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Mental health practitioners dealing with older adults living in the community are commonly required to form judgements about the decision‐making capacity of someone with dementia. Newer ways of understanding the dementia experience that recognise the importance of relationships and social connections on the functioning of the person with dementia, offer promise for helping to better conceptualise and carry out these assessments of capability. A relational lens recognises that performance and behaviour of persons with dementia are determined not only by neuropathology but also by their personal histories, their interactions with others, and by how they are perceived within their social contexts. This paper will examine how this more ‘relational’ model of understanding can impact the assessment of incapacity.

2007 marks a major step forward in the history of adult protection with the implementation of the Mental Capacity Act in England and Wales. Understandably, debates about adult protection have usually focused on the more obvious types of abuse ‐ sexual, physical, financial and emotional. The Mental Capacity Act addresses a much wider issue of abuse where a person's right to make their own decisions, and to have proper safeguards and protection if decisions need making on their behalf, is overridden or ignored. This article gives an overview of the Mental Capacity Act and its relevance to the files of adult protection.

Self‐determination is widely regarded as a core social work value and as central to work in adult protection. However, it is not unproblematic and raises difficult questions about how to balance empowerment and protection, or rights and risks. Inter‐agency procedures and the recent publication of policy guidance may reflect these difficult questions rather than assist practitioners and managers to resolve practice dilemmas they encounter.

An earlier study of health and social services professionals in community teams for people with intellectual disabilities (CTIDs) identified a number of significant gaps in their knowledge of mental capacity issues. The present study aims to ascertain the knowledge of staff working in residential services for people with intellectual disabilities.

Participants were staff working in three specialist residential settings catering to people with intellectual disabilities: qualified nurses working in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and in independent‐sector continuing health care settings; and senior staff in residential houses. They were administered the same structured interview as in the earlier study, which was constructed around three scenarios concerning a financial/legal issue, a health issue, and a relationships issue, as well as a set of ten “true/false” statements. Their performance was compared with that of two reference groups, the earlier CTID participants, and a group of staff working in generic (i.e. other than specialist intellectual disability) NHS services.

No differences in interview performance were found between the three groups of residential carers, who performed better than generic NHS staff but worse than CTID professionals. However, the three residential groups did differ in their self‐ratings of how well‐informed and confident they felt in relation to mental capacity issues.

The study shows that staff working in residential services for people with intellectual disabilities have only a limited understanding of mental capacity issues and their confidence in their own knowledge may not be a good guide to their ability to deal with such issues when they arise in practice.

This article explores criminal law reform proposals on the law relating to sexual offences, scheduled for debate in the current parliamentary session, in order to illustrate the current tension between sexual empowerment and protection of people with learning disabilities from sexual violence. It suggests that law's response to the sexuality of people with learning disabilities, evidenced by the Sexual Offences Bill now before Parliament, will be inadequate as long as it is characterised as choosing between protection and empowerment. An alternative conception of sexual rights can provide a fuller and more persuasive account of the sexuality of men and women with learning disabilities.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 comes into effect in England and Wales in 2007. The Act contains principles, procedures and safeguards to empower people to make decisions for themselves wherever possible, but also to ensure that decisions made on their behalf if they lack the mental capacity to make the decision themselves are done in their best interests. The Act will apply to anyone working in the supported housing field or residential care where residents may lack the capacity to make decisions as a result of illness, injury or disability. This article gives an overview of the Mental Capacity Act and its relevance to the field of supported housing.

Sense, the leading national charity that supports and campaigns for children and adults who are deafblind, set up the Capacity to Communicate Project in response to the new role of independent mental capacity advocates created by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (HM Government, 2005). The project provided training and information, harnessing best practice around communication and advocacy for people who lack capacity and who have little or no formal communication, in particular those with a dual sensory loss. As part of the training, advocates were asked to submit a written assignment. These case studies, including some adult protection cases, have given us valuable information about the nature and process of independent mental capacity advocacy and what can be done to improve this relatively new statutory role, in particular developing better understanding, skills and processes around communication in order to represent and protect vulnerable adults.

The Welfare Reform and Pensions Bill is passing through Parliament at the time of writing. Some minor amendments are anticipated before the Bill becomes law. This article attempts to summarise 9 of the 86 Clauses in the Bill ‐ those which are most relevant to people claiming benefits because of their incapacity to work and those who try to work when they can.