Our director Sheree Green has contributed a guest post to this month’s 39 Essex Chambers mental capacity newsletter to be found here.
Sheree flags recent events that impact on the ease of obtaining security bonds, a necessary precursor to the issue of deputyship orders by the Court of Protection. There are already delays at the Court, largely due to workforce issues, and whilst the Court staff and judiciary are working really hard to address the backlog, at Greenchurch Legal, we received a deputyship order this week that was made in December 2022 but only sealed by the Court and despatched to the new deputy this month (a delay of 19 months).
Sheree observes, “It’s all about the person who lacks capacity to manage their own affairs. Unnecessary delays impact on their ability to pay for their care, to fund basic necessities to maintain their dignity, and buy the small luxuries that make life bearable, but which the rest of us take for granted.
The court together with bond providers and other key stakeholders involved in this process need to be properly resourced and managed to avoid people in the most vulnerable situations having to go without, for even longer”.
