Developing a care pathway to assess the capacity of people with learning disabilities to make decisions about medical treatment may have generated extra paperwork, but it also generated confidence in their assessment methods. Catherine Evers reports

The issue of capacity to consent to make decisions took centre-stage last year as the Mental Capacity Act 2005 finally came into force (see Code of Practice, Department for Constitutional Affairs 2007). Over the past few years, local community teams for people with learning disabilities (CTPLDs) have been developing an integrated care pathway (ICP) to assist in assessing a person’s capacity to make a decision about having medical treatment.