In addition to setting and upholding the professional standards for all social workers in England, we approve training for certain advanced roles, and include these roles as annotations on our register. One of these areas is mental capacity, and we are now consulting on a new set of standards which we will use to approve and re-approve courses leading to the specialist award of approved mental capacity professional (AMCP). This role is being introduced in 2022 under the Mental Capacity (Amendment) Act 2019 and will replace the role of best interests assessor (BIA).

These standards that we are consulting on, like the standards that apply to qualifying social work education and training, set out our expectations for what courses need to do to be sure that those who qualify from them can practise as safe and effective AMCPs.

More detail about the AMCP role and our responsibility for assuring the public’s confidence in AMCPs will be set out in the regulations being consulted on by the Department of Health and Social Care (more information is provided on our website) and a further consultation on our own rules later this year. If the proposed regulations change as a response to the consultation by the Department of Health and Social Care, we may need to reconsider how these standards would fit into the regulatory framework.

This event will give you the opportunity to respond to the proposed standards which can be found on our website.

Please note that these standards do not apply to individual AMCPs. These standards are for the providers of AMCP training courses.

We are also holding consultation events for our approved mental health professional (AMHP) consultation.

The session will be held on Microsoft Teams and the link will be sent out Eventbrite 2 hours before the session starts