Adult Social Care Glossary, v 0.6

Agreeing to a course of action – specifically in this document, to a care plan or treatment regime. For consent to be legally valid, the person giving it must have the capacity to take the decision, have been given sufficient information to make the decision, and not have been under any duress or inappropriate pressure.

A person's agreement to, or permission for, a proposed action, particularly any form of examination, care, treatment, or support. Professionals have their own codes of practice that indicate how they should manage the consent they need from people who use services. In our guidance, we recognise that the consent of a person who uses services can involve another person, and that it can be obtained, given and recorded in different ways.

The voluntary and continuing permission of the person to receive particular treatment or care and support, based on an adequate knowledge of the purpose, nature, likely effects and risks including the likelihood of success, any alternatives to it and what will happen if the treatment does not go ahead. Permission given under any unfair or undue pressure is not consent. By definition, a person who lacks capacity to consent cannot consent to treatment or care and support, even if they cooperate with the treatment or actively seek it.

Consent can be used for a number of different purposes, offering individuals real choice and control. When using consent, organisations need to be clear on why they are getting consent (for example to satisfy confidentiality, medico-legal reasons, or for processing data). Explicit consent requires a positive opt-in and must be evidential. The UK GDPR sets a high standard for consent. Often consent is not the appropriate UK GDPR legal basis for processing health and care data, and another lawful basis can be found. However, consent may still be required to meet the CLDC.

Explicit consent requires a very clear and specific statement of consent. It is unmistakable. It can be given in writing or verbally, or conveyed through another form of communication such as signing. Whilst explicit consent is not required for direct care purposes, it may still be required to comply with other statutory requirements (such as the Gender Recognition Act 2004).

Only applies in the context of care provided to individuals (or actions that lead to the provision of care). Implied consent refers to instances where the consent of the individual patient can be implied, without them having to make any positive indication of their wishes, such as giving their verbal agreement for a specific aspect of sharing information to proceed. An example of implied consent would be doctors and nurses sharing CPI during handovers without asking for the patient’s consent. Alternatively, a physiotherapist may access the record of a patient who has already accepted a referral before a face-to-face consultation. To use implied consent, organisations must inform patients or service users of how their information may be used when providing services. Typically, this could be included in patient or service user information leaflets about a service, or as transparency information on their website about how the organisation uses personal and health and care data.

When you give your permission to someone to do something to you or for you.

Narrative description of the informed consent required or recorded prior to performing the proposed procedure, clinical trial or healthcare-related activity.

Enumerations WrittenFormat of the consent is written VerbalFormat of the consent is verbal OtherOther