The Mental Capacity Act 2005 provides a statutory framework to empower and protect vulnerable service users who may not be able to make their own decisions due to illness, injury or disability. It makes it clear who is able to make decisions on behalf of others, in what situations, what the process would be, and how to plan ahead if at some stage of their life they were to lose capacity. It also assists team members to keep people, who lack capacity, at the centre of the decision-making process.

In addition, it aims to guide healthcare professionals to support service users to make their own decisions where they have the capacity to do so.