - What Questions Should I Ask? gives practical, easy-to-use prompts and example questions to help practitioners carry out robust assessments. Use this resource to make MCA assessments clearer, more consistent, and legally sound.
  • The Executive Functioning Guidance 7-Minute Briefing supports confident MCA application, highlights risks linked to executive dysfunction, and promotes robust recording and reflection. The 7-Minute Briefing signposts readers to more extensive OSAB Executive Functioning Guidance which is essential for complex cases supporting practitioners to recognise executive dysfunction, apply MCA principles correctly, and seek specialist input when needed.

MCA Training Opportunities
Today, 180 practitioners are attending a fully booked in-person learning event about the MCA, but there’s more opportunities coming up!

Why not attend an online training session about the MCA? Either attend a session delivered live or attend a ‘webinar’. A webinar provides the chance to watch a pre-recorded session and ask any questions.

  • Live Session: 13:00-15:30, 11 February 2026, via Microsoft Teams
  • Webinar: 12:00-14:30, 13 May 2026, via Microsoft Teams

To find out more and book your place, take a look at the flyer.