What exactly is the Court of Protection? Philippa Doyle appears in Care Home Management
Philippa Doyle appears in Care Home Management’s March/April issue to discuss Court of Protection.
The Court of Protection (CoP) was created by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and has a number of roles:
- to decide whether someone (“P”) has capacity to make a particular decision
- to make declarations (decisions) or orders on financial or welfare matters where P lacks capacity
- to appoint a deputy to make decisions for P
- to decide whether an LPA or EPA is valid
- to remove deputies or attorneys who fail to carry out their duties.
Applications to the CoP are needed:
- for serious medical treatment cases
- where clinicians and P / their family disagree about treatment
- for direction where ongoing decisions need to be made about care / treatment / location of care
- challenges to a Deprivation of Liberty (DoL) Standard Authorisation.
Care Homes will most commonly see the latter – where one of their residents objects to their placement and wants to move.
Home care providers will most commonly be involved in LA / CCG applications to the CoP to authorise a Deprivation of Liberty.
In neither case should a provider be directly involved in the proceedings, but certainly care homes should engage with Round Table Meetings and reviews around their resident. The purpose of a CoP challenge (often called a s21A challenge) is to ensure that P is receiving the right care, in the right setting, and with the least restrictions in place. You can support your residents by facilitating more community access and ensuring their needs are personalised. If you think someone is unhappy, speak to your social worker and case manager and see what additional funding you might be eligible for or how you could support P differently – it may avoid the need for a CoP challenge and improve your resident’s life at the same time!
Click here to read the latest issue in full.