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Consent & Capacity in the NHS

✓Curriculum Reviewed & CPD-Accredited by Expert Faculty
⏱Self-paced learning
|📚5 modules · 42 lectures
|⏱️1-2 hours

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Consent & Capacity in the NHS

Course Overview

Consent and capacity are fundamental to safe, ethical, and legally compliant healthcare practice. This module provides healthcare professionals with a practical understanding of how to obtain valid consent, assess mental capacity, and make defensible decisions when patients are unable to consent for themselves.

Participants will explore the legal and professional frameworks that govern consent and capacity in NHS practice, including the Mental Capacity Act, Mental Health Act, Gillick competence, Fraser guidelines, safeguarding responsibilities, and best-interest decision-making. The module also covers documentation requirements, managing consent refusals, responding to withdrawn consent, and handling complex situations involving children, vulnerable adults, emergencies, and advance decisions.

By the end of the session, learners will be equipped to apply consent and capacity principles confidently, ensuring patient autonomy is respected while maintaining legal and professional accountability.

What You'll Learn

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Explain the legal and ethical principles of valid consent, including voluntary, informed, and capacitated decision-making.
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Apply the Mental Capacity Act framework to assess and document a patient's capacity using the four-stage capacity assessment process.
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Distinguish between the Mental Capacity Act and Mental Health Act, understanding when each framework applies in clinical practice.
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Assess consent and decision-making in children and young people using Gillick competence and Fraser guidelines.
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Manage complex consent situations, including refusals, withdrawal of consent, best-interest decisions, advance decisions, and emergency treatment.
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Produce clear, accurate, and legally defensible documentation relating to consent, capacity assessments, safeguarding concerns, and clinical decision-making.

Who Is This Course For?

This course is designed for international healthcare professionals, doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, healthcare support workers, clinical practitioners, and other patient-facing staff who are working in, or preparing to work within, NHS clinical settings.
5 modules | 42 lectures

Course Content

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Consent & Capacity in the NHS | Certified CPD®