Chair appointed to the National Mental Capacity Forum

The Secretaries of State for Justice and for Health and Social Care have appointed Dr Margaret Flynn the new Chair of the National Mental Capacity Forum (NMCF) for a tenure of 3 years. Dr Flynn’s appointment will run from 7 March 2022 to 6 March 2025.

NMCF was established by the Ministry of Justice and Department of Health and Social Care in 2015, in response to the 2014 House of Lords Select Committee post-legislative scrutiny report of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA).

NMCF aims to raise awareness of the MCA and improve its implementation by joining up stakeholders from a wide range of sectors where the MCA applies, such as health and social care, banking, legal and third sector organisations.

The Chair of the National Forum is appointed by the Secretaries of State for Justice and for Health and Social Care. Appointments are regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments.

Dr Margaret Flynn biography

Since 2019, Dr Flynn has been a Trustee of Anheddau Cyf, a not-for-profit charity supporting adults with learning disabilities, autism and mental health challenges across North Wales. Dr Flynn was also appointed as a Director of All Wales People First in 2018. She has been a Director of Flynn and Eley Associates Ltd since 2009 and has held various editorial roles for the Journal of Adult Protection since 1999.

Dr Flynn has chaired and written several reviews concerning people with compromised mental capacity, in particular a review into the Winterbourne View Hospital during 2011. In 2013, she was commissioned by the First Minister of Wales to undertake a review of the neglect of older people living in care homes investigated as Operation Jasmine. More recently, Dr Flynn chaired Wales’ inaugural National Independent Safeguarding Board and wrote the review concerning Cawston Park Hospital.