Mental capacity is everyone’s business: Use of a consultation model to support the assessment of capacity to manage direct payments

We describe the use of a consultation model to support care managers in a learning disabilities service to assess the capacity of 45 service users to manage direct payments. All assessments were completed within the consultation session, and care managers expressed a high degree of confidence in the outcomes. Subsequently, care managers also rated themselves as more knowledgeable and confident in their ability to undertake these assessments; they also thought that this consultation process could be helpful to other teams.